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Eminent Historians: Their Technology, Their Line, Their Fraud

4.22  ·  Rating details ·  469 ratings  ·  52 reviews
Shourie has the anecdotal reasoning of Nirad Chaudhuri married to the writing style of Robert Ludlum. Both are in ample evidence in this book.' - India Today

In this incisive commentary, Arun Shourie documents the ways in which our history textbooks have been doctored by leftist historians. Thoroughly researched and riveting, this study brings to light the techniques and
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Hardcover, 271 pages
Published by ASA (first published November 1st 1998)
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Nandakishore Varma
Arun Shourie, BJP ideologue and Hindu apologist, is at his aggressive best in this "expose" of the leftist historians in India: Irfan Habib, Romila Thapar, Bipan Chandra, Satish Chandra et al. His attack is two-pronged. One: the official historians at the ICHR (Indian Council of Historic Research) consumed millions of rupees in public funds with precious little output to show for it. Two: they purposefully distorted Indian history by not mentioning the atrocities of Muslim invaders against ...more
Anant Singh
Aug 24, 2009 rated it it was amazing
I feel that Mr. Shourie should have been given somehting like BHARAT RATNA for this piece of work , but as its not in my hand i can just say thanks to Mr. Shourie . Classic work and an eye opener. Some points which touched me :

1. Reference to the work of ICHR which is like hell and there books are like dust.
2. The on going tampering of Indian History by so called leftist and its impact.
3. Even the russian are fair in your history then these eminent historians.

I think its the time for leftist
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Ashish Iyer
Brilliant book. This book is an eye opener for me. Everyone should read it. This book show how leftist with the help congress distorted our Indian history. You can see how ICHR (Indian Council of Historical Research) are corrupted to the core. These eminent historian charge money in the name of so called "honorary and they took so much money in the name of project which they haven't completed or even submit any progress. In India, our history is never written in neutral point of view. It is ...more
Nikhil Koul
Nov 16, 2012 rated it it was amazing
For any parent in India who sends his kids to school today thinking that he/she is giving the best of education of the past needs to do a rethink....these eminent historians of marxist/communist background distorted history so much that it has emerged as a monster which gobbles the truth up every time an Indian identity surfaces....we are being taught to loathe ourselves and it is these historians that need to be held guilty in a Nuremberg trial of sorts IMHO...An excellent companion piece with ...more
Vijai
Mar 02, 2013 rated it really liked it
Shelves: thoughtprovoking
Is our national identity flawed? and is it by design? who is to blame?

These are a few fundamental questions Mr. Shourie is trying to answer in this book.

I must confess, while going through the first 50 or so pages, I had almost decided that Mr. Shourie had written this book to settle a personal score with a few from some organization. How wrong I was!

It is only when I almost finished the book did it dawn upon me that what Mr. Shourie had done was an immaculate display of case presentation to
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Vikas Lather
Feb 11, 2014 rated it liked it
I think one should not waste much energy to read his defence for Right-wing Indian fascism of Hindutava, but that must be poured to graduate with double curiosity his extremely well-investigated attack on Islamic disturbances.

I think, one day Arun Shourie, writer of good skills, will learn that as much as he hates homicidal and fanatical Islamic forces; we do hate, we identify his cause but we also go on step further, where he fails, to destroy his cult of Hindutava by using his own logic :)
Vamsi
Oct 14, 2013 rated it it was amazing
"If you do not know where you come from, then you don't know where you are, and if you don't know where you are, then you don't know where you're going. And if you don't know where you're going, you're probably going wrong" - Terry Pratchett
This quote is as true for Countries as much as it is for people. The only way to know where you come from is through history. Its very important for us to know the history of our country. It's the collective memory of human society. It teaches us the
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Abhishek Prakash
Jan 19, 2014 rated it it was amazing
Shelves: history, india, hinduism
I read the Ramayan and wondered how Lord Ram , a man and warrior pining and crying for his wife, who faces all his trials with great fortitude, has been described by leftists as "patriarchial" . It just did not make any sense .

