Peter Heehs Explained

Nationality:American
Occupation:Historian

Peter Heehs (born 1948) is an American historian living in Puducherry, India who writes on modern Indian history, spirituality and religion. Much of his work focuses on the Indian freedom fighter and spiritual leader Sri Aurobindo. His publications include twelve books and more than sixty articles in journals and magazines.

Biography

Peter Heehs was born and educated in the United States but has lived in India since 1971. He has worked in the team as a researcher[1] [2] at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives since its founding, and has contributed to the re-editing of the Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library and The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo.[3] [4]

As a historian, Heehs has written on the swadeshi period of the Indian independence movement and on the early phase of the Indian revolutionary movement. His 1992 study The Bomb in Bengal highlighted the importance of the Maniktala secret society, which was a predecessor of the Jugantar Group. In this book and other publications, Heehs made it clear that the Indian freedom struggle had a violent as well as a non-violent side, and that the violent revolutionaries helped prepare the country psychologically for the later mass movements led by Mahatma Gandhi. In the second edition of The Bomb in Bengal (2004), Heehs distinguished the aims and methods of early Indian revolutionaries.[5]

Heehs has also written on problems of Indian historiography in History and Theory,[6] Postcolonial Studies,[7] and other journals. He has also contributed to popular magazines such as History Today.[8]

As a scholar of religion, Heehs has edited the textbook Indian Religions[9] and has contributed to journals and edited volumes dealing with new religious movements in India.[10] [11] He has also discussed the problems of Indian communalism.

Heehs's ninth book, The Lives of Sri Aurobindo (Columbia University Press, 2008) was intended for scholarly readers.[12] It received positive reviews in the United States,[13] but was objected to by a large number of devotees of Sri Aurobindo,[14] who have delayed the publication of the book in India.[15] Heehs's tenth book, Writing the Self, was published by Bloomsbury in February 2013. It has been named an Outstanding Academic Title for 2013 by Choice.[16] His eleventh book, Situating Sri Aurobindo: A Reader, a collection of essays by various scholars on Sri Aurobindo's writings, with an introduction, was published by Oxford University Press in October 2013. His twelfth book, Spirituality without God, was published by Bloomsbury in November 2018.

Heehs was briefly in the news in April 2012 after the Indian home ministry declined to entertain an application for extension of his resident visa after April 15.[17] Learning of the affair on March 31, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram said he would review Heehs’s case.[18] A number of prominent scholars, as well as union minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh, wrote in support of Heehs to the home minister and to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.[19] Leading public intellectuals Ramachandra Guha[20] and Pratap Bhanu Mehta[21] wrote about the issue in their newspaper columns. On April 13, the home ministry announced that it had approved a one-year extension of Heehs’s visa.[22] The affair became a point of reference in discussions in the Indian and international press of freedom of expression,[23] [24] [25] book banning,[26] [27] [28] [29] censorship,[30] [31] xenophobia,[32] and visa policy.[33]

