Chairman's Bio-data

Dr. Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, Professor of Indian Economic History at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 1975-91, 1995-2003, was also Vice-Chancellor at Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, 1991-1994. Prior to that he held teaching and research appointments at Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, St. Antony's College at Oxford, University of Chicago, and EL Colegio de Mexico. While teaching and encouraging his students' research at Jawaharlal Nehru University for over three decades his objective has been to develop a critical approach to the colonial economic policies and the class structure that emerged. Recently he has been elected the General President of the Indian History Congress, 2004. He is also the founding-President of the Association of Indian Labour Historians. His early research was on the financial policies in colonial India, focusing on the beginnings of the budget system, the income tax, paper currency, etc. in the book published in 1972, 'Financial Foundations of the British Raj, 1858-1872'. His later research was directed to technological and economic development and the history of the working classes in India, particularly labour politic. His surveys of modern Indian economic history in Bengali language ('Oupinebrshik Bharater Arthaniti') and in Hindi ('Adhunik Bharat Ka Arthik Itihas') have been widely used in colleges and universities. His recent published works include: a study of the song Vande Mataram in nationalist and communalist politics of culture; ('Vande Mataram: the Biography of a Song', Penguin, 2003); 'The Mahatma and the Poet: letters and debates between Gandhi and Tagore, 1915-41', National Book Trust, 2000) edited by him; and selected historical documents on the Nationalist Education movement and on women's education (S. Bhattacharya, et al ed. 'Educating the Nation, 1880-1920' and 'Development of Women's Education in India, 1850-1920') published in 2001 and 2003.