I read the Bhagvad Gita and wondered how this call to duty and actions was called by left wingers as promoting "fatalist and defeatist mindset". I saw how great men read the gita and it inspired them to fight like a tigress (yes. tigress) defending her cubs.

Arun shourie
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Ajay
Jul 24, 2019 rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
Those who want to know why our history books are biased and distorted in schools and colleges should read this book.
Hariprasad
Apr 17, 2019 rated it it was amazing
When talking about our devatas shastra says do what they ask you to do, not what they themselves did. The same can be said about Arun Shourie :)

A masterpiece. Must read book.
Aditya Kulkarni
I have always been a history enthusiast since my childhood. I studied in a CBSE school and whatever forms the history syllabus in NCERT books is written from Delhi's perspective. Not only this, it is completely written from a Marxist view point. I live in Karnataka and I'm a Kannadiga by ethncity. However, there was hardly anything about Karnataka's history in my textbooks. Marxist historians used public institutions like the Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR) to propagate their ...more
Jaspal Rana
Feb 27, 2019 rated it it was amazing
It is amusing that the review with highest likes gave Eminent Historians a measly two stars. Besides accusing Mr. Shourie of bigotry and fundamentalism, this particular reviewer notes that despite producing an impressive array of documentary evidence, Mr. Shourie is quite ill-informed and prejudiced, because he is pushing a very specific agenda here. Curiously enough, the reviewer does not offer an iota of evidence or explanation to support his accusations.

I dare say there is some (read: much)
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Shashishekhar Kashyap
May 09, 2015 rated it it was amazing
Shelves: history
But, for a few good men like Arun Shourie, Sita Ram Goel, S L Bhyrappa generations of Indians would have grown up to hate themselves, their forefathers and their heritage. They form the intellectual backbone of what is derisively called as the 'Right wing'. But it is indeed 'Right'. Their stupendous capabilities have unfortunately been spent on reiterating, researching and dismantling the artifice of falsehoods built by the "Macaulay, Missionary and Marx" guilds in India.

Arun Shourie in this
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Vivek
Feb 26, 2014 rated it liked it
This book would have been more relevant 15 years ago when communism was more prevalent. Today communism is but almost out of Indian politics with no real hold in any geographic location of India. The author does over burden the reader with facts, excerpts from various sources, quotes from historians that it feels like you are reading a thesis than a book. Often I was confused as to whether it was the author narrating or was it the quote from a speech from a historian.

But having said all that its
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Mridul Manohar
Oct 30, 2009 rated it really liked it
A veil burner, exposing the ill-intentioned mop up by Indian historians (so-called). Medieval history of India from the court of medieval kings. If a journalist can do this much of hard work, I wonder what stops people doing all sorts of PhD's, from exploring this fraud. Would love to read a real in-detail historical analysis of the "facts" presented by Mr Shourie.

Can not give it 5 though as some portion of the book feels like Mr. Shourie settling score with leftist journalists. Also, the book
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Ronak Patel
Nov 04, 2014 rated it really liked it
If you are interested in Education & how politics has affected and twisted Educational Policies in India, this book is must read.
Madhurya Yadunath
Jun 30, 2020 rated it it was amazing
This is a masterpiece by Arun Shourie. A must read.
Ayush Kumar
Feb 05, 2020 rated it it was amazing  ·  review of another edition
What will you do if you intend to brainwash generations........get into the business of defining, writing and reinventing history! This is business because eminent historians started to sell their view point and their "theory" through history writing. The book talks about these historians and their writings and their academic feudalism and how they marched forward even with the inherent inconsistencies in their interpretations of history.
Pradeep T
Oct 18, 2016 rated it it was amazing
Does the modern liberals hate Hindus and demean our scriptures right from the Vedas, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Upanishads and Hindu philosophy ? Then, who is to blame? Does all these secular changes were new to India? Does belittling Hinduism is the new phenomenon? From where does these set of people even come from? Those very answers lies in this exceptionally written book.