See also

Books

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Aurobindo's Biographer Speaks Out . April 21, 2012 . May 11, 2012.
  2. Web site: May 2, 2012. East meets West, again!. May 11, 2012. Asia Times. Archived link, 14 March 2021
  3. Web site: Biography - Sri Aurobindo Association of America . August 28, 1998 . February 22, 2010.
  4. Web site: Peter Heehs - Biography & Resources . EnlightenNext.org . February 22, 2010 . https://archive.today/20120729071142/http://www.enlightennext.org/magazine/bios/peter-heehs.asp . 29 July 2012 . dead .
  5. Book: Heehs, Peter . The Bomb in Bengal . Second . 2004 . Oxford University Press . ix–xxvii.
  6. Heehs . Peter . Myth, History, and Theory . History and Theory . 33 . 1 . 1–19 . February 1994 . February 22, 2010 . 10.2307/2505649 . 2505649 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110106013304/http://www.wesleyan.edu/histjrnl/archives/feb94.html . 6 January 2011 . dead . subscription .
  7. Heehs . Peter . The uses of Sri Aurobindo . Postcolonial Studies . 9 . 2 2006 . 151–164 . 1466-1888 . 10.1080/13688790600657827. 144965032 .
  8. Web site: Heehs . Peter . History Today.com. Articles from the History Today Archive . December 1, 2010.
  9. Web site: Heehs . Peter . Indian Religions: A Historical Reader of Spiritual Expression and Experience . New York University Press . February 22, 2010.
  10. Book: Heehs, Peter . The Error of all 'Churches': Religion and Spirituality in Communities Founded or 'Inspired' by Sri Aurobindo. Copley . Antony . Gurus and their Followers: New Religious Reform Movements in Colonial India . Oxford University Press . 2000 . 209–224.
  11. Book: Heehs, Peter . The Centre of the Religious Life of the World: Spiritual Universalism and Cultural Nationalism in the Work of Sri Aurobindo. Copley . Antony . Hinduism, Public and Private: Reform, Hindutva, Gender, Sampraday . Oxford University Press . 2003 . 66–83.
  12. Web site: Letter to the Managing Trustee, from Peter Heehs . Religious Fundamentalism and Integral Yoga . April 10, 2019.
  13. Web site: Academic reviews of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo by Peter Heehs . Religious Fundamentalism and Integral Yoga . April 10, 2019.
  14. Web site: An Outbreak of Fundamentalism? . Religious Fundamentalism and Integral Yoga . April 10, 2019.
  15. Web site: Court Cases . Religious Fundamentalism and Integral Yoga . April 10, 2019.
  16. Web site: On Modern Poetry and Writing the Self named Choice Outstanding Academic Titles 2013 . Bloomsbury Literary Studies . February 1, 2014.
  17. Web site: Don't expel US historian, govt told . https://web.archive.org/web/20120331174747/http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Don-t-expel-US-historian-govt-told/Article1-833201.aspx . dead . 31 March 2012 . Hindustan Times . April 14, 2012.
  18. Web site: Chidambaram to decide on Heehs' visa tomorrow . https://web.archive.org/web/20120517221938/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-04-01/chennai/31269636_1_peter-heehs-visa-historians . dead . May 17, 2012 . . April 14, 2012.
  19. Web site: Let Heehs stay, scholars urge PM . https://web.archive.org/web/20140819134933/http://ibnlive.in.com/news/let-heehs-stay-scholars-urge-pm/244877-60-118.html . dead . August 19, 2014 . IBNLive . April 14, 2012.
  20. Web site: Ramachandra Guha: Ban the Ban – The republic of India bans books with a depressing frequency . https://web.archive.org/web/20111012122946/http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110730/jsp/opinion/story_14295812.jsp . dead . 12 October 2011 . The Telegraph . May 11, 2012.
  21. Web site: Pratap Bhanu Mehta: Book clubbed . The Indian Express . April 12, 2012. May 11, 2012.
  22. Web site: Chidambaram intervenes, US historian gets 1-yr visa extension . https://web.archive.org/web/20120413221455/http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Chidambaram-intervenes-US-historian-gets-1-yr-visa-extension/Article1-840184.aspx . dead . 13 April 2012 . Hindustan Times. April 14, 2012.
  23. Web site: The intolerant Indian? . https://archive.today/20120707095701/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-04-10/edit-page/31313634_1_court-cases-intolerance-indian-visa . dead . July 7, 2012 . Apr 10, 2012 . . May 11, 2012.
  24. Web site: Nilanjana S Roy: Behind the portrait . Business Standard . April 24, 2012. May 11, 2012.
  25. Web site: Mark Tully: Hay Festival 2012: Freedom of Speech . The Telegraph (London) . June 8, 2012 . June 18, 2012.
  26. Web site: Gautam Chikermane: Sri Aurobindo, Heehs and the fragility of faith . https://web.archive.org/web/20120823203056/http://blogs.hindustantimes.com/just-faith/?p=1069 . dead . 23 August 2012 . Hindustan Times . February 22, 2012 . May 11, 2012.
  27. Web site: A little reason would help . India Today . April 10, 2012 . May 11, 2012.
  28. Web site: Indian Academics Object to Treatment of American Historian . The Chronicle of Higher Education . April 3, 2012 . May 11, 2012.
  29. Web site: Identify politics behind demand for banning a book, says Romila Thapar . The Hindu. May 4, 2012 . May 11, 2012.
  30. Web site: Indian intellectuals report an increase in censorship . Deutsche Welle . April 18, 2012 . May 11, 2012.
  31. Web site: Palash Krishna Mehrotra: Climate of touchiness augurs ill for India . India Today . April 22, 2012 . May 11, 2012.
  32. Web site: Mihir S. Sharma: Xenophobindia . Business Standard . Apr 28, 2012 . May 11, 2012.
  33. Web site: Rupa Subramanya: Should India Relax its Visa Rules? . The Wall Street Journal . April 4, 2012 . May 11, 2012.

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