Ramachandra Guha

Early life

Guha was born on 29 April 1958 in Dehradun (now in Uttarakhand) into a Tamil Brahmin family. He was raised in Dehradun, where his father Subramaniam Ramdas Guha worked at the Forest Research Institute, and his mother was a high-school teacher. While he should have been named Subramaniam Ramachandra in keeping with Tamil name-keeping norms, his teachers at school, presumably while registering his name during admission, were not familiar with these norms, and he came to be known as Ramachandra Guha. He grew up in Dehradun, on the Forest Research Institute campus.

Guha studied at Cambrian Hall and The Doon School. At Doon, he was a contributor to the school newspaper The Doon School Weekly, and edited a publication called History Times along with Amitav Ghosh, who later became a noted writer. He graduated from St. Stephen's College, Delhi with a bachelor's degree in economics in 1977, and completed his master's in economics from the Delhi School of Economics. He then enrolled at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, where he earned a Ph.D. in sociology, focusing on history and prehistory of the Chipko movement. It was later published as The Unquiet Woods: Ecological Change and Peasant Resistance in the Himalaya.

Career

History of Modern India

Guha is the author of India after Gandhi, published by Macmillan and Ecco in 2007. The book was an instant hit and is considered an essential literature in space of modern Indian history. It was chosen Book of the Year by The Economist, The Wall Street Journal and Outlook Magazine. The book was one of the best non-fiction books of the decade (2010–2019) as per The Hindu. The book won the 2011 Sahitya Akademi Award for English for 'narrative history'.

In 2010, Guha wrote the introduction for and edited Makers of Modern India, which profiles 19 Indians who helped in forming and shaping India. The book contains excerpts of their speeches and essays, and covers topics such as religion, caste, colonialism, and nationalism.[[File:Ramachandra Guha.jpg|thumb|Guha at his book [[Makers of Modern India]]'s event]]

In October 2013, he authored Gandhi Before India, the first part of a two-volume biography of Mahatma Gandhi. The biography documents his life from 1869 to 1914, covering events from his childhood to the two decades he spent in South Africa. In 2018, he authored the standalone sequel Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World, 1914-1948, which covers events from when Gandhi returned to India in 1914 to his death in 1948. The book subsumes a lot of new archival material that was discovered only in the 21st century. It has an epilogue which discusses the role of Gandhi in contemporary world politics.

In 2022, Guha authored Rebels Against the Raj, which tells the story of 7 Westerners who came to, lived in, and served India in its quest for independence from the British Raj.

His books are amongst the most sought after by history students and civil service aspirants in India.

Guha has published a collection of essays, two of them being Patriots and Partisans (2012) and Democrats and Dissenters (2016). In 1999, he was offered to write a biography of Atal Bihari Vajpayee which he declined.

Environment

Guha earned a PhD on the social history of forestry in Uttarakhand, focusing on the Chipko movement. He produced a biography of the anthropologist Verrier Elwin in 1999, and in the same year wrote a book on environmentalism called Environmentalism: A Global History*.* In 2006, he authored How Much Should a Person Consume?.

Cricket

Guha has written extensively on cricket as a journalist and as a historian. His research into the social history of Indian cricket culminated in his work A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian History of a British Sport, which was released in 2002. The book charts the development of cricket in India from its inception during the British Raj to its position in contemporary India as the nation's favourite pastime.[[File:Ramachandra guha.jpg|thumb|Guha in 2017]]

He was appointed to BCCI's panel of administrators by the Supreme Court of India on 30 January 2017, as part of the Lodha Committee reforms, only to resign in July of the same year.

In November 2020, he published The Commonwealth of Cricket: A Lifelong Love Affair with the Most Subtle and Sophisticated Game Known to Humankind, a personal account of the transformation of cricket in India across all levels at which the game is played. It presents vivid portraits of local heroes, provincial icons, and international stars through the 50 years he has been following the game. The book blends between memoir, anecdote, reportage, and political critique.

Personal life

Guha lives in the city of Bengaluru. He is married to Sujata Keshavan, a graphic designer, and they have two children together. Their son, Keshava Guha, is a novelist, who announced the release of his first novel, Accidental Magic, at the 2019 Bangalore Literature Festival. He competed in the first UK series of the quiz show Jeopardy!

