OBITUARY: Professor Arjun Dev

Professor Arjun Dev (1938–2020): Historian, Visionary and a Great Human Being

This is a tribute to Arjun Dev, affectionately called Arjun by his colleagues and friends. While writing this tribute, I have yet to come to grips with the fact that Arjun is no more. In this write-up, I want to highlight his contributions to the traditions of disseminating history and history writing, but also wish to reflect in a more personal capacity as a friend and fellow-traveller. I also want to write about his dreams and vision and his disappointments, especially towards the end of his life, concerning the big changes in Indian politics and the resulting crisis in the founding values of the nation of India as they were imagined during the national movement and at the time of the inception of the republic.