Historian Ramchandra Guha was to join Ahmedabad University, a private institution, as the Shrenik Lalbhai Professor of the Humanities.
New Delhi: Noted historian Ramachandra Guha has unexpectedly gone back on his decision to join Ahmedabad University, a private institution in Gujarat where he was to be a visiting faculty, citing “unavoidable circumstances”.
Around 15 days ago, Guha had announced on his social media handle that he was pleased to join Ahmedabad University.
“Very pleased to share the news that I shall be joining Ahmedabad University as the Shrenik Lalbhai Professor of the Humanities,” he had tweeted.
But Thursday morning, he went back on his decision, tweeting that he would not be joining the university due to “circumstances beyond my control.”
Guha refused to comment further on the development, telling ThePrint that he had “nothing more to add”.
The university officials said they no idea of Guha’s decision and found out about it from his social media account.
“We had no idea about Guha’s decision. Like everyone else, we also got to know of it from his tweet,” B.M Shah, registrar, Ahmedabad University, told ThePrint over the phone.
“Our vice-chancellor is currently travelling, hence we could not hear from him as well on the reason. It will take some time before we can say anything.”
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Was to hold chair in university
Guha was supposed to join as the Shrenik Lalbhai Chair Professor of Humanities and as Director of Gandhi Winter School at the University’s School of Arts and Sciences.
At the university, Guha was supposed to design an interdisciplinary curriculum for the new Arts and Science School. His task was to make history intersect with humanities, technology and even core science disciplines such as life sciences.
Guha had earlier said that he was impressed by the multi-disciplinarily of the university. It is well known for its courses in Gandhian Studies.