Hetukar Jha

Hetukar Jha is an Indian author, professor, researcher, and Fulbright Scholar. At present he is Honorary Managing Trustee of the Maharajadhiraja Kameshwar Singh Kalyani Foundation.^[1][2]

Early life and family

Jha was born on 1 February 1944 in the village Sarisab-Pahi, Madhubani district, Bihar. His father was Babu Baldeo Jha and his mother was Smt. Mohini Devi. He studied in the local village school at Sarisab Pahi.

Jha married Smt.Indira Jha in 1960 and they had three sons, Tejakar Jha, Shrutikar Jha, and Madhukar Jha, who were born in 1968, 1972, and 1975, respectively. He donated all of his family heirlooms to the Chandradhari Mithila State Museum, Darbhanga, to create a gallery on the name of his father late Baldeo Jha.

Education

He attended Patna Science College and went on to Post Graduate work at Patna University. He gained his B.A. Hons. in Sociology at Patna College in 1965, his M.A. in Sociology at Patna University in 1967, and his PhD in Sociology at Patna University in 1980.

Career

He joined Patna University as a Lecturer on Sociology in 1968 and retired as Professor and Head of the Department of Sociology in January 2004.^[1][3]

In 1984–85 he was on the interview-board of Fulbright Scholarship offered by USEFI. He also had a two-year stint as Director of Shulabh Institute of Social Sciences.

Beginning in 1968, he did research on the societies and cultures of Bihar. Among his conclusions is that: A basic problem is the break down of the traditional village community as a functioning whole.^[4]

He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 1972 by the US Educational Foundation in India.

Selected publications

Among the publications of Hetukar Jha, are the following:^[5]

Books

• Man in Indian Tradition: Vidyapati’s Discourse on Purush, Aryan Books International, New Delhi, 2002, ISBN 978-81-7305-217-0.
• Perspectives on Indian Society and History: A Critique, edited, Manohar, New Delhi, 2002, ISBN 978-81-7304-422-9.
• Mithila in the Nineteenth Century : Aina-i-Tirhut of Biharilal ‘Fitrat’, edited, Kameshwar Singh Bihar Heritage Series – 5, M.K.S.K.Foundation, Darbhanga,2001.
• Amaranatha Jha, Makers of Indian Literature Series, Sahitya Akademy, New Delhi, 1997, ISBN 978-81-260-0294-8.
• A Glimpse of Tirhut in the second Half of the Nineteenth Century: Riaz-I-Tirhut of Ayhodhya Prasad ‘Bahar’, edited, Kameshwar Singh Bihar Heritage Series – 3, M.K.S.K.Foundation, Darbhanga, 1997.
• Ganganatha Jha, Makers of Indian Literature series, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, 1992, OCLC 30810275.
• Social Structures of Indian villages: A Study of Rural Bihar Sage Publications India, New Delhi, 1991, ISBN 978-0-8039-9687-8.^[6]
• Upnivesh Kalin Mithilaka Gam O Gamak Nimna Varga (in Mithilli), Maithili Academy, Government of Bihar, Patna, 1988. This book discusses the condition of the lower classes of the region of Mithila (north Bihar) during the colonial period.
• Colonial Context of Higher Education in India, Usha Publications, New Delhi, 1985.
• Social Structures and Alignments: A Study of Rural Bihar, (with J.B.P.Sinha, Surendra Gopal and K.M. Tiwary) Usha Publications, New Delhi, 1985.
• Autobiographical Notes Of Mahamahopadhyaya Dr. Sir Ganganatha Jha (edited), Ganganatha Jha Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, Allahabad, 1976.
• Tirhut in Early Twentieth Century: Mithila Darpan of Ras Bihari Lal Das, edited, Kameshwar Singh Bihar Heritage Series – 8, M.K.S.K.Foundation, Darbhanga, 2005.
• Courage and Benevolence : Maharajadhiraja Kameshwar Singh (1907–1962), (edited) Kameshwar Singh Bihar Heritage Series – 10, M.K.S.K.Foundation, Darbhanga, 2007.
• India : Some Crucial Questions, (edited) Kameshwar Singh Bihar Heritage Series – 12, M.K.S.K.Foundation, Darbhanga, 2007.
• Reflections on History, Society and Social Change in India Hetukar Jha ed., Daanish Books, 2012, ISBN 978-93-81144-25-1.

Articles

• Jha, Hetukar (1977). "Lower-Caste Peasants and Upper-Caste Zamindars in Bihar (1921–1925): An Analysis of Sanskritization and Contradiction between the Two Groups". The Indian Economic and Social History Review. 14 (4): 549–559. doi:10.1177/001946467701400404.^[7]
• Jha, Hetukar (1980). "Permanent Settlement in Bihar". Social Scientist. 9 (1): 53–57. JSTOR 3517142.
• Jha, Hetukar (1994). "Tradition, Violence and Modernisation: Understanding the Legitimation Crisis of Indian Political Order". The Eastern Anthropologist. 47 (4): 327–340.

Notes

1. "Management". Maharajadhiraja Kameshwar Singh Kalyani Foundation. 2013. Archived from the original on 15 August 2014.
2. The Maharajadhiraja Kameshwar Singh Kalyani Foundation is headquartered in the Kalyani Niwas (palace) in Darbhanga, which was the residence of the younger queen of the former Maharaja Kāmeshwar Singh of the Raj Darbhanga.
3. Srivastava, Amitabh (3 January 2011). "The new Bihari". India Today. Archived from the original on 15 August 2014.
4. Lindberg, Staffan (30 August 2011). "Patna, Bihar – in another country?". Swedish South Asian Studies Network (SASNET), Lund University. Archived from the original on 15 August 2014.
5. "Hetukar Jha (1944–)". Open Library.
6. Reviewed:Henry, Edward O. (1993). "Book Reviews – South Asia". The Journal of Asian Studies. 52 (4): 1056–1057. doi:10.2307/2059411.
7. Dube, Leela (1978). "On the Applicability of the Concept of Sanskritization: Comment on Hetukar Jha". Indian Economic & Social History Review. 15 (4): 521–523. doi:10.1177/001946467801500406.

External links

• SulabhVideos (28 January 2013). "Prof. Hetukar Jha, Department of Sociology (Retd.), Patna (Bihar) speaking on the "Sociology of Sanitation"". National Conference on Sociology of Sanitation. Archived from the original on 15 August 2014. alt url on YouTube