Review Details
The work of historians is to deconstruct the past and re-present it, not necessarily as a coherent whole or one of consensus (Joan Scott, Gender and Politics of Representation) but rather, to explore the complexities in the past—including fissures and the conflicts that existed. Historians of Ancient India (at least the ones we encountered as students in the two main universities in Delhi) have consistently attempted to reconstruct the multiple histories of the past—with its social and cultural complexities, its inequalities and its conflicts. They realigned historical periodization, ‘secularizing it’, employed innovative methodologies and have been constantly problematizing and scrutinizing the material evidence from the past, even while being acutely attuned to and sensitive about the politics and social inequalities around them in contemporary India.
