Historian VN Datta no more

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 30

Leading historian of modern India Vishwa Nath Datta, most celebrated for the pioneering work “Jallianwala Bagh”, passed away peacefully at his New Delhi residence this afternoon. He was 91.

Born into a famous business family of Amritsar, Datta was the first to chronicle the Jallianwala massacre and bring to light the findings of the Hunter Committee Report the British had long suppressed.

Datta’s father Brahm Nath Datta “Qasir” owned the famous Shankar Das Vishwa Nath Company in Amritsar and was a renowned Urdu-Persian poet and a Padma Shri.

Educated at Government College, Lahore, Lucknow University and Cambridge University, Datta went on to author several books, his latest being the history of The Tribune in 2011, entitled “The Tribune, 130 Years: A Witness to History”.

Datta’s long career included his time as a contributor to The Tribune in which he started writing as a student at Lahore and went on to author “Off the Shelf”, a well regarded column for years.

The late historian’s daughter, Nonica Datta, points out, “My father remained committed to the idea of The Tribune till the end of his life.”