In Defence of the Indian Historian Romila Thapar

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire Alert !
28 April 2003

[ Groups of the Hindu Supremacist Right are now attacking Dr. Romila 
Thapar one of India's most distinguished and well known historians. 
The Library of Congress in Washington recently named Romila Thapar as 
=46irst Holder of the Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the 
South. Activists of the Hindu Right are currently running a petition 
against her appointment. Romila Thapar like many of her colleagues 
from Indian intelligentsia have written and spoken against the 
systematic onslaught on the secular foundations of the educational 
system by the forces of the Hindu right. Here is some information and 
background information below for those who may want to take this 
issue up and write about the implications of the ongoing cabal by 
Hindutva propagandists to promote "rewriting" of history text books 
and to target India's well known historians and intellectuals who 
question these moves.]

Contents:

#1. Romila Thapar's appointment to Library of Congress opposed (News 
report on Rediff.com)
#2. Text of the slanderous Online Petition by Hindu Fundamentalists 
Against Dr. Romila Thapar
#3. Romila Thapar as First Holder of the Kluge Chair in Countries and 
Cultures of the South News from the Library of Congress April 17, 2003
#4.  List of well known books by Romila Thapar
#5. Two recent Book reviews of 'In Early India, Romila Thapar'  (by 
Sanjay Subrahmanyam and K.M. Shrimali
#6. URLS of some lectures and interviews with Romila Thapar
#7. URLS of documentation on assault on established historical 
research and on intellectuals and artists in India


____________


#1.

Rediff.com (India)
25 Apr 2003
http://www.rediff.com/us/2003/apr/25us1.htm

Romila Thapar's appointment to Library of Congress opposed

April 25, 2003 05:33 IST

A petition is circulating on the Internet against the appointment of
Professor Romila Thapar as First Holder of the Kluge Chair in
Countries and Cultures of the South at the Library of Congress. 

The petitioners allege that she is a Marxist and anti-Hindu and it is
a waste of US money to support a Leftist. 

The Librarian of Congress, James H Billington, appointed Thapar
last week and she has already started work, Robert Saladini, a
spokesperson for the library, said. He said he has no information
on the petition. 

The petition can be viewed at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/108india/petition.html 

The holder of the chair, which is located in the John W Kluge
Center of the Library of Congress, pursues research on the regions
of Africa, Latin America, West Asia, South and Southeast Asia, or
the islands of the Pacific including Australia and New Zealand,
using the immense foreign language collections in the specialised
reading rooms of the Library of Congress. 

Thapar will spend ten months at the John W Kluge Center
pursuing 'Historical Consciousness in Early India' as her area of
research.

Thapar, emeritus professor of Ancient Indian History at Jawaharlal
Nehru University in New Delhi, who has served as visiting
professor at Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania,
is an authority on Indian history.

The author of many seminal works on the history of ancient India,
her volume of the 'Penguin History of India' has been continuously
in print since 1966. Her latest publication is 'Early India: From the
Origins to AD 1300'. Other recent works are 'History and Beyond'
and 'Cultural Pasts: Essays in Early Indian History'.

She has held many visiting posts in Europe, the United States and
Japan. She is an Honorary Fellow at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford,
and at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of
London. She has honorary doctorates from the University of
Chicago, the Institute National des Langues et Civilisations
Orientales in Paris, the University of Oxford and the University of
Calcutta. 

Through a generous endowment from John W Kluge, the Library
of Congress established the center in 2000 to bring together the
world's best thinkers to stimulate, energise, and distil wisdom from
the library's rich resources and to interact with policy makers in
Washington, DC.

The center houses five senior Kluge Chairs.

The petitioners say: "It is a great travesty that Romila Thapar has
been appointed the first holder of the Kluge Chair. 

"In regards to India, she is an avowed antagonist of India's Hindu
civilization as a well-known Marxist. She represents a completely
Euro-centric worldview. I fail to see how she can be the correct
choice to represent India's ancient history and civilization.

"She completely disavows that India ever had a history. The
ongoing campaign by Romila Thapar and others to discredit Hindu
civilization is a war of cultural genocide. By your unfortunate
selection of Thapar, America is now aiding and abetting this
effort." 

The petition has 133 signatures already. One of the signatories,
Hari Singh, said: "The comments from Ms Thapar are disgusting
and are reflection of her ignorance of Indian History." 

