Jadunath Sarkar

Jadunath Sarkar, 1870-1958

Jadunath Sarkar (far left) in 1937 with colleagues

Sir Jadunath Sarkar ( Bengali যদুনাথ সরকার Yadunāth Sarakār ; December 10, 1870 in Karachmaria near Rajshahi in Bengal - May 15, 1958 in Calcutta , today's Kolkata ) was an Indian historian from Bengal.

Life

Origin and education

Sarkar was born as one of seven sons of a zamindar (large landowner) from the scribe caste of the Kayastha ( Lal ), who belonged to the Kshatriya nobility, in East Bengal , then British India , now Bangladesh . Already the father, Rajkumar Sarkar (1840-1914), was the first secretary of the Rajshahi Organization, a welfare organization of the district , and as a member of the reform movement of the Brahmo Samaj, who was socially and culturally involved. After studying and training at colleges in Rajshahi and Calcutta, the then capital of British India, as well as at the Presidency College there , he passed the master's examination (MA) in English at the University of Calcutta with distinction in 1892 .

Teaching activity, offices and publications

He then taught English at the local Ripon College from 1893 to 1896 , and at the Metropolitan College from 1896 to 1898. In 1894 he received the Premchand Roychand Studentship , the university's highest academic honor, and in 1898 took up the position of English professor at the Presidency College. After moving to the College in Patna (1899), he switched to history in 1902, which he taught until his retirement in 1926. His book on the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb had already appeared in 1901 ( India of Aurangzib ), which he completed in the following years until 1924 to form the five-volume History of Aurangzib . For the four-volume representation of the following period ( Fall of the Mughal Empire , 1932–1950) he needed more than two decades.

From 1917 to 1919 Sarkar was dean of the historical faculty of the 1916 newly founded Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi and from 1919 to 1923 English professor at Ravenshaw College in Cuttack / Odisha . In 1918 he was appointed to the Indian Education Service (IES, 1896-1924), which bundled the training of Indian junior staff and where he campaigned for higher academic standards and a reform of the examination system.

Because of his merits, Sarkar was named Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) in 1926. From 1926 to 1928 he was Vice Chancellor of the University of Calcutta. Knighted in 1929 as a Knight Bachelor ("Sir"), he was from 1929 to 1932 an appointed member of the Bengal Legislative Council, an institution with a predominantly advisory role in matters of education, health and public works. Sarkar was among other things a founding member, president and until 1941 "heart and soul" of the Indian Historical Records Commission (founded in 1919), the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal and their Bombay Branch and one of the very few honorary members of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain ( 1923).

Historical conception

Dissatisfied with the dependence of the history of the Mughal period on a few, mostly European-language sources, Sarkar endeavored from the start to expand the source base to include contemporary documents and sources, especially in the native languages. On numerous archival trips and as President of the Historical Records Commission, he unearthed the materials on which he based his historical works and numerous contributions and essays in English as well as in Bengali - also for the general public. In keeping with his conviction that lessons could be drawn from history and that historical knowledge should therefore be widely disseminated, he always ensured that his books were priced moderately.

His works on Aurangzeb, the decline of the Mughal Empire and his continuation of William Irvine's Later Mughals (2 volumes, 1922) testify to an extensive knowledge of languages ​​and sources - apart from Bengali , he spoke English , Hindi , Hindustani / Urdu , Sanskrit , Persian , Marathi , French and Portuguese - and quickly gave the work the status of standard and reference works that it still holds today. By visiting numerous battlefields on site, he was also able to give his portrayals of decisive military conflicts a local flavor and credibility.

Sarkar's position in European and Indian historiography

Sarkar was convinced that Indian historiography at the beginning of the 20th century stood where European historiography was at the beginning of the 19th. He therefore concentrated his presentation on the chronology , the description of the processes and the characteristics of the people involved; He did not see the time had yet come for more detailed studies and structural analyzes. His role models in terms of method, style and purpose of historiography were among others the Germans Ranke , Niebuhr and Mommsen as well as the British Macaulay and Gibbon . As a historical person, he particularly valued Napoleon for his effectiveness and time management.

