Author: David Ludden

what is history?

… leaving the present; by going back into the heretofore, by beginning again…. The historical experience is not one of staying in the present and looking back.  Rather it is one of going back into the past and returning to the present with a wider and more intense consciousness of the restrictions of our former outlook. We return with a broader awareness of the alternatives open to us and armed with a sharper perceptiveness with which to make our choices.  In this manner, it is possible to loosen the clutch of the dead hand of the past and transform it into a living tool for the present and future. William Appleman Williams, The Contours of American History, Norton, New York,. 1988, pp.19-20

Appreciating David Washbrook

It is with great sadness that I must record the passing of my dear friend and fun inspiration, David Washbrook, on 24 January, 2021. Here is the condolence website. Here are tributes by Sanjay Subramanyam in HIMAL, by William Pinch in H-Net, by Samita Sen for Cambridge, by Anil Seal, Joya Chatterji and Boyd Hilton at Trinity College, and by Prashant Kidambi in The Wire,  This from the Warwick History Department. This from the Warden of St.Antony’s, Roger Goodman. This from Boria Majumdar.   I will post more as they arrive. And here is a link to an essay that he wrote as a Postscript to the volume of essays by Raj Chandravarkar that David edited with Jennifer Davis and Gordon Johnson, published ten years ago, which nicely conveys the brilliant, precise, rapid flowing erudite prose that distinguishes all his work from the days in the mid 1970s when we sat in his Trinity rooms with David typing with two fingers faster than I could with ten to finish The Emergence of Provincial Politics.  Here is an interview he did featuring comments on current trends in Indian historiography, published in the The Hindu, 16 December 2014.  Here is a memorial essay by one of David’s last students, Hayden Bellenoit.

Here is the link to the video recording of David’s memorial celebration on 28 May 2022. (Password: Trinity 1546). a memory from the David Washbrook Festschrift workshop in Cambridge (thanks to Samira Sheikh)

British India Shipping

Data from Statistical abstract relating to British India, in DIGITAL SOUTH ASIA LIBRARY (DSAL).

Figures for total ship transit through suez (History of the Suez Canal Company, 1858-2008: Between Controversy and Utility, by Par Hubert Bonin, 2010, Publications d’histoire économique et sociale internationale) indicate that British India trade accounts for a large proportion of initial steam ship transit through the Suez Canal (and its revenues).