Arun Shourie the author turned politician has penned this epic rebuttal to those intellectual terrorists and
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Akshay
Apr 06, 2014 rated it it was amazing
History writing has been a complex enterprise in India. The first fifty years following Independence in 1947 has seen "influential" historians who have contributed nothing but falsehoods. "Eminent Historians" by Sri. Arun Shourie is an incisive commentary at portraying how historians have succeeded in doctoring history, capturing institutions and promoting themselves. The book maps the ways in which our history textbooks have been doctored by such "influential" historians. There is no doubt that ...more
Sajith Kumar
Sep 06, 2015 rated it liked it
The cover says it all. An ostrich made of the hammer and sickle burying its head in sand to gloss over inconvenient facts! But there is more to it, as Arun Shourie narrates in very fine detail. Scholars having strong bias towards the Left control our premier institutions and media even to the level of hijacking it. They produce history of India in conformity to Marx ideas stated way back in the 19th century such as the human past is a long story of class struggles. This has gone to ridiculous ...more
Hunger Artist
Jan 20, 2020 rated it it was amazing
"To Historians is granted a talent that even the gods are denied to alter what has already happened!"

I remembered this scornful saying when I finished this book. Arun Shourie has brilliantly exposed the likes of Ram Guha and Irfan Habib. How Mughal history was whitewashed and glorified and how we are taught false history to till day and any attempt of correcting the history is still resisted with the false accusation of "Saffronization of history".

The Nation who does not know her history has
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Suyash Somvanshi
Jan 26, 2017 rated it it was amazing
Very important book that should be read for the gravity of the situation it tries to address .
This book as I view is a critique of using Marxist theory or for that matter any theory as a lens to analyse the ancient history of India. How the facts in Indian history have been tweaked to conform with 'Marxist ideas' which are held as gospel truths by our much revered historians is the basis on which author builds up the narrative. Also the idea that Hinduism as a unified religion came into
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Sailen Dutta
Aug 19, 2014 rated it really liked it
A brilliant book by Arun Shourie. Although first published in 1998, it is as relevant now as it was then. Shourie correctly nails the lies that the "eminent" Marxist Historians have been peddling through their hold on institutions as Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR). He also exposes their doouble speak on matters relating to ancient India, the Islamic rule in India, and matters relating to Hinduism in general. This book is a must read for everyone who cares about our National ...more
Harjeet Singh
Feb 21, 2016 rated it it was amazing
a really well researched work on how the historical and political discourse in India has been hijacked by the left leaning intellectuals. Also provides sound reasoning for the co-opting/alliance between left, congress and so called socialist parties. There is telling commentary on the reasons for rise of socialist movement and close resemblance between islam, marxism and the like ideologies. A must read for anyone interested in Understanding contemporary indian history and get more objective ...more
Mohit Sharma
Jul 12, 2014 rated it really liked it
Good book. Shourie does present a lot of good factual data but sometimes he goes overboard with his own rhetoric. Although history is not something we should tamper with, I'm not really sure how prudent it is to teach young impressionable minds about hatred and violence which they bear no relation to.
DBV Subbarao
Jan 05, 2015 rated it really liked it
Shelves: history
Well researched. The approach used by the left wing academics on fabricating history is well presented. Interestingly, there is a warning to the right wing intellectuals not to repeat the follies of their left wing predecessors. Although the book is well written, it becomes a bit of n "overload" at times. Worth a read , if Indian History is of interest.
Anoop Pattat
May 31, 2017 rated it it was amazing
A must read to those who wonder how the left liberal intelligentsia held complete monopoly on the academia and consequently the thought process of an entire nation . Especially at this time when they feel they are being challenged and are resorting to fear mongering
Dinesh singh rawat
Aug 23, 2011 rated it really liked it
i think, one book which exposes threat in our academic world.
Narender Gupta
Feb 06, 2013 rated it it was amazing
Wonderful. One thing Arun Shourie doesn't do is talk without facts, and that makes his assertions credible. A must read.
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