Department of History

About the Department

The Department of History came into being in 1979 and has evolved over time into a premier centre of Historical research and learning in India. The Department offers a basket of varied and challenging courses for its undergraduate (integrated) and graduate programmes. It has constantly espoused a double–barreled pedagogic effort in which core courses cutting across all historical periodizations are offered for enhancing a general disciplinary proficiency in Indian history, alongside a broad overview of world history. A large clutch of highly specialized, theme–oriented courses, on the other hand, offer students the opportunity to choose/pursue their own specializations/research interests.

The Department is endowed with outstanding faculty members, committed to innovative pedagogic practices and with cutting-edge research interests in History. As meticulous, inventive and engaging supervisors, they enable the research scholars to bring out the best in their individual research work. The encouraging learning environment, rigorous coursework and reputed faculty ensures a steady flow of young scholars from across the country year after year to the Department. The students are taught to locate contemporary issues within specific historical contexts to grasp the nature of the present and to envision a future informed by the past. Such an intellectual orientation, the Department hopes, will provide students with historically informed capacities for thoughtful judgment and decision-making in their everyday lives as well. The Department has been consistently widening its research agenda in line with the emergent themes and paradigms, with a focus largely on India and with a growing interdisciplinary orientation.