Vyjayanti Raghavan is Professor and Chairperson, Centre for Korean Studies at the School of Language, Literature & Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. She has a Master’s Degree in Korean History from Seoul National University and a PhD from the Department of Disarmament, School of International Studies, JNU. She has been teaching Korean language and culture at JNU since 2000. She has co-authored and edited many books and contributed a number of articles to journals and newspapers. Some of her recent publications are the co-authored Sino-Indian and Sino-South Korean Relations (2014), Korean Wave in India: Present Status and Future Prospects (2012), and Comparative Security Dynamics in Northeast Asia and South Asia (2010), among others. Prof Raghavan has been a visiting scholar at Yonsei University, Republic of Korea and a Senior Research Fellow at the Academy of Korean Studies.

R. Mahalakshmi is Associate Professor at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. She specialises in the history of ancient and early medieval south India, and teaches several courses at the Master’s and research levels in this field. Her research interests include: religion and society, art and architecture, gender studies and political economy. She was awarded the Professor Hiralal Gupta Research Award for the best book by a lady historian by the Indian History Congress in 2013, for her work The Making of the Goddess: Korravai-Durga in the Tamil Traditions. She has also authored The Book of Lakshmi (2009). She is currently working on brahmanical influence and iconography in early medieval Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.

Aditya Mukherjee is Professor of Contemporary Indian History, Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, New Delhi. He is the Editor of the Sage Series in Modern Indian History (15 monographs already published). He was President of the Indian History Congress for Modern India, 2007-08. He has been Visiting Professor at Duke University, USA (1986), Japan Foundation Fellow (1999-2000), University of Tokyo and Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study, Lancaster, UK (October 2007), Fellow Institute of Advanced Study at Nantes, France (2010) and Visiting Professor at La Sapienza, University of Rome, Italy (2013). His publications include: India’s Struggle for Independence (1988, more than 50 reprint by 2014), and India Since Independence (2008), both translated into six languages. Imperialism, Nationalism and the Making of the Indian Capitalist Class 1927-1947 (2002); and RSS, School Texts and the Murder of Mahatma Gandhi: The Hindu Communal Project (2008, co-author). 

Alok Bajpai is an independent research scholar working on Mahatma Gandhi and Indian National Movement for over a decade. He has been a Fellow at Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, New Delhi. His research papers have been published in esteemed journals like Proceedings of Indian History Congress, Mainstream Weekly, and Quarterly Review of Historical Studies. He was awarded Prof P. S. Gupta Memorial Prize and J.C. Jha Prize in Indian History Congress in the year 2011.

Hulas Singh has done his MPhil and PhD from JNU, New Delhi. He specialises in intellectual history of 19th century Maharashtra. He is a senior public servant and has held several positions in Government of India. 

Mridula Mukherjee is Professor of Modern Indian History at the Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, New Delhi. She has been the Director of the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library; President of the Indian History Congress (Modern India); Dean, School of Social Sciences, JNU and Editor of Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru. She is the Editor of the Sage Series in Modern Indian History (14 monographs already published). She specialises in agrarian history, peasant movements, the Indian national movement and Gandhi. She has been a Visiting Scholar at Duke University, USA and University of Tokyo, Japan; a Visiting Fellow at Nantes Institute of Advanced Study, France and at Institutes of Advanced Study at Lancaster, UK and Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Visiting Professor at La Sapienza, The University of Rome, Italy. She has co-authored two best-selling books called India’s Struggle for Independence (1989, more than 50 reprints by 2014) and India Since Independence (2008), both of which have been translated into several languages. Her other publications are Peasants in India’s Non-violent Revolution, Practice and Theory (2004); Colonialising Agriculture: The Myth of Punjab Exceptionalism (2006); and RSS, School Textbooks and the Murder of Mahatma Gandhi: The Hindu Communal Project (2008). 

Neerja Singh is Associate Professor of History in Satyawati College (Eve.), University of Delhi, Delhi. She has published two books, namely Nehru-Patel: Agreement within Differences and Gandhi-Patel: Differences within Consensus. Her forthcoming book is called Myth of the Indian Right: Patel, Prasad and Rajaji. She has participated in various seminars and presented papers in India and abroad. She is also a UGC National Research Awardee.

Pankaj Mohan studied East Asian languages and history, initially at JNU, New Delhi, and subsequently at Peking University, Beijing, Seoul National University and the Australian National University, Canberra, from where he received his PhD degree. Prior to joining the University of Sydney in July 2002 as a tenured lecturer in Korean Studies/Asian Studies, he taught at the Australian National University for over six years and at the University of Copenhagen for three years. He has published numerous book chapters and papers on early Korean Buddhism in several journals, including Korea Journal, Seoul Journal of Korean Studies, Review of Korean Studies, Korea Observer, Journal of Inner and East Asian Studies and Korean Culture.

