Hari Sen

Indian historian (1955–2024)

Hari Sen

Born| (1955-08-15)15 August 1955

Sundar Nagar, Himachal Pradesh, India

Died| 30 March 2024(2024-03-30) (aged 68)

New Delhi, India

Citizenship| Indian
Alma mater|

* St. Columba's School, Delhi
* St. Stephen's College, Delhi
* Delhi University

Employer(s)| Ramjas College, Delhi University
Known for| Teaching history at Delhi University
Spouse| Prof. Radhika Chopra
Relatives| Lalit Sen (father)
Laxman Singh (maternal grandfather)
Pran Chopra (father-in-law)
Family| The royal family of Suket State

Hari Sen (15 August 1955 – 30 March 2024) was an Indian academic historian from Himachal Pradesh. He taught history at Delhi University and conducted research on the Bhils of colonial Rajasthan. He was also the titular Raja of the erstwhile princely state of Suket.

## Personal life[edit]

Hari Sen was born in 1955 in the royal family of Suket, an erstwhile 11-gun salute princely state whose capital used to be the present-day town of Sundar Nagar in Himachal Pradesh.[1] Sen's father was Lalit Sen (1932–1985) – a two-time member of parliament from the Mandi constituency – and his paternal grandfather was Raja Lakshman Sen Bahadur (1895–1970), the last ruling king of Suket. Sen's mother was Krishna Kumari, daughter of Maharawal Sir Lakshman Singh (the last ruling king of Dungarpur) from his second wife. Sen nominally succeeded to the 'gaddi' (throne) of Suket on 18 October 1985, as the 52nd 'Raja Saheb' of Suket. His nominal title was His Highness Raja Hari Sen Bahadur of Suket. Sen was married to Dr. Radhika Chopra, a renowned Indian sociologist and the daughter of the journalist Pran Chopra.[2][3][4]

Sen was the trustee and president of the Maharaja Lakshman Sen Memorial College in Sundar Nagar.[5]

Sen, who was a friend of the writer Amitav Ghosh,[6] features prominently in Ghosh's often-reprinted essay about the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, 'The Ghosts of Mrs Gandhi'.[7][8][9][10][11]

Sen died in New Delhi on 30 March 2024, at the age of 68.[12][13]

## Academic career[edit]

### Education[edit]

Sen did his schooling from St. Columba's School, Delhi, his MA in history from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University, and PhD from the Department of History, Delhi University.[3] His PhD dissertation was titled Popular Protest in Mewar in the Late-Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth Centuries (unpublished, 1996).[14][15]

### Teaching[edit]

Sen taught history at Ramjas College, Delhi University, from October 1991 till his retirement in August 2020.[16][17][18] He was widely known as a teacher of history at Delhi University.[6][19][20] He has been mentioned as an influence in the works of several historians and other scholars of South Asia, including Ramchandra Guha (2000),[21] Prakash Kumar (2012),[22] Monika Saxena (2018),[23] Pankaj Jha (2018),[24] Radhika Chopra (2018),[25] and Nikhil Menon (2022).[26]

## Bibliography[edit]

### Book chapters[edit]

* Sen, Hari. "The Bhil rebellion of 1881". In Issues in Modern Indian History: for Sumit Sarkar. Popular Prakashan, 2000.[27]
* Sen, Hari. "The Bhils in Colonial Mewar." In Negotiating India’s Past: Essays in Memory of Partha Sarathi Gupta. Tulika Books, 2003.[28]
* Sen, Hari. "The Maharana and the Bhils: The ‘Eki’ movement in Mewar, 1921–22." In India's Princely States, pp. 157-172. Routledge, 2007.[29]

