History for a country can be likened to memory for an individual. If one’s memory is vitiated by inaccurate imaginings of vainglory or of false recollections of wrongs suffered, the affected individual is likely to do much harm to himself.…
We have to remember all the time that we have a regime whose leading light, soon after occupying the office of Prime Minister of the country in 2014, announced that India had known plastic surgery as early as the mythical…
When Dwijendra Narayan Jha (‘DN’ to his friends and admirers) passed away in his sleep on 4 February 2021, Indian history lost one of its most devoted servitors – one deeply immersed in sources and yet as immensely clearheaded. DN,…
I am very grateful to Raziuddin Sahib who has given me the opportunity to speak on ‘Interpreting Indian History’, and to all those colleagues and friends who have decided to spare their precious time in order to listen to what…
The First World War (1914–18) came to an end when, in November 1918, Germany signed the Armistice with the victorious Allies (Britain, France and the United States); Germany’s own allies, Turkey and Austria–Hungary, had already done so. In this war…
The concept of ‘nation’ is a modern one, and many definitions of the word exist by authors ranging from John Stuart Mill to J.V. Stalin. The essential common element in these definitions is that, to be a nation, a country…
The passing away of Professor Aniruddha Ray on 9 December 2018 has taken away from our midst a historian of exceptionally wide range of research and acuteness of perception.