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PAPIYA GHOSH, A COMMITTED ACADEMICIAN, WAS
ONE OF THE OLDEST SUBSCRIBERS OF THE BOOK
REVIEW. SHE WAS MURDERED ON 3 DECEMBER 2006.
BY MEENA BHARGAVA IN THE BOOK REVIEW VOL.
XXXI, NO. 1, JANUARY 2007
It is so hard to believe that Papiya is no
more and that I am writing for an issue of
The Book Review which she will not read.
There was rarely an occasion when she did
not send me an e-mail or call me up to give
her jibes on the review that 1 wrote. Papiya
was such a spirited, enthusiastic person
that she will always stay with us despite
her brutal killers, who snatched her away
from us physically.
Papiya was a Professor of History at Patna
University and held several distinguished
fellowships. She was ICHR (Indian Council of
Historical Research) Fellow affiliated to
Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Teen
Murti, New Delhi; Fellow at Indian Institute
of Advanced Studies, Shimla; Rockefeller
Fellow at the Institute of South Asian
Culture, University of Chicago and Fellow at
the Institute of Triangle South Asian
Consortium, North Carolina State University.
She was also Advisor to Patna-based Asian
Development Research Institute and
Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Papiya did her schooling and graduation from
Patna but her academic pursuits brought her
to the University of Delhi for post-graduate
and doctoral studies. She began her teaching
career in Hindu College, University of
Delhi. Although she held a permanent tenure
and, she resigned from the job to join Patna
Women's College (subsequently she became
Professor at the Department of History,
Patna University) because her mother needed
to be looked after. It is this decision of
Papiya that made her a rare specie. How many
of us, however duty-bound and caring, we may
claim to be, would leave Delhi—the land of
opportunities for a Moftussil University.
But she defied the tag of Moffussil
University marvellously. Papiya was a very
popular teacher who brought deep nuances of
History to Patna University and encouraged
her students to join Jawaharlal Nehru
University and Delhi University for further
studies. Several of her students, some of
whom have become university teachers now,
talk of their deep intellectual indebtedness
to Papiya.
Papiya was not only a sincere, committed,
dedicated teacher, but also an intense
researcher too and her contributions to
academics are many. She published widely in
national and international journals. She
worked on the Muhajirs, Dalit Muslims, South
Asian Diaspora, particularly Bihari Muslims
during Partition. Recently she had begun
research on documentaries and popular folk
songs of Bihar. It is unfortunate that she
could not sec the fruits of her hard labour—her
book entitled Partition and South Asian
Diaspora: Extending the Subcontinents
published by Routledge, Taylor & Francis
Books, which was released on December 4,
2006, a day after she was killed. She had
completed her second book on 'Popular
Culture' and was on to the third one. By her
work on Pasmanda Mahaj, she had put Bihar on
the national and international academic map.
We must consider ourselves utterly
unfortunate for being deprived of so much
Papiya could have told us and contributed to
the academic community.
Papiya was a very kind-hearted, generous,
compassionate, warm person. One of her close
friends, Indrani Chatterjee in her e-mail to
me wrote, "...such was Papiya that she would
have even forgiven her killers". The persona
of Papiya attracted her to people of sorts
cutting across all barriers of age and
gender. She loved life and everything that
was good about life. I am sure that even
when those ghastly, dastardly beings
attacked her, she resisted fiercely and
valiantly.
Papiya was an avid reader, with varied
interests in prose and poetry. No trip of
her to Delhi was complete without a visit to
Bahri Sons in Khan Market. She got cartons
packed with books for personal use and for
the Patna University library. She was a
connoisseur of literature, musk,
art-photography, painting, films and cuisine
of different kinds. In fact, it was Papiya
who introduced me to several eating joints
in Delhi. October.
The brutal killing of Papiya has left an
irreversible, irrecoverable vacuum in many
lives. I consider myself very fortunate to
have known and been associated with Papiya.
Let us resolve to commit ourselves to demand
justice for Papiya.
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