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Meenakshi Jain

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Meenakshi Jain
Meenakshi Jain in 2025
Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
Incumbent
Assumed office
21 July 2025
Nominated byDroupadi Murmu
Preceded byRakesh Sinha
ConstituencyNominated (Literature and Education)
Personal details
BornDelhi, India
Parent
RelativesSunil Jain (brother)
Sandhya Jain (sister)
Alma materUniversity of Delhi (PhD)
OccupationHistorian, Writer, Political scientist
Known forSati: Evangelicals, Baptist Missionaries, and the Changing Colonial Discourse
AwardsPadma Shri (2020)

Meenakshi Jain is an Indian political scientist and historian who served as an associate professor of history at Gargi College, Delhi. Her areas of research include cultural and religious developments in medieval and early modern India.[1][2] In 2014, she was nominated as a member of the Indian Council of Historical Research by the Government of India.[3] In 2020, she was conferred with the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award, for her work in the field of literature and education.[4]

Jain wrote Sati: Evangelicals, Baptist Missionaries, and the Changing Colonial Discourse on the practice of Sati in colonial India and had also authored a school history textbook, Medieval India, for NCERT, which replaced a previous textbook co-authored by Romila Thapar, Satish Chandra et al.[5]

Meenakshi Jain was nominated to Rajya Sabha by President Droupadi Murmu on 12 July 2025.[6]

Early life and education

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Meenakshi Jain is the daughter of journalist Girilal Jain, a former editor of The Times of India.[7] She received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Delhi.[8] Her thesis on the social base and relations between caste and politics was published in 1991.[8]

Career

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Jain is an associate professor of history at Gargi College, affiliated with the University of Delhi.[9] In December 2014, she was nominated as a member of the Indian Council of Historical Research by the Indian government.[3] She is former Fellow of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library and currently Senior Fellow of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR).[2]

She is recognised, by the media and authors like Makarand Paranjape[10], as one of the few scholars who have openly challenged the prevailing Left-oriented narratives in Indian historiography. Her work, which often focused on subjects marginalised or overlooked by mainstream academic discourse, particularly the destruction of Hindu temples during the medieval period, drew significant attention. While her perspectives faced criticism and resistance within academic circles, they earned her considerable respect and support among scholars and proponents of the Hindutva school of thought.[11][12]

Her noted books include, Flight of Deities and Rebirth of Temples, The Battle for Rama: Case of the Temple at Ayodhya and Rama and Ayodhya. [11]

Reception

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Medieval India (textbook)

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Philosopher Martha Nussbaum alleged Jain to be an amateur historian, who despite being trained as a sociologist, was inducted as a historian in service of a political mission.[13] Her Medieval India rendered the time-span through a monoscopic clash-of-civilizations narrative between the forces of good (Hindus) and evil (Muslims); the tensions and internal conflicts between these seemingly homogeneous groups were done away with, according to Nussbaum.[13] Nonetheless, Nussbaum found her work to be a small "oasis of intelligence", subtlety and literacy, when contrasted with other publications of the new NCERT series, published under the aegis of the Hindu Nationalist government;[13] Professor Pralay Kanungo of Jawaharlal Nehru University reflected similar sentiments.[14]

Similarly, sociologist Nandini Sundar thought Medieval India to have portrayed the exactions of the Sultanate rulers and the Mughals as anti-Hindu acts; besides, all of their contributions to the social, cultural and political were ignored.[15] She saw this as part of a broader pattern of state-induced historical negationism to suit the need of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.[15] John Stratton Hawley of Columbia University believes the book to misrepresent the gensis of the Bhakti movement by presenting it as a response to Shankaracharya's monism than to the egalitarian message of Islam.[16]

Rama and Ayodhya

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Pralay Kanungo found Jain's Rama and Ayodhya to be a subtle and sophisticated work that managed to stand apart from the earlier ahistorical propaganda by Hindutva-leaning historians.[14] Nonetheless, while by cherry-picking from random sources, she had managed to produce a useful compilation, which can be traced in many islamic historian's book questioning distortion of history by post independence leftist historians.[14]

Award

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In 2020, President Kovind awarded the Padma Shri for her contribution in the field of Literature and Education.

