Sumit Guha
Professor — PhD, University of Cambridge
Professor; Frances Higginbotham Nalle Centennial Professorship in History

Contact
- E-mail: sguha@austin.utexas.edu
- Phone: 512-475-7236
- Office: GAR 2.140
- Office Hours: On leave Spring semester 2021
- Campus Mail Code: B7000
Biography
My education began in Italy but I completed high school in New Delhi, India. I received a BA from St. Stephen's College and an MA in History from Jawaharlal Nehru University, both in Delhi. An Inlaks Scholarship enabled me to attend the University of Cambridge. I was awarded a Ph.d. in History in 1981 and returned to teach in St. Stephen's College from 1981 to 1996 (with periods of research leave at the Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum, the Program in Agrarian Studies, Yale University and the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Delhi.)
From 1996 to 1999 I was Professor in the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta and moved to the USA in 2000 as S.P. Das Distinguished Professor at Brown University. In 2004 I joined the Department of History in Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and came thence to the University of Texas at Austin in 2013.
I began my research as an economic historian with interests in demography and agriculture. These widened into the study of environmental and ethnic histories. My first book was The Agrarian Economy of the Bombay Deccan 1818-1941 (1985) followed by Environment and Ethnicity in India, c. 1200-1991 (1999) and Health and Population in South Asia from earliest times to the present (2001).
The next book was Beyond Caste: Identity and Power in South Asia, Past and Present. A corrected Indian edition of this book has appeared from Permanent Black, New Delhi and Ranikhet.
My next book History and Collective Memory in South Asia, c.1200-2000 was published by the University of Washington Press in October 2019.
A forthcoming book (due March-April 2021) is Tribes and States in Asia (Columbia University Press for the Association for Asian Studies)
Most recent article is "India in the pandemic age." Ind. Econ. Rev. (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41775-020-00088-0
My shorter work appears on the History Department blog
And Journal of the History of Ideas blog
Visit my Academia.edu page to view some of my other articles and publications.
Courses
HIS 382N • Politics, Ecology, History
39855 • Fall 2021
Meets W 3:00PM-6:00PM GAR 1.122
(also listed as ANS 391)
HIS 346P • Indian Republic 1947-Pres
38160 • Fall 2020
Meets TTH 5:00PM-6:30PM RLP 0.112
Hybrid/Blended
GC
(also listed as ANS 361)
HIS 307C • Intro To The History Of India
38465 • Spring 2020
Meets MWF 9:00AM-10:00AM MEZ 2.124
GC
(also listed as ANS 307C)
HIS 382N • Politics, Ecology, History
38495 • Fall 2019
Meets M 3:00PM-6:00PM GAR 1.122
(also listed as ANS 391)
HIS 346P • Indian Republic 1947-Pres
39530 • Fall 2017
Meets TTH 5:00PM-6:30PM GAR 2.112
GC
(also listed as ANS 361)
HIS 350L • Uprising In India-1857
39545 • Fall 2017
Meets W 3:00PM-6:00PM WAG 112
GCIIWr
(also listed as ANS 361)
HIS 307C • Intro To The History Of India
39195 • Spring 2017
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM BUR 112
GC
(also listed as ANS 307C)
HIS 382N • Language And Power
39535 • Fall 2016
Meets TH 9:30AM-12:30PM CMA 3.134
(also listed as ANS 384)
HIS 350L • Struggle For Asian Democrcy
38660 • Spring 2016
Meets M 3:00PM-6:00PM GAR 0.132
GCIIWr
(also listed as ANS 361)
HIS 364G • Asian Bus/W Empire 1500-1940
38829 • Spring 2016
Meets MWF 11:00AM-12:00PM PAR 203
GC
(also listed as ANS 361)
HIS 307C • Intro To The History Of India
38200 • Fall 2015
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM UTC 3.110
GC
HIS 350L • Uprising In India-1857
38550 • Fall 2015
Meets W 3:00PM-6:00PM GAR 2.128
GCIIWr
(also listed as ANS 361)
HIS 307C • Intro To The History Of India
39280 • Fall 2014
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM UTC 3.110
GC
(also listed as ANS 307C)
HIS 382N • Language And Power
39845 • Fall 2014
Meets F 9:00AM-12:00PM CMA 3.134
(also listed as ANS 384)
HIS 364G • Business & Society South Asia
40095 • Spring 2014
Meets TTH 12:30PM-2:00PM GAR 1.126
GC
(also listed as ANS 361)
HIS 382N • South Asia In Global History
40210 • Spring 2014
Meets M 3:00PM-6:00PM GAR 2.124
HIS 307C • Intro To The History Of India
39595 • Fall 2013
Meets MW 3:00PM-4:30PM CLA 0.112
GC
(also listed as ANS 307C)
HIS 350L • Uprising In India-1857
39845 • Fall 2013
Meets T 3:30PM-6:30PM CBA 4.342
IIWr
Videos
Sumit Guha on "Asia, Europe and America in the Making of 'Caste'"
Plenary Keynote at European Association for South Asian Studies conf. in Warsaw, July 28, 2016.
Read more about the keynote:
Sumit Guha invited to deliver Plenary Keynote at European Association for South Asian Studies conf. in Warsaw.