Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched 'Waiting for Shiva: Unearthing the Truth of Kashi’s Gyan Vapi', whose author Vikram Sampath said 'shrines fell, shrines rose but Hindus of Kashi never gave up'.
Author Patrick Olivelle's book, 'Ashoka: Portrait of a Philosopher King', locates history within legends and mythologies by tracing the Buddhist king's intellectual journey.
Indian Americans who have written 'Ten Heads of Ravana' aim to decolonise the Indian mindset. Why do they not send their children to Sanskrit schools in India but to prestigious universities in US?
Historians including Romila Thapar & Jayati Ghosh, have condemned NCERT move of dropping topics like history of Mughal courts, 2002 Gujarat riots and more, terming it 'divisive'.
Romila Thapar’s lecture 'Our history, their history, whose history' amid online threats focused on the dissemination of history as it is today—rife with disproven stories.
One has to be incredibly credulous to buy BJP spin masters’ argument that the government got rid of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar for harmonious relationship with the judiciary.
Modi government had also made numerous efforts to establish peace with Pakistan but has now adopted a different path, militarily, to establish peace, adds defence minister.
As Narendra Modi becomes India’s second-longest consecutively serving Prime Minister, we look at how he compares with Indira Gandhi across four key dimensions.
Ruchika Sharma, a historian regularly criticized Hindus on her podcast. She then criticised hijab and was trolled and given Sar Tan se juda slogans. No liberal came to her aid, criticising her atheism instead. They said she should be gentle with Muslims in the ‘context’ of the country. She finally declared she will only criticise Hindus.
If in this entire episode, people dont balk at the overall hypocrisy of the historian and the liberals and everyone else, I dont think Swapna will understand why people deride historians. This is not fashion.
While the author pretends to be neutral, she overlooks the Leftist and Liberal agendas to whitewash history.
It is strange to see her arguing for historical selectivity of facts. Bu perhaps not strange, as EH Carr, the progenitor of this view was a famous British Marxist himself.
Swapna Liddle is distorting the facts as befits most of her ilk.
The marxist historians , who have whitewashed the islamic invasion of bharta, are derided because of their despicable work. and rightly so. This author is no exception. No apology , no sorry and no mea culpa for writing politically correct stories as histroy..but the sense of entitlement for pointing out their errors. Yoiu will be called out for idiocy just like others. Cope with it
The ideologically motivated historian is not a straw man. The historians get paid through cushy positions in academia and through fellowships, honors or prizes. These are only given to those who go with the program. You cannot succeed without being a leftist here. As a student of history in University of Mumbai I can attest to this. There is zero scope for anything outside the left wing condemnation of Hindus. Promote Islam, communism, division, anything but a good past.
Ms. Swapna Liddle, why did you not back up Prof. Ruchika Sharma in her battle against the regressive practice of hijab? She has been getting “sar tan se juda” threats for speaking out against the imposition of hijab in X. Yet, none of the “liberal” academic activists have come out and defended her.
Your hypocrisy speaks for itself.
A very balanced article that calls for understanding the importance of rigor and maintaining ojectivity. Good message to build bridges between academic research and popular history is a step forward in countering the curse of so much fake history floating about on Whatapp and social media. Much work needs to be done in this direction.
I would like to see historians discuss stories of how Marxists suppressed development, made everyone poor and either crashed aka Russia or ran to capitalism aka China and did Taqiyya about it. They wont write about that. They wont write about how arrogant knowledgeless lawyers claiming to know the good of people better than them, destroyed Indian economy and instead of apologising used it to tease and bully Indians calling it Hindu rate of growth. As if Hinduism was to blame for their bad decisions. It should be called Marxist rate of growth in suppressed colonies. Hindu rate of growth gets you medieval India. A rich place looted by invaders and then called poor and nasty by these dregs.
How do you not talk about Marxists and their stranglehold on India’s history writing? how can you skip that? People love stories, whether of movie kind or from our collective pasts. What we all absolutely hate is propaganda. And such historians should find no respect as historians. Irrespective of which side they come from.
It’s interesting that the writer completely bypasses the issue of Marxist based historians and their convenient interpretation of history to suit their ideology. Marxists and the colonial “historians” are 2 sides of the same coin! Both manipulated history all across the world to suit their ideologies. I am not sure whether the writer here is a Marxist but the fact that she ignored this aspect makes me believe she is one
Its not fashionable. Its simple. Historians work with really small quantities of raw data in India. Unlike China written traditions are not rife. So it is up to the historians to interpolate to bridge gaps. They do so as interpreting the data and always with their own biases. Historians also tend to discount arbritrarily the credibility of sources. The British did this to suppress the colonized. The communists to make past appear all bad to show Marxism as the required savior. Its either native past bad per British or dont feel good about your past per communists. Current academic historians inherit both these traditions and add elitism to the mix. No wonder they need to beg to be believed. Romila Thapar deigned to interpret and evaluate Indian texts without knowing Sanskrit. Academic hypocrisy and entitled elitist behavior is endless. It is only rivalled by political dynasts in this country who expect power, their sponsors. If any independent research is done not blessed by the fossils, it is Whatsapp. Ancient India had evolved plastic surgery per Charaka. Noses were replaced here more than elsewhere. Connect that to Ganesha call it whatsapp discount reality. Historians need to find a living outside their current globalist master’s sponsorship. Stop depending on prizes that beholden you. If you have guts write true stories. They will be believed and sold to give you an income.
