New Delhi, Dec 2 (UNI) Former prime minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday sent a wreath as tribute to the family of renowned historian V N Datta who passed away on November 30 at his New Delhi residence.
A Professor Emeritus of Kurukshetra University and formerly General President of Indian History Congress VN Datta had an illustrious career as an outstanding academic and public intellectual, and belonged to independent India’s first generation of historians who brought a liberal and pluralistic outlook to the writing of modern Indian history.
Among his well-known works are Jallianwala Bagh, Maulana Azad; Gandhi and Bhagat Singh; Sati: A Historical, Social, and Philosophical Enquiry Into the Hindu Rite of Widow-Burning; New Light on Punjab Disturbances; Madan Lal Dhingra and the Revolutionary Movement; Amritsar: Past and Present and many more.
Born in 1926 into an illustrious family of Amritsar, Datta was educated at Government College, Lahore, Lucknow University and the University of Cambridge.Datta started his career as Editor Indian Gazetteers, but left the successful career in the Government to pursue his academic dreams, and joined Delhi University’s Kirorimal College. He took up multiple academic roles as visiting professor at a number of universities including Moscow, Leningrad, Berlin and resident fellow of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. Several tributes have poured in from all over the country by prominent academics, journalists, and literary personalities.
“Professor VN Datta’s books on Bhagat Singh, Maulana Azad, and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre are landmarks of historical scholarship. He was also a wonderfully generous human being. His work and example live on”, eminent historian and journalist, Ramachandra Guha tweeted.
Renowned historian, Irfan Habib stated, ‘The passing away of Professor VN Datta deprives the Indian community of historians of one of its recognised stalwarts. He had made events and aspects of the National movement his special field and whatever he wrote on it had the quality of definitiveness, about it. To me he coined in himself all the values one associates with old Punjab – a ‘composite’ culture based on Urdu as the common literary language – alongside an uncompromising attachment to modern secular values. This outlook comes out clearly in everything he wrote, whether on Sarmad, Jallianwalla Bagh, Azad or Iqbal. It was a privilege to know him and learn at his feet.’
While remembering him fondly, Datta’s long time colleague and outstanding historian of Punjab, JS Grewal said “We have lost an eminent historian, a kind friend, and a generous host. My association with Professor Datta was more than half a century old. Without yet knowing him personally, I was struck bent historian, a kind friend, and a generous host. My association with Professor Datta is more than half a century old. Without yet knowing him personally, I was struck by his enthusiastic discussions in the Indian History Congress Sessions. I never saw him in low spirits. Whenever we met we had long conversations on a diversity of subjects. His comments were always scintillating. He wrote on new subjects and wrote very clearly, choosing his words with care. As a historian he had a strong sense of commitment”.
Eminent journalist, HK Dua wrote , “Generations will remember his research based masterpiece on the massacre of Jallianwala Bagh where he came out with the new evidence based on Hunter Committee Reports. He always tried to be an objective analyst of historic events. He always believed in plural society”.
Noted literature and cultural critic Ashok Vajpeyi reminiscences, “Professor Datta was not only a scholar and teacher with unusual academic rigour and a deep-rooted vision, he was an intellectual who shared a pluralistic legacy with many others including such major writers as KB Vaid and Krishna Sobti. He had intellectually and emotionally evolved and nourished his egalitarian and liberal vision, with a view of India, its history and traditions, which was holistic, humane and humanising. For him India was a civilizational enterprise and the modern India had to discover and affirm it anew. He would be dearly missed”.
Datta is survived by his wife and three daughters.
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