Guha is a nephew of the distinguished organic chemist Krishnaswami Venkataraman, the husband of Guha's paternal aunt Shakuntala and the first Indian director of the National Chemical Laboratory (NCL). Venkataraman's only child, the late economic historian Dharma Kumar, was a first cousin of Guha, and her daughter, the feminist and academic Radha Kumar, is Guha's first cousin once removed. According to Guha, he was close to Venkataraman, who expected his nephew would also become a chemist; although he ultimately decided upon sociology, he credited his uncle as being one of the two people "from whom I learnt that to do something well, one had to do it thoroughly."

Guha doesn't drink alcohol. He lists books, cricket, Hindustani classical music and the iconic eatery of Koshy's in Bangalore as his favorites.

He also writes a column called "Boothavum Varthamanavum"("Past and Present") in the weekly magazine, Mathrubhumi Azhchappathippu.

Awards and recognition

• His essay, "Prehistory of Community Forestry in India", was awarded the Leopold-Hidy Prize of the American Society for Environmental History for 2001.
• A Corner of a Foreign Field was awarded the Daily Telegraph Cricket Society Book of the Year prize for 2002.
• He won the R. K. Narayan Prize at the Chennai Book Fair in 2003.
• The US magazine Foreign Policy named him as one of the top 100 public intellectuals in the world in May 2008. In the poll that followed, Guha was placed 44th.
• Padma Bhushan in 2009, India's third highest civilian award.
• 2011 Sahitya Akademi Award for India after Gandhi.
• In 2014, Guha was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humanities by Yale University
• Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize, 2015
• The American Historical Association (AHA) has conferred its Honorary Foreign Member prize for the year 2019 on Ramchandra Guha.

Bibliography

Other Works

• (Editor)

