Miscellaneous Topics on Indian History

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<b> Resources on ‘Eminent (Marxist) Historians’</b>



1. Excerpts from Arun Shourie’s ‘Eminent Historians, their technology, their life, their fraud’ (1998). Part I at http://www.bharatvani.org/shourie/eminen...ians1.html, Part II at http://www.bharatvani.org/shourie/eminen...ians2.html
2. Review of Romila Thapar’s NCERT textbook for Std. VI at http://vishalagarwal.bharatvani.org/RomilaNCERTVI.doc
3. Review of Romila Thapar’s NCERT textbook for Std. VII ‘Ancient India’ at http://www.bharatvani.org/general_inbox/pr...parreview1.html
4. Review of Romila Thapar’s exoneration of Mahmud Ghaznavi for destroying the Somnath Temple at http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/article...shakashmir.html
5. Questionnaire for Marxist Historians at http://www.bharatvani.org/books/htemples2/app4.htm
6. Open Protest letter on Appointment of Professor Thapar to the Kluge Chair at http://www.bharatvani.org/klugethapar.doc
7. Review of Romila Thapar’s ‘Indian, Another Millennium’ at http://www.bharatvani.org/reviews/millennium.html
8. Online article ‘Is D. N. Jha Communalizing History’ at http://www.bharatvani.org/vinod_kumar/dnjh...inghistory.html
9. Online article ‘The Axis of Neo-colonialism’ at http://www.sulekha.com/column.asp?cid=218625
10. Online article Historians vs. History available at http://www.bharatvani.org/books/htemples1/ch6.htm
11. Online article ‘Was Pushyamitra more secular than Aurangzeb’ at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bharatvani/f...pushyamitra.pdf
12. Online article ‘Why did Aurangzeb demolish the Kashi-Vishvanath temple’ at http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/article...vishvanath.html
13. Online article ‘The Ayodhya Debate – Focus on the No temple argument’ at http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/artic...emple.html
14. Online article ‘Historicide- Censoring the Past... and the Present’. Part I at http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/jan/03rajeev.htm

Part II at http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/jan/04rajeev.htm

15. Controversy on the NCERT textbooks available online at http://www.infinityfoundation.com/indic_co...aper_rosser.pdf
16. Romila Thapar’s reply to ‘Eminent Historians’ at http://members.tripod.com/~lskumar/mea/mfmf_038.html
17. King Shashanka and Buddhists, a Case Study in ‘Secular’ Historiography, available at http://www.swordoftruth.com/swordoftruth/a...cles/ksatb.html
18. CHAKRABARTI, Dilip. 1997. Colonial Indology – Sociopolitics of the Ancient Indian Past. Munshiram Manoharlal: New Delhi
19. GUPTA, S. K. 1998. The Prejudiced Past, Rewriting Indian History – Some Reflections on Concept. Indus Publishing Company: New Delhi
20. KAPOOR, Ravi Shanker. 2000. More Equal than Others – A Study of the Indian Left. Vision Books: New Delhi
21. GOYAL, Shankar. 2000. Marxist Interpretation of Ancient Indian History. BORI: Pune
22. NS Rajaram's book at http://voiceofdharma.com/books/dist/

<b>Reviewing Romila Thapar, the Eminent Marxist (Historian)</b>

Romila Thapar is not merely a historian, she is also a political commentator with close ties to Leftists, Marxists and Communists in India. These various aspects of her persona are interwoven in her writings and speeches very intricately. Following is a list of a few resources that confirm her links with Marxism and Marxist historiography. The audience can therefore judge if she is really an 'objective' and an 'apolitical' scholar.

Thapar is quoted as one of the Marxist historians in the entry 'Hinduism' of 'A Dictionary of The Marxist Thought' (Tom Bottomore et al, 1983, Harvard University Press, p. 204).

Ronald Inden, in his Imagining India [1990:pp. 154-156, 197] clearly refers to Thapar as a Marxist historian.

Thapar has NEVER condemned the distortions of history textbooks in Communist ruled states of India. Examples of these can be seen at http://www.bharatvani.org/shourie/eminen...ians1.html in the article ‘Not just Whitewash, Hogwash too’. Her selective criticisms are therefore politically motivated.

Her interpretations of ancient India are treated in the sections on Marxist historiography by Shankar Goyal in his ‘Recent Historiography of Ancient India’, Kusumanjali Prakashan: Jodhpur (1997).

Ravi Shankar Kapoor, in his More Equal than Others – A Study of the Indian Left, Vision Books: New Delhi (2000), which discusses the tyrannical Marxist intellectual hegemony in independent India, also classifies Romila Thapar as a Leftist historian (p. 140).

Even other Marxist historians such as D. N. Jha have treated her work as an example of Marxist historiography. JHA [Economy and Society in Early India, Issues and Paradigms. 1993, page 11] mentions Romila Thapar’s name along with other Marxist historians, and from the context it is clear that he considers her also a ‘Marxist historian’, although not the best representative of this category.

Her alma mater, the Jawaharlal Nehru University, is considered the Mecca of Indian Marxism, and leading lights of Communist terrorist movements of India and Nepal openly acknowledge their debt to that institute. See for instance, the article ‘I learnt the ABC or Marxism at the JNU’ in The Statesman, 4 April 2003, where Dr. Bhattarai, one of the top two men of the Marxist terrorist movement in Nepal acknowledges his debt to JNU.

Thapar has constantly associated herself with an Indian organization called SAHMAT, whose office was located right within the New Delhi branch of the Communist Party of India (CPI-M). [See the article ‘CPI(M), SAHMAT left Homeless’, in The Hindu, 06 February 2002, http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/02...20606000100.htm ]. SAHMAT is well-known for its anti-Americanism, and is at the forefront of anti-US demonstrations periodically. ‘SAHMAT’ itself is an acronym for ‘Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust’ and is named after a young Communist activist, Safdar Hashmi, who was killed by goons affiliated to the Congress-I party, while performing a street play in New Delhi.

An article in the Times of India (New Delhi edn.) dt. 24 February 2002, calls her a ‘hardcore Marxist’. The article deals with a seminar on Islam and terrorism.

When some people protested her appointment to the Kluge Chair in April 2003, Marxist and Communist groups like SACW immediately swung into action. For e.g., Praful Bidwai, a Communist alleged that the protests are an example of McCarthyism. See the online article at http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/printed.../detPLA01.shtml . Bidwai had earlier objected to Indian govt's ban on Islamist terrorist organization called SIMI. A newspaper article also reveals his homage to Naxalite 'martyrs' (=terrorists) at http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/nov/15naxal.htm