Rudrangshu Mukherjee

Rudrangshu Mukherjee
Rudrangshu Mukherjee

Rudrangshu Mukherjee is Chancellor and Professor of History, Ashoka University

Book
Book Review

A Flawed Biography of Vivekananda

It is a poor account of Vivekananda's life that is written without studying the Bengali writings on him, that downplays the Ramakrishna-Narendranath relationship and that pays only little…
▶29-Mar-2023
Rudrangshu Mukherjee
Review

A History of Ordinary People in France

‘How a family lived in their ordinariness for three centuries, and the mode of telling this story throws light on the "big events" in France from the pre-revolutionary era to the French…
▶07-Sep-2021
Rudrangshu Mukherjee

Rammohun Roy's ‘Gift'

On the eve of the 250th birth anniversary of Rammohun Roy, a discussion of his 'Tuhfat-ul-Muwahhiddin', a tract written in Persian on the One Universal Truth.
▶25-May-2021
Rudrangshu Mukherjee
Essay

Dharma and Caste in the Mahabharata

The Mahabharata is peopled by the ‘higher’ castes but there are important personages from the ‘lower’ castes whose presence gives a radical salience to ‘dharma’ as set out in the epic, to the point…
▶01-Feb-2021
Rudrangshu Mukherjee

John le Carrè (1931-2020) Who Came In from the Cold

A tribute to the British literary giant of the second half of the 20th century, John Le Carrè, who died earlier this week, with a focus on his most memorable character, the tormented spymaster,…
▶17-Dec-2020
Rudrangshu Mukherjee
Review Article
Book
Book Review

The Rise of the Populist State

A populist idea has developed that an entrenched elite is exploiting deprived people. This then drives populist anger that certain types of leaders take advantage of and exploit through rhetoric and…
▶27-Apr-2020
Rudrangshu Mukherjee
Review Article
Book
Book Review

Life with the Mahatma

The first volume of the translation of the diaries of Manu Gandhi, niece of Mohandas Gandhi, give a detailed account of life at the Aga Khan Palace jail in Pune where the Mahatma was interned during…
▶26-Nov-2019
Rudrangshu Mukherjee
Book
Book Review

What Made the East India Company So Successful?

William Dalrymple's book on the East India Company is written very well and has a great deal of detail. But the writing of good History needs more. It calls for a consideration of all relevant…
▶10-Oct-2019
Rudrangshu Mukherjee