Although he was reserved about the Indian independence movement, he assessed the Mughal period (1526–1858), which was the focus of Sarkar's work, primarily according to its importance for the formation of states and nations:

“The Mughal Empire has done a lot for India in many ways. But it failed to forge the population into a nation or to create a strong, permanent state. "

- Jadunath Sarkar : A Short History of Aurangzib , 1954

It was only in the British that he saw - despite all the criticism of many of their economic measures - the overcomers of the intellectual, economic and social stagnation as well as regional fragmentation that the Muslim rulers had left behind; only they are the innovators of the Bengali ( Bengali Renaissance ) and Indian nation as a whole. The breaking of encrusted social, religious and caste barriers was also not successful under Muslim rule. He had only ridicule for the caste-ridden Indian society and its superstitious beliefs, so that conservative Hindus viewed him suspiciously as an apostate, while reform-minded Brahmos viewed him as a Hindu dyed in the wool. He was convinced that "if India were ever to become a nation ... Hinduism and Islam had to die and be reborn" and "purified and rejuvenated according to the laws of reason and science".

Together with the doyen of Maratha history and lifelong friend Govind Sakharam Sardesai (1865-1959) , Sarkar dedicated several monographs to the Marathas - as the regional and Hindu opposition to the Muslim Mughals ( Shivaji and his Times 1919; House of Shivaji 1940) in which he, the non-Brahmin and Bengali, did not spare criticism of the cool, calculating, but in his view politically short-sighted policy of the Marathas.

In addition to the Mughal history, Sarkar also wrote monographs on Indian general ( India through the Ages , 1928), regional ( History of Bengal , 1950), economic ( Economics of British India , 1909/1919) and military history ( Military History of India , 1960) and translated a hagiographic work about the Bengali mystic and saint Chaitanya (1486–1533), who had campaigned for the lifting of the caste barriers and the acceptance of Muslims and untouchables.

Characteristic

Sarkar was considered a "strictly Victorian moralist" who was critical of the generation that led India to independence; personally undemanding, self-disciplined and straightforward in his judgment, he valued the English for their "methodical, thorough manner in which they undertake everything and ... for their unearthly ( divine ) dissatisfaction with things as they are". The dynamism and belief in progress of Europe influenced him deeply, and in modern education on a broad basis he saw the prerequisite for the rise of India. The English form of the representative government also appealed to him.

His creed as a historian was expressed in his insistence on the use of primary sources and learning of the source languages; Here too he insisted - not always to the delight of his students and colleagues - on high scientific standards; he had little left for historians who worked with “scissors and glue bottles” and only evaluated the printed literature. He is therefore referred to as the "father of modern scientific research in the science of history".

Aftermath

Because of his political restraint, his esteem for the British and his reserved manner, but also because of his conservative methodological approach, Sarkar's influence on historiography diminished during his lifetime and soon after Indian independence (1947). His biographer had to defend him against the accusation of a lack of national feeling in the Indian national biography in 1974; Structural-historical approaches, studies with a focus on economic and social topics as well as detailed studies gradually made his work appear antiquated. Due to the broad source of sources and the author's linguistic competence, his work is still considered indispensable today.

Marriage, private life, last years, home

Sarkar had been married to Kadambini Chaudhuri from the neighboring town of Natore (d. 1964) since 1893; the marriage resulted in two sons and three daughters.

Sarkar was considered taciturn, strict - yes, harsh - but proved to be warm and generous in word and deed to friends and students. The historian AL Shrivastava (1899–1973) lived for a long time during his research work “like a family member” in the Sarkar's house in Darjeeling and was able to access the extensive library.

Sarkar never left India. His focus was on the north of the country; He neither got to know nor historically worked on the southern, Dravidian parts of the country with their completely different linguistic and cultural character.

