The passing of Professor and Professor Bhairabi Prasad Sahu is a great loss for the university fraternity

University of Delhi historian and highly respected scholar of ancient India and the early Middle Ages, Professor Bhairabi Prasad Sahu died on Thursday 3rd March 2022 from multiple ailments aggravated by post-Covid complications over the course of the last months.

Highly regarded as an eminent scholar, good teacher and conscientious academic administrator, Professor Sahu, born in Berhampur, Odisha and educated at the University of Delhi, had emerged into a leadership role within the fraternity of historians, after a distinguished career at the University, teaching since 1982 and as a professor in the Department of History since 1998.

Professor Sahu is the author and editor of nearly ten books, including the recent History of precolonial India: issues and debates (with Hermann Kulke) (2018) and The Making of Regions in Indian History: Society, State, and Identity in Premodern Odisha (2020).

A few more collections of essays were in the works for publication over the next few months. Some details of these volumes were circulated by him via e-mail to colleagues last month.

Professor Sahu has also published over fifty articles in journals such as Studies in History, Indian Historical Review, Economic and Political Weekly, Studies in People’s History and Social Scientist, in addition to chapters in festschrifts and other edited volumes. He has also served on the editorial board of the Indian Historical Review, Studies in People’s History, and Proceedings of the Indian History Congress.

Prof. Sahu’s service to the discipline of history and to university administration in general included a number of positions he held as head of the history department at Delhi University (2004-2007 ), Dean of International Relations, University of Delhi (2007-11), Secretary, Indian History Congress (2006-09) and Board Member, Indian Council of Historical Research (2008-14).

He was associated with the Orissa research project of the German Research Council (DFG) (1999-2005). He was President of Ancient India, Indian History Congress (2003) and several regional history congresses.

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