Obituaries
C.P. Bhambri (1933–2020)
Chandra Prakash Bhambri, the eminent political scientist and Emeritus Fellow of Jawaharlal Nehru University who passed away in November 2020, was one of the last remaining links to an era that is now decisively over. That was an era when north India was teeming with outstanding academic institutions, when the (then united) Communist Party had a significant political presence in north India and an even more significant presence in the intellectual life on the campuses of north India.
Professor V.N. Datta: A Dedicated Teacher and Historian
Professor V.N. Datta, Professor Emeritus, Kurukshetra University, passed away on 30 November 2020 at the age of 94. Born on 25 May 1926 at Amritsar, he studied at Government College, Lahore, Lucknow University and Cambridge University. At Cambridge, he was a student of eminent historian Herbert Butterfield, who shaped his approach and methodology of historical studies. Datta Saheb (as he was popularly known) was also a post-graduate in English and was deeply interested in the study of literature.
Remembering Ilina Sen in the Fight for Bread, and Roses, too
Ilina Sen (1951–2020) died of cancer on the evening of 9 August 2020 at the age of 69 years. She is survived by her husband Binayak Sen and two daughters Prahnita and Aparajita. Even though she died so young at a time when she had many years of work ahead of her, she leaves behind a rich legacy, an inspiration for generations to come. She is one of those very few people who could combine grassroots work, activism and academics.
Remembering Vijaya Ramaswamy
Vijaya Ramaswamy passed away on 1 June 2020. She was just sixty-seven and after superannuation from the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, was on the Tagore Fellowship at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla. She was an alumnus of JNU and the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. She started her teaching career at Gargi College, University of Delhi and served the institution with distinction for about two decades. Vijaya was a recipient of several prestigious fellowships, including the Commonwealth and Fulbright Fellowships. She had also delivered lectures widely across continents.
The Rock that could also Melt: Professor R.L. Shukla
The passing away of Professor R.L. Shukla (1938–2020), a former Head of the History Department of the University of Delhi, on 17 October 2020 in Delhi is the exit of another member of the vanishing generation of intellectuals with integrity and ideological commitment in India. He was a rare academician who was equally dedicated to his professional duty and social commitment, and it is in the combination of the two that his contributions would be remembered. Coming from an extremely poor, debtridden peasant family from a backward village, Panapur Langa, in Bihar that enjoyed some reckoning as a nursery of activists of the Freedom Movement, he not only rose to a place of eminence in the premier University of Delhi but remained concerned about the suffering of humankind everywhere.
