A ground breaking history of the 1919 Massacre .
‘A richly researched and lucidly written account of an event that changed the history of India and the world’- RAMACHANDRA GUHA
‘In a gripping piece of forensic exploration, V.N. Datta cuts through the theories to reveal what really happened in Amritsar on that frightful day—and why. A brave and important book’ WALTER REID
About The Book
Based on a meticulous exploration of the primary sources and oral testimonies of the survivors and victims of 1919, V.N. Datta crafts a unique and first-hand narrative of the most violent event and its legacy in the history of modern India and provides a complex picture of the city of Amritsar, where he grew up. Jallianwala Bagh is a rigorous account of the causes, nature and impact of the carnage that shook the nation and irreparably wounded its collective consciousness. A pathbreaking study that moves the focus away from the frames of imperialism and nationalism, Jallianwala Bagh brings a local and an altogether different scholarly perspective on imperial, racial and military violence in the twentieth century. This highly readable work in its revised edition is of tremendous historical and contemporary value.
About the Author
V.N. DATTA (1926-2020), a distinguished historian born in Amritsar, was emeritus professor of modern history, Kurukshetra University, former general president of the Indian History Congress, resident fellow of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, and visiting professor at a number of universities, including Moscow, Leningrad and Berlin. Among his much-acclaimed publications are Amritsar Past and Present (1967); Jallianwala Bagh (1969), which was translated into Hindi and Punjabi; New Light on the Punjab Disturbances in 1919, Vols I and II (1975); Madan Lal
Dhingra and the Revolutionary Movement (1978); Gandhi and Bhagat Singh (2008), which was translated into Tamil; Sati: A Historical, Social and Philosophical Enquiry into the Hindu Rite of Widow-Burning (1988); Maulana Azad (1990); Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Sarmad (2007); and The Tribune, 130 Years: A Witness to History (2011). He regularly contributed to academic journals and popular press; his column ‘Off the Shelf’ in the Tribune won him great accolades. He was writing a book on Gandhi and Sarala Devi Chaudhurani in his last days.
NONICA DATTA teaches history at Jawaharlal Nehru University. She received her PhD from Cambridge University, UK. Previously, she taught at Miranda House, University of Delhi. She has been a fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi and a visiting professor at the universities of St Gallen, Toronto and Humboldt. Her publications include Forming an Identity: A Social History of the Jats (1999); and Violence, Martyrdom and Partition: A Daughter’s Testimony (2009), which was shortlisted for the Crossword Award.
Releasing On 15th March 2021
PB | 248 pgs. | 399/-
