Historiography of India Quotes

“Wikipedia: Historiography of India”

“Apologists for Islam, as well as some marxist scholars in India have sometimes attempted to reduce Islamic iconoclasm..”

“Without weighty grounds, we must not push aside unanimous Indian tradition; else one practises scepticism, not criticism.”

“Muslim rule should never atttact any criticism. Destruction of temples by Muslim rulers and invaders should not be mentioned.”

“All in all the Marxist school is becoming a weapon for suicide rather than serving as a useful tool for the understanding of history.”

“Historical science runs into such problems in India as the researchers of the ancient history of other countries and peoples can- not even conceive of.”

“Brought upon text books written by foreigners whose one object would seem to have been to prove that there was no such thing as India, we had each to ‘discover’ India for ourselves.”

“The significant feature of Professor Habib’s Marxist interpretation of medieval Indian history is not that Marxism has absorbed Islam but that Islam has absorbed Marxism.”

“Of quite a few casualties of the standards of academic integrity at the hands of self-styled 'secular' academics, those in the field of medieval Indian historiography happen to be the worst.”

“I have approached the subject from a strictly historical point of view. It is an ominous sign of the time that Indian history is being viewed in official circles in the perspective of recent politics. (xxii-xxiii)”

“By ‘established’ historians I mean self-proclaimed secular, progressive or left historians who have established an academic empire and try to stifle any voice of dissent or truth. At times, they obfuscate matters.”

“How does this concern square with the guidelines issued by their West Bengal government... - "Muslim rule should never atttact any criticism. Destruction of temples by Muslim rulers and invaders should not be mentioned?”

“Therefore, certain attempts made by some ultra-Marxist historians to justify and even whitewash tyrannical emperors of the medieval India may be tactical for purposes of popular secularism but totally unwarranted. Aurangzeb's misdeeds need not be given a face-lift...”

“...history, divorced from truth, does not help a nation. Its future should be laid on the stable foundations of truth and not on the quicksands of falsehood, however alluring it may appear at present. India is now at the cross-roads and I urge my young friends to choose carefully the path they would like to tread upon.”

“One must beware of falling into a kind of uncritical Indological McCarthyism towards those open to reconsidering the established contours of ancient Indian history, irrespective of their motives and backgrounds, and of lumping all challenges into a simplistic, convenient and easily-demonized 'Hindu Nationalist' category.”

“In a 1942 article entitled “ ‘Histories’ of India,” K.M. Munshi wrote, “Most of our histories of India suffer from a lack of perspective. They deal with certain events and periods not from the Indian point of view, but from that of some source to which they are partial and which by its very nature is loaded against India.””

“For more than 30 years, historians Romila Thapar, Satish Chandra, R.S. Sharma, Bipan Chandra and others enjoyed such great political backing from the Congress establishment that they convinced themselves that they, and they alone, possessed god’s gift of the ability to interpret India’s past. They operated as a cartel and prevented others from articulating alternative points of view.”

“It is a matter of regret, however, that the historian is often undner pressure to suppress facts unpalatable to his own countrymen as well as those resented by other countries... WE feel that truth must be said though without a deliberate attempt to offend other peoples. Otherwise, the spririt of history is likely to be totally obliterated by unacademic considerations in the not distant future.”

““My own animadversions upon the defective condition of the annals of Rajwarra have more than once been checked by a very just remark: ‘When our princes were in exile, driven from hold to hold, and compelled to dwell in the clefts of the mountains, often doubtful whether they would not be forced to abandon the very meal preparing for them, was that a time to think of historical records?’ ”...”

“Intensive studies of individual tribes are very important and I think ASI will always help scholars in studying tribal society in different parts of the country. We should not leave the study of Nadars of Tamil Nadu or Patidars of Gujarat to foreign scholars. We should study them ourselves. This is very very necessary, particularly because their intellectual and political perspectives are different from our own.”