This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Bharatveer (talk | contribs) at 05:32, 10 July 2007 (rv to previous version). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 05:32, 10 July 2007 by Bharatveer (talk | contribs) (rv to previous version)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Romila Thapar (born 1931) is an Indian historian whose principal area of study is Ancient India.
Work
After graduating from Punjab University, Thapar secured her doctorate under A. L. Basham at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University in 1958. Later she worked as Professor of Ancient Indian History at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, where she is Professor Emerita.
Thapar's major works are Asoka and the Decline of the Maurya, Ancient Indian Social History: Some Interpretations, Recent Perspectives of Early Indian History (editor), A History of India Volume One, and Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300. Her historical work is critical of elites and portrays the origins of Hinduism as an evolving interplay between social forces. Her recent work on Somnath examines the evolution of the historiographies about the legendary Gujarat temple.
Thapar has been a visiting professor at Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the College de France in Paris. She was elected General President of the Indian History Congress in 1983 and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy in 1999.
Thapar is an Honorary Fellow at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. She holds 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.
In 2004 the U.S. Library of Congress appointed her as the first holder of the Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the South.
Controversies
Thapar's historiography has been sharply criticized by Hindu nationalists. She has taken a strong stance against communalism and the communalisation of history textbooks.
Thapar's appointment to the Kluge Chair was opposed in an online petition that Praful Bidwai criticized as a "vicious attack" by communalists who are not even minimally acquainted with her work. A number of academics sent a protest letter to the Library of Congress denouncing the petition as an attack on intellectual and artistic freedom.
In January 2005, she declined the Padma Bhushan awarded by the Indian Government. In a letter to President A P J Abdul Kalam, she said she was "astonished to see her name in the list of awardees because three months ago when I was contacted by the HRD ministry and asked if I would accept an award, I made my position very clear and explained my reason for declining it". Thapar had declined the Padma Bhushan on an earlier occasion, in 1992. To the President, she explained the reason for turning down the award thus: "I only accept awards from academic institutions or those associated with my professional work, and not state awards".
During the 2006 Californian Hindu textbook controversy, Thapar joined Michael Witzel in opposing changes to school textbooks dealing with Indian history, arguing that while Hindus have a legitimate right to a fair and culturally sensitive representation, the proposed changes included unscientific, religious-based material that distorted the truth and pushed a political agenda.
Bibliography
Books
- Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas, 1961 (revision 1998); Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-564445-X
- A History of India: Volume 1, 1966; Penguin, ISBN 0-14-013835-8
- The Past and Prejudice (Patel Memorial Lectures), 1971
- Ancient Indian Social History: Some Interpretations, 1978
- From Lineage to State: Social Formations of the Mid-First Millennium B.C. in the Ganges Valley, 1985; Oxford University Press
- Interpreting Early India, 1993 (2nd edition 1999); Oxford University Press 1999, ISBN 0-19-563342-3
- Early India: From Origins to AD 1300, 2002; Penguin, ISBN 0-520-23899-0
- Sakuntala: Texts, Readings, Histories, 2002; Anthem, ISBN 1-84331-026-0
- Cultural Pasts: Essays in Early Indian History, 2003; Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-566487-6
- Somanatha: The Many Voices of History, 2005; Verso, ISBN 1-84467-020-1
Edited Anthologies
- Situating Indian History: For Sarvepalli Gopal
- Indian Tales, 1991; Puffin, ISBN 0-14-034811-5
- India: Another Millennium?
Select papers, articles and chapters
- "India before and after the Mauryan Empire", in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Archaeology, 1980.
- "Imagined Religious Communities? Ancient History and the Modern Search for a Hindu Identity", Modern Asian Studies 1989 23(2): 209-231.
- "Somanatha and Mahmud", Frontline, Volume 16 - Issue 8, Apr. 10 - 23, 1999
References
- Ronald Inden, 1990, Imagining India, pp. 154-156, 197
- Perspectives of a history - a review of Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History
- Penguin publicity page
- ^ "Romila Thapar Named as First Holder of the Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the South at Library of Congress". Library of Congress. April 17, 2003.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessed=ignored (help) - Rediff interview, 1999
- "Romila Thapar's appointment to Library of Congress opposed"- Rediff article dated April 25, 2003
- Bidwai, Praful (May 13, 2003). "McCarthyism's Indian rebirth". Rediff. Retrieved 2007-04-04.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - Gatade, Subhash (June 2003). "Hating Romila Thapar". Himal South Asian.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|accessed=ignored (help) - (Text)"Letter of Protest by Scholars and Intellectuals Against the Attack on Romila Thapar". South Asia Citizens Web. 7 May 2003.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|accessed=ignored (help) - "Romila rejects Padma award" - Times of India article dated January 27, 2005
- Thapar, Romila (Feb 28, 2006). "Creationism By Any Other Name…". Outlook.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|accessed=ignored (help)