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{{Infobox scientist
|name = Mahesh Rangarajan
|image = 56169c714c741 mahesh rangarajan.jpg
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|birth_date={{birth date and age|df=yes|1964|4|22}}
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|nationality = [[India]]n
|alma_mater = [[St. Columba's School, Delhi]], [[Hindu College, University of Delhi]], [[Oxford University]]
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|field = [[Modern History]], [[Environmental Studies]], [[Environmental History]]
|work_institutions = Dean of Academic Affairs at [[Ashoka University]], [[Nehru Memorial Museum and Library]], [[Cornell University]], [[Jadavpur university]]<ref>https://www.ashoka.edu.in/welcome/stories/meet-mahesh-rangarajan-dean-of-academic-affairs-ashoka-university-257</ref>
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'''Mahesh Rangarajan''' (born 22 April 1964) is a researcher,<ref name=Infochange>{{Cite web|title=RAMACHANDRA GUHA, MAHESH RANGARAJAN, MICHAEL LEWIS |url=http://infochangeindia.org/200410166144/Other/Essential-Reading/RAMACHANDRA-GUHA-MAHESH-RANGARAJAN-MICHAEL-LEWIS.html|accessdate=23 July 2009|publisher=Infochange|quote=Mahesh Rangarajan, an independent researcher, also writes in a similar vein but his work is specifically about the politics of wildlife conservation.}}</ref> author<ref>{{Cite web|title=Books by Mahesh Rangarajan on Openlibrary|url=https://openlibrary.org/a/OL104827A/Mahesh-Rangarajan|accessdate=23 July 2009|publisher=openlibrary.org}}</ref> and [[historian]] with a special interest in environmental history and colonial history of ''British and contemporary India''. He is a professor of [[Environmental Studies]] and [[History]] at [[Ashoka University]].<ref>https://www.ashoka.edu.in/faculty#!/mahesh-rangarajan-36</ref> He appears frequently on [[India]]n [[television]] as a political analyst.<ref name=Times>{{Cite web|title=Mahesh Rangarajan - India's No.1 political analyst|url=http://www.timesnow.tv/articleshow/4310722.cms|date=30 March 2009|accessdate=23 July 2009|publisher=Times Now}}</ref> He is also a [[columnist]] in the [[print media]] writing on [[wildlife conservation]], political and environmental issues.<ref name=Times /> In 2010, he chaired the Elephant Task Force (''Gajah'') of the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests. The Task Force was formed to formulate measures for the protection of [[Asiatic elephant|elephants]] in India.<ref name=gajah>{{cite book|title=Gajah: Securing the future for elephants in India|year=2010|publisher=Ministry of Environment and Forests|location=New Delhi|url=http://www.deccanchronicle.com/op-ed/why-victims-turn-killers-689|author=Mahesh Rangarajan|author2=others|accessdate=31 January 2011}}</ref>

==Early life==
Mahesh Rangarajan was born in New Delhi and finished his [[Indian Certificate of Secondary Education|ICSE]] and [[Indian School Certificate|ISC]] from [[St. Columba's School, Delhi]]. He then did a [[Bachelor of Arts]] in History (Honours) from [[Hindu College, University of Delhi]]. He received the [[Rhodes Scholarship|Rhodes scholarship]] in 1986 to do a BA in [[modern history|Modern History]] from [[Balliol College]] at Oxford, which he finished in 1988. He graduated from Delhi university and then from Oxford each with First Class. He was awarded a doctorate (D.Phil.) in Modern History from Nuffield College, Oxford University in 1993, the subject being '''Forest policy in the Central Provinces''.' He was awarded a studentship at Nuffield and was also a Beit Senior Scholar, 1991–1992.<ref name=cv>{{Cite web|title=CV of Mahesh Rangarajan|url=http://cmsprod.bgu.ac.il/NR/rdonlyres/5FD14FA5-21C4-4676-A402-435907B0D5FC/70971/cvmahesh.pdf|accessdate=23 July 2009|publisher=Ben-Gurion University|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728191134/http://cmsprod.bgu.ac.il/NR/rdonlyres/5FD14FA5-21C4-4676-A402-435907B0D5FC/70971/cvmahesh.pdf|archive-date=28 July 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Career==
Mahesh Rangarajan studied at Hindu College, Delhi University (1982-1985) and at the [[University of Oxford]] (1986-1993) where he was a Rhodes Scholar.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ashoka.edu.in/faculty#!/mahesh-rangarajan-36|title=Faculty/Staff {{!}} Ashoka University|last=University|first=Ashoka|website=Ashoka University|access-date=2017-10-01}}</ref> He worked as the assistant editor of [[The Telegraph (Kolkata)]] for a year during 1993–94. He taught at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA from 2002 to 2004, and served as Professor, Department of History, University of Delhi, 2007-2011 and as Director, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, 2011–2015. He was a Professor of Environmental Studies and History at [[Ashoka University]].<ref>http://www.ashoka.edu.in/</ref> He has recently been appointed as Vice-Chancellor of [[Krea University]].<ref>https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/education/krea-university-appoints-dr-mahesh-rangarajan-as-vice-chancellor/articleshow/81774884.cms?from=mdr/</ref>