## References[edit]

1. ^ Brentnall, Mark (2004). The Princely and Noble Families of the Former Indian Empire: Himachal Pradesh. Indus Publishing. p. 94\. ISBN 978-81-7387-163-4.
2. ^ Rathore, Abhinay (15 August 1955). "Suket (Princely State)". Rajput Provinces of India. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
3. ^ a b Brentnall, Mark (2004). The Princely and Noble Families of the Former Indian Empire: Himachal Pradesh. Indus Publishing. p. 98\. ISBN 978-81-7387-163-4.
4. ^ Joshi, Sriniwas (15 September 2014). "Once again in Sundernagar". www.tribuneindia.com. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
5. ^ "MLSM College | Sundernagar, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh". www.mlsmc.ac.in. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
6. ^ a b "Very few are listening: Writer Amitav Ghosh on climate crisis - Times of India". The Times of India. 16 January 2020. Retrieved 9 December 2022.
7. ^ Ghosh, Amitav (10 July 1995). "THE GHOSTS OF MRS. GANDHI". The New Yorker. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
8. ^ Ghosh, Amitav (2002). The Imam and the Indian: Prose Pieces. Orient Blackswan. pp. 46–63. ISBN 978-81-7530-047-7.
9. ^ Ghosh, Amitav (2005). "Ghosts of Mrs Gandhi". The Individual and Society. Pearson Education India. pp. 194–206. ISBN 978-81-317-0417-2.
10. ^ Ghosh, Amitav (20 December 2018). "The ghosts of Mrs Gandhi: Amitav Ghosh looks back at the 1984 massacre of Sikhs". Scroll.in. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
11. ^ Ghosh, Amitav (3 February 2022). "The Ghosts Of Mrs Gandhi". Outlook. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
12. ^ पूर्व सुकेत रियासत के राजा हरि सेन का दिल्ली में लंबी बीमारी के बाद निधन (in Hindi)
13. ^ Simeon, Dilip (9 April 2024). "R.I.P. Hari Sen (1955-2024). Beloved teacher and outstanding human being". After the truth-shower. Retrieved 21 April 2024.
14. ^ Hardiman, David (2006). "Knowledge of the Bhils and their Systems of Healing" (PDF). Retrieved 8 December 2022.
15. ^ Hardiman, David (1 March 2021). Noncooperation in India: Nonviolent Strategy and Protest, 1920-22. Oxford University Press. p. 327\. ISBN 978-0-19-758056-1.
16. ^ "Seniority List of Teachers, Ramjas College" (PDF). 26 September 2019.
17. ^ Joshi, Aditya (18 April 2016). "14 Members Of Royal Families Who Have Jobs Just Like The Rest Of Us". ScoopWhoop. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
18. ^ Chakravarti, Balaram (1999). The Sens of Himachal: Their Pan-Indian Heritage. Self Employment Bureau (Publications).
19. ^ Deshpande, Sudhanva (25 February 2017). "Ramjas has a history of violence – and of standing up to it: An ex-student recalls his college days". Scroll.in. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
20. ^ Gangopadhyay, Uttara. "Vintage Assam: Chronicles Of A Bygone Era". Retrieved 8 December 2022.
21. ^ Guha, Ramachandra (2 February 2000). The Unquiet Woods: Ecological Change and Peasant Resistance in the Himalaya. University of California Press. pp. xviii. ISBN 978-0-520-22235-9.
22. ^ Kumar, Prakash (27 August 2012). Indigo Plantations and Science in Colonial India. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-02325-3.
23. ^ Saxena, Monika (3 September 2018). Women and the Puranic Tradition in India. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-429-82639-9.
24. ^ Jha, Pankaj (20 November 2018). A Political History of Literature: Vidyapati and the Fifteenth Century. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-909535-3.
25. ^ Chopra, Radhika (15 August 2018). Amritsar 1984: A City Remembers. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. xii. ISBN 978-1-4985-7106-7.
26. ^ Menon, Nikhil, ed. (2022), "Acknowledgements", Planning Democracy: Modern India's Quest for Development, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. x–xiv, ISBN 978-1-316-51733-8, retrieved 8 December 2022
27. ^ Pati, Biswamoy (2000). Issues in Modern Indian History: For Sumit Sarkar. Popular Prakashan. ISBN 978-81-7154-658-9.
28. ^ Pati, Biswamoy; Sahu, Bhairabi Prasad; Venkatasubramanian, T. K. (2003). Negotiating India's Past: Essays in Memory of Partha Sarathi Gupta. Tulika Books. ISBN 978-81-85229-81-2.
29. ^ Ernst, Waltraud; Pati, Biswamoy (18 October 2007). India's Princely States: People, Princes and Colonialism. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-11987-5.