The last years of life were overshadowed by blows of fate. Sarkar died at the old age of 87.

Sarkar's widow left the house in Kolkata (10, Lake Terrace, now Jadunath Sarkar Road), where the family lived after Sarkar's retirement, to a hospital after her death; In 1973 the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) bought the building, the proceeds went to Jadavpur Hospital. The Center for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSC), a research institute of the ICSSR, first rented and later bought the building before moving to new premises in Patuli in 2000. The house now houses the Jadunath Bhavan Museum and Resource Center .

Sarkar as Tagore's translator

Sarkar was one of the first to translate Rabindranath Tagore's writings into English.

Quotes

• "... foremost Indian historian of the Mughal dynasty (1526–1857)" - Encyclopaedia Britannica 2010
• "... for a general overview of the history of the 17th and 18th centuries [remain] the works of the old master Jadunath Sarkar irreplaceable" - Kulke / Leue / Lütt / Rothermund 1982, p. 224
• "Jadunath's career marked an epoch in Indian historiography ... the doyen of Indian historians ... the 'Bengali gibbon'" Sarkar 1974, pp. 64–65 (from English)
• "Despite all these, Jadunath has narrated events with extraordinary skill and eloquence. The structure he has given to the decline and fall of the Mughal Empire in his account, with some modifications, has remained intact. The picture of the individual Mughal and Maratha nobles moving towards their final destiny like the characters of a Greek tragedy against the background of the decline, with all their personal conflicts, cowardice, heroism and self-sacrifice, so ably created by Jadunath, has remained unsurpassed even to this day. "- Aniruddha Ray in Banglapedia 2012

Works (in selection)

Signature of Jadunath Sarkar (1875–1958) in his book "Studies in Mughal India"

A catalog raisonné up to 1958 can be found in Gupta, Life and Letters (1958), pp. 108–124

