The Dictionary of National Biography no longer requires any formal introduction. The compelling relevance to the needs of laymen and professionals alike is the living testimony to the version of the late Dr. SP Sen who, as the Director of the Institute of Historical Studies, first mooted the idea of the DNB. With unerring accuracy, he identified a major gap in our understanding of the national past and decided to fill it up, with an almost missionary real that marked the later years of his life. Apart from being intellectually honest, the DNB, as conceived by him, was refreshingly free from regional chauvinism, political intolerance of communal bigotry which had tainted several lesser attempts on a regional scale. His ability to bring together comminutors belonging to many discrepant disciplines spoke of an uncompromisingly liberal and open-minded approach which was charlatanistic of Dr. Sen as a historian. It is in the fitness of things that the DNB continues to serve as the orthodox model for many other exercises of its kind. The DNB Project, for which he worked so hard, will be much the poorer without him.
The present Dictionary of National Biography, in four volumes, and covering the first twenty five years after Independence, as the name suggests is a Supplement to the original title of the same name, also in four volumes, published between 1972 and 1974. The first four volumes of the Dictionary published earlier cover the period of modern Indian history from circa 1800 to 1947. These years, marking the advent of the 19th century, and ending with the attainment of Independence, do indeed constitute an important phase of our history. The year 1947, obviously enough, is a Great Divide. But it is necessary to remember that history is a continuing process and that post-independence India offers a field of fruitful study, replete with the efforts of the nation to rebuild itself and find for it a place in the world of fellow-nations. It is a story which alternates aspirations with achievements, success with failure, much done with still more to be done, challenges with responses. At the inception of the Project, it was rightly decided to continue it so as to cover the subsequent periods in turns. To begin with, it was planned to cover the first twenty-five years after Independence as a supplement to bring the Dictionary up-to-date.
The original 4-volume Dictionary of National Biography, planned and worked out on the lines of similar works in other countries, and especially on the pattern of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, is the model on which the present Supplementary volumes are based. The task has been more intensive in this case in that, whereas the original volumes cover a total period of a century and a half, the present venture is concerned with a comparatively much limited perimeter of only 25 years. This will be evident from the fact that while the number of entries, spread over 150 years, is about 1400, almost the same number has been dealt with in the Supplement, even though the span covered by it is a restricted span of a quarter-century.
It is gratifying that the use of Dictionaries as Books of Reference is speedily on the increase. Biographical collections, both in English and in principal Indian languages, are making their appearances with fair frequencies, but their coverage, on the whole, remains limited in scope. These works, as their titles indicate, deal with segments in relation to sects or communities, regions, and variant groups such as scientists, litterateurs, saints, thinkers, philosophers, social reformers, artists, freedom-fighters, representative women, even Puranic heroes and heroines. None of these works are intended to meet the demand of a Dictionary of National Biography.
The need for a Dictionary of National Biography, understood in the proper sense of the term, thus remains. The present volumes, like their predecessors, are intended to fulfil that need and present to the reading public, authentic and well-documented bio-sketches of prominent personalities in India, with tangible contributions to the making of India during the quarter of a century since Independence. The entries cover, as far as practicable, lives and works of people of this period from all walks of life-politics, religion, social reforms, philanthropy, education, science, technology, medicine, law, administration, journalism, fine arts, business and industry, sports and athletics.
Hindu (930)
Agriculture (123)
Ancient (1098)
Archaeology (792)
Architecture (563)
Art & Culture (919)
Biography (720)
Buddhist (546)
Cookery (166)
Emperor & Queen (574)
Islam (244)
Jainism (319)
Literary (888)
Mahatma Gandhi (380)
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