| ‘A gripping piece of forensic exploration V N Datta cuts through the theories to reveal what really happened in Amritsar on that frightful day – and why. A brave and important book’ WALTER REID A richly researched and lucidly written account of an event that changed the history of India and the world ’ RAMACHANDRA GUHA About the book– Based on a meticulous exploration of primary sources and oral testimonies of the survivors and victims’ of 1919, V.N. Datta crafts a unique and first-hand narrative of the most violent event and its legacy in the history of modern India and provides a complex picture of the city of Amritsar, where he grew up. Jallianwala Bagh is a rigorous account of the causes, nature and impact of the carnage that shook the nation and irreparably wounded its collective consciousness. A path-breaking study that moves the focus away from the frames of imperialism and nationalism, Datta brings a local and an altogether different scholarly perspective on imperial racial and military violence in the twentieth century. This highly readable work in its revised edition is of tremendous historical and contemporary value. About the Author V.N. Datta, a distinguished historian, is emeritus professor of modern history, Kurukshetra University and formerly general president of the Indian History Congress, resident fellow of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge and visiting professor to a number of universities including Moscow, Leningrad and Berlin. Among his much acclaimed publications are The Tribune: A Witness to History; Jallianwalla Bagh (translated into Hindi and Punjabi); New Light on Punjab Disturbances, Vols I and II; Madan Lal Dhingra and the Revolutionary Movement; Gandhi and Bhagat Singh (translated into Tamil); Sati: A Historical, Social and Philosophical Enquiry into the Hindu Rite of Widow-Burning; Maulana Azad and Maulana Azad and Sarmad. He regularly contributes to academic journals and popular press and is currently writing a book on the ‘History of Historiography’.Author of Forming an Identity: A Social History of the Jats and Violence, Martyrdom and Partition: A Daughter’s Testimony, Nonica Datta teaches history at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.  |