• Anecdotes of Aurangzib and historical essays . Calcutta: Sarkar 1912. 2nd edition 1925. 3rd exp. and verb. Edition 1949 digitized
• History of Aurangzib. Mainly based on Persian sources . Calcutta: Sarkar 1912-1924.
  • 1. Reign of Shah Jahan . 1912 digitized volume 1
  • 2. War of succession . 1912 digitized volume 2
  • 3. First half of the reign, 1658-1681 . 1916 2nd minor supplementary edition 1921. 3rd continuous. u. corr. 1928 edition ("minute corrections and remarks"; preface p. Ii), in which Sarkar, however, omitted the second part of the bibliography that was still contained in the previous editions (preface 3rd edition p. Ii); the first part appeared in volume II. Digitized volume 3 - A reprint of the first edition appeared under the title Northern India, 1658-1681. Based on original sources . Longmans, Green and Co.: London 1920.
  • 4. Southern India, 1645-89 . 1920. - 2nd exp. u. Partially rewritten edition 1930 with the addition Based on Original Sources Digitalisat Vol. 4 , with the foreword occasionally missing in reprints
  • 5. The closing years, 1689-1707. Based on original sources . 1924 digitized volume 5
  • (6th index , in volume 3 of the 3rd edition 1928 in the foreword on page ii, announced, but apparently never appeared)
• A History of Jaipur . Unpublished, around 1930, published posthumously. London: Longmans 1984
• Khuda Bakhsh
• The Fall of the Mughal Empire . 4 volumes, 1932–50, last published as a set of four in 2017
  • 1. 1739 to 1754 , 1932
  • 2. 1754 to 1771 , 1934
  • 3. 1771 to 1788 , 1938
  • 4. 1789 to 1803 , 1950
• Nadir Shah in India , 1925
• Chaitanya's life and teachings , 1932
• Military History of India . Calcutta: Sarkar 1960
• House of Shivaji (Studies and documents of Maratha History: Royal Period) . Calcutta: Sarkar 1940 - Contains all of his seventeen older, but here often heavily revised essays on the " royal period (1626-1700), in contrast to the Peshwa epoch " (preface)
• The Rani of Jhansi
• Famous Battles of Indian History
• Chronology of Indian History
• Shivaji (in Bengali)
• Mughal administration . ii, 152 S. Calcutta: Sarkar 1921 (Patna University Readership Lectures, 1920); 2nd edition 1924 (with 2 additional chapters), 3rd edition 1935, 4th edition 1952 (with numerous additions and extensions), 5th edition 1963 (same page as 4th edition, vii, 256 S.) - There are usually reprints only from the completely outdated 1st edition, online editions only from the also outdated 3rd edition!
• Shivaji and his Times . Calcutta: Sarkar 1919; 6. corr. and exp. Calcutta: Sarkar 1961
• Anecdotes of Aurangzib (Translated into English with Notes) and Historical Essays. Calcutta: Sarkar 1917. - English translation of Ahkam-i-Alamgiri from Persian
• Studies in Mughal India , 2nd ext. Edition 1919 Digitized from Sarkar's own copy, with signature
• The India of Aurangzib (topography, statistics, and roads) compared with the India of Akbar with extracts from the Khulasatu-t-tawarikh and the Chahar Gulshan Calcutta: Bose Brothers 1901
• A Short History of Aurangzib, 1658-1707. Abrigded from the larger work in five volumes, with a map, chronology and index . Calcutta: Sarkar 1930 - 2nd rev. 1954 edition Digitized from the 1930 edition
• A History of Bengal
• Together with Āzād-āl-Husaini, Karam ʻAli, Yusuf ʻAli: Bengal nawābs, containing Āzād-āl-Husaini's Naubahār-i-Murshid Quli Khāni, Karam ʻAli's Muzaffarnamah, and Yusuf ʻāāli's Jhwābat-i- . Calcutta: Asiatic Society 1952 (Sir William Jones bicentenary series)
• Later Mughals . 2 vols. Vol. 1: 1707-1720 , vol. 2: 1719-1739 . Calcutta. London: Sarkar. Luzac 1922. - Continuation of William Irvine's work
• Aurangzīb (1658-1681) (Chap.VIII, pp. 222-259), Aurangzīb (1681-1707) (Chap.X, pp. 281-318), Bahādur Shāh, Jahāndar Shāh, Farrukh-Siyar, Rafī-ud- Darajāt and Rafī-ud-Daula (Chapter XI, pp. 319-340) and The Hyderābād State (1724-1762) (Chapter XIII, pp. 377-391). In: The Cambridge History of India , Vol.IV: The Mughul Period . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1937
• Rise of the Maratha Power (1630-1707) . In: Maharastra State Gazetteers. History. Part III - Maratha Period . Bombay: Govt.Printing 1967, p 1-29 - Posthumously
• Jagadish Narayan Sarkar (ed.): The military despatches of a seventeenth century Indian general being an English translation of the Haft anjuman of Munshi Udairaj alias Taleyar Khan (Benares ms. 53b - 93b) . VIII, 158 S. Calcutta: Scientific Book Agency 1969 - From the manuscript estate of Jadunath Sarkar

literature

• Hari Ram Gupta (ed.): Life and Letters of Sir Jadunath Sarkar . Hoshiarpur 1957 (Sir Jadunath Sarkar Commemoration volume 1)
• The Times dated May 21, 1958
• Peter]. Hardy: Sarkar, Sir Jadunath . In: Dictionary of National Biography 1951-1960 (1971), pp. 863-864
• Peter hardy rev. Tapan Raychaudhuri: Sarkar, Sir Jadunath . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Vol. 48 (2004), pp. 983-984
• Kiram Pawar: Sir Jadunath Sarkar: a profile in historiography . Books & Books, 1985.
• Dipesh Chakrabarty: The calling of history. Sir Jadunath Sarkar and his empire of truth . Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press 2015
• Jagadish Narayan Sarkar: Sarkar, Jadunath (Sir) . In: SP Sen (ed.): Dictionary of National Biography , Vol. 4 (1974), pp. 63-67
• SM Rabiul Karim: Rajshahi zamindars a historical profile in the colonial period 1765-1947 . Ph. Diss. From the University of North Bengal, Darjeeling , 2006 Download (Shodhganga @ INFLIBNET)
• Aniruddha Ray: Sarkar, Jadunath . In: Jadunath Sarkar, Banglapedia 2012 ( Memento from February 6, 2018 in the Internet Archive )

