Bimal Prasad is an India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n historian known for his scholarship on modern Indian history.

Academic career

Prasad was professor of history and then South Asian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University

Jawaharlal Nehru University

Jawaharlal Nehru University, also known as JNU, is located in New Delhi, the capital of India. It is mainly a research oriented postgraduate University with approximately 5,500 students and a faculty strength of around 550.-History:...

, and served as Dean, School of International Studies.

An intellectual with socialist inclinations, Prasad was associated with Jayaprakash Narayan

Jayaprakash Narayan

Jayaprakash Narayan , widely known as JP Narayan, Jayaprakash, or Loknayak, was an Indian independence activist and political leader, remembered especially for leading the opposition to Indira Gandhi in the 1970s and for giving a call for peaceful Total Revolution...

's mass movement in 1974-75, and has written / edited several books on Narayan.

He is known for his postcolonial analysis of the Indian independence movement

Indian independence movement

The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...

, particularly his work on the burgeoning foreign policy of the Indian national congress, and for his work communal relations during the British Raj

British Raj

British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

. He has also written several analyses of Foreign Affairs

Foreign Affairs

Foreign Affairs is an American magazine and website on international relations and U.S. foreign policy published since 1922 by the Council on Foreign Relations six times annually...

 in the South Asian region.

In addition to an impressive array of books, he has also contributed to many journals and volumes on modern Indian history

Diplomat

Prasad has had a long interest in the origins and ramifications of India's foreign policy, and his work on pre-independence foreign policy was a classic of postcolonial history.
He is known as an expert on relations within South Asia

South Asia

South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...

, and has had personal connections with many leaders from the region.

After retirement, he was appointed ambassador to Nepal

Nepal

Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

 by prime minister Chandrashekhar

Chandrashekhar

Chandrashekhar is a prolific Indian film actor working in the Bollywood film industry.He has appeared in some 112 films since his 1954 in Aurat Teri Yehi Kahani .In 1984 he appeared in Sharaabi....

 (1991–1995). In this position, he was discomfited by the intense public gaze on the Indian ambassador:

I was a simple professor ... But the way they talked about me made me feel that I had become very important in my life.

During his tenure, he worked with Indian prime ministers P V Narasimha Rao and his Nepali counterpart Girija Prasad Koirala

Girija Prasad Koirala

Girija Prasad Koirala was a Nepalese politician and the President of the Nepali Congress, a major political party. He was Prime Minister of Nepal for four times, serving from 1991 to 1994, 1998 to 1999, 2000 to 2001, and from 2006 to 2008; he was also Acting Head of State from January 2007 to July...

 to enhance India's aid to Nepal. The BP Koirala Nepal India Foundation was also set up in this period.

For some time he also served as director, Gandhian Institute, Varanasi

Varanasi

-Etymology:The name Varanasi has its origin possibly from the names of the two rivers Varuna and Assi, for the old city lies in the north shores of the Ganga bounded by its two tributaries, the Varuna and the Asi, with the Ganges being to its south...

.
He is presently the honorary director of the Rajendra Prasad Academy, and a fellow with the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi.

Books

• Selected works of Jayaprakash Narayan, ed. Bimal Prasad 1964
• The origins of Indian foreign policy: the Indian National Congress and world affairs, 1885-1947, Bimal Prasad, 1962
• Indo-Soviet relations, 1947-1972: a documentary study, Bimal Prasad, 1969
• India's foreign policy: studies in continuity and change, ed. Bimal Prasad, 1979
• A revolutionary's quest: selected writings of Jayaprakash Narayan, 1980
• Gandhi, Nehru & J.P.: studies in leadership, Bimal Prasad 1985
• Regional cooperation in South Asia: problems & prospects, Bimal Prasad, 1989
• Prospects for Greater Cooperation in South Asia: the Political Dimensions, Bimal Prasad, 1996
• Pathways to India’s Partition, vol I: The Foundations of Muslim Nationalism, Bimal Prasad, 1999
• Pathway to India's Partition vol II: A nation within a nation, Bimal Prasad 2000
• Jayaprakash Narayan: 1939-1946, Bimal Prasad, 2003