Prachi Deshpande

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Prachi Deshpande
Born (1972-12-14) 14 December 1972 (age 52)
NationalityIndian
TitleProfessor of History
AwardsInfosys Prize (2020)
Academic background
Alma materTufts University
Jawaharlal Nehru University
Fergusson University
ThesisNarratives of Pride: History and Regional Identity in Maharashtra, India, c. 1870-1960
Doctoral advisorSugata Bose
Academic work
DisciplineEarly Modern South Asian History
Sub-disciplineSocial and cultural history of western India
InstitutionsColorado State University
Rutgers University
UC Berkeley
Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta
Main interestsScript and Language, Cultures of Historiography, Marathi literature and culture, Scribal elites, Modernity
WebsiteOfficial Website

Prachi Deshpande (born 14 December 1972) is an Indian historian and Professor of History at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta.[1][2] In 2020, Deshpande received the Infosys Prize for Humanities – History for her extraordinarily nuanced and highly sophisticated treatment of South Asian historiography.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9]

Education

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Deshpande was born in Pune, Maharashtra in 1972. She completed her undergraduate studies in History at Fergusson College, Pune (1988–1993), followed by an MA in History at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (1993–1995).[10][1] She later pursued her doctoral studies (1997–2002) under the supervision of historian Sugata Bose at Tufts University, Medford, MA.[11] Her doctoral thesis is titled Narratives of Pride: History and Regional Identity in Maharashtra, India, c. 1870-1960.[12]

Career

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After completing her doctorate at Tufts University, Massachusetts, in 2002, Deshpande taught as an assistant and associate professor at several institutions in the United States, including Colorado State University (2002–2004), Rutgers University (2004–2006), and the University of California, Berkeley (2006–2010). In 2010, she returned to India to join the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, where she continues to work as a Professor of History. She currently serves as Consulting Editor of the Journal of the History of Ideas.[13]

Publications

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Deshpande has published works in both Marathi and English.[14] Her first book, Creative Pasts: Historical Memory and Identity in Western India, 1700–1960 (Columbia University Press, 2007), based on her doctoral research, examines modern history-writing practices in Marathi-speaking regions of Western India and their role in shaping Maharashtrian regional identity.[15][16][17][18] Her second and most recent book, Scripts of Power: Writing, Language Practices, and Cultural History in Western India (Orient BlackSwan, 2023), explores the cultural history of Modi, the cursive script used for Marathi in Western India, and highlights its striking resonances with contemporary concerns.[19][20][21][22][23][24]

