Guha was born on 29 April 1958 inDehradun (now inUttarakhand)[1] into aTamil Brahmin family.[24][25] He was raised in Dehradun, where his father Subramaniam Ramdas Guha worked at theForest Research Institute,[25][26] and his mother was a high-school teacher. While he should have been named Subramaniam Ramachandra in keeping withTamil 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.[25] He grew up in Dehradun, on the Forest Research Institute campus.[27][28]
In 2010, Guha wrote the introduction for and editedMakers of Modern India, which profiles 19 Indians who helped in forming and shapingIndia. The book contains excerpts of their speeches and essays, and covers topics such asreligion,caste,colonialism, andnationalism.[42]
In October 2013, he authoredGandhi Before India, the first part of a two-volume biography ofMahatma Gandhi. The biography documents his life from 1869 to 1914, covering events from his childhood to the two decades he spent in South Africa.[43][44] In 2018, he authored the standalone sequelGandhi: The Years That Changed the World, 1914-1948, which covers events from when Gandhi returned to India in 1914 to hisdeath 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.[45]
In 2022, Guha authoredRebels Against the Raj, which tells the story of 7Westerners who came to, lived in, and servedIndia in its quest forindependence from theBritish Raj.[46]
His books are amongst the most sought after by history students and civil service aspirants in India.[47]
Guha has published a collection of essays, two of them beingPatriots and Partisans (2012) andDemocrats and Dissenters (2016). In 1999, he was offered to write a biography ofAtal Bihari Vajpayee which he declined.[48]
Guha earned a PhD on the social history offorestry in Uttarakhand, focusing on theChipko movement.[citation needed] He produced a biography of the anthropologistVerrier Elwin in 1999,[49] and in the same year wrote a book onenvironmentalism calledEnvironmentalism: A Global History[50]. In 2006, he authoredHow Much Should a Person Consume?.[51]
Guha has written extensively oncricket as a journalist and as a historian. His research into the social history of Indian cricket culminated in his workA Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian History of a British Sport, which was released in 2002.[52] The book charts the development ofcricket in India from its inception during theBritish Raj to its position in contemporary India as the nation's favourite pastime.[citation needed]
Guha in 2017
He was appointed toBCCI's panel of administrators by theSupreme Court of India on 30 January 2017, as part of theLodha Committee reforms, only to resign in July of the same year.[53]
In November 2020, he publishedThe 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.[54]
Ramachandra Guha at Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad State Conference 2019, Pramadam, Pathanamthitta, Kerala, India
Guha lives in the city ofBengaluru. 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 showJeopardy![55][56]
Guha is a nephew of the distinguished organic chemistKrishnaswami Venkataraman, the husband of Guha's paternal aunt Shakuntala and the first Indian director of theNational Chemical Laboratory (NCL). Venkataraman's only child, the late economic historianDharma Kumar, was a first cousin of Guha,[57] and her daughter, the feminist and academicRadha 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 itthoroughly."[57]
Guha doesn't drink alcohol.[58] He lists books, cricket, Hindustani classical music and the iconic eatery ofKoshy's in Bangalore as his favorites.[58][59]
The US magazineForeign 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.[60]
Guha, Ramachandra; Gadgil, Madhav (1995).Ecology and Equity: The Use and Abuse of Nature in Contemporary India. India: Penguin India.ISBN978-0-415-12524-6.
Guha, Ramachandra; Alier, Joan Martinez (1997).Varieties of Environmentalism: Essays North and South. India: Penguin India.ISBN978-1-85383-329-8.
Guha, Ramachandra (2014).Environmentalism: A Global History. United Kingdom: Penguin UK.ISBN978-0-321-01169-5.
Guha, Ramachandra (2016).Democrats and Dissenters. India: Penguin India.ISBN978-0670089369.
Guha, Ramachandra (2018).Gandhi: The Years that Changed the World, 1914-1948. Knopf.ISBN978-0-385-53231-0.
Guha, Ramachandra (2020).The Commonwealth of Cricket: A Lifelong Love Affair with the Most Subtle and Sophisticated Game Known to Humankind. Harper Collins.ISBN978-93-90327-28-7.
Guha, Ramachandra (2022).Rebels Against the Raj: Western Fighters for India's Freedom. Harper Collins.ISBN978-0-008-49876-4.
Guha, Ramachandra (2024).Speaking with Nature: The Origins of Indian Environmentalism. Fourth Estate India.ISBN978-9362134905.
Guha, Ramachandra (2024).The Cooking of Books: A Literary Memoir. Juggernaut.ISBN978-9353457099.
