Prof. Dr. Ravi Ahuja
Principal Investigator
Email:
Ravi.Ahuja[at]phil.uni-goettingen.de
Address:
Waldweg 26
37073 Göttingen
Germany
Career
Ravi Ahuja is head of the research group ‘Modern Indian History’ at the Centre for Modern Indian Studies of Georg-August-University Göttingen.
Ravi Ahuja has worked on various aspects of India’s social history from 18th to 20th century including urban history, the history of infrastructure and the social history of war. His research interests have increasingly moved towards contemporary history. Current research projects examine the social history of South Asian seafarers and the emergence of a labour-centred social policy in mid-twentieth century India. After teaching at the South Asia Institute in Heidelberg and conducting research at the Centre for Modern Oriental Studies in Berlin he was appointed Professor of Modern South Asian History at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. He joined CeMIS as its founding director in 2009.
Ravi Ahuja favours research-oriented modes of teaching. CeMIS’s Modern Indian History research group offers a broad spectrum of courses that reflects the vivid and diverse historiography on South Asian societies. Apart from historical survey courses for first-year undergraduate students, our teaching covers themes of social and economic history like urban history, gender history, the history of technology and medicine, the history of social movements or the social history of war.
CeMIS’s Modern Indian History section is highly research active with a strong emphasis on training research students. In order to provide a fertile research environment and facilitate intensive communication between the members of the research group, the ‘bandwidth’ of our research has been defined as comprising mainly the following major themes:
- Labour history and history of work
- History of capital(ism)
- History of economic and social policy
- Social history of industrial (urban as well as rural) space
- History of infrastructure
Curriculum Vitae
2007 Habilitation, Humanities Faculty, University of Hannover; dissertation: ‘Pathways of Empire. Circulation, “Public Works” and Social Space in Colonial Orissa (c. 1780–1914)’; venia legendi for Modern History.
1998 ‘Grundständige Promotion’ (DPhil without preceding M.A.), Humanities Faculty, University of Heidelberg; magna cum laude; dissertation: ‘Die Erzeugung kolonialer Staatlichkeit und das Problem der Arbeit. Eine Studie zur Sozialgeschichte der Stadt Madras und ihres Hinterlandes zwischen 1750 und 1800’ [The making of a colonial state and the problem of labour. A study of the social history of Madras City and its hinterland, c. 1750–1800].
1991 — 1998 South Asian History, European History and Indology at Heidelberg University (1991–1993; 1995–1998) and School of Oriental and African Studies, London (1993–1995)
University Education
2007 Habilitation, Humanities Faculty, University of Hannover; dissertation: ‘Pathways of Empire. Circulation, “Public Works” and Social Space in Colonial Orissa (c. 1780–1914)’; venia legendi for Modern History.
1998 ‘Grundständige Promotion’ (DPhil without preceding M.A.), Humanities Faculty, University of Heidelberg; magna cum laude; dissertation: ‘Die Erzeugung kolonialer Staatlichkeit und das Problem der Arbeit. Eine Studie zur Sozialgeschichte der Stadt Madras und ihres Hinterlandes zwischen 1750 und 1800’ [The making of a colonial state and the problem of labour. A study of the social history of Madras City and its hinterland, c. 1750–1800].
1991 — 1998 South Asian History, European History and Indology at Heidelberg University (1991–1993; 1995–1998) and School of Oriental and African Studies, London (1993–1995)
Occupational Career
2010 — 2012 Director, Centre for Modern Indian Studies, University of Göttingen
2009 Professor of Modern Indian History, University of Göttingen
2009 Offered the Professorship of Culture and Society of Modern South Asia at Humboldt-University, Berlin (declined)
2008 — 2009 Chair, Centre of South Asian Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, London
2007 — 2009 Professor of Modern South Asian History, School of Oriental and African Studies, London
2006 — 2007 Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Modern Oriental Studies, Berlin. Research programme ‘World Wars and World Views: Arabic and Indian War Experiences between Self-willed Appropriation and Propaganda’, project on Indian prisoners of war in Germany during World War I.
