Ranajit Guha revolutionised the study of India’s past
The Bengali historian died on April 28th, aged 99
The three short depositions, written in rustic Bengali in 1849, told the story of a young woman named Chandra. Pregnant as a result of an illicit affair, and in danger of being banished from her village, she was given poison one night by her mother and her sister. After several hours she expelled a small bloody fetus, and then, just before dawn, she died. “I administered the medicine in the belief that it would terminate her pregnancy,” her sister declared to the village scribe who’d been put to work by local law-enforcers. “I did not realise it would kill her.”
This article appeared in the Obituary section of the print edition under the headline “Bottom-up history ”
From the May 13th 2023 edition
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