Illustrations

• Portrait photo, around 1940 - banglapedia.org

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Banglapedia (2012) gives May 19 as the date of death; according to the Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago 2010, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. 48 (2004), p. 984 and Dictionary of National Biography 1951–1960 (1971), p. 864 (“He died at his home, 10 Lake Terrace, Calcutta, on 15 May 1958, and was cremated at the Keoratala burning Ghat , Calcutta, the same day “) however, it is May 15th. - The Indian reference work (Dictionary of National Biography Vol. 4, 1974, p. 63) only mentions the year of death 1958.
2. ↑ Karim, Rajshahi zamindars, p. 354; that the family cultivated betel (ODNB 2004, p. 983) says nothing about their social status (Risley, Tribes of Bengal, Vol. 1, sv Barui, p. 71). The Sarkars were Vaishnava Hindus; Sarkar 1974, p. 63
3. ↑ http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Rajshahi_Association
4. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite . Chicago 2010, sv Sarkar
5. ↑ Hardy / Raychaudhuri in ODNB 2004, p. 984
6. ^ The London Gazette : No. 33501 (Supplement), p. 3667 , May 31, 1929.
7. ↑ Sarkar 1974, p. 65
8. ^ Sarkar, in DNB 4 (1974), p. 65
9. ↑ Sarkar 1974, p. 64
10. ↑ P. Hardy, Sarkar , in DNB 1951-1960, p. 863
11. ↑ "Napoleon had his special respect, and in his own life he realized the value that Napoleon attached to the time"; Sarkar 1974, p. 63, translated from English.
12. ↑ Jadunath Sarkar, A Short History of Aurangzib , p 441; also Sarkar, Rise of the Maratha Power , p. 28
13. ↑ See his book on Economics of British India , 1909
14. ^ A Short History of Aurangzib , 2nd ed. 1954, chap. xix, § 20, p. 449
15. ↑ Hardy: Sarkar , in ODNB 1951-1960, p. 864
16. ↑ Hardy: Sarkar , in ODNB 1951-1960, p. 864
17. ↑ "'scissors and gumbottle' type of research"; Sarkar 1974, p. 65
18. ↑ Sarkar 1974, p. 65
19. ↑ Sarkar 1974, passim
20. ^ Kaushik Roy (2004). India's Historic Battles: From Alexander the Great to Kargil. Orient Blackswan. p. 10. See also Chakrabarty, Challenge, passim
21. ^ Hermann Kulke, Horst-Joachim Leue, Jürgen Lütt and Dietmar Rothermund: Indian history from ancient times to the present. Literature review of recent publications . Munich: Oldenbourg 1982. (Historical magazine, special issue 10). P. 224
22. ^ AL Shrivastava: The First Two Nawabs of Oudh , Vol. 1, Foreword, p. Xi
23. ↑ The eldest son Abani was stabbed to death by a Muslim fanatic in Kolkata in 1947; the sons-in-law died early, as did the second son, all leaving behind a large family; Gupta, Life, p. 14 and p. 256
24. ↑ Hardy / Raychaudhuri, p. 984
25. ↑ https://www.telegraphindia.com/1150131/jsp/calcutta/story_10930.jsp#.VNLOWTb9nIU The Telegraph (India) of January 31, 2015