Singh's 704-page A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century is targeted at graduate and post-graduate students and will be released on July 18.Sounds intriguing.
With her keen interest in archaeology, Singh seeks to challenge Marxist historians like Romila Thapar, and provides, for those "writing the new NCERT school books," more than one interpretation of ancient Indian history, and encouraging them to look for more.
Elaborating on her divergences with the Marxist school which have dominated the campuses since the 70s, Singh stressed the need for students of ancient Indian history to pay attention also to cultural aspects art, literature religion and philosophy. "Religious doctrines, I feel, are important for students to understand things in context," she said.
[...]
Explaining the purpose in the preface, she said, "It is necessary to expose them to the complex details and textures of history... unresolved issues... have been presented as such, rather than conveying a false sense of certainty. Where there are debates, the different perspectives have been presented, along with my own assessment of which arguments are convincing and which ones are not." [link]
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Ancient History: new take
Professor Upinder Singh, longtime professor of history with several books and research papers to her credit, is about to publish a new book on India's ancient history. Prof. Singh happens to be PM Manmohan Singh's daughter.
2 comments:
Wasnt she the one who recently wrote some fiction about Hinduism and got it approved as text in Delhi University courses.... I dont recall..
how come this change of heart?
No, she wasn't. Do a quick Google search and you'll have the details -- although, going by your blog, I doubt you'll be convinced by the facts.
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