Rajan Gurukkal (born 16 May 1948) is a leading Indian social scientist,[1] historian, professor and writer.[2] He has written many books and articles on different topics.[2] He has also received awards for his works.[2]
He was a visiting faculty briefly at Humboldt University(1987) and at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociale, Paris (2006) and lectured at several Universities in the country as well as abroad such as Humboldt, Leipzig, Berlin, Heidelberg, Tübingen and Ruhr (Germany); EHESS, Paris; and
CIRAD, Montpellier (France); Toronto and Kingston (Canada); Manchester, Glasgow, Reading, Westminster and SOAS (UK); Shanghai (China); Tokyo, Taisho
and Toyo Bunko (Japan); Central European University, Budapest (Hungary). He has worked on different and several important posts such as the dean of faculty, member of the academic council, senate and syndicate of a few universities and social science research institutes and others. Former Vice-Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, India.[2][5] He was Sundararajan Visiting Professor at the Centre for Contemporary Studies, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore during 2012-2016. [6]
He currently serves as the Vice-Chairman of the Kerala State Higher Education Council.
Careeredit
Gurukkal began his career as a junior lecturer at Union Christian College, Aluva in 1972 as soon as he finished his postgraduation.[4] After completing his doctoral education, he joined as the teaching faculty at the Centre for Historical Studies of Jawaharlal Nehru University for some time before taking up the chair of Professor and Director, School of Social Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala in 1988.[7] He took up the position at Mahatma Gandhi University upon the invitation of noted Kannada writer and the then University Vice-Chancellor U. R. Ananthamurthy.[citation needed]
Literary careeredit
He has written five books in Malayalam and six books in English, on the topic of Socio-economic, cultural history of Kerala, structural anthropology, historical sociology, and human ecology of the Southern Western Ghats. He has about 150 research articles in the national and international Journals besides many articles in various magazines and newspapers on current issues.[2]
Awardsedit
Teacher Fellowship. Indian Council of Historical Research. 1977[2]
National Teacher Fellowship. University Grants Commission. 1980[2]
Oravakkal Mathen Memorial Best Academician Award. 1986[2]
Braj Dev Prasad Memorial Prize for the best book on ancient Indian history, Rethinking Classical Indo-Roman Trade, OUP (2016)
Select bibliographyedit
Aryanisation of South India Dravidian Encyclopaedia, Trivandrum, 1983[2]
From the Royalty of Icons to the Divinity of Royalty: Aspects of Vaisnava Icons and Kingship in South India in R. Parimoo ed. Vaisnavism and Indian Art, Baroda, 1984.[2]
State and Society in South India 200 B.C to 300 A.D, History of India: Earliest Times to 800 A.D Indira Gandhi Open University. New Delhi. 1990.[2]
Early Social Formation of South India and Its Transitional Processes, in H.V. Sreenivasa Murthy, B. Surendra Rao, Kesavan Veluthat and S.A.Bari eds.[2]
Formation of Caste Society in Kerala : Historical Antecedents in K.L.Sharma ed. Caste and Class in Indian States, Delhi, 1994[2]
Towards a New Discourse: Discursive Processes in Early South India, in R. Champakalakshmi and S. Gopal (Eds.) [2]
Ideology, Essays in Honour of Romila Thapar, New Delhi, 1996.[2]
Recent Historiographic Dimensions on Early South Indian Socio-economics, in K.K.N.Kurup ed. New Dimensions in South Indian History[2]
Historical Materialism and History, in T.R. Venugopalan Ed. History and Theory, Government College Publications, Thrissur[2]
Social Formation in Iron Age South India, K. Surendra Rao and Kesavan Veluthat (Eds) Sheik Ali Felicitation Volume, Mangalore 2000.[2]
(and about 150 research articles in various national and international journals).
Monographs & Books
Levi-Strauss (Monograph in Malayalam), Viswadarsana publications, Trissur, 1986.[2]
History of Kerala, (book in Malayalam, jointly done with Raghava Varier) Vallathol Vidyapitham, Edappal, 1991.[2]
The Kerala Temple and the Early Medieval Agrarian System, Vallathol Vidyapitham, Edappal, 1992.[2]
Myth and Society (book in Malayalam, jointly done with Raghava Varier, Jalakam Publishers, Perambra, Kozhikode. 1994[2]
Cultural History of Kerala, vol. I. Department of Cultural Publications, Thiruvananthapuram, 1999.[2]
Kerala Charithram 2 Vols (Book in Malayalam), jointly done with Raghava Varier) Vallathol Vidyapitham, 2012
Forest Landscapes of the Southern Western Ghats, India jointly edited with B. Ramesh, French Institute, Pondicherry, 2007[2]
Social Formations of Early South India, OUP, 2009.[2]
Myth Charithram Samuham (book in Malayalam), SPCS, 2013
Suice Trends in Kerala: Causes and Allevaiations, Monograph, Stat Planning Board, 2010[2]
Rethinking Classical Indo-Roman Trade: Political Economy of Eastern Mediterranean Exchange Relations, OUP 2016
History and Theory of Knowledge Production: An Introductory Outline, OUP 2018
History of Kerala: Pre-historic to the Present, jointly done with Raghava Varier, Orient Blackswan, 2018
^"History beyond the discipline : Abstracts & bibliographical analysis of the works of Prof. Rajan Gurukkal". E-Lis.Org. Archived from the original on 15 April 2013. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaabac"Vice-Chancellor". Mahatma Gandhi University.ac.in. Archived from the original on 15 September 2012. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
^M. G. Radhakrishnan (30 November 1998). "ICHR member lashes out at panel of editors chosen to write cultural history of Kerala". India Today. Archived from the original on 1 March 2019. Retrieved 1 March 2019.
^ ab"UC College Department of History". uccollege.edu.in. Archived from the original on 11 December 2013. Retrieved 8 December 2013.
^"Rajan Gurukkal is new VC of MGU". The Hindu. 13 November 2008. Archived from the original on 15 December 2013. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
^"Centre for Contemporary Studies". CCS-IISc. Archived from the original on 5 July 2011. Retrieved 9 December 2013.
^"Rajan Gurukkal to take over as MGU VC on Monday". The New Indian Express. Archived from the original on 18 December 2013. Retrieved 8 December 2013.
External linksedit
Scholars come out in support of Professor Rajan Gurukkal