Department of History

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://ir.nbu.ac.in/handle/123456789/3711

The Department of History was established in the year 1964, just two years after the foundation of this University. The history of this department is indeed decked with the contribution of many academicians, teachers, research scholars, students, non-teaching members, and others. In 1965, with the initiative of Professor Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya, the then Head of the Department, a University level museum, primarily intended for collecting, preserving, and exhibiting objects of Indian art and antiquity, was founded and named after Akshaya Kumar Maitreya, the famous historian of the colonial period. It is one of the very few History departments of our state which in its syllabus has well-delineated specializations pertaining to the ancient, medieval, modern and contemporary periods. For more than five decades, this department has produced able students, researchers, teachers, and a number of academicians who have received acclamation from every nook and corner of the country. Now the department offers Post Graduate, M.Phil. and Ph.D. courses, besides, giving NET/SET coaching, remedial classes. The department also conducts Study Tour every year for the fourth semester Post Graduate students. It also received various seminar and research grants from UGC, ICSSR, etc. time to time. Significantly, it publishes a peer-reviewed and UGC approved journal, known as Karatoya. The Department has organized a number of special lecture programmes by eminent historians and academicians. From the year 2019, the department has also initiated a monthly Faculty Lecture Programme with a view of sharing the research orientations of the in-house faculty members.

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Start date: 2011Subject: search.filters.subject.Darjeeling

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Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Locating the Workers ‘Coolies’ in the Tea Plantations of Colonial Darjeeling: A Historical Retrospect
    (University of North Bengal, 2020-03) Subba, Salim
    The labourers are the pillars of every industry. In fact, tea plantation is a labour-intensive industry in which, most of the works is done manually by the labourers. At the same time, it largely depends on cheap labour procured from the migrant population, however, such process entails structural transformations in the economy and society enabling the evolution of waged labour culture guided by the capitalist industrial model. Such arrangements facilitate the creation of a class who works in the plantation in lieu of wage i.e., the coolies. The coolies in general sense, are a well-researched topic in academia. However, tea plantation workers of Darjeeling with different anecdotal experiences cannot be homogenised with those of other plantation industries and the concerned topic requires separate analysis. Thus, this paper intends to trace the historical processes in the making of coolies in tea plantations and their consequences of Darjeeling using different methodological tools.
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    In Search Of A ‘New Home’: Anglo-Indians In The Darjeeling Hills, 1900-1947
    (University of North Bengal, 2019-03) Mondal, Amrita
    In the second half of the nineteenth century, most Anglo-Indian, being a Kolkata based community in Bengal, started to move out of the city in search of new employment opportunities. Some of their destinations were the newly established tea gardens of Darjeeling hills and Assam. Mostly they were appointed as managers in the tea estates. The Anglo-Indian community, not being accepted by both the British or Indian society, started to reimagine their identity while settling down in the hills. However, education of their children was turned into a severe problem for them. Some of the Christian missions came forward and opened boarding schools cum ‘home’ for the Anglo-Indian children in the Darjeeling hills. Later these mission schools also became a shelter for the orphan Anglo-Indian children of Kolkata and played an important role in their identity formation. The paper highlights whether these initiatives could able to give a new future to the Anglo-Indian community and if the Anglo-Indian community could able to accept Darjeeling Hills as their ‘new home’. Further, the paper also discusses other nuances, like how did the indigenous people of the hills and the British Raj look at this identity formation, and what kind of new developments started in the hills with the coming of the Anglo-Indians. The paper is based on the archival sources, like newspapers, education, finance and home department report, missionary documents and memoirs.
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    Crime, Criminality and Punishment in Colonial Darjeeling District
    (University of North Bengal, 2017-03) Bhattacharya, Dahlia
    Crime is behaviour against the rules of the society by which it achieves the status of crime and individual is treated as criminal. In the pre-colonial period the concept of crime and criminality existed in an elaborate form in texts and scriptures. But the legal perception of crime and criminality in the British period is essentially a colonial construction. They adopted a new method of identifying crime and criminality and of punishment in colonial India. In this article the crimes and criminality in Darjeeling and the methods of imprisonment is highlighted.
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    History of Buddhism: Its Advent and Spread in Darjeeling Hills
    (University of North Bengal, 2017-03) Lama, Sudash; Lepcha, Gyamit
    The religious blending of North Bengal and the Himalayan countries held themselves together from the seventh century. In Tibet Buddhism developed into a state religion after the days of Guru Padmasambhava 's visit. From then onwards Tibetan Buddhis"! spread to Sikkim, Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Bhutan, Subsequently after the decline of the Palas and the Senas, the Buddhism disappeared from Bengal and the main land of India but Tibet preserved and developed Buddhism. It spreads towards Himalayan states of Sikkim and Darjeeling areas.
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    Colonial Advent and Changing Political Scenario in the Darjeeling Terai: Mid 18th Century to Mid 19th Century
    (University of North Bengal, 2015-03) Khasnobish, Sudip
    Darjeeling Terai or modern Siliguri sub-division never came into prominence during ancient, medieval and even in early part of modern period It is due to this reason when it came under the sovereignty or control of the various powers i.e. Cooch Behar, Sikkim and Nepal, it did not get al1)' importance rather it was neglected When the British captured the region in 1850 it shot into prominence and contact with other parts of India began. Thus, the authentic history of the northern bank of the river Mahananda of Darjeeling Terai commences in the limelight of modern Indian history from early part of the 18th century. But its strategic political importance began from middle of the 18th centuries, when the Gurkhas of Nepal eager to captured Drajeeling Terai, the same period when the Sanyasis and Fakirs were dominated in that region .In that particular political turmoil the East India Company was involved in Terai which turned its mighty historical transformation.
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    Buddhist Paintings of Darjeeling: Identification and Interpretation
    (University of North Bengal, 2015-03) Lama, Sudash
    The time has not yet come to write a history of Buddhist art. Such a study needs a detailed description of all the collections of Buddhist art preserved in different parts of the country and outside the country. The Buddhist painting of Darjeeling characterized the pantheon of northern Buddhism. It is very difficult task to distinguish and classify the host of many-armed and many-headed divine beings, armed with whole arsenal of warlike attributes, the numerous figures of saintly lamas, abbots of monasteries, who appears on painting side by side number of religious symbols gives multiple meaning and disseminate the idea of direct intuition along with ethnographic variation.