In 2000 he co-authored ''Towards Co-existence'', and the following year a brief work, ''India's Wildlife History, An Introduction, Battles over Nature'', a book he co-authored with Vasanth Saberwal analyses present-day conservation conflicts and finds their roots in India's colonial past and in the [[governance]] system that was adopted as an independent nation state.<ref name=Infochange /> The book ''Making Conservation Work'' (2007) co-edited with Ghazala Shahabhuddin looks at ways of securing India's biodiversity in the new century. The same year 2007 he Co-edited a Reader ''Environmental Issues in India.'' He was a member of the founding team and corresponding editor of the Cambridge-based journal ''Environment and History'' (founded 1996) headed by [[Richard Grove]] and also of the journal ''Conservation and Society'' (founded 2003).<ref name=cv /> He is a member of the executive board of the ''Association of South Asian Environmental Historians''.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Official Website of the ASAEH|url=http://asaeh.org/asaofficers.htm|accessdate=23 July 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120726143141/http://asaeh.org/asaofficers.htm|archive-date=26 July 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Political commentary===
He is a columnist and essayist and writes frequently in the newspapers and magazines. He also appears on television as a [[political analyst]] during elections.<ref name=Times /> He is known for his commentary on issues and writes analytical articles for Indian and international media.<ref>{{cite news|title=Presidential candidates unsuitable|url=http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=125703|first=Pritha |last=Roy Chaudhry|date=19 July 2007|accessdate=23 July 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Decline of India's political leviathans|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7938859.stm|first=Mahesh|last=Rangarajan|agency=British Broadcasting Corporation|accessdate=23 July 2009|quote=...Mahesh Rangarajan analyses the decline of the country's national parties | date=20 March 2009|work=BBC News}}</ref>

==Awards==
In 1988, he was awarded the Martin Wright Prize at Balliol College and the Charles Wallace Scholar and Beit Scholar at Nuffield College, Oxford University in 1991.<ref name=cv /> He was a Junior fellow of the [[Nehru Memorial Museum & Library]]. He was awarded the TN Khooshoo Memorial Prize for Environment and Development in 2014.

==Books==
* ''Fencing the Forest, Conservation and Ecological Change in India’s Central Provinces, 1860-1914'', Oxford University Press, Delhi and Oxford, 1996; OUP Paperback, 1999.
* Ed., ''The Oxford Anthology of Indian Wildlife'', Volume I, ''Hunting and Shooting'', Oxford University Press, Delhi and Oxford.
* Ed., ''Volume II, Watching and Conserving,'' Oxford University Press, Delhi and Oxford.
* Co-authored with V.K. Saberwal and A. Kothari (2001), People, Parks and Wildlife: Towards Coexistence. New Delhi: [[Orient Longman]].
* India's Wildlife History: An Introduction Permanent Black in association with the Ranthambhore Foundation, Delhi, 2001, Paperback, 2006.
* Vasant Kabir Saberwal and M Rangarajan, Ed. Battles over Nature, Science and the politics of conservation, Permanent Black, Delhi, 2003, Paperback, 2006.
* Edited, Environmental Issues in India: A Reader, Delhi: Pearson Longman, Published January 2007.
* Ghazala Shahabuddin and Mahesh Rangarajan edited, Making Conservation Work, Securing biodiversity in this new century (Delhi: Permanent Black, June 2007).
* William McNeill, Jose Padua and Mahesh Rangarajan Ed. Environmental History As if Nature Existed, (Delhi: OUP, 2010).
* ed., Bharat main paryavaran ke mudde, Hindi translation of the Reader by Rita Sridhar, (Delhi: Pearson, 2009).
* Mahesh Rangarajan and K. Sivaramakrishnan Ed., India's Environmental History Volume I, From Earliest times to the Colonial Era. Volume II: Colonialism, Modernity and the Nation, (April 2012, pp. 1200).
* Mahesh Rangarajan, N. Balakrishnan, Deepa Bhatnagar eds., Selected Works of C. Rajagopalachari, Vol. 1, 1907-1921 (Hyderabad: Blackswan Pvt Ltd., 2013).
* Mahesh Rangarajan, MD Madhusudan and Ghazala Shahabuddin edited, Nature Without Borders,( Hyderabad: Orient Black Swan, 2014)
* M Rangarajan and K. Sivaramakrishnan ed. Shifting Ground, People, animals and mobility in India's Environmental history, (Delhi: OUP, 2014).
* Mahesh Rangarajan, Nature and Nation, Essays in Environmental History, ( Ranikhet: Permanent Black, 2015).

==See also==
* [[Ramachandra Guha]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
* [http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/taxonomy/term/7151 Featured Articles by Mahesh Rangarajan on India Environment Portal]
* [https://openlibrary.org/a/OL104827A/Mahesh-Rangarajan Bibliography on Open Library]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rangarajan, Mahesh}}
[[Category:20th-century Indian historians]]
[[Category:1964 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Writers from Delhi]]
[[Category:St. Columba's School, Delhi alumni]]
[[Category:Hindu College, Delhi alumni]]
[[Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Alumni of Nuffield College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Indian male essayists]]
[[Category:Psephologists]]
[[Category:Environmental historians]]
[[Category:Indian Rhodes Scholars]]
[[Category:University of Delhi faculty]]
[[Category:Historians of India]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian essayists]]
[[Category:Indian political scientists]]
[[Category:21st-century Indian historians]]

Mahesh Rangarajan - Revision history

imported>WikiCleanerBot at 09:13, 22 July 2021