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Meenakshi Jain is an Indian political scientist and historian. A scholar on relations between caste and politics, she is currently an associate professor of history at Gargi College, Delhi. In 2014, she was nominated as a member of the Indian Council of Historical Research by the Indian government. In 2020, she was conferred with the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award, for her work in the field of literature and education.

Jain wrote Sati: Evangelicals, Baptist Missionaries, and the Changing Colonial Discourse on the practice of Sati in colonial India and had also authored a history textbook (Medieval India), which incurred significant scholarly criticism but went on to replace a previous textbook co-authored by Romila Thapar, Satish Chandra et al.

Early life and education

Meenakshi Jain is the daughter of journalist Girilal Jain, a former editor of The Times of India. She received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Delhi. Her thesis on the social base and relations between caste and politics was published in 1991.

Career

Jain is an associate professor of history at Gargi College, affiliated to the University of Delhi. In December 2014, she was nominated as a member of the Indian Council of Historical Research by the Indian government.

Reception

Others

Sociologist Nandini Sundar noted that the exactions of the Sultanate rulers and the Mughals were portrayed from an anti-Hindu perspective in Jain's Medieval India whilst their legacy contributions to the society, culture and polity were ignored. She saw this as part of a broader pattern of state-induced historical negationism to suit the need of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. John Stratton Hawley of Columbia University found the book going against the grain in its treatment of the Bhakti movement in that she presented the movement as a response to Shankaracharya's monism rather than to the egalitarian message of Islam.

Professor Pralay Kanungo, of Jawaharlal Nehru University, noted Jain's Rama and Ayodhya as a subtle and sophisticated work that can't be outright dismissed and managed to stand apart, when contrasted with the earlier propaganda attempts by Hindutva historians. He noted that a majority of the book was devoted to attacking left-leaning anti-Hindutva historians and by cherry-picking random content from random sources coupled with stray extrapolations, she had managed to produce a useful compilation but not an authentic history. Kanungo also pointed out other significant errors including her rejecting of the established scholarly consensus about the existence of multiple versions of Ramayanas et al. He also deemed Jain's Medieval India to be the sole face-saving volume in the entire NCERT history series, that was published by the newly elected NDA government. M. V. Kamath admired of the work as a fair history, which successfully challenged the ignorance espoused by "secular intellectuals" and "Jawaharlal Nehru University historians" on the locus.

A review over the Indian Historical Review praised Sati: Evangelicals, Baptist Missionaries, and the Changing Colonial Discourse as a well-researched and cogent magnum opus, that was thoroughly packed with facts, analysis and sources. Another review over Studies in World Christianity was positive as well.

Professor Abhinav Prakash, of the University of Delhi, noted Flight of Deities and Rebirth of Temples: Episodes from Indian History to be a brilliant work.

Works

Books

• Congress Party, 1967-77: Role of Caste in Indian Politics (Vikas, 1991), ISBN 0706953193.
• Medieval India: A Textbook for Class XI (NCERT, 2002), ISBN 8174501711.
• Rajah-Moonje Pact: Documents On A Forgotten Chapter Of Indian History (with Devendra Svarupa, Low Price Publishers, 2007), ISBN 8184540787.
• Parallel Pathways: Essays on Hindu-Muslim Relations, 1707-1857 (Konark Publishers, 2010), ISBN 9788122007831.
• The India They Saw (co-edited with Sandhya Jain, 4 Volumes, Prabhat Prakashan), ISBN 8184301065, ISBN 8184301073, ISBN 8184301081, ISBN 818430109X.
• Rama and Ayodhya (Aryan Books International, 2013), ISBN 8173054517.
• Sati: Evangelicals, Baptist Missionaries, and the Changing Colonial Discourse (Aryan Books International, 2016), ISBN 8173055521
• The Battle for Rama: Case of the Temple at Ayodhya (Aryan Books International, 2017), ISBN 8173055793.
• "Flight of Deities and Rebirth of Temples: Episodes from Indian History" (Aryan Books International, 2019), ISBN 8173056196.

Selected articles

• "Congress 1967: Strategies of Mobilisation in D. A. Low" in The Indian National Congress Centenary Hindsights, 1988.
• "Backward Castes and Social Change in U. P. and Bihar" in Srinivas, Caste: Its 20th Century Avatar (2000).
• A review of Romila Thapar's Somanatha: Many Voices of a History over The Pioneer (India).

See also

• Jadunath Sarkar
• R. C. Majumdar

References

1. ^ Sundar, Nandini (2004). "Teaching to Hate: RSS' Pedagogical Programme". Economic and Political Weekly. 39 (16): 1605–1612. doi:10.1057/9781403980137_9. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 4414900.
2. ^ Membership of the Indian Council of Historical Research
3. The Hindu Net Desk (26 January 2020). "Full list of 2020 Padma awardees". The Hindu.
4. "Being proud of India's Hindu past is great, but worry about the present too". The Financial Express.
5. Khushwant Singh, Biased view (Book review of The Hindu Phenomenon), India Today, 31 August 1994.
6. ^ Srinivas, M. N. (14 October 2000). Caste: Its 20Th Century Avatar. Penguin UK. p. 313. ISBN 9789351187837.
7. "Members of the Council" (PDF). INDIAN COUNCIL OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH.
8. Hawley, John Stratton (2015). "The Bhakti Movement and Its Discontents". A storm of songs. India and the idea of the Bhakti Movement. Harvard University Press. pp. 38–40. doi:10.4159/9780674425262. ISBN 9780674187467. JSTOR j.ctt1c84d6f. OCLC 917361614.
9. ^ "Alternative Narratives". The Book Review. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
10. "Rama & Ayodhya". Free Press Journal. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
11. Singh, Swadesh (1 June 2017). "Book Review: Meenakshi Jain, Sati: Evangelicals, Baptist Missionaries, and the Changing Colonial Discourse". Indian Historical Review. 44 (1): 151–153. doi:10.1177/0376983617694691. ISSN 0376-9836. S2CID 148735989.
12. Mallampalli, Chandra (August 2018). "Bok review". Studies in World Christianity. 24 (2): 179–180. doi:10.3366/swc.2018.0222. ISSN 1354-9901.
13. "Where Did the Temples Go?". Open The Magazine. 15 November 2019. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
14. Meenakshi Jain (21 March 2004). "Review of Romila Thapar's "Somanatha, The Many Voices of a History"". The Pioneer. Archived from the original on 18 December 2014. Retrieved 15 December 2014.

• 20th-century Indian historians
• Historians of India
• Hindu revivalist writers
• Delhi University alumni
• Living people
• Analysts of Ayodhya dispute
• 20th-century Indian women scientists
• 20th-century Indian scientists
• Indian women science writers
• Indian political writers
• Writers from Delhi
• 20th-century Indian women writers
• 20th-century Indian writers
• Women writers from Delhi
• Recipients of the Padma Shri in literature & education