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Ramachandra Guha Biography: Age, Career, Family and More

F4U Editorial Desk • Updated October 6, 2026 • 3 min read

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Quick Info

Date of birth29 April 1958

Age67 Years (as of 2025)

BirthplaceDehra Dun, Uttar Pradesh (now Uttarakhand), India

ProfessionHistorian

NationalityIndian

Marital statusMarried

SpouseSujata Keshavan

FamilyFather: Subramaniam Ramdas Guha (forest official); Mother: high-school teacher; 2 children

Ramachandra Guha Biography

Ramachandra Guha is an Indian historian and writer known for his wide-ranging work on environmental history, cricket, and modern India. A recipient of the

Early life and background

Ramachandra Guha was born on 29 April 1958 in Dehra Dun (then part of Uttar Pradesh, now in Uttarakhand). He grew up in a Tamil family; his father worked as a forest official and his mother was a high-school teacher. Guha attended The Doon School in Dehradun, where he served as an editor of the school weekly.

He completed a BA in Economics in 1977 at St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, followed by a master’s degree from the Delhi School of Economics. He later undertook a fellowship program at IIM Calcutta on the social history of forestry in Uttarakhand, a qualification described as equivalent to a PhD.

Career

Guha established himself as a historian with a strong interest in environmental and social history. His first major book, The Unquiet Woods: Ecological Change and Peasant Resistance in the Himalaya, was published in 1989 and addressed forest use and local resistance in the Himalayan region. He has written on a broad range of topics including the environment, cricket, post-independence national history, and tribal communities.

From the mid-1980s through 2000 Guha taught at universities across India, North America and Europe. His academic appointments included periods at Yale University, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Oslo, and Stanford University. After moving to Bangalore in the mid-1990s he transitioned to being a full-time writer while also serving as a visiting professor at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru.

Guha’s A Corner of a Foreign Field: The Indian History of a British Sport explored the history of cricket in India and received significant critical attention. His book India After Gandhi, a wide-ranging political and social history of independent India, became one of his most noted works and won the Sahitya Akademi Award.

Public profile

Guha’s writing and public work have earned him multiple honors. He received the Leopold-Hidy Prize from the American Society for Environmental History in 2001 for an essay on the prehistory of community forestry in India. In 2002 he won the Daily Telegraph Cricket Society Book of the Year prize for A Corner of a Foreign Field, and in 2003 he received the R. K. Narayan Prize at the Chennai Book Fair. He was included in Foreign Policy magazine’s list of the world’s top 100 public intellectuals in 2008. The Government of India awarded him the Padma Bhushan in 2009. In 2015 he was awarded the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize.

In addition to the Sahitya Akademi Award for India After Gandhi in 2011, Guha’s scholarship, essays and books have made him a prominent public intellectual in India and abroad. He has been described in public discourse as a prolific historian who moves comfortably between environmental history, cultural topics such as cricket, and national political history.

Personal life

Guha is married to Sujata Keshavan, a graphic designer, and they have two children. He has lived in Bengaluru since the mid-1990s. His personal tastes as reported include an interest in reading, writing and travel. He has identified Mahatma Gandhi as a favorite leader and has expressed an interest in cricket, naming Sachin Tendulkar as a favorite cricketer.

Latest updates

In January 2017 the Supreme Court of India constituted a committee to run the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) following administrative interventions; Guha was named among the members of that panel alongside Diana Edulji and Vikram Limaye. This was part of a larger judiciary-led effort to implement reforms recommended by the Lodha Committee.

Guha’s body of work continues to be read and cited across academic and public conversations on India’s environment, society and culture. He remains active as an author and commentator, known for bringing historical perspective to contemporary debates.

Editorial Review and Sources

This F4U profile is written from publicly available career and profile information, then reviewed for clarity before publication. If you spot an outdated detail about Ramachandra Guha, send the page URL and a reliable correction source to f4udotin@gmail.com.

Reference context: StarsUnfolded

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Recent Work

India After Gandhi

A comprehensive history of post-independence India that won the Sahitya Akademi Award.

2007
A Corner of a Foreign Field

History of cricket in India that received the Daily Telegraph Cricket Society Book of the Year prize.

2002
The Unquiet Woods

Study of ecological change and peasant resistance in the Himalaya, his first major book published in 1989.

1989
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Career Highlights

  1. Leopold-Hidy Prize (American Society for Environmental History) for an essay on community forestry (2001)
  2. Daily Telegraph Cricket Society Book of the Year for A Corner of a Foreign Field (2002)
  3. R. K. Narayan Prize at the Chennai Book Fair (2003)
  4. Listed in Foreign Policy’s top 100 public intellectuals (2008)
  5. Padma Bhushan, Government of India (2009)
  6. Sahitya Akademi Award for India After Gandhi (2011)
Reviewed by F4U Editorial Desk

F4U profile pages are prepared from public career information, checked for readability, and updated when reliable correction sources are shared with the editorial team.

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Frequently Asked Questions

When was Ramachandra Guha born?

Ramachandra Guha was born on 29 April 1958.

What is Ramachandra Guha known for?

Ramachandra Guha is known for historian.

What is Ramachandra Guha’s marital status?

Ramachandra Guha's marital status is listed as Married.

Who is Ramachandra Guha married to?

Ramachandra Guha is publicly listed as married to Sujata Keshavan.