Ruchika Sharma, a historian regularly criticized Hindus on her podcast. She then criticised hijab and was trolled and given Sar Tan se juda slogans. No liberal came to her aid, criticising her atheism instead. They said she should be gentle with Muslims in the ‘context’ of the country. She finally declared she will only criticise Hindus.
If in this entire episode, people dont balk at the overall hypocrisy of the historian and the liberals and everyone else, I dont think Swapna will understand why people deride historians. This is not fashion.
While the author pretends to be neutral, she overlooks the Leftist and Liberal agendas to whitewash history.
It is strange to see her arguing for historical selectivity of facts. Bu perhaps not strange, as EH Carr, the progenitor of this view was a famous British Marxist himself.
Swapna Liddle is distorting the facts as befits most of her ilk.
The marxist historians , who have whitewashed the islamic invasion of bharta, are derided because of their despicable work. and rightly so. This author is no exception. No apology , no sorry and no mea culpa for writing politically correct stories as histroy..but the sense of entitlement for pointing out their errors. Yoiu will be called out for idiocy just like others. Cope with it
The ideologically motivated historian is not a straw man. The historians get paid through cushy positions in academia and through fellowships, honors or prizes. These are only given to those who go with the program. You cannot succeed without being a leftist here. As a student of history in University of Mumbai I can attest to this. There is zero scope for anything outside the left wing condemnation of Hindus. Promote Islam, communism, division, anything but a good past.
Ms. Swapna Liddle, why did you not back up Prof. Ruchika Sharma in her battle against the regressive practice of hijab? She has been getting “sar tan se juda” threats for speaking out against the imposition of hijab in X. Yet, none of the “liberal” academic activists have come out and defended her.
Your hypocrisy speaks for itself.
A very balanced article that calls for understanding the importance of rigor and maintaining ojectivity. Good message to build bridges between academic research and popular history is a step forward in countering the curse of so much fake history floating about on Whatapp and social media. Much work needs to be done in this direction.
I would like to see historians discuss stories of how Marxists suppressed development, made everyone poor and either crashed aka Russia or ran to capitalism aka China and did Taqiyya about it. They wont write about that. They wont write about how arrogant knowledgeless lawyers claiming to know the good of people better than them, destroyed Indian economy and instead of apologising used it to tease and bully Indians calling it Hindu rate of growth. As if Hinduism was to blame for their bad decisions. It should be called Marxist rate of growth in suppressed colonies. Hindu rate of growth gets you medieval India. A rich place looted by invaders and then called poor and nasty by these dregs.
How do you not talk about Marxists and their stranglehold on India’s history writing? how can you skip that? People love stories, whether of movie kind or from our collective pasts. What we all absolutely hate is propaganda. And such historians should find no respect as historians. Irrespective of which side they come from.
It’s interesting that the writer completely bypasses the issue of Marxist based historians and their convenient interpretation of history to suit their ideology. Marxists and the colonial “historians” are 2 sides of the same coin! Both manipulated history all across the world to suit their ideologies. I am not sure whether the writer here is a Marxist but the fact that she ignored this aspect makes me believe she is one
Its not fashionable. Its simple. Historians work with really small quantities of raw data in India. Unlike China written traditions are not rife. So it is up to the historians to interpolate to bridge gaps. They do so as interpreting the data and always with their own biases. Historians also tend to discount arbritrarily the credibility of sources. The British did this to suppress the colonized. The communists to make past appear all bad to show Marxism as the required savior. Its either native past bad per British or dont feel good about your past per communists. Current academic historians inherit both these traditions and add elitism to the mix. No wonder they need to beg to be believed. Romila Thapar deigned to interpret and evaluate Indian texts without knowing Sanskrit. Academic hypocrisy and entitled elitist behavior is endless. It is only rivalled by political dynasts in this country who expect power, their sponsors. If any independent research is done not blessed by the fossils, it is Whatsapp. Ancient India had evolved plastic surgery per Charaka. Noses were replaced here more than elsewhere. Connect that to Ganesha call it whatsapp discount reality. Historians need to find a living outside their current globalist master’s sponsorship. Stop depending on prizes that beholden you. If you have guts write true stories. They will be believed and sold to give you an income.