What do you think?
Rate this book
The History of History: Politics and Scholarship in Modern India
A radical contribution to the understanding of Indian history as a discipline, this book explores the politics of history-writing in modern India. It narrativizes the engagement of a civilization with the historical sensibility and modality. In doing so, it asserts that history, in order to be understood better, has to deploy the language of the layperson in India, and interact with the mythic, the ahistorical, and the folk. The endeavor is not to offer a comprehensive account over the last two centuries, but rather to explore the manner in which historical thinking inserted itself into the public domain.
- GenresHistory
338 pages, Paperback
First published September 25, 2003
1 person is currently reading
64 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 24, 2023
A fascinating collection of essays on the role history and the "historical consciousness" has played and plays in India. Lal's main argument is that history (in the sense of a specific way of accessing, ordering and understanding the past) is a relatively recent introduction in India. Ancient India did not have "history" in that sense. That does not mean that Ancient Indians were somehow "less", but that they had a different relationship with the past than what the West did. Rather than history, they accessed the past through things like myths, stories, devotion and family tales (what Hayden White would call "the practical past"). Consequently, a more recent preoccupation with "history" in India is a result of the introduction of "modernity" and its knowledge system on to India. As an example of how the "historical mode of thinking" has become prevalent amongst both the hindutva and the secular elite, Lal points to the discussions surrounding the destruction of the Babri Masjid. Both sides were arguing using the language of history.
Another chief observation is that Hindutva-ideologists, who claim to be advocating on behalf of Hinduism and protecting it against Western and Muslim influence, do so through a language of history. In that sense, Hindutva ideologists have appropriated the very tenets of modernity (itself an outspring of Chritianity) that they claim to oppose. By streamlining, historicising and codifying Hinduism and stripping it of myth, ambiguity and pluralism, they are in a sense destroying it. They are in a sense forcing Hinduism into the categorical box created by social science, a box inspired by the Abrahamic religions, and thus stripping it of the parts that make it not only a "religion" (in the Western sense" but the foundation of a qualitatively different civilization. Those supporting these views are often the educated and wealthy, often educated in the "hard sciences" (as one can easily observe on online forums). Put in other terms, those most influenced by modernity and its systems of knowledge. By using a language of history and trying to appropriate the religion of Vedic times, they claim to be advocating a "purer Hinduism". They seek to date and order the various Indian epics such as the Mahabharata and Ramayana, to advocate one text above the others (the Bhagavad Gita) and to fit the various characters into the molds of Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Hinduism is thus actually most alive on the countryside, among the peasantry less influenced by modernity, where myth, ambiguity and pluralism still "reigns".
All in all, a fascinating read. I am not well versed enough in Indian history and Hinduism to take a clear position on Lal's argument, but I must admit that his arguments, though somewhat erudite and dense, do make sense. Recently, I have become very interested in how culture and society shape the way we think and understand the world and I find books like this, that try to deconstruct these things intellectually stimulating. As someone formed by the mold of the West and of modernity, I find books that challenges, relativizes and "historicizes" this mold extremely fascinating, and if you do as well, you will enjoy this book.
Another chief observation is that Hindutva-ideologists, who claim to be advocating on behalf of Hinduism and protecting it against Western and Muslim influence, do so through a language of history. In that sense, Hindutva ideologists have appropriated the very tenets of modernity (itself an outspring of Chritianity) that they claim to oppose. By streamlining, historicising and codifying Hinduism and stripping it of myth, ambiguity and pluralism, they are in a sense destroying it. They are in a sense forcing Hinduism into the categorical box created by social science, a box inspired by the Abrahamic religions, and thus stripping it of the parts that make it not only a "religion" (in the Western sense" but the foundation of a qualitatively different civilization. Those supporting these views are often the educated and wealthy, often educated in the "hard sciences" (as one can easily observe on online forums). Put in other terms, those most influenced by modernity and its systems of knowledge. By using a language of history and trying to appropriate the religion of Vedic times, they claim to be advocating a "purer Hinduism". They seek to date and order the various Indian epics such as the Mahabharata and Ramayana, to advocate one text above the others (the Bhagavad Gita) and to fit the various characters into the molds of Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Hinduism is thus actually most alive on the countryside, among the peasantry less influenced by modernity, where myth, ambiguity and pluralism still "reigns".
All in all, a fascinating read. I am not well versed enough in Indian history and Hinduism to take a clear position on Lal's argument, but I must admit that his arguments, though somewhat erudite and dense, do make sense. Recently, I have become very interested in how culture and society shape the way we think and understand the world and I find books like this, that try to deconstruct these things intellectually stimulating. As someone formed by the mold of the West and of modernity, I find books that challenges, relativizes and "historicizes" this mold extremely fascinating, and if you do as well, you will enjoy this book.
Want to read
November 1, 201511/1/15 found it in a list of books and authors that Gloria Steinem likes published in the Sunday NYTs Book Review
Gloria Steinem: By the Book http://nyti.ms/1LDVCOO
Gloria Steinem: By the Book http://nyti.ms/1LDVCOO
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews