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Aparna Vaidik

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Aparna Vaidik
Born22 September
Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India
OccupationHistorian, Professor, Author, Journalist
NationalityIndian
Period2000 – present
SubjectIndian history, Indian politics, World history and politics
Website
www.ashoka.edu.in/welcome/faculty#!/aparna-vaidik-17

Aparna Vaidik (born 22 September) is an Indian historian, author, and educator. Her latest book My Son’s Inheritance: A Secret History of Blood Justice and Lynchings in India, published in January 2020, challenges India's prevailing narrative as an inherently peaceful culture.[1] Since 2016 she has been part of the civil society protests against lynchings and right-wing government policies.

Early life

She was born in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.[2] She is the daughter of an academic, professor Vedwati Vaidik, and a prominent journalist/political commentator, Ved Pratap Vaidik.[3]

Writing

Aparna Vaidik's debut book, Imperial Andamans: Colonial Encounter and Island History, was published as part of the Cambridge Imperial and Postcolonial Studies Series of Palgrave Macmillan when she was a historian at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.[4] It examines the penal history of the Andaman Islands.[5] Her second book, My Son’s Inheritance: A Secret History of Blood Justice and Lynchings in India, has drawn international attention.[6] [7] [8] [9] Her next book, Waiting for Swaraj: Inner Lives of Indian Revolutionaries was published by Cambridge University Press in 2021. Another book on a famous trial of the Indian revolutionaries in during British India, Revolutionaries on Trial: Sedition, Betrayal and Martyrdom, was published by Aleph in 2022.

Academic career as a historian

Vaidik earned a bachelor's degree in history from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, summa cum laude. She won the Westcott Memorial Prize, E. R. Kapadia Memorial Prize, Shankar Prasad Memorial Gold Medal, and the Dip Chand Memorial Prize for distinguished work in History. At the University of Cambridge she also studied history for a master's degree, with a thesis on Lord Curzon’s cultural policy that won the Dorothy Foster Sturman Prize. Her PhD in History is from Jawaharlal Nehru University's Centre for Historical Studies. She taught for several years in the University of Delhi and at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, before returning to India to accept a position as the founding faculty member of the history department and programme at Ashoka University. The Indian Council for Historical Research has supported her research with grants, as have Georgetown University, the Charles Wallace Trust, and the Andrew Mellon Foundation.

Philanthropy and public service

Literacy, libraries, and a free, world-class education for all make up an important part of Vadik's public life. Vaidik is the Trustee President of the Rameshwardass Dharmarth Trust that was set up by her maternal grandfather in 1967. The Trust is known widely for its cultural and educational activities and its building ‘Dharam Bhavan’ is local landmark. The Trust has set up a community library for children with The Community Library Project.[10]

Selected works

Books

  • Imperial Andamans: Colonial Encounter and Island History, Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series of Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.[11]
  • My Son’s Inheritance: A Secret History of Blood Justice and Lynchings in India, Aleph, 2020.[12]
  • Waiting for Swaraj: Inner Lives of Indian Revolutionaries, Cambridge University Press, 2021.
  • Revolutionaries on Trial: Sedition, Betrayal and Martyrdom, Aleph, forthcoming 2023.

Journal articles

  • "Rewriting World History in the Classroom: Pedagogical Dispatches from India", Journal of Asian World History (co-authored with Gwen Kelly). 2019.
  • "History of a Renegade Revolutionary: Revolutionism and Betrayal in British India", Postcolonial Studies, 2013.
  • "Settling the Convict: Matrimony and Family in the Andamans", Studies in History, JNU, 2006.

References

  1. ^ Chandra, Abhimanyu (4 October 2020). "Privilege keeps many from seeing the violence in India: Historian Aparna Vaidik". The Caravan (India).
  2. ^ Zehmisch, Philipp (2018). Mini-India: The Politics of Migration and Subalternity in the Andaman Islands. New Delhi, India: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199091294.
  3. ^ Vaidik, Aparna (2010). Imperial Andamans: Colonial Encounter and Island History. London: Palgrave MacMillan UK, Cambridge University Press. p. XVII. ISBN 9780230274884.
  4. ^ Murphy, Anne; Mahn, Churnjeet (2017). Partition and the Practice of Memory. New York: Springer International Publishing. p. 67. ISBN 9783319645162.
  5. ^ Anderson, Clare; Mazumdar, Madhumita; Pandya, Vishvajit (11 February 2016). New Histories of the Andaman Islands: Landscape, Place and Identity in the Bay of Bengal, 1790–2012. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780429774690.
  6. ^ "Lynching reveals India's long history of violence, belying the idea of a non-violent country". Digital article. The Scroll (India). 3 February 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  7. ^ "Lynching in India's past: This book shows public violence is ingrained in the history of the land". Digital article. The Scroll (India). 28 March 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  8. ^ "Books of the week: From The Deoliwallahs to Aparna Vaidik's history of lynching in India, our picks". Digital article. Firstpost (India). 16 February 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  9. ^ "Thank the printing press for making the cow into a Hindu gaumata". Digital article. ThePrint (India). 15 February 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  10. ^ Koshy, Mridula (June 2017). "Open Books: Why India Needs a Library Movement". The Caravan (India). 9 (6): 76.
  11. ^ Vaidik, Aparna (2010). Imperial Andamans: Colonial Encounter and Island History. London, UK: Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series, Palgrave MacMillan.
  12. ^ "Dr. Aparna Vaidik". The Times of India. 5 November 2019.
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