Notes

References

References

1. (12 September 2021). "Ramachandra Guha: Celebrating the life of Keshav Desiraju – a true Nehruvian Indian". [[Scroll.in]].
2. (9 July 2018). ""Modi is a study in self love," Ram Guha at The Wire Dialogues".
3. Ramachandra Guha. (2020-11-23). "When Rahul Dravid told Ram Guha to 'shut up' about cricket strategy, write history books".
4. Advani, Rukun. (29 April 2021). "'He was what was called in those days a sports type': Ram Guha through the eyes of Rukun Advani".
5. (2020-06-12). "Ramachandra Guha: Is Ram Guha's hate for Modi behind his racist stereotyping of Gujaratis?".
6. "Opinion: In Response To Ram Guha's View Of Rahul Gandhi - by Salman Khurshid".
7. (6 May 2021). "Mamata Must Not Behave Like Modi: Ram Guha".
8. Pioneer, The. "Celebration of a genius".
9. (2020-01-18). "'Kerala did a disastrous thing by electing Rahul Gandhi':Ram Guha at KLF".
10. Nanda, Prashant K.. (2018-10-16). "Historian Ram Guha to join Ahmedabad University as professor".
11. Quint, The. (2019-12-19). "CAA: Historian Ram Guha Detained, Says 'Rulers in Delhi Scared'".
12. "Ram Guha vs Salman Khurshid: Who you support? - Conversation - Legally India".
13. (3 June 2017). "Ram Guha retires hurt. Was it to protest Kumble treatment?".
14. "Yogendra Yadav, Ram Guha and others say citizens' resources should be treated as govt resources; infuriates Twitter".
15. "An Unlikely Democracy".
16. Editorial. (2011-03-09). "In praise of … Ramachandra Guha {{!}} Editorial".
17. (29 December 2020). "Ram Guha must know: Sonia, Rahul leaving space 'won't help' secularism, democracy".
18. Vardhan, Anand. (12 November 2017). "The anxieties of Ram Guha, the compulsive adviser".
19. "Are bhakts misappropriating Netaji? Ram Guha thinks so".
20. Desk, InsideSport. (2017-06-01). "Citing personal reasons, Ram Guha quits BCCI panel".
21. Patel, Aakar. (2018-11-05). "And then they came for Ram Guha".
22. Jaishankar, Dhruva. (6 February 2018). "India's 5 most important public intellectuals – and what this list says about our national discourse".
23. (2022-04-21). "IE 100 2022: List of most powerful Indians".
24. Harad, Tejas. (14 June 2017). "Does Ramachandra Guha have a caste?". [[Newslaundry]].
25. Bhandari, Bhupesh. (8 May 2007). "Lunch with BS: Ramachandra Guha". [[Business Standard India]].
26. Gadgil, Madhav. (9 April 2018). "Ram Guha: A Radical Progressive". [[Outlook India]].
27. Guha, Ramachandra. (19 November 2012). "Who Milks This Cow?".
28. Guha, Ramachandra. (27 October 2007). "A Unique Trail - Twist in the tale of the search for an elusive book". The Telegraph.
29. Guha, Ramachandra. (30 January 2016). "Why the Dalai Lama may be India's noblest resident". Hindustan Times.
30. Chopra, Jaskiran. (12 July 2016). "'Dosco' Amitav Ghosh celebrates his 60th Birthday". [[The Pioneer (India).
31. Chopra, Jaskiran. (29 October 2017). "Of nature, cricket, literature and history". The Statesman.
32. 'History of the Weekly' published by The Doon School (2009), p. 36.
33. (11 August 2018). "The shrinking of St. Stephen's". Hindustan Times.
34. Guha, Ramachandra. (25 June 2007). "St Stephen's: Murder In The Cathedral?". Outlook India.
35. "Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (also referred to as IIM Calcutta or IIMC) website".
36. "Ramachandra Guha {{!}} Center for Contemporary South Asia".
37. (July 2, 2019). "Ramachandra Guha to join IISc as visiting professor". India Today.
38. (2020-07-07). "Ramachandra Guha: 'Each one of us has rejected close friends' for the NIF".
39. "Ramachandra Guha {{!}} Center for Contemporary South Asia".
40. (28 December 2019). "Best non-fiction books of the decade". The Hindu.
41. (2011-12-21). "Poets Dominate Sahitya Akademi Awards 2011". [[Sahitya Akademi]].
42. "Makers Of Modern India".
43. (2014). "Gandhi Before India". Penguin India.
44. Peer, Basharat. (21 October 2013). "A Conversation With: Historian Ramachandra Guha". The New York Times.
45. "Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World, 1914-1948 by Ramachandra Guha: 9780307474797 {{!}} PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books".
46. "Rebels Against the Raj by Ramachandra Guha: 9781101874837 {{!}} PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books".
47. Jaishankar, Dhruva. (6 February 2018). "India's 5 most important public intellectuals – and what this list says about our national discourse".
48. Ramachandra Guha. "VIGNETTES OF VAJPAYEE, The Hindu".
49. "Savaging The Civilized".
50. "Environmentalism - Ramachandra Guha - 9780321011695 - History - United States & the Americas (92)".
51. Guha, Ramachandra. (November 2006). "How Much Should a Person Consume?: Environmentalism in India and the United States". Univ of California Press.
52. Guha, Ramachandra. (2003). "A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian History of a British Sport". Picador.
53. [http://www.hindustantimes.com/cricket/ramachandra-guha-accepts-sc-s-nomination-to-bcci-s-panel-of-administrators/story-DimGN3nJQrDIVEtsPXgJyL.html "Ramachandra Guha accepts SC's nomination to BCCI's panel of administrators"], ''Hindustan Times'', 30 January 2017.
54. Guha, Ramachandra. (2020). "The Commonwealth of Cricket: A Lifelong Love Affair with the Most Subtle and Sophisticated Game Known to Humankind". Harper Collins.
55. Vidya Iyengar (11 November 2019), [https://www.newindianexpress.com/lifestyle/books/2019/nov/11/could-have-been-compared-to-my-father-if-he-wrote-fiction-author-keshava-guha-2059926.html "Could have been compared to my father if he wrote fiction: Author Keshava Guha"], ''The News Indian Express''. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
56. "Keshava Guha is a contestant on the new series of Jeopardy".
57. (December 2004). "Personal Reflections: A Nephew Remembers". Resonance.
58. (6 May 2012). "The Constant Writer".
59. Guha, Ramachandra. (2020-10-11). "Ramachandra Guha: At Koshy's Parade Café, memories of lime juice – and an owl on a moonlit night".
60. link. (25 January 2010)
61. (25 January 2009). "Padma Bhushan for Shekhar Gupta, Abhinav Bindra".
62. (21 December 2011). "POETS DOMINATE SAHITYA AKADEMI AWARDS 2011". [[Sahitya Akademi]].
63. (19 May 2014). "Yale Awards 12 Honorary Degrees at 2014 Graduation". YaleNews.
64. "Historian Ramachandra Guha Selected for Japan's Fukuoka Prize". [[NDTV]].
65. "Honorary Foreign Member Recipient". American Historical association.