R. C. Majumdar | |
|---|---|
 Majumdar in 1960 | |
| 4thVice-Chancellor of the University of Dhaka | |
| In office 1 January 1937 – 30 June 1942 | |
| Preceded by | A. F. Rahman |
| Succeeded by | Mahmud Hasan |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Ramesh Chandra Majumdar (1888-12-04)4 December 1888 Khandarpara,Gopalganj,Bengal Presidency, British India |
| Died | 11 February 1980(1980-02-11) (aged 91) Calcutta, West Bengal, India |
| Alma mater | University of Calcutta |
| Signature |  |
Ramesh Chandra Majumdar (known asR. C. Majumdar; 4 December 1888 – 11 February 1980)[1][2][3] was an Indian historian and professor known for promoting Hindu nationalist views.[4] He principally studied thehistory of India.[5][6][7]
Coming from aBaidya family, Majumdar was born in Khandarpara,Gopalganj,Bengal Presidency,British India (now inBangladesh) on 4 December 1888, to Haladhara Majumdar and Bidhumukhi. He studied in various schools in Dhaka and Calcutta (now Kolkata), and finally, in 1905, he passed his Entrance Examination fromRavenshaw College,Cuttack. In 1907, he passed F.A. with a first-class scholarship fromSurendranath College and joinedPresidency College, Calcutta. Graduating with a B.A.(Honours) and M.A. (History) in 1909 and 1911, respectively, he won thePremchand Roychand scholarship for his research work in 1913, which led to his thesis:Andhra-Kushana Age.[1]
Majumdar started his teaching career as a lecturer atGovernment Teachers' Training College, Dhaka. Since 1914, he spent seven years as a professor of history at theUniversity of Calcutta. He got his doctorate for his thesis,Corporate Life in Ancient India.[8] In 1921, he became a professor of history at the newly establishedUniversity of Dacca. He also served, until he became its vice chancellor, as the head of the Department of History and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts. Between 1924 and 1936, he was Provost ofJagannath Hall. Then he became the vice chancellor of the university for five years, from 1937 to 1942. From 1950, he wasPrincipal of the College of Indology,Benares Hindu University. He was elected the General President of theIndian History Congress and also became the vice president of the 'International Commission for a History of the Scientific and Cultural Development of Mankind'(1950–1969) set up by theUNESCO for the history of mankind.[9]
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Majumdar started his research on ancient India. After extensive travels to Southeast Asia and research, he wrote detailed histories of Champa (1927), Suvarnadvipa (1938) and Kambuja Desa (1944). On the initiative ofBharatiya Vidya Bhavan, he took up the mantle of editing a multi-volume tome on Indian history. Starting in 1951, he toiled for twenty-six long years to describe the history of the Indian people from the Vedic Period until theIndependence of India in eleven volumes. In 1955, Majumdar established the College of Indology ofNagpur University and joined as Principal. In 1958–59, he taught Indian history at theUniversity of Chicago and theUniversity of Pennsylvania. He was also the president of theAsiatic Society (1966–68) and theBangiya Sahitya Parishad (1968–69), and also theSheriff of Calcutta (1967–68).[citation needed]
When the final volume ofThe History and Culture of the Indian People was published in 1977, he had turned eighty-eight. He also edited the three-volume history of Bengal published by Dacca University. His last book was "Jivaner Smritidvipe".[citation needed]
The proposal to write on "Freedom movement" with government sponsorship was put forth in 1948 by R. C. Majumdar. In 1952 the ministry of education appointed a Board of Editors for the compilation of the History. Majumdar was appointed by the Board as the Director and entrusted with the work of sifting and collecting materials and preparing the draft of the history. However, the Board as consisting of politicians and scholars, was least likely to function harmoniously. Perhaps this was the reason why it was dissolved at the end of 1955. The scheme remained in balance for a year until the government decided to transfer the work on to a single scholar. To the disappointment of Majumdar the choice of the ministry of education fell on one Tara Chand, a historian but also an ex-secretary of the Ministry of Education. Majumdar then decided to write independentlyThe History of the Freedom Movement in India in three volumes.[10][11]
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Commentators |
Majumdar has been noted for promoting Hindu nationalist views and for his communal interpretations of history.[12][4][13][14]
When thegovernment of India set up an editorial committee to author a history of the freedom struggle of India, he was its principal member. But, following a conflict with the then Education MinisterMaulana Abul Kalam Azad on theSepoy Mutiny, he left the government job and published his own book,The Sepoy Mutiny & Revolt of 1857. According to him, the origins of India's freedom struggle lie in the English-educated Indian middle-class, and the freedom struggle started with theBanga Bhanga movement in 1905. His views on the freedom struggle are found in his bookHistory of the Freedom Movement in India. He was an admirer ofSwami Vivekananda andRamakrishna Paramahamsa.[15]
R.C. Majumdar, usually situated within Hindu-nationalist historiography
R.C. Majumdar, a historian notorious for his communal bias
By the 1960s, Majumdar had adopted a more Hindu nationalist position.
