Key activities

Research Interests
  • Transnational revolutionary networks
  • Global fascisms
  • The Cold War and decolonization
  • Historical theory and the historiography of postcolonialism
  • The World Wars and interwar political movements
  • The intellectual history of ‘development’ in its late colonial, postcolonial and Cold War contexts
  • Political rhetoric and standards of political legitimacy
  • Global movements of ideas
  • Nationalisms and constructions of identity in the colonial and postcolonial world
  • Political economy of imperialism and the post-war Commonwealth
  • International connections among socialists
  • Sectarian conflicts in colonial South Asia
  • Social and intellectual history of South Asia
Current Project
University Education
1994-1999 Trinity College, University of Cambridge
1990-1993 Presidency College, University of Calcutta
Academic Degrees
1995 MPhil, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge
1993 BA (Honours), History, Presidency College, University of Calcutta First Class, ranked first in the University of Calcutta
Promotion
1999 PhD, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge Titel: ‘Beyond Economics: Ideas of Developing India, c. 1930-1950’; Supervisor: Professor Geoffrey Hawthorn. Examiners: Professor CA Bayly, Professor Sudipta Kaviraj.
Work Experience
10/2013–03/2014 Indian Council for Cultural Relations Professor of South Asian History, Institut für Orientalistik, Martin Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg
08/2012–06/2013 Professor of History, Presidency University, Calcutta
seit 07/2012 Senior Research Fellow, Cluster of Excellence ‘Asia and Europe’, Karl Jaspers Centre for Advanced Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg University
11/2009–02/2010 Visiting Professor, Indian Ocean Studies, Jamia Millia University, New Delhi
SoSe 2009 Visiting Professor of Intellectual History, Heidelberg University, on the programme ‘Asia and Europe in a Global Context’
2008–2012 Reader in South Asian History, Department of History, University of Sheffield
2008–2012 Senior Research Fellow, Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin
08/2001 Senior Research Fellow, Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin
01/2001–05/2001 Lecturer and Tutor in History, University of Sussex
2001–2008 Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in International History, Department of History, University of Sheffield
01/2000–07/2001 Lecturer in History, Department of Cultural Studies, University of East London
1999–2000 Tutor in Development Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies
01/1997–03/1998 Lecturer and Tutor in History, University of Sussex
1996–2011 Visiting Professor, Presidency College, Calcutta
1993 Lecturer in History, St Xavier’s College, Calcutta
 

Bibliography, in preparation

Zachariah, Benjamin: India: The Road to the First Five-Year Plan, in: Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar (Hg.): Decolonization and the Politics of Transition in South Asia, New Delhi 2016,  S. 199–227.
Zachariah, Benjamin: Playing the Nation Game: The Ambiguities in India, Delhi 2nd2016.
Zachariah, Benjamin: Nazi-Hunting and Intelligence-Gatherin in India on the Eve of the Second World War, in: Jackson, Ashley/Khan, Yasmin/Singh, Gajendra (Hgg.): An Imperial World at War, Aldershot 2016,  S. 159–175.