V N Datta is Emeritus Professor of Modern History, Kurukshetra University and formerly general president of Indian History Congress, the Resident of Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge and Visiting Professor to a number of universities including Moscow, Leningrad and Berlin. Among his much acclaimed publications are Jallianwala Bagh (translated into Hindi and Punjabi), Sati: A Historical, Social and Philosophical Enquiry into the Hindu Rite of Widow- Burning and Mantana Azad. He has contributed articles regularly to learned journals and the popular press.