Venkatesh, another signatory, commented, "It's a shame to the
USA & Indian govt. that a Communist like Romila Thapar is
having a free run."

o o o


#2.


[TEXT OF THE PETITION  BY HINDU FUNDAMENTALISTS AGAINST DR. ROMILA THAPAR]

o o o

Protest US Supported Marxist Assault Against Hindus

To:  US Library of Congress

It is a great travesty that Romila
Thapar has been appointed the first holder of the Kluge Chair in
Countries and Cultures of the South at the Library of
Congress.

In regards to India, she is an avowed antagonist of
India's Hindu civilization. As a well-known Marxist,
she represents a completely Euro-centric world view.
I fail to see how she can be the correct choice to
represent India's ancient history and civilization.
She completely disavows that India ever had a history.

Just as the Europeans discredited the American
Indian's land claims by ignoring that they represented
a unique civilization with a wholesome variety of
distinct linguistic and cultural traits, Thapar has
long expounded the same ignorant view of India's
unique history and civilization.

The ongoing campaign by Romila Thapar and others to
discredit Hindu civilization is a war of cultural
genocide. By your unfortunate selection of R.Thapar
for the Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the
South at the Library of Congress, America is now aiding and
abbeting this effort.

The result of her "Historical Consciousness in Early
India" is already a foregone conclusion. She will of
course attempt to show that Early India had no
historical consciousness.

Why waste our American resources on a
Marxist idealogical assault on Hindu
civilization?Hinduism is the world's most ancient,
ongoing and largest cultural phenonmenon. Such a long
lived civilization surely has alot to teach the world.
So why support its denigration? As a Friend of India, I
protest this appointment.

Sincerely,


_____


#3.

http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2003/03-068.html
News from the Library of Congress
Public Affairs Office
101 Independence Avenue SE
Washington, DC
20540-1610
tel (202) 707-2905
fax (202) 707-9199
e-mail pao@loc.gov

April 17, 2003

Contact:
Helen Dalrymple (202) 707-1940
Robert Saladini (202) 707-2692
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Romila Thapar Named as First Holder of the Kluge Chair in Countries 
and Cultures of the South at Library of Congress

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has appointed Romila Thapar 
as the first holder of the Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of 
the South at the Library of Congress. The holder of this chair, which 
is located in the John W. Kluge Center of the Library of Congress, 
pursues research on the regions of Africa, Latin America, the Middle 
East, South and Southeast Asia, or the islands of the Pacific 
including Australia and New Zealand, using the immense foreign 
language collections in the specialized reading rooms of the Library 
of Congress.

As occupant of the Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the 
South, Thapar will spend ten months at the John W. Kluge Center 
pursuing "Historical Consciousness in Early India" as her area of 
research.

Romila Thapar, emeritus professor of Ancient Indian History at 
Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Dehli, who has served as visiting 
professor at Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania, 
is a recognized authority on Indian history. The author of many 
seminal works on the history of ancient India, her volume of the 
Penguin History of India has been continuously in print since 1966. 
Her latest publication is "Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300." 
Other recent works are "History and Beyond," "Cultural Pasts: Essays 
in Early Indian History," and "History and Beyond." In her published 
works, Thapar has pioneered both the study of early Indian texts as 
history and the integration of the critical use of archaeology with 
written sources.

During her illustrious career, Thapar has held many visiting posts in 
Europe, the United States and Japan. She is an Honorary Fellow at 
Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and at the School of Oriental and African 
Studies (SOAS), University of London. She has honorary doctorates 
from the University of Chicago, the Institut National des Langues et 
Civilisations Orientales in Paris, the University of Oxford and the 
University of Calcutta.

Through a generous endowment from its namesake, the Library of 
Congress established the John W. Kluge Center in 2000 to bring 
together the world's best thinkers to stimulate, energize, and 
distill wisdom from the Library's rich resources and to interact with 
policymakers in Washington, D.C. The Kluge Center houses five senior 
Kluge Chairs (American Law and Governance, Countries and Cultures of 
the North, Countries and Cultures of the South, Technology and 
Society, and Modern Culture); other senior-level chairs (Henry A. 
Kissinger Chair, Cary and Ann Maguire Chair in American History and 
Ethics, and the Harissios Papamarkou Chair in Education); and nearly 
25 post-doctoral fellows.

