Anniversary tribute: How TR Sareen helped scholars researching Indian freedom fighters overseas

Tilak Raj Sareen, whose first death anniversary is on March 8 , had an encyclopedic knowledge of the impact of Indian nationalists abroad on the Independence movement. He is best known for his work on the involvement of Japan before and during World War II.

His documentary histories are an archive in themselves. These contained a carefully selected set of key documents that explained the history, and helped researchers understand what else to search for, and where to find them.

This truly is his greatest legacy. As he explained, he did it so the subject could be more easily researched.

TR Sareen was born on February 5, 1935, in Lahore. His family moved to Delhi before Partition and he obtained his MA and PhD from Punjab University’s Camp College, named after Kingsway camp where its Indian campus had been relocated at this time.

He joined the National Archives of India in 1958, serving as its deputy director from 1979 to 1985. Then he became the director of the Indian Council of Historical Research till 1997, working with them as a consultant after his retirement. In the 1990s he was also a visiting Fellow at the University of Heidelberg, University of Tokyo and Senshu University.

While he was at the...

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