This week, we hate to brag, but love to show off some of the lovely reviews we get for our books written by our wonderful authors. Today, is one of those blogs.
Becoming A Modern Historian In Princely India by Indu Shekhar and Nina Sharma. Published in July 2015, this in-depth, educational work by two veteran research scholars provides an intellectual history of Shyamal Das, the first Indian historian to write objective history in Hindi.
Have a look at these wonderful reviews!
Becoming a Modern Historian Review 1
Indu Shekhar and Nina Sharma's book Becoming a Modern Historian in Princely India: And Intellectual History of Shyamal Das and his Vir Vinod is a welcome contribution to the knowledge on the life and work of Shyamaldas, a prominent figure in nineteenth century Mewar. The book, above all, is rich in its archival research and provides an extensive account of Shyamaldas' intellectual, social and political life. In doing so, it successfully initiates a process of filling crucial analytical gaps in the knowledge of an important figure, curiously left ignored by most historical research.
As a research student, the book's release came as a happy coincidence while I was working on nineteenth century narrative histories of Mewar. While there is a rich wealth of critical and archival work done on colonial historians such as Lt. Col. James Tod, there seems to be a dearth of serious and credible work on regional historians such as Shyamaldas. Shyamaldas of all, stands out as a voice of European Enlightenment among regional historians in India, and deserves special attention not only as a writer or a politician, but as a representative of socio-economic, political and cultural changes that Mewar was going through under British Supremacy during the late nineteenth century.
Shekhar and Sharma's book uncovers an extensive wealth of archival material and provides sound speculations based on solid evidence. More importantly it raises important issues regarding the careless treatment of Shyamaldas at the hands of local historians who, until now, exercised a monopoly over all secondary knowledge on Shyamaldas.
In the absence of any other work on Shyamaldas to match its scope and credibility, I think Shekhar and Sharma's work is an excellent point of departure for any student of history concerned with nineteenth century Mewar in general or Shyamaldas in particular.
By Skand,
Assistant Professor, Department of Languages, Manipal University Jaipur
Becoming a Modern Historian Review 2
Becoming a Modern Historian in Princely India: An Intellectual History of Shyamal Das and His Vir Vinod greatly advances our understanding of Kaviraj Shyamaldas’ life and thinking, due to the authors’ meticulous research in various archives and their careful reading of Shyamaldas’ published works. Particularly valuable is the section on the fate of Shyamaldas’ magnum opus, Vir Vinod, where many erroneous assumptions – about Shyamaldas’ relationship with Maharana Fateh Singh, his state of mind toward the end of his life, and, most importantly, the reasons why Vir Vinod was not widely circulated – are persuasively refuted. This is a must read for anyone interested in the emergence of modern historiography in North India.
By Professor Cynthia Talbot
Associate Professor of History, Texas
