Book Reviews

The intellectual task that Sukumar Muralidharan in The Nation and its Citizens takes upon himself is a challenging, ambitious and imperative one. Muralidharan has been a professional journalist for decades, but this book cannot easily be characterised as either journalism or academic in the conventional sense. Oriented and precipitated by an acute sense of the challenges of the contemporary conjuncture, Muralidharan’s response in the form of this book is a wide-ranging one with references to contemporary and historical documents as well as historical and philosophical scholarship.

A collection of thirteen essays spread over two volumes, this work by eminent historian of ancient India, Professor K.M. Shrimali, is a handy reference for any serious student of history. Ranging from religious ideas and practices in Harappan times to the Vedic traditions, to the rise and growth of the śrāmaṇic and Purāṇic religions, and the historiographical issues in the study of Indian religions, the majority of these essays were published earlier or were conference papers, while three (chapters 4, 5 and 9) were specifically written for this volume, which are essentially the more substantive chapters, and are the focus of this review.