Ramachandra Guha is a famous Indian historian and intellectual. Guha’s research work covers Indian history, environment, modern India, forestry, cricket, economics, society, politics, anthropology and current events. Recipient of the Padma Bhushan (2009) and the Sahitya Akademi Award (2011), Ramachandra Guha was rated one of the world’s top 100 intellectuals by a Foreign Policy magazine in 2008 and one of the most powerful Indians by The Indian in 2022 . express.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Ramachandra Guha was born on Tuesday, 29 April 1958 (age 66 years; as in 2024) in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India. His zodiac sign is Taurus. He was brought up in Dehradun, Uttar Pradesh (now in Uttarakhand), India, where he was raised by a Tamil Brahmin family. He had his primary education at Cambrian Hall and The Doon School, Dehradun.
Doon School, Dehradun, where Ramchandra Guha completed his schooling.
In 1977, he graduated with a degree in economics from St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi, and earned a master’s degree in the same subject from the Delhi School of Economics (located on the North Campus of Delhi University).
St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi, where Ramachandra Guha studied
He did his PhD in Sociology from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta, in which he researched the social history of forestry in Uttarakhand with special emphasis on the Chipko movement, and published his first paper, The Unquiet Woods. He then began teaching as a visiting professor in several universities and appointed himself a visiting researcher at the Wissenschaftskollegg, Berlin, Germany, for the year 1994–95.
Physical Appearance
Height (Approx): 5′ 10”
Weight (Approx): 70 kg
Hair Color: Salt and Pepper
Eye colour: black
family and caste
Ramachandra Guha comes from a well-educated Hindu Tamil Brahmin family.
parents and siblings
Ramachandra Guha’s father, Subramaniam Ramdas Guha, was a research professional and director at the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, and the family lived on the campus of the institute itself.
Forest Research Institute, Dehradun. Its premises were the home of Ramachandra Guha during his school days.
Guha’s mother was a high school teacher.
wife and children
Ramachandra Guha is married to Sujata Keshavan, an Indian graphic designer, entrepreneur and co-founder of Ray+Keshavan designing firm and Varana, an artistic luxury fashion brand. He has designed the logo of Infosys and has designed and branded big companies like Reliance, Wipro, McKinsey, Dr Reddy’s, Dabur, Max Group, TVS etc.
Ramachandra Guha with his wife Sujata Keshavan
Ramchandra Guha and his wife Sujata Keshavan in their young days
The couple has a son, Keshav Guha, and a daughter, Ira Guha. Keshav is an author and published his first fiction novel, ‘Accidental Magic’ in 2019.
Keshav Guha, son of Ramachandra Guha
Ira is an entrepreneur who founded ‘Aasan’, a menstrual cup company, with a vision to eliminate menstrual poverty in India by providing cost-effective menstrual cups.
Ira Guha, daughter of Ramchandra Guha
other relatives
His grandfather, S. Ramaswamy Iyer was the first Advocate General of Mysore.
religion/religious views
Although he believes in some tenets of Hinduism, he calls himself an agnostic rather than an atheist.
I don’t really know if God exists or not. And I know individuals whose faith encourages them to be selfless rather than selfish, to put the interests of their family or community above their own. In the past and present, the most generous philanthropists and most heroic social workers are often motivated by religious faith.
signature/autograph
Signature of Ramachandra Guha
livelihood
professor
From 1985 to 2000, Ramachandra Guha worked as a professor at various foreign universities, including the University of California, Berkeley, Yale University, Stanford University, and the University of Oslo.
Ramachandra Guha (front: standing in the middle) pictured with students at Yale University.
Guha joined the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru in 2019 as a visiting professor.
Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, where Ramachandra Guha joined as professor in 2019
Guha held the Philip Roman Chair of International Affairs and History at the London School of Economics for the 2011–12 term, where four formal lectures were given by recipients of this post. All four lectures went viral among scholars, sparking debate around the world. His first lecture on Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was controversial, and in the second, he defended Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on India’s defeat by China in 1962. In his third lecture, he talked about ten reasons why India will not and should not become a superpower.
Ramachandra Guha held the Philip Roman Chair in 2011–2012
environmentalist
Ramachandra Guha’s first historical research was in the field of environment. Some of his popular books on environment are:
- The Unquiet Woods: Ecological Change and Peasant Resistance in the Himalaya (1989) – This book takes a look at the history of the Chipko movement.
- This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India (1992) – This book is a collaborative book by Ramachandra Guha with Madhav Gadgil that traces the changing ecological patterns in India from early humans to modern humans.
