Peter Heehs (born 1948) is anAmerican historian living inPuducherry,India, who writes on modern Indian history, spirituality and religion. Much of his work focuses on the Indian freedom fighter and spiritual leaderSri Aurobindo. His publications include twelve books and more than sixty articles in journals and magazines.
As a historian, Heehs has written on theSwadeshi period of theIndian independence movement and on the early phase of theIndian revolutionary movement. His 1992 studyThe Bomb in Bengal highlighted the importance of theManiktala secret society, which was a predecessor of theJugantar Group. In that book and other publications, Heehs made it clear that the Indian freedom struggle had both violent andnon-violent sides and that the violent revolutionaries helped prepare the country psychologically for the later mass movements led byMahatma Gandhi. In the second edition ofThe Bomb in Bengal (2004), Heehs distinguished the aims and methods of early Indian revolutionaries.[5]
Heehs has also written on problems of Indianhistoriography inHistory and Theory,[6]Postcolonial Studies,[7] and other journals. He has also contributed to popular magazines such asHistory Today.[8]
As a scholar of religion, Heehs has edited the textbookIndian Religions[9] and has contributed to journals and edited volumes dealing withnew religious movements in India.[10][11] He has also discussed the problems of Indiancommunalism.
Heehs's ninth book,The Lives of Sri Aurobindo (Columbia University Press, 2008), was intended for scholarly readers.[12] It received positive reviews in the United States[13] but was objected to by a large number of devotees ofSri Aurobindo,[14] who have delayed the publication of the book in India.[15] Heehs's tenth book,Writing the Self, was published by Bloomsbury in February 2013. It has been named an Outstanding Academic Title for 2013 byChoice.[16] His eleventh book,Situating Sri Aurobindo: A Reader, a collection of essays by various scholars on Sri Aurobindo's writings with an introduction, was published by Oxford University Press in October 2013. His twelfth book,Spirituality without God, was published by Bloomsbury in November 2018.
Heehs was briefly in the news in April 2012 after theIndian Ministry of Home Affairs declined to entertain an application for an extension of his resident visa after April 15.[17] Learning of the affair on March 31, Union Home MinisterP. Chidambaram said that he would review Heehs’s case.[18] A number of prominent scholars, as well as Union Minister for Rural DevelopmentJairam Ramesh, wrote in support of Heehs to Chidambaram and to Prime MinisterManmohan Singh.[19]
Leading public intellectuals such asRamachandra Guha[20] andPratap Bhanu Mehta[21] wrote about the issue in their newspaper columns. On April 13, the Home Ministry announced that it had approved a one-year extension of Heehs’s visa.[22]
The affair became a point of reference in discussions in the Indian and international press of freedom of expression,[23][24][25] book banning,[26][27][28][29] censorship,[30][31] xenophobia,[32] and visa policy.[33]
^Heehs, Peter (2000). "The Error of all 'Churches': Religion and Spirituality in Communities Founded or 'Inspired' by Sri Aurobindo". In Copley, Antony (ed.).Gurus and their Followers: New Religious Reform Movements in Colonial India. Oxford University Press. pp. 209–224.
^Heehs, Peter (2003). "The Centre of the Religious Life of the World: Spiritual Universalism and Cultural Nationalism in the Work of Sri Aurobindo". In Copley, Antony (ed.).Hinduism, Public and Private: Reform, Hindutva, Gender, Sampraday. Oxford University Press. pp. 66–83.
