Sumit Guha

Professor of History

Ph.D., University of Cambridge, 1981

M.A., Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, 1976

B.A. (Hons.), St. Stephen's College, University of Delhi 1974

At Rutgers Since 2004

RESEARCH INTERESTS

I am increasingly interested in the political, cultural and linguistic processes by which identities take historical shape. My primary research area is western and central India. In 2008 I was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for research in this area and am currently on leave to work on book provisionally titled "Governing Caste: Identity and Power in South Asia c.1600-1900". Some of my recent work is listed below. Off-prints available on request.

COURSES REGULARLY TAUGHT

• 508:230 South Asian History: 600 BCE to 1950 CE
• 508:336 Contemporary South Asia 1947-2002
• 508:231 South Asian Civilization: The first five millennia
• 506:402 (Seminar) War of Independence or Sepoy Mutiny ? The 1857 uprising in India

PUBLICATIONS

• 'Bad Language and Good Language: Lexical awareness in the cultural politics of Peninsular India, c.1300-1800' in Sheldon Pollock ed. Forms of Knowledge in Early Modern South Asia Raleigh: Duke University Press, forthcoming 2010
• 'The Frontiers of Memory: What the Marathas remembered of Vijayanagara' Modern Asian Studies, 43, 1 (2009), 269-288
• 'Margi, Desi and Yavani: High language and ethnic speech in Maharashtra' in H. Kotani ed. Marga: Ways to Liberation, Empowerment, and Social Change in Maharashtra Delhi: Manohar Publishers 2008, 129-146
• 'Genetic change and colonial cotton improvement in 19th and 20th century India' in Ranjan Chakrabarti ed. Situating Environmental History Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2007, 307-322
• 'Speaking Historically: The changing voices of historical narration in Western India, 1400-1900' American Historical Review, 109, 4 (October 2004 ), 1084-1103
• "Literary Tropes and Historical Settings: A study from Southern India" in Rajat Datta ed. Rethinking a Millennium: India from the Eighth to the Eighteenth Centuries Delhi: Aakar Books 2008
• 'Transitions and Translations: Regional Power and Vernacular Identity in the Dakhan, c.1500-1800' Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 24, 2 (2004), 23-31
• 'The Family Feud as a Political Resource in 18th Century India' in Indrani Chatterjee ed. Unfamiliar Relations: Family and History in South Asia, New Brunswick : Rutgers University Press, 2004, 73-96
• 'Civilisations, Markets and Services: Village Servants in India from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries', The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 41,1 (2004) 73-94

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

• Member, Editorial Board, India Review
• Member, Editorial Board, Medieval History Journal
• Review editor, H-ASIA (www.H-NET.msu.edu)
• Association for Asian Studies
• American Historical Association