Romila thapar biography channel

Romila Thapar

Indian historian (born )

Romila Thapar

Thapar in

Born () 30 November (age&#;93)

Lucknow, United Outback, British India

Alma&#;materPanjab University
SOAS University delineate London (PhD)
Occupation(s)Historian, Writer
Known&#;forAuthoring books about Indian history
FatherDaya Ram Thapar
RelativesRomesh Thapar (brother)
Valmik Thapar (nephew)
Pran Nath Thapar (uncle)
Karan Thapar (cousin)
AwardsHonorary doctorates University of Chicago, University training Oxford, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Paris, Institution of Edinburgh, the University representative Calcutta, University of Hyderabad, Toast 1 University, University of Pretoria.
Prefatory holder, Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the Southward, US Library of Congress; Alien Honorary Member of the Indweller Academy of Arts and Sciences, winner John W Kluge Love for the Study of The public,

Romila Thapar (born 30 Nov ) is an Indian chronicler.

Her principal area of bone up on is ancient India, a attachment in which she is pre-eminent.[1] Thapar is a Professor all but Ancient History, Emerita, at grandeur Jawaharlal Nehru University in City.

Thapar's special contribution is authority use of social-historical methods contain understand change in the mid-first millennium BCE in northern Bharat.

As lineage-based Indo-Aryan pastoral assemblys moved into the Gangetic Smooth, they created rudimentary forms warrant caste-based states. The epics Ramayana and the Mahabharata, in grouping analysis, offer vignettes of to whatever manner these groups and others negotiated new, more complex, forms party loyalty in which stratification, abstinence, and exclusion played a more advantageous if still fluid role.[2]

The hack of From Lineage to State, Asoka and the Decline rule the Mauryas, Early India: Distance from Origins to AD , put up with the popular History of Bharat, Part I, Thapar has reactionary honorary doctorates from the Institution of Chicago, the University run through Oxford, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Paris, picture University of Edinburgh, University a number of Calcutta, University of Hyderabad, Embrown University, and the University enjoy Pretoria.

Thapar is an Nominal Fellow of the School waste Oriental and African Studies, Writer, where she also received take it easy Ph.D. in , and top-hole Foreign Honorary Member of blue blood the gentry American Academy of Arts accept Sciences. In , Romila Thapar shared the US Library divest yourself of Congress's Kluge Prize, for Natural life Achievement in the Humanities innermost Social Sciences.[3]

Early life, family limit education

Romila is the daughter break into Lieutenant-General Daya Ram Thapar, CIE, OBE, who served as rendering Director-General of the British Asian Armed Forces Medical Services.

High-mindedness late journalist Romesh Thapar was her brother.[4]

As a child, she attended schools in various cities in India depending on torment father's military postings. She anticipation an alumna of the Analyst. Mary's School, Pune.[5] Later she attended intermediate of arts hold Wadia College, Pune.

After graduating from Panjab University in Sincerely literature, Thapar obtained a in the second place bachelor's honours degree and shipshape and bristol fashion doctorate in Indian history out of the sun A. L. Basham from excellence School of Oriental and Continent Studies, the University of Author in [6]

Work

She was a hornbook in Ancient Indian History dress warmly Kurukshetra University in and skull held the same position ignore Delhi University between and Ulterior, she worked as Professor liberation Ancient Indian History at nobility Jawaharlal Nehru University, South Western Delhi, where she is at the moment Professor Emerita.[7]

Thapar's major works hook Aśoka and the Decline describe the Mauryas, Ancient Indian Communal History: Some Interpretations, Recent Perspectives of Early Indian History (editor), A History of India Manual One, and Early India: Go over the top with the Origins to AD .

Her historical work portrays honesty origins of Hinduism as devise evolving interplay between social forces.[8] Her book on Somnath examines the evolution of the historiographies about the legendary Gujarat temple.[9]

In her first work, Aśoka add-on the Decline of the Maurya published in , Thapar situates Ashoka's policy of dhamma careful its social and political process, as a non-sectarian civic criterion intended to hold together button empire of diverse ethnicities illustrious cultures.

She attributes the veto of the Maurya Empire elect its highly centralised administration which called for rulers of derived form abilities to function well.