- Ecology and Equality (1995) – This book highlights the use and misuse of nature in contemporary India. It talks about how the crisis in India is rooted in the exploitation of ecology.
historian
Ramachandra Guha is known for his books on the history of modern India. He is the third Indian historian (after Romila Thapar and Jadunath Sarkar) to be honored with the Honorary Foreign Member Award by the American Historians Association (AHA). Among many, his famous history books are:
- India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy (2007) – This book was selected as a book of the year by the Economist, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, and as a book of the decade by the Times of London. And The Hindu. In 2007, Ramachandra Guha’s book, India After Gandhi, was selected as a book of the year by the Economist.
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- Maker of Modern India (2010)
- Rebels Against the Raj: Western Fighters for India’s Freedom (2022) – narrates the story of 7 foreigners who worked for India’s freedom struggle—four Britons, two Americans, and an Irishman. This book earned Guha the Elizabeth Longford Prize in 2023
cricket analyst
As a cricket writer, Ramachandra Guha’s analytical writings won him the UK Cricket Society’s Literary Award. Guha is a big cricket fan and his books on cricket have earned him international fame as a cricket journalist. In his fourth lecture during his tenure as the Philip Roman Chair of International Affairs, he talked about cricket as an expression of colonial and post-colonial India. His three famous books on cricket are:
- Spin and Other Turns: Indian Cricket’s Coming of Age (2000) – Ramchandra Guha wrote this book at the time of the demolition of Babri Masjid. He wrote this book in a week. The underlying theme shows how in those days cricket was treated as a religion and players as God.
- A Corner of a Foreign Field (2002) – In this book, Ramachandra Guha covers cricket history with biographies of important cricket players, both Indian and British, who played for British India. The book won the Daily Telegraph Cricket Society Book of the Year award in 2002.
- The Commonwealth of Cricket (2020) – This book is written in the tone of a memoir and reflects the life and history of Indian cricket.
- The Picador Book of Cricket (2001) – This book is a compilation of the best cricket articles by popular cricket writers. This book has been edited by Ramchandra Guha.
biographer
He is best known for his historical accounts of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, which sparked worldwide debate on Gandhi. His notable biographies are:
- Saving the Civilized: Warrior Alvin, His Tribals, and India (1999)
- Gandhi Before India (2013)
- Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World (2018)
Critic and Columnist
Ramachandra Guha is an avid commentator and columnist on contemporary issues. As a columnist, he contributes to many reputed newspapers and magazines. He writes for newspapers like The Hindu, The Telegraph, The Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Hindi Daily and Amar Ujala. He has also been a columnist for Outlook and The Caravan magazines. His well-known books as a critic include Patriots and Partisans (2012) and Democrats and Dissenters (2016).
These works made him a prominent public intellectual figure.
Awards, Honors, Achievements
- Leopold-Hidy Award (2001)
- Fukuoka Asian Culture Award (2015)
- Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography (2023)
- RK Narayan Award at Chennai Book Fair (2003)
- Ramnath Goenka Award (2007-08)
- Daily Telegraph/Cricket Society Awards
- The New York Times has described Guha as ‘the best of Indian non-fiction writers’.
- Time magazine has marked Guha’s achievement as a leading historian of Indian democracy.’
- Listed 44th among the world’s top 100 public intellectuals by Prospect and Foreign Policy magazines (2008).
Favorite
- Leaders: Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
Facts/General Knowledge
- Ramachandra Guha was influenced by Marxism theory and was a leftist during his school days.
- Guha considers food scientist KT Achaya, popularly known as ‘Thammu’, as his godfather.
- In his book ‘The Cooking of Books – A Literary Memoir’, published in January 2024, Guha talks about his close friendship with his editor Rukun Advani.
An advance copy of The Cooking of Books has just arrived. An account of my friendship with the brilliant and reclusive editor Rukun Advani, it is the most personal book I have written, as well as the shortest. I’m sure readers will be grateful for the latter, if not the former. Book… pic.twitter.com/t768klZf3e
-Ramchandra Guha (@Ram_Guha) 18 January 2024
Ramachandra Guha (left) with Rukun Advani (right)
- Famous Indian writer Amitav Ghosh was a classmate of Ramachandra Guha and together they edited the publication ‘History Times’.
- On 4 December 2019, Ramachandra Guha was detained for protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019.
- The American Society for Environmental History awarded the Leopold-Hidy Prize to Ramachandra Guha for his essay “The Prehistory of Community Forestry in India”.
- Guha refused to take up professorship at Gujarat University as a sign of protest against the construction of the Statue of Unity in Gujarat.
- Ramachandra Guha’s hobbies are travelling, reading and writing.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn