Who is the author of the book ‘From Plassey to Partition and After : A History of Modern India’?

Correct — C. From Plassey to Partition and After: A History of Modern India was written by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay — option (c).

It is a single-volume survey of the whole colonial and national period, widely set as an undergraduate textbook.

The title is the mnemonic: Plassey fixes the start at 1757 and Partition the close at 1947, which is the standard span of modern Indian history.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Romila Thapar — Romila Thapar works on ancient India — Early India, and her studies of Ashoka and the Mauryas. Her period ends where this book begins.
• (b)
  Sumit Sarkar — Sumit Sarkar wrote Modern India 1885-1947 and The Swadeshi Movement in Bengal. Same period, different book, different author.
• (d)
  Devid Hardiman — The paper prints Devid Hardiman; the historian is David Hardiman, a Subaltern Studies scholar who wrote on Gandhi and on peasant movements in Gujarat, not this survey.

Author-and-book items are pure recall, but they become learnable if you file each book by the period it covers rather than by its title.

Ancient India goes to Romila Thapar. The late-colonial decades go to Sumit Sarkar. The full run from 1757 to after independence goes to Sekhar Bandyopadhyay.

Bandyopadhyay is a historian of modern India and of caste and politics in Bengal, and also wrote on the Namasudras of Bengal.

Key facts

• From Plassey to Partition and After is by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay.
• Sumit Sarkar wrote Modern India 1885-1947.
• Romila Thapar writes on ancient India, including Early India and studies of Ashoka.
• The Battle of Plassey was fought in 1757, the starting point the title names.

Common traps

• Choosing Sumit Sarkar because his survey covers overlapping ground.
• Treating Romila Thapar as a general historian of India rather than of the ancient period.

No directly related past PYQ was found.