R. Venkataramanujam is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History, Madras Christian College (Autonomous), Chennai (since 2004). He did his MA (History) specialising in Modern India in the Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, New Delhi. He then pursued his research, specialising in diplomatic studies, in the School of International Studies, JNU, from where he secured his MPhil and PhD. He has presented papers in international and national conferences, and has a few publications to his credit. His present areas of research interest are colonialism and nationalism, and temple art and administration.

Rakesh Batabyal is a Concurrent Faculty, Centre for Media Studies, School of Social Sciences and Associate Professor/Deputy Director, Academic Staff College, JNU, New Delhi. He has taught Contemporary History of Communication, Graduate School of Information Studies, Tokyo University. He has recently chaired sessions on field reports from the Resource Persons of the Balbandhu Scheme of the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights, Discussant and Chaired session at the Review Meetings of the Balbandhu programme, NCPCR and the Seminar on BRICS and Regional Economic Powers in the Global Economy, Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Advanced Studies. He has published Communalism in Bengal: From Famine to Noakhali (1943-47) (2005), The Penguin Book of Modern Indian Speeches (Edited, with an Introduction, 2007) and JNU: The Making of a University (2014). 

Shin Yong-ha is a seminal thinker and foremost scholar of modern Korean history. He has studied at Seoul National University and Harvard University. He taught sociology and modern Korean history and served as Dean, College of Social Sciences at Seoul National University. He authored over 50 books on various aspects of Korean identity and the rise and development of Korea as a modern nation state. After retirement from Seoul National University, he was offered special chairs by several universities, including Hanyang University, Ehwa University and Ulsan University.

Shri Krishan completed his education from Delhi University and then JNU, New Delhi. He has published Political Mobilization and Identity in Western India: 1934-1947 (2005). He has contributed several research papers and articles in a number of important journals. He has also worked as a course writer and editor for Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi. He was a Senior Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, New Delhi (2009-2011). He is currently Chairperson, Department of History and Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences at Indira Gandhi University, Meerpur, Rewari, Haryana, India.

Sucheta Mahajan is Professor at the Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, New Delhi. She has been Gillespie Visiting Professor at the College of Wooster, Ohio, USA, a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center and a Visiting Professor at the Maison des Sciences de l’ homme, Paris. Her significant books include Independence and Partition: The Erosion of Colonial Power in India (2000); India’s Struggle for Independence (1988; with Bipan Chandra et al.); RSS, School Texts and the Murder of Mahatma Gandhi: The Hindu Communal Project (2008; with Aditya Mukherjee and Mridula Mukherjee) and Education and Social Change: MVF and Child Labour (2008). She has also edited many books such as Rites of Passage, A Civil Servant Remembers: H.M. Patel (2005); Composite Culture in a Multi-Cultural Society (co-edited with Bipan Chandra), and most recently, Towards Freedom 1947: Documents on India’s Freedom Struggle (2013). Her fields of interest cover the short and long history of the 20th century, its politics, political economy and social change.

Vipan Chandra is Professor of History, Emeritus, at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, USA. He taught there for 35 years before retiring in 2012. He is a specialist in modern Korean and Japanese history and has contributed a research monograph (cited in the Note on Sources to chapter 14) and many articles in his field since 1974. He is also a former columnist for The Korea Times and The Korea Herald. Prof Chandra received his early advanced degrees from Meerut College, Meerut, a diploma in the Korean language from Yonsei University, Seoul, and his MA degree and PhD in History and East Asian languages from Harvard University.

Visalakshi Menon was Associate Professor at Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi, New Delhi. She received her doctorate from JNU, New Delhi. Her publications include Indian Women and Nationalism: The U.P. Story (2003); From Movement to Government: The United Provinces, 1937-42 (2003); Modern India (co-authored with Narayani Gupta and Srimanjari, 2004); The Dynamics of the Congress in UP, 1945-55 (forthcoming); and Towards Freedom: Documents on India’s Freedom Struggle, 1942 (forthcoming). Her research interests covered nationalism and colonialism with special reference to gender and north India.

Vladimir Tikhonov is Professor of Korean and East Asia Studies at Oslo University. He is the author of Social Darwinism and Nationalism in Korea: The Beginnings (1880s–1910s) (2010). He is currently researching on modern nationalist thought and modern Buddhism in Korea.