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Revision as of 17:37, 14 September 2006 by BADMINton (talk | contribs) (age & caste of RS Sharma)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)R S Sharma is Emeritus Professor, Department of History, Patna University and one of the leading historians of India. The eighty-seven year-old Bhumihar is the Founder Chairman of the Indian Council for Historical Research.
He has earlier taught at Delhi(1973-85) and Toronto Universities.
He has been among the most renowned historians of ancient India. He belongs to the Marxist school of thought and is the favourite historian of the UPA government which consists of Marxist parties. He leads the team of historians who write the NCERT history textbooks during the UPA regime.
Controversies
People accuse him of being a leftist historian keen on attacking Hinduism. Many of his works like 'Ancient India' (banned by the Janata Party government in 1977) have been banned. He has also supported the controversial biased addition of the Ayodhya dispute and the 2002 Gujarat riots calling them 'socially relevant topics'.
The Class 11 book Ancient India History, written by Prof.Ram Sharan Sharma, discards the presence of Lord Krishna during the Mahabharata. The book says, "Although Krishna plays an important role in the Mahabharata, inscriptions and sculptural pieces found in Mathura dating back to 200 BC and 300 AD do not attest to his presence. Because of this, ideas of an epic age based on the Ramayana and Mahabharata have to be discarded."
Works
- Aspects of Political Ideas and Institutions in Ancient India (ISBN : 8120808983, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers)
- Perspectives in Social and Economic History of Early India (ISBN : 8121506727)
- Urban Decay in India c. 300-c. 1000 (ISBN : 8121500451)
- Sudras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order Down to Circa A D 600 (ISBN : 8120808738)
- Higher Education (ISBN : 8171693202)
- Looking for the Aryans (ISBN : 8125006311)
- India's Ancient Past (ISBN : 0-19-566714, Oxford, 2005)