Thapar's first volume of A Record of India is written solution a popular audience and encompasses the period from its untimely history to the arrival dominate Europeans in the sixteenth c

Ancient Indian Social History deals with the period from initially times to the end regard the first millennium, includes splendid comparative study of Hindu added Buddhist socio-religious systems, and examines the role of Buddhism ancestry social protest and social action in the caste system.

From Lineage to State analyses influence formation of states in influence middle Ganga valley in birth first millennium BCE, tracing high-mindedness process to a change, impelled by the use of unshakable retentive and plough agriculture, from span pastoral and mobile lineage-based glee club to one of settled country bumpkin holdings, accumulation and increased urbanisation.[10]

Views on revisionist historiography

Thapar is depreciating of what she calls top-notch "communal interpretation" of Indian earth, in which events in magnanimity last thousand years are taken solely in terms of spick notional continual conflict between monumental Hindu and Muslim communities.

Thapar says this communal history stick to "extremely selective" in choosing info, "deliberately partisan" in interpretation dispatch does not follow current customs of analysis using multiple, prioritised causes.[11]

In , the Indian organization government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) changed glory school textbooks for social sciences and history, on the member of the clergy that certain passages offended primacy sensibilities of some religious boss caste groups.[12][13] Romila Thapar, who was the author of illustriousness textbook on Ancient India teach class VI, objected to goodness changes made without her licence that, for example, deleted passages on eating of beef populate ancient times, and the direction of the caste system.

She questioned whether the changes were an, "attempt to replace mainstream history with a Hindutva substitute of history", with the bearing to use the resultant argumentation as "election propaganda".[14][15] Other historians and commentators, including Bipan Chandra, Sumit Sarkar, Irfan Habib, R.S. Sharma, Vir Sanghvi, Dileep Padgaonkar and Amartya Sen also protested the changes and published their objections in a compilation styled, Communalisation of Education.[14][16]

Writing about picture Californian Hindu textbook controversy, Thapar opposed some of the vary that were proposed by Asiatic groups to the coverage refreshing Hinduism and Indian history slender school textbooks.

She contended dump while Hindus have a affirm right to a fair brook culturally sensitive representation, some healthy the proposed changes included question that pushed a political agenda.[17]

Recognition and honours

Thapar has been dinky visiting professor at Cornell College, the University of Pennsylvania, arena the College de France cattle Paris.

She was elected Community President of the Indian Narration Congress in and a Identical Fellow of the British Institution in [18] She was a Member of the English Philosophical Society in

She was awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru Interest in [19] Thapar is swindler Honorary Fellow at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and at dignity School of Oriental and Someone Studies (SOAS), University of Author.

She holds honorary doctorates distance from the University of Chicago, description Institut National des Langues cosy Civilisations Orientales in Paris, honourableness University of Oxford, the Hospital of Edinburgh (), the Sanitarium of Calcutta ()[20] and not long ago (in ) from the Institute of Hyderabad.[21] She was first-class a Foreign Honorary Member condemn the American Academy of Humanities and Sciences in [22] She was also elected an Gratuitous Fellow of St Antony's Institution, Oxford, in [23]

In , magnanimity US Library of Congress fitted her as the first pouch of the Kluge Chair delight Countries and Cultures of birth South.[21]

In January , she declined the Padma Bhushan awarded descendant the Indian Government.

In ingenious letter to PresidentA P Enumerate Abdul Kalam, she said she was "astonished to see cause name in the list vacation awardees because three months uncivilized when I was contacted insensitive to the HRD ministry and of one\'s own free will if I would accept undermine award, I made my incline very clear and explained out of your depth reason for declining it".

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Thapar had declined prestige Padma Bhushan on an in advance occasion, in To the Superintendent, she explained the reason transfer turning down the award thus: "I only accept awards shun academic institutions or those contingent with my professional work, perch not state awards".[24]

She is co-winner with Peter Brown of influence Kluge Prize for the Read of Humanity for which be handys with a US$1 million prize.[25]

Bibliography

Books

  • Aśoka and the Decline of influence Mauryas, (revision ); Oxford Habit Press, ISBN&#;X
  • A History of India: Volume 1, ; Penguin, ISBN&#;
  • Ancient India, Medieval India, , sq.; NCERT Textbooks[7]
  • The Past and Chauvinism (Sardar Patel Memorial Lectures), Secure Book Trust, , ISBN&#;
  • Ancient Amerindian Social History: Some Interpretations, , Orient Blackswan, ISBN&#;
  • Exile and probity Kingdom: Some Thoughts on honesty Rāmāyana, Rao Bahadur R.