=46or more information about the Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures 
of the South or any of the other fellowships and grants offered by 
the John W. Kluge Center, contact the Office of Scholarly Programs, 
Library of Congress, 101 Independence Avenue S.E, Washington, DC 
20540-4860; telephone (202) 707-3302, fax 202-707-3595, web: 
http://www.loc.gov/loc/kluge/.

# # #

PR 03-68
04/17/03
ISSN 0731-3527

_____


#3.

[Writings by Dr. Romila Thapar are too numerous to list, but most of 
her well known books are listed below]

- Cultural Pasts - Essays in Early Indian History
by Romila Thapar
Oxford University Press  2003
http://www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-566487-6

-The Penguin History of Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300
by Romila Thapar
http://www.penguinbooksindia.com/Books/aspBookDetail.asp?ID=3D5164

- Sakuntala: Texts, Readings, Histories
Romila Thapar
Kali for Women, (1999 / 2000)

- Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas
With a New Afterword Bibliography and Index
by Romila Thapar
Oxford University Press, May 1998

- Recent perspectives of early Indian history. Thapar Romila. (ed).
Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1995.

- Interpreting Early India
by Romila Thapar
Oxford University Press 1994

- Ancient Indian Social History.by Romila Thapar
New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1979.

- History of India, Vol. 2
by Percival George Spear and Romila Thapar
Penguin

- A History of India, Vol. 1
by Romila Thapar
Penguin (1966)

_____


#4.

[ 2 Recent Book Reviews of 'Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300'  ]

The Hindu
Sunday, Apr 06, 2003
Literary Review
http://www.hinduonnet.com/lr/stories/2003040600110200.htm

Monumental history

In Early India, Romila Thapar attempts the grand sweep, reconciling 
diverse trends and adjudicating between rival positions. SANJAY 
SUBRAHMANYAM, though appreciative of the balanced tone, would have 
preferred some fireworks thrown in too.

A CERTAIN Indian social scientist living in New York, who shall 
naturally remain unnamed here, is believed to have boasted to his 
colleagues that he was "like the Taj Mahal - everyone who visits the 
city has to come and see me." Romila Thapar, who is today a very 
young 72 and rather more modest than the person mentioned above, is a 
monument of sorts too in the Indian historiography, though the 
appropriate comparison may be to the Jantar Mantar rather than to the 
Taj Mahal. By this I mean that with her work, the emphasis is on 
utility rather than pure aesthetic appeal, even though a certain 
residual enigmatic quality remains. And to push the metaphor to its 
conclusion, like that monument located on Sansad Marg, she has 
managed to be both centrally located and to maintain a distance from 
the Connaught Place hurly-burly of the Indian history establishment.

Romila Thapar's reputation does not rest on a single work, but on the 
capacity to have adapted herself decade after decade to changing 
trends and tendencies, and to have continued nevertheless to produce 
work of a consistent quality. Most Indian historians of her 
generation either were one-monograph wonders (effectively the case of 
the demi-god of medievalists, Professor Irfan Habib), incapable of 
mounting a fresh project once their doctoral thesis was done; or 
otherwise they were specialists of the "one-note samba", producing 
fresh books on Indian feudalism every two years which effectively 
said the same thing again, again and still again. Romila Thapar on 
the other hand has moved from her early work on the Mauryas, to a 
general consideration of early state-formation that is much 
influenced by the marriage of Marxism and structuralism, to 
reflections on the epics, historiography and a host of other 
subjects. In this vast output, an early book does stand out: this is 
her History of India, first published by Penguin in 1966, and which 
has been used since in countless classrooms by numberless students. 
Written when the author was in her early thirties, the book is a 
prime example of chutzpah, and what is remarkable is that it easily 
upstaged the second volume of that same series, written by the 
"senior scholar" Percival Spear. The work under review here is a much 
revised version of the same text, written some four decades later, 
and has expanded from about 350 pages to over 550 pages in the newer 
version.

