"An overview of nationalism and its impact on the study of history from one of India's most prominent historians.
In this timely book, historian Romila Thapar delves into the complex world of nationalisms and its impact on the interpretations of the past and on the discipline of history itself. History, she expounds, is no mere collection of information and chronology and its purpose extends well beyond storytelling.
Recognizing nationalism as a powerful force that gives rise to various narratives that provide ancestry to communities and shape the direction of societies, Thapar explores how, in India, two conflicting notions of nationalism have evolved and shaped the idea of the nation. Today, one such nationalistic theory claims the victimization of one religious community by another through centuries of 'misrule'. Such a claim willfully ignores ample evidence to the contrary to suit a particular political and ideological purpose. Thapar counters such attempts at misrepresentation by citing several historical instances of the nuanced interface and intermingling of cultures, as well as by showing how today's conflicts have their roots in the British colonial construction of India's history. She also addresses the recent controversy surrounding the deletions of sections of Indian history textbooks published by NCERT, the Indian educational council and suggests that the intention is more likely to be the promotion of a particular reading of history that conforms to the ideology of those in power.
Engaging and thought-provoking, Our History, Their History, Whose History? invites readers to question the authenticity of historical narratives touted by one group of nationalists and it explores the clash between professional historians who study the past to understand our inherited present and fabricators who wield history for political gain."
"Written by one of India's best-known public intellectuals, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in India's fascinating history as well as the direction in which the nation is headed.
People have argued since time immemorial. Disagreement is a part of life, of human experience. But we now live in times when any form of protest in India is marked as anti-Indian and met with arguments that the very concept of dissent was imported into India from the West. As Romila Thapar explores in her timely historical essay, however, dissent has a long history in the subcontinent, even if its forms have evolved through the centuries.
In Voices of Dissent: An Essay, Thapar looks at the articulation of nonviolent dissent and relates it to various pivotal moments throughout India's history. Beginning with Vedic times, she takes us from the second to the first millennium BCE, to the emergence of groups that were jointly called the Shramanas-the Jainas, Buddhists, and Ajivikas. Going forward in time, she also explores the views of the Bhakti sants and others of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and brings us to a major moment of dissent that helped to establish a free and democratic India: Mahatma Gandhi's satyagraha. Then Thapar places in context the recent peaceful protests against India's new, controversial citizenship law, maintaining that dissent in our time must be opposed to injustice and supportive of democratic rights so that society may change for the better."
"പാസ്റ്റ് അസ് പ്രസന്‍റെ ( The Past As Present ) എന്ന ഇംഗ്ലീഷ് പുസ്തകത്തിന്‍റെ മലയാള പരിഭാഷയാണ് ചരിത്രാവര്‍ത്തനം. സോയ് ജോസാണ് പുസ്തകത്തിന്‍റെ പരിഭാഷ നിര്‍വഹിച്ചത്. മതം, വർഗീയത, സ്വത്വബോധം, മതഗ്രന്ഥങ്ങൾ, സ്ത്രീ സമത്വവാദം, അക്കാദമികരംഗത്തെ വർഗീയവത്കരണം, ചരിത്രപഠനം എന്നിവയെക്കുറിച്ച് ഇന്ത്യയിലെ വിഖ്യാത ചരിത്രകാരിയായ റൊമില ഥാപ്പർ നടത്തിയ പഠനങ്ങൾ. സമകാലിക ഇന്ത്യൻ സമൂഹം ഉന്നയിക്കേണ്ട ചോദ്യങ്ങൾ മുന്നോട്ടു വയ്ക്കുന്ന ഈ പുസ്തകം ഭൂതകാലത്തെക്കുറിച്ച് ചരിത്രപ്രചാരത്തിലുണ്ടായിരുന്ന കാഴ്ചപ്പാടുകളെ വിലയിരുത്തിക്കൊണ്ട് യഥാർത്ഥ വസ്തുതകൾ അവതരിപ്പിക്കുന്നു."
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