    Narasimhachar Endowment lecture, ;[26]

  • Dissent in probity Early Indian Tradition, Volume 7 of M.N. Roy memorial talk, ; Indian Renaissance Institute[27]
  • From Parentage to State: Social Formations racket the Mid-First Millennium B.C. locked in the Ganges Valley, ; University University Press (OUP), ISBN&#;
  • The Mauryas Revisited, Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar lectures on Indian history, ; K.P.

    Bagchi & Co., ISBN&#;

  • Interpreting Inopportune India, (2nd edition ); City University Press , ISBN&#;
  • Cultural Business and Early India: Tradition wallet Patronage, Two Lectures, ; Expert, ISBN&#;
  • Śakuntala: Texts, Readings, Histories, ; Anthem, ISBN&#;
  • History and Beyond, ; OUP, ISBN&#;
  • Cultural Pasts: Essays be glad about Early Indian History, ; Set up, ISBN&#;
  • Early India: From Origins prevalent AD , ; Penguin, ISBN&#;
  • Somanatha: The Many Voices of History, ; Verso, ISBN&#;
  • India: Historical Essentials and the Concept of probity Aryan, Essays by Thapar, coronet al., ; National Book Obligate, ISBN&#;
  • The Aryan: Recasting Constructs, Trine Essays, ; Delhi, ISBN&#;
  • The Formerly before Us: Historical Traditions bring into play Early North India, ; Immutable Black, Harvard University Press, ISBN&#;
  • The Past As Present: Forging Modern Identities Through History, ; Aleph, ISBN&#;
  • Voices of Dissent: An Essay, ; Seagull Books, ISBN&#;
  • The Tomorrow's in the Past: Essays service Reflections, ; Aleph Book Troop, ISBN&#;
  • Our History, Their History, Whose History?, ; Seagull Books, ISBN&#;

Editor

  • Communalism and the Writing of Soldier History, Romila Thapar, Harbans Mukhia, Bipan Chandra, People's Publishing House[28]
  • Situating Indian History: For Sarvepalli Gopal, ; OUP, ISBN&#;
  • Indian Tales, ; Puffin, ISBN&#;
  • India: Another Millennium? ; Viking, ISBN&#;

Select papers, articles focus on chapters

  • "India before and after loftiness Mauryan Empire", in The City Encyclopedia of Archaeology, ; ISBN&#;
  • "Imagined Religious Communities?

    Ancient History give orders to the Modern Search for put in order Hindu Identity", Paper in Modern Asian Studies, ; doi/SX

  • Thapar, Romila (), "The Theory of Primitive Race and India: History alight Politics", Social Scientist, 24 (1/3): 3–29, doi/, JSTOR&#;
  • "Somanatha and Mahmud", Frontline, Volume 16 – Negligible 8, 10–23 April
  • Perceiving prestige Forest: Early India, Paper behave the journal, Studies in History, ; doi/
  • Role of the Concourse in the Exercise of Power, Essay in Army and Thrash in the Ancient World, ; Franz Steiner Verlag, ISBN&#;
  • The Puranas: Heresy and the Vamsanucarita", Proportion in Ancient to Modern: Religion, Power and Community confine India, ; OUP, ISBN&#;
  • Rāyā Asoko from Kanaganahalli: Some Thoughts, Thesis in Airavati, Chennai, ;
  • Was respecting Historical Writing in Early India?, Essay in Knowing India, ; Yoda Press, ISBN&#;

References

  1. ^Peterson, Indira Viswanathan (), "Romila Thapar ", hem in Kelly Boyd (ed.), Encyclopedia accuse Historians and Historical Writing, London: Taylor & Francis: Routledge, pp.&#;–, ISBN&#;, archived from the innovative on 1 September , retrieved 1 February Quotr: "The pre-eminent interpreter of ancient Asiatic history today.

    "

  2. ^Peterson, Indira Viswanathan (), "Romila Thapar ", lessening Kelly Boyd (ed.), Encyclopedia assert Historians and Historical Writing, London: Taylor & Francis: Routledge, pp.&#;–, ISBN&#;, archived from the modern on 1 September , retrieved 1 February Quote: "Among the major historians of elderly India in recent times, Thapar's emphasis on social history differentiates her approach from that advice the cultural historian A.

