The well-known historian of Ancient India, Ram Sharan Sharma, once quipped that while it is not so difficult to teach history to college and university level students, given that they already have some grounding in the subject, it is a herculean task to teach the same subject, but in an engaging and exciting manner, to school students. Besides making the subject ‘attractive’, it is important for those trained in the historian’s craft to make school students familiar with historical knowledge which is accurate and, at the same time, non-sectarian. Several historians and history enthusiasts have, in recent years, made sincere efforts to make the subject more accessible to school level students. Works like those of Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, Devika Rangachari, Subhadra Sen Gupta, Roshen Dalal, Devika Cariappa, and Archana Garodia Gupta, to name a few, are commendable in that they allow school students to understand complex facets and debates of Indian and world histories in simple terms, and in a language bereft of jargon. Moreover, these books contain colourful illustrations which add richness to the narrative. To this list we may also add the classic NCERT history school textbooks—written by some of the leading historians of India, including Romila Thapar, RS Sharma, Satish Chandra and Bipan Chandra—as well as Audrey Truschke’s recent magnum opus, India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent (2025). Engaging and richly textured narratives, these books are an attempt at making the young minds understand that one cannot understand contemporary India without appreciating its deeply contested past, which continues to shape current events and socio-political controversies.
Written by Rudrangshu Mukherjee, along with cultural historian Shobita Punja and photographer-archivist Toby Sinclair, A New History of India for Children, is an important addition to this list. The volume, containing twenty-one chapters, vividly narrates India’s history from the prehistoric times to the 21st century. Based on thorough research, each of the chapters dissect the multi-layered and, at the same time, complex, Indian society. Importantly, rather than focusing primarily on the political and dynastic history, the study examines at length the socio-economic issues concerning the lives of the non-elite sections of the society. Mukherjee, in this respect adopts a ‘history from below’ approach, instead of a ‘top-down’ method.
Further, chapters like ‘The Gupta Age and Beyond, c. 320 CE-c. 900 CE’ (pp. 89-112), and ‘The Northeast up to the Coming of British Rule, c. 1200 CE-c. 1850’ (pp. 197-206), reveal that rather than being region specific, the volume has a pan-Indian approach. An in-depth discussion on the early South Indian States in the aforementioned section, ‘Breakdown of the Gupta Empire’, further strengthens this argument.
Given that in majority of the writings on Indian history, the Northeast region appears as a footnote, Mukherjee’s study is essential. In the portion pertaining to the Northeastern parts of the country, the author outlines the broad historical trajectories of the region. While examining the political history of the area, the section highlights the distinctiveness of the various tribal formations, including the Ahoms, Chutiyas, Kacharis, and Koch. Far from being homogenous each of the tribal groups, we are told, was unique. And socio-cultural facets like dance, diet, clothing, religious rituals and beliefs were tribe specific. However, tribal villages were, as the author argues, ‘by no means self-sufficient’ (p. 201). The fact that the tribal population of the region was actively taking part in local as well as trans-local trade shows that interactions and exchange of commodities was essential to the very survival of the villages. An important portion of the present chapter explores the socio-economic changes which came about in the various tribal formations following their interactions with the Mughals, and subsequently the British colonial state.
The establishment of Mughal rule in the territories of Koch and Ahom tribes, towards the end of the sixteenth century, witnessed an increased use of money, given that the Mughal state collected revenue in cash. Apart from revenue, cash was now, following this development, increasingly used in commercial activities by the people of the region. Initiation of a detailed land survey (1681-1751) by the Ahoms, and ‘emergence of a land market especially in the western parts of the region’ (p. 302), were some other important developments which were witnessed in the North East, as a result of the presence of the Mughal state in the region.
However, the penetration of the British colonial state in these regions had adverse effects on the social and economic orders of the various tribal kingdoms. That the emergence and development of tea plantation economy—unique to these parts of the country—led to an increased level of economic exploitation of the local peasantry, has been stressed upon by the author. Thus, as the author rightly notes, the creation of the ‘planter raj’, a term coined by Amalendu Guha, ‘lorded over and tyrannized the entire population of the region’ (p. 310).
The initial couple of chapters on the protohistoric period of India, viz. the Harappan Civilization (‘Harappan Culture’, pp. 25-42) and the Rig-Vedic period (‘Society and Ideas in the Age of the Vedas’, pp. 43-48), are important in that they lay bare several myths pertaining to these ages. Besides studying the political, social, economic and religio-cultural facets of these eras, Mukherjee in these chapters makes a sincere effort to address the controversial issue of the close links between the people of Harappa and the Rig-Vedic period. Through a detailed study of the archaeological reports and material remains of various Harappa sites, including Sutkagendor and Rakhigarhi, as well as the results of DNA sequencing from the areas occupied by these people, the author is able to convincingly demonstrate that the two groups were distinct. Moreover, in ‘Society and Ideas in the Age of the Vedas’, it is suggested that Aryans were not (emphasis mine) the original inhabitants of this region and that they migrated to India in several waves. And Mukherjee, not surprisingly, too debunks the ‘Aryan invasion’ theory.
At a time when the present dispensation is blatantly tinkering with India’s glorious past, and is leaving no stone unturned in promoting a version of history which is biased and sectarian, Rudrangshu Mukherjee’s A New History of India for Children is an important scholarly intervention. Interspersed with colourful pictures of exquisite miniature paintings, archaeological remains, archival photographs, and maps, the volume provides a detailed and an unbiased picture of India’s history. That India has had a rich tradition of intellectual pluralism and public debates—a theme explored at length by Amartya Sen in The Argumentative Indian (2005)—has been stressed upon by the present author. Again, thorough discussions on the Bhakti Movement, Sufism, Brahmanical and non-Brahmanical sects and emergence of Sikhism, enable young readers to understand the diverse religious traditions of the country and the manner in which each of them has shaped Indian society and state.
In the portion dealing with India’s freedom struggle, the complete absence of the revolutionary phase is striking. The author completely ignores the important developments which unfolded during this period. Given that the revolutionaries including Ramprasad Bismil, Ashfaqulla Khan, Bhagat Singh, Chandra Shekhar Azad, Sukhdev, Rajguru, Batukeshwar Dutt, and Jatindra Nath Das, among others, posed a formidable challenge to the colonial state through their acts of resistance, one would have appreciated a discussion on these freedom fighters and their times. Moreover, it would have helped young readers to understand that there were multiple strands of the freedom struggle. However, it is believed that in the future revisions of the book, this gap would be addressed.
Nevertheless, Rudrangshu Mukherjee’s richly textured A New History of India for Children will be of interest to, not just school students, but also teachers of the subject as well as history enthusiasts.