Professor SarDesai joined UCLA as a graduate student in 1961. He received a Ph.D. in History at UCLA and joined its faculty as Assistant Professor in 1966. He advanced to Full Professorship by 1977. Thereafter, he served the Department of History for periods of time as its Vice-Chair and Chair. As a historian of Southeast Asia, he served as the coordinator of UCLA’s program in South and Southeast Asian Studies for fourteen years. In 1998, he was recalled to hold the newly endowed Doshi Chair in Pre-modern Indian History.
In the days of the Vietnam War, Professor SarDesai’s classes on that nation were appreciated because he saw the conflict as an expression of the nationalist goals of the largely peasant communities of Vietnam, and not motivated by communism as was commonly assumed. SarDesai’s book, Vietnam: Past and Present, went into four editions.
Professor SarDesai's scholarly output includes 17 books on South and Southeast Asia, ranging from diplomatic history and economic history to nationalism and imperialism. His research and writing were generously supported by major funding agencies such as the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Institute of Indian Studies and UCLA. He was honored with numerous fellowships and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHS), London in 1976.
From 1993-1995, Professor SarDesai was the first Director of the University of California’s Education Abroad Program in New Delhi. He was President of the Asiatic Society of Bombay for a decade (1989-1999). When the Doshi Chair in Pre-Modern Indian History was endowed at UCLA in 1998, Professor SarDesai was its first holder. In 1999, Dr. SarDesai was instrumental in raising a quarter of a million dollars from the Indian-American community in Southern California to endow the Sardar Patel Award at UCLA. The award is given annually by UCLA's Center for India and South Asia to the best doctoral dissertation on any aspect of modern India. In 2005, the Yadunandan Center for India Studies at California State University, Long Beach conferred on him a Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 1982, the Indian state of Maharashtra honored him as a freedom-fighter for his vital contribution to the Goa freedom movement and in 2007, the government of Goa bestowed on him the Global Goan Award for his achievements over a lifetime.
Dr. SarDesai believed in taking the advanced scholarship in his favorite fields to the general public. He organized more than a dozen national and international conferences on a variety of topics ranging from “India and the Nuclear Question,” “The Kashmir Problem,” to “Indian-Americans : Heritage and Destiny,” and “Ayurveda as a System of Medicine”. Prof. SarDesai frequently appeared on radio and television.
Prof. SarDesai devoted his life to the field of South and Southeast Asian Studies, cared deeply about his students, and engaged the community in dialogue and discussion. He will be remembered and missed by those whose lives were changed for the better by his kindness, good humor, generosity and intelligence.
Published: Thursday, May 19, 2016
