Books

The Nation As Mother And Other Visions Of Nationhood

"History matters in contemporary debates on nationalism,' Sugata Bose contends in The Nation as Mother. In this interconnected set of deeply researched and powerfully argued essays and speeches Bose explores the relationship between nation, reason and religion in Indian political thought and practice.

His Majesty's Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India's Struggle against Empire

This epic of a life larger than its legend is both intimate, based on family archives, and global in significance. His Majesty's Opponent establishes Sugata Bose among the giants of Indian and world history. In Biblio, historian Sabyasachi Bhattacharya has praised Bose for achieving "critical distance" from his subject. Historian and editor Rudrangshu Mukherjee has called His Majesty’s Opponent a "definitive biography", adding that "in terms of sheer craftsmanship and mastery over material, this is an achievement that will evoke the admiration and envy of any historian-biographer."

A Hundred Horizons: the Indian Ocean in the Age of Global Empire

On December 26, 2004, giant tsunami waves destroyed communities around the Indian Ocean, from Indonesia to Kenya. Beyond the horrific death toll, this wall of water brought a telling reminder of the interconnectedness of the many countries on the ocean rim, and the insignificance of national boundaries. ‘A Hundred Horizons’ takes us to these shores, in a brilliant reinterpretation of how culture developed and history was made at the height of the British raj.

Modern South Asia: History, Culture and Political Economy (joint author with Ayesha Jalal)

Drawing on the newest and most sophisticated historical research and scholarship in the field, Modern South Asia provides a challenging insight for those with an intellectual curiosity about the region. After sketching the pre-modern history of the subcontinent, the book concentrates on the last three centuries.

Peasant Labour and Colonial Capital, a volume in ‘The New Cambridge History of India’

This book is a critical work of synthesis and interpretation on one of the central themes in modern Indian history - agrarian change under British colonial rule. Sugata Bose analyses the relationships between demography, commercialization, class structure and peasant resistance unfolding over the long term between 1770 and more recent times.

Agrarian Bengal: Economy, Social Structure and Politics, 1919-1947

Sugata Bose develops a general typology of systems of agrarian production in Bengal to show how these responded to different types of pressure from the world economy, and treats in detail the effects of the world Depression on Bengal.

Nationalism, Democracy and Development: State and Politics in India, joint editor with Ayesha Jalal

This volume examines issues of history and political economy that are central to the problems of nationalism, democracy, and development.

Purabi: The East in its Feminine Gender: Poems and Songs of Rabindranath Tagore, translated by Charu C. Chowdhuri, joint editor with Krishna Bose

Purabi brings together 52 of Tagore’s poems and songs. This beautifully boxed collection includes an audio CD of Tagore songs and recitations both in English and Bengali.

Cosmopolitan Thought Zones: South Asia and the Global Circulation of Ideas, joint editor with Kris Manjapra

This book examines forms of cosmopolitanism in the high period of South Asian anti-colonialism, 1890-1947.

Sonar Bangla?: Agricultural Growth and Agrarian Change in West Bengal and Bangladesh, joint editor with Ben Rogaly and Barbara Harriss-White

This is the first book to analyze agrarian change in rural Bengal since the recent upsurge in agricultural growth which began in the mid-1980s.

Credit, Markets and the Agrarian Economy of Colonial India, editor.

This study draws on a variety of historiographical approaches to explore credit, a theme central to all discussions of the colonial economy in India.

South Asia and World Capitalism, editor.

This book places South Asian history within broader supra-regional and world contexts, as well as within larger historical debates and theories that analyse the shape of the modern world.

Edited volumes of primary sources

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Chalo Delhi: Collected Works Vol. 12 1943-45, joint editor with Sisir K. Bose.

After a perilous ninety-day submarine voyage, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose arrived in Southeast Asia on 6 May 1943 to lead the Indian independence movement. ‘Only when the blood of freedom loving Indians begins to flow’, he declared in one of his broadcasts in June 1943, ‘will India attain her freedom.’ In his last message, on 15 August 1945, he urged faith in India’s destiny and expressed confidence that ‘India shall be free and before long.’

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Azad Hind: Collected Works Vol. 11 1941-43, joint editor with Sisir K. Bose

On the night of 16-17 January 1941, Subhas Chandra Bose secretly left his Elgin Road home in Calcutta and was driven by his nephew, Sisir, in a car up to Gomoh railway junction in Bihar. Before his departure he wrote a few post-dated letters to be mailed on his return to Calcutta in order to give the British the false impression that he was still at home.

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, The Alternative Leadership: Collected Works Vol. 10 1939-41, joint editor with Sisir K. Bose

Between his resignation as Congress President in Calcutta on 29 April 1939 and his escape from his Elgin Road home on the night of 16-17 January 1941, Subbas Chandra Bose provided India with an alternative leadership in place of the old guard represented by the Gandhian High Command. His alternative was based on a commitment to anti-imperialism and future socialism.

The Essential Writings of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, joint editor with Sisir K. Bose

Distilled from the authoritative, twelve-volume Collected Works, this collection stands a concise introduction to the thought of India's foremost militant nationalist. Published by Oxford University Press in Delhi and the Netaji Research Bureau in Calcutta in 1997.

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, An Indian Pilgrim: an unfinished autobiography, joint editor with Sisir K. Bose

This autobiography supplies the material with which to study the socio-cultural environment in which Subhas Chandra Bose grew up and the lineaments of his intellectual development. Bose was one of India's major militant nationalist leaders. Published by Oxford University Press in Delhi and the Netaji Research Bureau in Calcutta in 1997.

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, The Indian Struggle, 1920-1942, joint editor with Sisir K. Bose

This volume narrates the political upheavals of the inter-war period, further enriched by Netaji's reflections on the key themes of Indian history and a finely etched assessment of Mahatma Gandhi's role in it. Published by Oxford University Press in Delhi and the Netaji Research Bureau in Calcutta in 1997.

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Congress President: Collected Works Vol. 9 1938-39, joint editor with Sisir K. Bose

In 1938 Subhas Chandra Bose reached the peak of his political life when he was elected President of the Indian National Congress. Leading the forces of uncompromising anti-colonialism and socialism, he defeated Gandhi's nominee in the bitterly contested election for Congress Presidency in 1939.

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Collected Works Vol. 8 1933-37, joint editor with Sisir K. Bose

This volume brings together the letters, writings and speeches from a fascinating period of mostly enforced European exile in the career of Subhas Chandra Bose. A wide array of topics are explored - imperialism, fascism, communism, psychology, philosophy, spirituality, urban planning, travel, Gandhi, Ireland, love and more. Published by Oxford University Press in Delhi and the Netaji Research Bureau in Calcutta in 1994.

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Collected Works Vol. 7 Letters to Emilie Schenkl 1934-42, joint editor with Sisir K. Bose

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was India's foremost militant nationalist, just as Gandhi and Nehru were its pacifist and moderate nationalists. His love life has always remained a carefully guarded secret. In this volume, for the first time, is revealed Bose's relationship with Emilie Schenkl, the Austrian he married in Europe. It contains 162 of his letters, written between 1934 and 1942, and published for the first time along with eighteen of Emilie Schenkl's letters that have survived. Published by Oxford University Press in Delhi and the Netaji Research Bureau in Calcutta in 1994.

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Collected Works Vol. 6 1927-32, joint editor with Sisir K. Bose

This volume includes the correspondence, statements, and speeches of Netaji from 1929 to 1932.
Published by the Netaji Research Bureau in Calcutta in 1989.