The Department of History seeks to focus special attention on an effective
dissemination of knowledge in political, social and economic history both at the
undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Stress is given on theoretical concepts as
emerging in recent times and on cultural studies at the post-graduate level, based on a
critical approach to the issues raised by a group of historians, largely basing their
assumptions on post-Modernist cultural experience.
At both the levels, the Department offers an
exhaustive curricula on Bengal’s social history with a major focus on questions
centering around the Renaissance and this makes it imperative to instruct students on the
historical significance of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and Rabindranath Tagore’s
writings. The department also concentrates on the study of India’s struggle for
freedom with special emphasis on the role of Mahatma Gandhi.
The Department offers special papers on the
Eighteenth Century Indian History, European History and the History of the United States
of America. In fact, the department pays special attention to the study of the progress of
human civilization as reflected in the discussion of issues relating to the transition
from antiquity to modernity. Keeping in pace with the changing times, the Department is
trying to broaden the syllabus by including gender studies, caste movement, community
studies, history of science, medicine and ecology. In addition to this, in the coming
years stress will be laid at the post-graduate level on the Nineteenth Century Bengali
Society. At the same time there is an attempt to arrive at a broader understanding of
Indian and Western political thought.
