This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Saikia, A. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

History, buranjis and nation

Suryya Kumar Bhuyan's histories in twentieth-century Assam

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati

How was history read and written in early twentieth-century Assam? Was it strikingly different from contemporary Indian practices? This article investigates these issues while carrying out a biographical reconstruction of Assamese historian Suryya Kumar Bhuyan. Bhuyan’s ambivalence in choosing a paradigm for historical pursuit is clear. For instance, while he endeavoured to escape from the contemporary historical practices based on rationalist-positivist model, he also continued to use two parallel forms of understanding of past: history and literature.

While he meticulously invested his energy in the building of a modern archival repository of sources, he was equally interested in addressing the needs of two competing consumers of the past: his peers and the Assamese readers. This article talks about how Bhuyan, trained both in literature and historical studies, published extensively in both English and Assamese, wrote professional and popular history, built up a resourceful archive, and stood defiantly amidst the competing Western and Assamese practices of recounting the past.

Indian Economic & Social History Review, Vol. 45, No. 4, 473-507 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/001946460804500401


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?