Mridula Mukherjee

Mridula Mukherjee
Born 1950
New Delhi, India
Alma mater Lady Shri Ram College
Spouse Aditya Mukherjee

Mridula Mukherjee (née Mridula Mahajan) is an Indian historian known for her work on the role of peasants in the Indian independence movement. She is a former director of the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, New Delhi.

Early life

Mridula Mukherjee was born in 1950 in New Delhi, India. Her parents, Vidya Dhar Mahajan and Savitri Shori Mahajan had been history teachers in Lahore, from where they emigrated to New Delhi following the Partition of India in 1947.[1][2]

She graduated from Lady Shri Ram College in New Delhi. She joined Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) as a post-graduate student in 1971, from where she obtained a PhD degree.[3] Her doctoral thesis advisor was Bipan Chandra.[4]

Career

In 1972, while working on her doctoral thesis, Mukherjee was hired by the Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, as a faculty member.[4]

She investigated agrarian history in the Punjab.[5] She argued that despite extensive irrigation works, colonialisation caused agricultural involution, with the number of workers per unit area rising and production dropping.[6] She also analysed peasant movements in the erstwhile princely states of the Punjab across the pre- and post-1947 periods.[7] Her critical analysis of a Marxian orientation of peasant consciousness has been highlighted.[8]

A common thread running through Mukherjee's work has been a criticism of the Subaltern mode of historical inquiry,[9] which informs her analysis of peasant movements as well as her other major contribution: modern Indian history. This is encapsulated by the two books co-written with Bipan Chandra et al: India's Struggle for Independence and India after independence: 1947-2000. In the former book, the authors sought to "demolish the influence of the Cambridge and Subaltern 'schools' reflected in the writing on colonialism and nationalism in India".[10]

Controversy

Mukherjee was appointed as Director of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) in July 2005. It was eighteen months before she could take up her role. Between February 2008 and June 2009, two letters signed by various academics, including Ramachandra Guha, Sumit Sarkar, and Raj Mohan Gandhi, were sent to the NMML's executive council complaining of deterioration in its functioning, discontinuation of the previously "excellent" journal Contemporary India, failing scholarly standards, and the reduction in the acquisition of manuscripts and Indian newspapers in microfilm. In particular, the writers averred that diversity of opinion was no longer supported at the institution. Mukherjee blamed the writers for preventing the extension of her tenure as director. The second letter in particular asked for a new director to be selected via an open and transparent process, and for the new director to reach out to all sections of the scholarly community.[3][11][12]

Supporting Mukherjee were another set of academics, including Irfan Habib and Madhu Kishwar, who wrote to the Prime Minister of India protesting her treatment. Mukherjee herself pointed out that the suspension of Contemporary India was because of its drop in quality and readership, and that under her tenure, the NMML had completed a ten-volume publication of the selected works of Jayaprakash Narayan, besides initiating a digitisation project.[3][13][14]

The executive council disregarded the petition and extended Mukherjee's tenure for another two years.[3]

Following the end of her appointment, a search for her replacement ended up in a court case with accusations of irregularities. The Delhi High Court struck down the appointment of Mukherjee's successor on the grounds that the process was faulty and against norms.[15]

Personal life

Mukherjee is married to the historian Aditya Mukherjee. They have a daughter, Madhavi.[2]

Mukherjee has a sister, Sucheta Mahajan, also a professor of Indian history at JNU,[16] and a brother Ajay Mahajan.[2]

Selected publications

Books

Articles

References

  1. ↑ Khan, Zaman (5 April 2015). "India and Pakistan have a shared history". The News on Sunday. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Mukherjee, Mridula. Peasants in India's Non-Violent Revolution: Practice and Theory (PDF). pp. 12–13.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Sarkar, Bishakha De (23 August 2009). "'I call them the 'Secret Seven' — because the first letter was anonymous'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  4. 1 2 Meiling, Bhoomika (July 2009). "In conversation with ... Prof. Mridula Mukherjee". JNU News. 4.
  5. ↑ Banga, Indu; Grewal, J. S. (2009). "The Study of Regional History". In Ray, Bharati. Different Types of History. Pearson Education India. p. 216. ISBN 978-81-317-1818-6.
  6. ↑ Bosma, Ulbe (7 October 2013). The Sugar Plantation in India and Indonesia: Industrial Production, 1770-2010. Cambridge University Press. p. 253. ISBN 978-1-107-03969-8.
  7. ↑ Ramusack, Barbara N. (19 December 2003). The Indian Princes and their States. Cambridge University Press. p. 206. ISBN 978-1-139-44908-3.
  8. ↑ SinghaRoy, Debal (2006). "Review of "Peasants in India's non-violent revolution: Practice and theory (Sage series in Modern Indian History - V) by Mridula Mukherjee"". Sociological Bulletin. 55 (3): 490. JSTOR 23620768.
  9. ↑ Ruud, Arild E. (1999). "The Indian Hierarchy: Culture, Ideology and Consciousness in Bengali Village Politics" (PDF). Modern Asian Studies. 33 (3): 689–732. doi:10.1017/s0026749x9900342x.
  10. ↑ Israel, Milton (Summer 1991). "Review: India's Struggle for Independence 1857-1947". Pacific Affairs. 64 (2): 272. doi:10.2307/2759990. JSTOR 2759990.
  11. ↑ Jayaram, Rahul (1 August 2009). "'My Reputation Can Take Mudslinging'". Open Magazine. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  12. ↑ Advani, Rukun; Guha, Ramachandra; Kesavan, Mukul; Lahiri, Nayanjot (27 June 2009). "Saving the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library". The Economic Times.
  13. ↑ Kishwar, Madhu; Sinha, Shantha; Dev, Arjun; Singh, Madan Gopal (27 June 2009). "Popularising the values of the Freedom Struggle". The Economic Times. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  14. ↑ Tripathi, Shailaja (3 June 2011). "The past clicks on in Delhi". The Hindu.
  15. ↑ Mukhopadhyay, Nilanjan (25 September 2011). "Another twist to the Nehru Memorial spat". Asian Correspondent. Retrieved 22 June 2015.
  16. ↑ Mukul, Akshaya (29 December 2010). "Nehru library head on Cong panel, flouts rules". The Times of India. Retrieved 22 June 2015.

External links

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