V.N. Datta

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.