Background
Chandra was born in Kangra in Punjab, British India (now in Himachal Pradesh).
Chandra was born in Kangra in Punjab, British India (now in Himachal Pradesh).
He was educated at Forman Christian College, Lahore, Stanford University, United States of America and the University of Delhi, where he completed his Doctor of Philosophy under the supervision of Professor Bishweshwar Prasad.
Professor of modern history at Jawaharlal Nehru University, he specialized on the Indian independence movement and is considered a leading scholar on Mahatma Gandhi. He taught for many years as Lecturer and then as Reader at Hindu College, Delhi. He became Professor of History at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, soon after the university was founded.
He was a Sectional President and then the General President of the Indian History Congress in 1985.
He was Chairperson of the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He was the Chairman of the National Book Trust, New Delhi from 2004 to 2012.
As Chairman of National Book Trust, India, he brought in a new vigour, and started many new series such as Popular Social Science, Autobiography, Afro-Asian Countries series, Indian Diaspora Studies et cetera He was at the forefront of the communist struggle in India since independence.
His book, Freedom Struggle, co-authored with and Amalesh Tripathi and Barun De, was censored by the new Indian government that came to power at the centre in 1977.
He collaborated with historians like R.S. Sharma, Satish Chandra, Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib, Barun De, Sarvepalli Gopal and Arjun Development, whose text books were prescribed in Indian schools for a long time. Chandra died on the morning of 30 August 2014, at his home in Gurgaon, after prolonged illness, aged 86.
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He authored several books, including The Rise and Growth of Economic Nationalism.
He founded the journal Enquiry and was a member of its editorial board for a long time. He became a Member of the University Grants Commission in 1993.
