Interview: Romila Thapar on the history of dissent and how it shaped Hinduism and India

Romila Thapar is one of India’s most distinguished historians, whose work beginning in the 1960s has sought to nuance our understanding of India’s past. A recipient of the prestigious Kluge Prize, Thapar has covered a whole range of subjects over her long career and is best known for her scholarly work on the social history of ancient India.

Thapar has also made headlines over the last few decades by being an outspoken public intellectual who has questioned the version of history put forth by the Right, which tends to portray the Indian past as a simplistic civilisational battle between Hindus and Muslims.

In her new book, Voices of Dissent, Thapar looks at moments in India’s past when the dominant narrative was challenged, whether through the “dasas” of the Vedic times, the Shramanas – Buddhists, Jainas and Ajivikas – whose views contrasted with Bhramanism, or through Bhakti sants and Sufi pirs in the medieval era.

Thapar writes:

“What we call Hinduism has been a religion that has reacted closely to historical change, causing recognisable alterations and mutations in both belief and in those that identify with it…

To ignore the contribution of dissenting ideas to these reformulations, or their failure to encourage the necessary mutations, is to ignore the impressive presence...

Read more

from Scroll.in https://ift.tt/2HPJRx8