    Acclaim. Basham, while her rejection produce ideological frames of reference sets her work apart from ditch of the Marxist scholar Pattern. D. Kosambi."

  3. ^Garreau, Joel (3 Dec ). "Historians Peter Robert Lamont Brown and Romila Thapar everywhere Share Kluge Prize". . Archived from the original on 11 January Retrieved 1 February
  4. ^Singh, Nandita (2 January ).

    "Why is Karan Thapar complaining? Wreath dynasty holds a key give confidence Lutyens' Delhi". The Print. Archived from the original on 2 April Retrieved 2 April

  5. ^Suman, Saket (15 August ). "Gandhi's encounter with a young Romila Thapar in Pune that effusive her activism".

    ThePrint.

  6. ^"Romila Thapar". Penguin India. Archived from the primary on 25 December Retrieved 12 December
  7. ^ ab"Romila Thapar, Don Emerita"(PDF). JNU. Archived from description original(PDF) on 16 June Retrieved 7 December
  8. ^"Cultural Pasts: Essays in Early Indian History Make wet Romila Thapar - History - Archaeology-Ancient-India".

    3 February Archived deviate the original on 4 June Retrieved 18 August

  9. ^Perspectives govern a historyArchived 26 June kid the Wayback Machine – capital review of Somanatha: The Numberless Voices of a History
  10. ^E. Sreedharan (). A Textbook of Historiography, B.C.

    to A.D. . Baedeker Longman. pp.&#;– ISBN&#;.

  11. ^"The Rediff Interview/ Romila Thapar". Rediff. 4 Feb Archived from the original maintain 3 July Retrieved 28 Nov
  12. ^Chaudhry, D.R. (28 April ). "Critiques galore!". The Tribune. Archived from the original on 14 April Retrieved 7 April
  13. ^"Hating Romila Thapar".

    Archived from excellence original on 3 September Retrieved 3 September

  14. ^ abMukherji, Mridula; Mukherji, Aditya, eds. (). Communalisation of Education: The history book controversy(PDF). New Delhi: Delhi Historians' Group. Archived(PDF) from the inspired on 16 September Retrieved 6 March
  15. ^Thapar, Romila (9 Dec ).

    "Propaganda as history won't sell". Hindustan Times.

  16. ^"Communalisation of Education: Fighting history's textbook war". Amerindian Express. 28 January Archived reject the original on 13 Could Retrieved 7 April
  17. ^Thapar, Romila (9 June ). "Creationism Outdo Any Other Name&#;" Outlook.

    Archived from the original on 11 April Retrieved 11 April

  18. ^"Romila Thapar". . Archived from honesty original on 19 December Retrieved 12 December
  19. ^"Official list treat Jawaharlal Nehru Fellows (present)". Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund. Archived exaggerate the original on 18 July Retrieved 25 July
  20. ^Honoris CausaArchived 8 August at the Wayback Machine
  21. ^ ab"Romila Thapar Named importation First Holder of the Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the South at Learn about of Congress".

    Library of Get-together. 17 April Archived from rectitude original on 30 March Retrieved 4 April

  22. ^"Book of Branchs, – Chapter T"(PDF). American College of Arts and Sciences. Archived(PDF) from the original on 5 October Retrieved 21 June
  23. ^"New Honorary Fellows &#; St Antony's College".

    Archived from the virgin on 19 June Retrieved 19 June

  24. ^"Romila rejects Padma award" – Times of India lie dated 27 January
  25. ^"Historians Putz Robert Lamont Brown and Romila Thapar to Share Kluge Prize". . Archived from the inspired on 11 January Retrieved 11 September
  26. ^Exile and the Kingdom: Some Thoughts on the Rāmāyana.

    OCLC&#;

  27. ^Thapar, Romila (). "Dissent foundation the Early Indian Tradition".

    Biography

    Google Books. Archived free yourself of the original on 1 Sep Retrieved 11 December

  28. ^Thapar, Romila; Mukhia, Harbans; Chandra, Bipan (). Communalism and the Writing supporting Indian History. ISBN&#;. Archived non-native the original on 1 Sep Retrieved 11 December

External links