Educated at Presidency College in Kolkata, Jawaharlal Nehru University and St Edmund Hall, Oxford, Rudrangshu Mukherjee received his DPhil in Modern History from the University of Oxford in 1981. He is internationally recognised for his scholarship on the revolt of 1857; his first book, Awadh in Revolt, 1857–58: A Study of Popular Resistance, became a standard work on the subject, while subsequent books explored its events, personalities and competing interpretations from several perspectives. His wider writing has examined figures including Gandhi, Tagore, Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose, as well as the development of New Delhi and the political and intellectual currents of modern India.
Rudrangshu has taught history at the University of Calcutta and held visiting appointments at Princeton University, the University of Manchester and the University of California, Santa Cruz. His career has also extended beyond academia. From 1993 to 2014, he was Editor of the Editorial Pages at The Telegraph in Kolkata, bringing a historian’s depth and scepticism to contemporary public debate.
In 2014, Rudrangshu became the founding Vice-Chancellor of Ashoka University. He now serves as its Chancellor and Professor of History. He is the author or editor of numerous books and co-authored A New History of India with cultural historian Shobita Punja and &Beyond Private Guide Toby Sinclair. Combining scholarship, photography, maps and archival material, the book traces the country’s story from its geological origins to the present.
Rudrangshu accompanies guests throughout &Beyond’s limited edition journey along the Lower Ganges, from Patna to Kolkata. He joins every excursion, experiencing the river and its settlements alongside the group, before presenting each evening on the history, stories and landscapes encountered that day. These talks give guests an opportunity to place what they have seen within a much larger narrative and to continue the conversation through questions and discussion. With Rudrangshu, history is not confined to monuments, books or dates. It remains present in cities, buildings, waterways, political ideas and inherited memories. Travelling with him transforms the Lower Ganges into a living historical archive, revealing how the places along its banks helped shape modern India.