Select Journal Articles

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Print History: Prachi Deshpande - Straddling Manuscript and Print | PrintWeekIndia". PrintWeek. Retrieved 6 September 2025.
  2. ^ "Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta". www.cssscal.org. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
  3. ^ "Infosys Prize winner's journey, from Berkeley To Kolkata". www.telegraphindia.com. Archived from the original on 19 October 2021. Retrieved 6 September 2025.
  4. ^ D'souza, Pearl Maria (2 December 2020). "Lone woman among winners as Infosys Prize awarded for contributions to science and research". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 6 September 2025.
  5. ^ "Infosys Prizes for 2020 Awarded to Six Scholars – The Wire Science". 3 December 2020. Retrieved 6 September 2025.
  6. ^ Muthukumar, Roshini (3 December 2020). "Meet the 6 Brilliant Scientists Who've Just Won the $100,000 Infosys Prize". The Better India. Retrieved 6 September 2025.
  7. ^ "Infosys Science Foundation announces 2020's Infosys Prize Laureates". Research Matters. 2 December 2020. Retrieved 6 September 2025.
  8. ^ "Infosys Prize - Laureates 2020 - Prof. Prachi Deshpande". www.infosys-science-foundation.com. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
  9. ^ Staff Reporter (2 December 2020). "Infosys Prize 2020 winners felicitated in six categories". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
  10. ^ Deshpande, Prachi. "Prachi Deshpande, CV" (PDF). The Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta.
  11. ^ Deshpande, Prachi (2007). "Acknowledgements". Creative Pasts: Historical Memory and Identity in Western India, 1700-1960. Columbia University Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-231-12486-7.
  12. ^ Deshpande, Prachi (2002). Narratives of Pride: History and Regional Identity in Maharashtra, India, C. 1870-1960. Tufts University.
  13. ^ "Journal of the History of Ideas". University of Pennsylvania Press. Retrieved 6 September 2025.
  14. ^ "What an 18th-Century Sale Deed Reveals About Language and Territory in the Deccan". The Wire. Retrieved 6 September 2025.
  15. ^ "Memory and Identity in Creative History | Economic and Political Weekly". www.epw.in. 28 November 2009. Retrieved 6 September 2025.
  16. ^ Dube, Saurabh (2009). "Review of Creative Pasts: Historical Memory and Identity in Western India, 1700-1960". Social History. 34 (3): 348–350. doi:10.1080/03071020902981840. ISSN 0307-1022. JSTOR 25594374.
  17. ^ Mallavarapu, Srikanth (2010). "Review of Creative Pasts: Historical Memory and Identity in Western India, 1700-1960". The Journal of Asian Studies. 69 (4): 1274–1276. doi:10.1017/S0021911810002639. ISSN 0021-9118. JSTOR 40929341.
  18. ^ Deshpande, Prachi (2007). Creative pasts: historical memory and identity in western India, 1700-1960. Cultures of history. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-12486-7.
  19. ^ O’Hanlon, Rosalind (10 August 2025). "'Scripts of Power': An extraordinarily rich study of the inescapable materiality of scribal labour". Scroll.in. Retrieved 6 September 2025.
  20. ^ Mir, Farina (1 June 2025). "Scripts of Power: Writing, Language Practices, and Cultural History in Western India, by Prachi Deshpande". The English Historical Review. 140 (604–605): 896–898. doi:10.1093/ehr/ceaf127. ISSN 0013-8266.
  21. ^ Raman, Bhavani (1 August 2023). "Book review: Prachi Deshpande, Scripts of Power: Writing, Language Practices and Cultural History in Western India". Studies in History. 39 (2): 286–288. doi:10.1177/02576430231211728. ISSN 0257-6430.
  22. ^ Panda, Ahona (1 July 2024). "Book review: Prachi Deshpande, Scripts of Power: Writing, Language Practices, and Cultural History in Western India". The Indian Economic and Social History Review. 61 (3): 420–423. doi:10.1177/00194646241256332. ISSN 0019-4646.
  23. ^ Poddar, Sanjukta (2 January 2024). "Scripts of Power: Writing, Language Practices, and Cultural History in Western India". South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies. 47: 212–215. doi:10.1080/00856401.2024.2309759. ISSN 0085-6401.
  24. ^ "Prachi Deshpande, "Scripts of Power: Writing, Language Practices, and Cultural History in Western India" (Permanent Black, 2023)". New Books Network. Retrieved 6 September 2025.
  25. ^ Deshpande, Prachi (26 November 2021). "The Marathi Kaulnāmā: Property, Sovereignty and Documentation in a Persianate Form". Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient. 64 (5–6): 583–614. doi:10.1163/15685209-12341547. ISSN 1568-5209.
  26. ^ "ORCID". orcid.org. Retrieved 6 September 2025.
  27. ^ Deshpande, Prachi (2016). "Shuddhalekhan: Orthography, Community and the Marathi Public Sphere". Economic and Political Weekly. 51 (6): 72–82. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 44004357.
  28. ^ Deshpande, Prachi (1 October 2016). "The writerly self: Literacy, discipline and codes of conduct in early modern western India". The Indian Economic and Social History Review. 53 (4): 449–471. doi:10.1177/0019464616662137. ISSN 0019-4646.
  29. ^ Deshpande, Prachi (2008). "The Making of an Indian Nationalist Archive: Lakshmibai, Jhansi, and 1857". The Journal of Asian Studies. 67 (3): 855–879. doi:10.1017/S0021911808001186. ISSN 0021-9118. JSTOR 20203427.
  30. ^ Deshpande, Prachi (1 February 2004). "Caste as Maratha: Social categories, colonial policy and identity in early twentieth-century Maharashtra". The Indian Economic and Social History Review. 41 (1): 7–32. doi:10.1177/001946460404100102. ISSN 0019-4646.