Madhavan K. Palat

Madhavan K Palat (born 9 February 1947) is an Indian historian, scholar of modern world, and political commentator.[1][2][3] He is an expert on European and Russian history.[4][5][6] In the course of an academic career extending over nearly four decades, he has played a seminal role in promoting understanding of Russian history, culture, literature, and society in India.[7][8][9]

Biography

Madhavan Kezhkepat Palat was born in a distinguished family from the southern state of Kerala in India. His father, the late Mangat Gopal Menon, belonged to the Indian Civil Service (ICS).[10] After taking his B. A. (Honours) degree in history from the University of Delhi, (St. Stephen's College, Delhi), India, in 1966, Madhavan Palat read history at Christ's College, Cambridge (matriculation 1966), and was admitted to the B. A. degree in 1968. He then went on for graduate studies to St. Antony's College, Oxford, in 1969, where he pursued his research on modern Russian history and was awarded the D.Phil.degree in 1974.[11][12]

In 1974, Madhavan K. Palat joined the faculty of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India, where, in 1989, he was appointed Professor of Russian and European History at the Centre for Historical Studies, a position he held until his voluntary retirement from the university in 2004.[13] He was also Dean, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University (2003–04).[14]

His area of specialisation, Russian and European history, is rare in a country where few historians have ventured out of Indian History.[15][16][17] From 1974 to 2004, he taught non-Indian history and carried out research in that area at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University .[18][19][20]

He was a Visiting Professor of Imperial Russian History at the University of Chicago (2006).[21][22][23] Madhavan Palat was National Fellow, Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla, India 2010-2011.[24][verification needed].From 2012 to 2015, he was also a member of the IIAS Governing Body.[25] Since 2011, he has been the Editor of the Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru. Under his editorship, about 20 volumes of this important source of primary research have already been published. He is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, a think tank based in New Delhi, India.[26]

Madhavan K. Palat has also held several other important positions, both in India and abroad. He is a Trustee of the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund.He is also a member of the National Committee on Commemoration of 125th Birth Anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru.[27][28] In 1991, Madhavan K. Palat was President of the Section on ‘Countries other than India’, Indian History Congress, where he delivered his lecture, Forms of Union: Russian Empires and the Soviet Union. During 1992–94, he was Senior Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, New Delhi, India.

Between 2001 and 2003, he was a member of Eminent Persons Group, Governments of India and Russia, to advise on India–Russia relations. He was also Member, Committee on Indo-Russian Relations, Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi (2002). In 2002–03, Madhavan K Palat was Member, Committee on the National Defence University, Ministry of Defence, New Delhi. He was appointed Honorary Fellow, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata (2008).[29] Madhavan K Palat has been Member, Executive Council, Association of Indian Labour Historians, New Delhi since 1998.[30] From 1987 to 2006, he was Correspondent, Revue Européenne des Migrations internationales, I.N.E.D., Paris.[31] He has been Member, Council of the Association of Russian Philosophy, Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia since 2001. Madhavan Palat is also Associate Member, University of Chicago Centre for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies (CEERES) University of Chicago.[32]

In recent years, he has written and lectured extensively on important historical figures, ideas, and trends.His lecture on Hobsbawm, titled 'The Interesting Ideas of Eric Hobsbawm', delivered at Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML) in 2012,[33] the lecture on Dostoyevsky, titled 'The Grand Inquisitor and the Holy Fool', delivered on the Foundation Day of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) in 2014,[34] the lecture on 'History and Memory', delivered at Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2014,[35] and the one titled ' Geopolitics or the Dominion of the World', delivered at Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML) in March 2015[36] fall in this category and have been published as independent papers.

Books and edited collections 

  a)V. V. Serbinenko, ‘Russian Idea and Prospects for Democracy,’ pp. 2793–2798.
  b)Leonid Shebarshin, ‘Reflections on the KGB in Russia,’ pp 2829–2832.
  c)Leokadia Drobizheva, ‘Russian Ethnic Attitudes in Changing Political Situations,’
          pp. 2833–2836.