The work is organised as 13 chapters, which - after an introductory 
set of two, on historiography and on "landscapes and peoples" - 
follow a broadly chronological trend, although there is occasionally 
a shift to a more thematic organisation (as in Chapters 11 to 13, all 
of which deal with the centuries from about 800 to 1300). Political 
history in the sense of state-formation continues to dominate as a 
theme, but this is of course no mere dynastic history. Rather the 
emphasis is solidly on questions of socio-political history, and the 
interaction between state and society; questions of trade and 
agrarian economy are of course present, though cultural themes do lag 
noticeably behind and are often treated as appendages of social 
history. In each chapter, the evidence from secondary literature is 
carefully weighed, and a mix of the author's own prose and citations 
from the primary sources serves to give the reader a sense of the 
"style" of each epoch. Obviously, the author is more comfortable with 
certain periods than others, and the discomfort is clear when we move 
from the middle chapters (which are certainly the strongest) to 
either the early ones or the later ones. The problem though is that 
every reviewer will have his or her axe to grind. Early historians 
will find archaeology underplayed, while historians of the Delhi 
Sultanate will find that their period is treated in a somewhat 
schematic fashion. But this is really neither here nor there. The 
real question is how this work compares with others of a similar 
scope and ambition.

Here, only two serious rival candidates exist, namely Kulke and 
Rothermund's work, and the posthumously published History of India by 
Burton Stein. The former does possess some notable virtues in its 
first half, namely a closer attention to sources and to the 
nitty-gritty of history. On the other hand, it is also rather weak on 
the later centuries of the first millennium of the Christian era. 
Stein's work takes a somewhat different tack, by assuming the 
explicit burden of a schematic argument, which Romila Thapar largely 
eschews. She attempts the grand sweep which also reconciles diverse 
trends, and attempts to adjudicate between rival positions. Those who 
like their history written in a sober and balanced tone will hence 
much prefer her volume, though it is a sad commentary on the popular 
perception of ancient Indian history today that even this even-handed 
work will be tarred by some as being "sectarian". My own chief 
complaint against the work is quite different: namely, that there are 
not enough fireworks in it. We have had an "Aligarh School", a 
"Cambridge School", an "Allahabad School" and even a "JNU School" in 
Indian history. I am inclined, especially for the southern readers of 
The Hindu, to suggest that it is high time to promote the existence 
of a "Sivakasi School".

Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300, Romila Thapar, London, 
Allen Lane, 2002, p. xxx + 556, =A330, Indian Price =A38.75.

Sanjay Subrahmanyam is Professor of Indian History and Culture in the 
University of Oxford.

SANJAY SUBRAHMANYAM

o o o

Outlook Magazine (India)
May 05, 2003
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=3D20030505&fname=3DBooksb&sid=
=3D1

REVIEW
Not Quite The Satanic Verse
Hopefully, the work would be read not only by all those who are 
interested in understanding essential strands of early India's 
cultural dynamics, but more importantly, also by those who are fast 
emerging as Satan
K.M. SHRIMALI

EARLY INDIA: FROM THE ORIGINS TO AD 1300
by Romila Thapar
PENGUIN INDIA
PRICE: 395; PAGES: 592

This thoroughly-revised version of the author's classic A History of 
India, Vol I must be welcomed for its timely arrival when the country 
is battling with renewed attempts to mythify history and redefine the 
parameters of the Indian nation. The new version closes at c. AD 1300 
instead of AD 1526 as in the earlier version. Considering the space 
devoted to this period in the two versions, the present edition has 
almost been doubled.

More maps and figures; a reasonably comprehensive, up-to-date and 
more systematically arranged bibliography add to its freshness.

The earlier version gave an impression that the whole text was 
planned in a broad political frame, though material and cultural 
developments through the millennia were never ignored. A 
nomenclature-related rethinking is now visible in formulations 
seeking to focus on broad contours of socio-economic and 
politico-cultural developments. The post-independence writing on 
early Indian history has been enriched through analyses of the lives 
of commoners. Thapar familiarises the reader with the emerging new 
vocabulary. A thrust on archaeology providing tangible data in the 
form of artifacts and material remains; the study of oral 
traditions-distinguishing between 'frozen' (Vedic) and 'more open' 
(epic poetry)-along with fieldwork; the use of linguistics as a tool 
for historical reconstruction, particularly to question the notion of 
communities and their identities being 'static': all this has made 
history-writing challenging, its reading fascinating.

