Radha Kumud Mukherjee

Radha Kumud Mukherjee (1884–1964; also spelled Radhakumud or Radha Kumud Mookerji), was an Indian historian and a noted Indian nationalist during the period of British colonial rule. He was the brother of the sociologist, Radhakamal Mukerjee.

Career

Mukherjee obtained a doctorate from the University of Calcutta in 1905 and joined the newly established National Council of Education, teaching at the Bengal National College. After 1915, he embarked on a series of tenures at universities in Benares, Mysore, and Lucknow.

He published Indian Shipping: A History of Seaborne Trade and Maritime Activity of the Indians from the Earliest Times in 1912. He was an advocate of the notion of Greater India in which Indian merchants and adventurers with huge fleets brought Indians to Southeast Asia and became the foundation of kingdoms in that region. Such theories have been largely discredited by modern scholarship in the Southeast Asia region.

He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1957 for his contribution to Public Affairs.

Bibliography

Books by Radha Kumud Mukherjee:

• Indian Shipping: A History of Seaborne Trade and Maritime Activity of the Indians from the Earliest Times
• Ancient Indian Education: Brahmanical and Buddhist (1947), reprinted by Motilal Banarsidass (1960).
• Men and Thought in Ancient India (1912) McMillan and co., reprinted by Motilal Banarsidass (1996).
• The Fundamental Unity of India
• A History of India
• Chandragupta Maurya and His Times
• Early History of Kausambi