There was stiff competition in this year’s BASAS PG Essay prize competition. Nevertheless, Meghmala Bhattacharya’s article, ‘History, Memory and Memorabilia: Remembering Resistance in the Life and Works of Kamala Dasgupta’ stood out as a sophisticated and engaging contribution. The judging panel appreciated the article’s careful treatment of source material, its engagement with processes of memorialisation and its reflection on ways in which women’s acts of violent resistance have been appropriated and entered into collective memory in different ways. This short paper shows strong potential to be developed into a significant contribution to the literature on history and memory, and the dynamics through which women’s contributions to the independence struggle are located in public discourse in India.

Meghmala Bhattacharya is a PhD student at Northumbria University.