The fourth chapter ('Towards Chiefdoms and Kingdoms, c 1200-600 BC') 
is an effective refutation of many fanciful ideas that are being 
touted around about the indigenous origins of the 'Aryans'; and how 
the glorious 'Aryan culture' is identical with the Harappan culture. 
Here, by carefully sifting data from linguistics, the vast corpus of 
Vedic literature and archaeological evidence, Thapar presents a 
nuanced construction of two different historical processes: invasion 
and migration.

Thapar devotes considerable space to several issues involved in the 
socio-political formations during the millennium stretching from AD 
300 to 1300. After all, paradigms of 'Indian feudalism' and its 
alternatives such as segmentary state and integrative polities' have 
been the focus of writings in the last five decades. Thapar, while 
making her positions clear, is never dogmatic. To illustrate, while 
she is unconvinced about the sustainability of segmentary state and 
integrative polities as pan-India phenomena, she wants a 
reconsideration of the long-forgotten hypotheses of the two phases of 
Indian feudalism ('feudalism from above' and 'feudalism from below').

=46urther, amidst all the excitement about agrarian expansion during 
this millennium, she provides a timely reminder about "diverted 
attention from pastoralism", which was quite important in the 
"interstices of agrarian areas and in some hill states". She stresses 
on the transformation of pastoral clans into castes of cultivators. 
This, indeed, is just one of the many perceptive observations on 
mutations of varna and jati through India's long history that is a 
running theme of the book.

Barring a few typographical errors, this competently produced volume 
is marked by Thapar's lyrical narrative. She writes, "A fundamental 
sanity in Indian civilisation has been due to an absence of Satan." 
Hopefully, the work would be read not only by all those who are 
genuinely interested in understanding essential strands of early 
India's cultural dynamics, but more importantly, also by those who 
are fast emerging as Satan.

______


#5.

[URLS to some recent lectures and interviews with Romila Thapar]

Webcast: Romila Thapar: History and Contemporary Politics in India

Running Time: 1 hour, 32 minutes
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/events/replay.html?event_id=3D35

o o o

[PDF]Two Lectures by Romila Thapar
=46ile Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
Two Lectures by Romila Thapar Professor Emeritus of History, 
Jawaharlal Nehru University,
Delhi Monday, November 4, 2002
http://ias.berkeley.edu/southasia/thapar.pdf


o o o

BBC Audio
Historian Professor Romila Thaper "There is an attempt to suggest the 
only history and civilisation that matter are Hindu" - BBC (May 10, 
2002)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1970000/audio/_1974980_history22_thaper.ram

o o o

In defence of history
ROMILA THAPAR
Text of Lecture delivered at Thiruvananthapuram on 2 March 2002
http://www.india-seminar.com/2003/521/521%20romila%20thapar.htm


o o o

Secular Education and the Federal Polity
Romila Thapar
text of her address at the 'National Convention Against 
Saffronisation of Education', organised by SAHMAT (August 4-6, 2001, 
New Delhi, India)
http://www.ercwilcom.net/~indowindow/sad/godown/edu/rtsefp.htm


o o o

Hindutva and history
Why do Hindutva ideologues keep flogging a dead horse?
ROMILA THAPAR  (October 2000)
http://www.flonnet.com/fl1720/17200150.htm

o o o

An Interview with Romila Thapar (4 February 1999)
http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex/thaparFeb99.html

______


#7.

[ URLS of documentation on assault on established historical research 
and on intellectuals and artists in India ]

- 'It is a fear of history'
Interview with K.N. Panikkar.
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl1705/17050240.htm

- Manufacturing Myths
K N PANIKKAR
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?art_id=3D=
8391199

The Rediff Interview/ Professor Irfan Habib
http://www.rediff.com/news/2001/jan/05inter.htm

- Rewriting history - I
By R. Champakalakshmi
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/03/25/stories/2002032500041000.htm

- History As Told by Non-Historians
by Anjali Mody.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/2001121600961300.htm

- On Rewriting History in India: The problem
by Neeladri Bhattacharya
http://www.india-seminar.com/2003/522.htm

- Righting or rewriting Hindu history
By Ann Ninan
http://www.atimes.com/ind-pak/BB23Df01.html

- A saffron offensive
R. KRISHNAKUMAR
http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl1924/stories/20021206002504900.htm

- Assault on art
The bizarre attack by Hindutva forces at the home of M.F. Husain in 
Mumbai has once again brought the issue of freedom of artistic 
expression into focus.
http://www.flonnet.com/fl1510/15100210.htm