2002 — 2006 ‘Wissenschaftlicher Assistent’ (Assistant Professor), Department of History, South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg
2001 — 2002 Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Modern Oriental Studies, Berlin. Research programme ‘The Indian Ocean ? spaces and movements’, project on ‘maritime work culture and British colonialism in the Indian Ocean’.
1999 — 2001 Senior Research Fellow, Institute for African and Asian Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin. Project on ‘pathways of power: the social history of transport in colonial Orissa’ as part of the German Research Council’s Orissa Research Programme
1998 — 1999 Research Assistant, Department of History, South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg
1991 — 1998 University education (see above)
1989 — 1991 Typesetter, Eschborn (Germany)
1985 — 1989 Youth work, Frankfurt/Main
1980 — 1985 Vocational training and employment as typesetter, Frankfurt/Main
1979 Abitur (university entrance diploma), Eichwald Gymnasium, Schwalbach a. Ts. (West Germany)
Organisation of Conferences, Workshops, Panels and Summer Schools
International Summer Academy ‘Working Lives in Global History’ (in co-operation with IGK Work and Human Lifecycle in Global History [Humboldt University Berlin]
V. V. Giri National Labour Institute [NOIDA/Delhi, India] and Association of Indian Labour Historians), NOIDA, 2–9 October 2011.
International Workshop ‘The Politics of Poverty and the Politics of the Poor in Modern India’, Göttingen, 6–8 July 2011.
International Workshop ‘Space, Capital and Social History in Modern South Asia’, Centre for Modern Indian Studies, Göttingen, 24–26 June 2010.
International Workshop ‘South Asian Experiences of the World Wars: New Evidence and New Approaches’, German Historical Institute, London, 26 May 2009 (with Indra Sengupta; jointly organized by SOAS, German Historical Institute and Centre for Modern Oriental Studies).
International Workshop ‘The World in World Wars. Experiences, Perceptions and Perspectives from the South’, Centre for Modern Oriental Studies, Berlin, 7–9 June 2007 (with K. Bromber, D. Hamza, K. Lange und H. Liebau).
Panel ‘Empires, Nationalisms and the Containment of Labour in South Asia: Historical and Contemporary Issues’, 18th European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies, Lund, 6–9 July 2004 (with Ben Zachariah).
International Workshop ‘Exploring Indian Ocean Cultures and Histories’, St. Cross College, University of Oxford, 26 April 2003 (with J.-G. Deutsch et al.)
Panel ‘South Asian Society, British Colonialism and the Emergence of “Subaltern Networks” in the Indian Ocean Region’, 17th European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies, Heidelberg, 9–14 September 2002 (with H. Fischer-Tiné)
Panel ‘Colonialism as Civilizing Mission ? The Case of British India’, International Conference of Asian Studies (ICAS), Berlin, 9–12 August 2001 (with H. Fischer-Tiné).
Workshop ‘Perspectives on the Indian Ocean’, Zentrum Modener Orient, Berlin, 14- 16 July 2000 (with J.-G. Deutsch et al.).
External Roles and Memberships
German Historical Institute, London, advisory board member (2011-).
Journal of Global History; editorial board (2010-).
International Review of Social History; editorial board (2009-).
Forum Transnationale Studien, Berlin, advisory board member (2009-) European Association of South Asian Studies.
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Asienkunde Freundeskreis des Zentrums Moderner Orient
Association of Indian Labour Historians; life member
Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit, Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, 2005–2012 (co-editor in the area ‘global interaction’ for South Asia) [Encyclopaedia of Modern History].
External reviewer for several refereed journals (Modern Asian Studies, South Asia, Journal of the Social and Economic History of the Orient) and funding agencies (German Research Council/DFG, VolkswagenStiftung, Schweizer Nationalfonds).
External PhD examiner for several universities (Humboldt-University Berlin, Jacobs University Bremen, Goldsmiths College [University of London], School of Oriental and African Studies [University of London], Jawaharlal Nehru University [New Delhi], University of Delhi).