Works

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Books

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  • Congress Party, 1967-77: Role of Caste in Indian Politics (Vikas, 1991), ISBN 0706953193.
  • Flawed Narratives: History in the old NCERT Textbooks - A random survey of Satish Chandra’s “Medieval India, NCERT 2000, by Meenakshi Jain
  • Medieval India: A Textbook for Class XI (NCERT, 2002), ISBN 8174501711.
  • Rajah-Moonje Pact: Documents On A Forgotten Chapter Of Indian History (with Devendra Svarupa, Low Price Publishers, 2007), ISBN 8184540787.
  • Parallel Pathways: Essays on Hindu-Muslim Relations, 1707-1857 (Konark Publishers, 2010), ISBN 9788122007831.
  • The India They Saw (co-edited with Sandhya Jain, 4 Volumes, Prabhat Prakashan), ISBN 8184301065, ISBN 8184301073, ISBN 8184301081, ISBN 818430109X.
  • Rama and Ayodhya (Aryan Books International, 2013), ISBN 8173054517.
  • Sati: Evangelicals, Baptist Missionaries, and the Changing Colonial Discourse (Aryan Books International, 2016), ISBN 8173055521
  • The Battle for Rama: Case of the Temple at Ayodhya (Aryan Books International, 2017), ISBN 8173055793.
  • Flight of Deities and Rebirth of Temples: Episodes from Indian History (Aryan Books International, 2019), ISBN 8173056196.
  • Vasudeva Krishna and Mathura (Aryan Books International, 2021), ISBN 8173056587
  • The Hindus of Hindustan: A Civilizational Journey (Aryan Books International, 2023), ISBN 8173056811
  • The British Makeover of India: Judicial and Other Indigenous Institutions Upturned, (Aryan Books International, 2024)ISBN 8173057044
  • Vishwanath Rises and Rises: The Story of Eternal Kashi (Aryan Books International, 2024), ISBN 8173056994

Selected articles

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  • "Congress 1967: Strategies of Mobilisation in D. A. Low" in The Indian National Congress Centenary Hindsights, 1988.
  • "Backward Castes and Social Change in U. P. and Bihar" in Srinivas, Caste: Its 20th Century Avatar (2000).
  • A review of Romila Thapar's Somanatha: Many Voices of a History over The Pioneer (India).[17]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Who is Meenakshi Jain? Historian, author, and new Rajya Sabha nominee". Moneycontrol. 13 July 2025. Retrieved 15 July 2025.
  2. ^ a b Dr Meenakshi Jain IHCR.
  3. ^ a b "Membership of the Indian Council of Historical Research" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  4. ^ The Hindu Net Desk (26 January 2020). "Full list of 2020 Padma awardees". The Hindu.
  5. ^ "Being proud of India's Hindu past is great, but worry about the present too". The Financial Express.
  6. ^ "President Murmu nominates four to Rajya Sabha, including former Foreign Secretary Shringla, 26/11 prosecutor Nikam". The Hindu. 13 July 2025. Archived from the original on 13 July 2025. Retrieved 13 July 2025.
  7. ^ Khushwant Singh, Biased view (Book review of The Hindu Phenomenon), India Today, 31 August 1994.
  8. ^ a b Srinivas, M. N. (14 October 2000). Caste: Its 20Th Century Avatar. Penguin UK. p. 313. ISBN 9789351187837.
  9. ^ "Members of the Council" (PDF). INDIAN COUNCIL OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 November 2019. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
  10. ^ Paranjape, Makarand R (22 July 2022). "Our History Wars". Open The Magazine. Retrieved 18 July 2025.
  11. ^ a b "From having legs hacked off to getting Rajya Sabha foothold: A Master's journey of grit". The Times of India. 14 July 2025. Archived from the original on 14 July 2025. Retrieved 14 July 2025.
  12. ^ "Why Meenakshi Jain Has Been Nominated To Rajya Sabha". News18. 15 July 2025. Retrieved 18 July 2025.
  13. ^ a b c Nussbaum, Martha Craven (2007). The Clash Within : Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674030596. OCLC 1006798430.
  14. ^ a b c "Alternative Narratives". The Book Review. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
  15. ^ a b Sundar, Nandini (2004). "Teaching to Hate: RSS' Pedagogical Programme". Economic and Political Weekly. 39 (16): 1605–1612. doi:10.1057/9781403980137_9. ISSN 0012-9976. JSTOR 4414900.
  16. ^ Hawley, John Stratton (2015). "The Bhakti Movement and Its Discontents". A storm of songs. India and the idea of the Bhakti Movement. Harvard University Press. pp. 38–40. doi:10.4159/9780674425262. ISBN 9780674187467. JSTOR j.ctt1c84d6f. OCLC 917361614.
  17. ^ Meenakshi Jain (21 March 2004). "Review of Romila Thapar's "Somanatha, The Many Voices of a History"". The Pioneer. Archived from the original on 18 December 2014. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
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