Articles

References

  1. ↑ Colonialism, Culture, and Resistance, K.N. Panikkar, Oxford University Press, 2007, p.xi
  2. ↑ Central Eurasian Reader: a biennial journal of critical bibliography and epistemology of Central Eurasian Studies, Volume 1, Stéphane A. Dudoignon, Schwarz, 2008, pp.215–216
  3. ↑ http://www.outlookindia.com/printarticle.aspx?214926 http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?213289
  4. ↑ The Social Sciences in Modern Japan: The Marxian and Modernist Traditions By Andrew E. Barshay, University of California Press,2007, p.260
  5. ↑ Wege zu einer neuen Kulturgeschichte By Rudolf Vierhaus, Roger Chartier, 1995, p.62
  6. ↑ Was bleibt von marxistischen Perspektiven in der Geschichtsforschung, Alf Lüdtke, Wallstein Verlag, 1997, p.4.
  7. ↑ What is Soviet now?: identities, legacies, memories By Thomas Lahusen, Peter H. Solomon, LIT Verlag Münster, 2008, p.99.
  8. ↑ A History of Russia since 1855, Walter Moss, Anthem Press, 2005, p. 205
  9. ↑ http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/back-toussr-mea-culpa/367911/
  10. ↑ The Hindu Metro Plus Chennai – Profiles, The last of the heaven born, 17 September 2009
  11. ↑ Labour Legislation and Reform in Russia, 1905–1914, Madhavan K. Palat, Faculty of Modern History, University of Oxford, 1974, Unpublished Thesis, 820 pages
  12. ↑ Encounter, Volume 38, Congress for Cultural Freedom, Martin Secker and Warburg, 1972, p.96.
  13. ↑ http://www.jnu.ac.in/FacultyStaff/ShowProfile.asp?SendUserName=palat
  14. ↑ http://www.hinduonnet.com/2004/03/28/stories/2004032810000300.htm
  15. ↑ Yeltsin to Putin: What Is the Difference? – Talk by Prof. Madhavan Palat at India International Centre, New Delhi, India, 28 February 2008
  16. ↑ Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) Newsletter, 2004, Volume 3, Issue 2
  17. ↑ http://dcrussianhistory.umwblogs.org/seminar-schedules/
  18. ↑ Moderno Sistema Mundial, el- Tomo 3: Segunda Era de Gran Expansion de Economia-Mundo CA By Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein, Agradecimientos
  19. ↑ Framing Geelani, Hanging Afzal: Patriotism in the Time of Terror, Nandita Haksar, 2007, p. 123
  20. ↑ Madhavan K. Palat, 'Book Review on the Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order, India International Centre Quarterly, Vol. 25, no. 1, Spring 1998, p. 174-75
  21. ↑ http://timeschedules.uchicago.edu/view.php?dept=HIST&term=69
  22. ↑ Directory of History Departments, Historical Organizations, and Historians, American Historical Association, Institutional Services Programme,2005, p.983.
  23. ↑ http://search.uchicago.edu/searchq=madhavan+k+palat&spell=1&site=default_collection&client=default_frontend&output=xml_no_dtd&proxystylesheet=default_frontend&ie=utf8&access=p
  24. ↑ http://www.iias.org/Fellows_national.html
  25. ↑ http://www.iias.org/content/governing-body
  26. ↑ http://www.ipcs.org/staff_details.php?member_id=22
  27. ↑ http://www.telegraphindia.com/1141019/jsp/frontpage/story_18942143.jsp#.VS9WI_6JjIU
  28. ↑ http://indianexpress.com/article/india/politics/upa-nehru-vs-nda-nehru-the-battle-begins/
  29. ↑ http://makaias.gov.in/contact.html
  30. ↑ http://www.indialabourarchives.org/ailh.htm http://www.indialabourarchives.org/publications/Dipesh%20Chakrabarty.htm
  31. ↑ Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales, Numéro ouvert, vol. 7 – no1 | 1991, Éditorial, Yves CHARBIT, Madhavan PALAT
  32. ↑ http://ceeres.uchicago.edu/
  33. ↑ http://nehrumemorial.nic.in/en/research-publications/occasional-papers.html?showall=&start=1
  34. ↑ http://ichr.ac.in/seminars_lecturers.html
  35. ↑ http://www.jnu.ac.in/Conference/JNU-DeakinCONFPROGRAMME.docx
  36. ↑ http://nehrumemorial.nic.in/images/pdf/miscellaneous_pdfs/2015_Academic_Events_Booklet.pdf

External links

(Extract from Professor Madhavan K. Palat's book, Social Identities in Revolutionary Russia)

(Madhavan Palat's comments on the eminent Indian historian, Partha Sarthi Gupta (1934–1999)