Quotes About History

That every civilization emerges out of interactions with others, but nevertheless creates its own miracle, was not yet recognized by either European or Indian historians.

The use of the plough goes back to pre-Harappan times and one of the words frequently used for the plough – langala – is from Munda, a non-Aryan language.

Political ideologies focusing in particular on what they call 'cultural nationalism'—and this is common to many societies apart from the Indian—blatantly exploit history.

The decline of Buddhism in the Ganges heartland and the peninsula occurred before the Turkish conquest.

The period from the ninth century in the subcontinent, far from being 'dark', was a period of illumination as it was germane to many later institutions.

To categorize some people as indigenous and others as alien, to argue about the identity of the first inhabitants of the subcontinent, and to try and sort out these categories for the remote past, is to attempt the impossible.

Historiography therefore becomes a prelude to understanding history as a form of knowledge.

A fundamental sanity in Indian civilization has been due to an absence of Satan.

What is of interest in the history of the term Hindu, is that its origin lies in its being a geographical name.

But among the more widely used eras are the Vikrama era of 58-57 BC and the Shaka era of AD 78. The Vikrama era was known earlier as the Krita or the Malava era. Others include the Gupta era of AD 319-20, the Harsha era of AD 606, the Vikrama-Chalukya era of AD 1075 and a variety of others.

In contemporary times we not only reconstruct the past but we also use it to give legitimacy to the way in which we order our own society.

History is not just a directory of information; it also involves analyzing and interpreting this information.

A society has many pasts from which it chooses those that go into the creation of its history. The choice is made by those in authority—the authority being of various kinds—although occasionally the voice of others may be heard.

Historically the interesting question is when and why did the prohibition on eating beef become the requirement of a good Hindu.

A later age looks back with nostalgia at an earlier one and depicts it in terms of ideals and activities now receding.

Dravidian became the counter-point to the Aryan.

Colonial historians drew on texts encapsulating the upper-caste perspectives of Indian society and extended it to the whole of society.

I have over the years of my research been struck by the frequency with which the present makes use of the past either in a detrimental manner where it becomes a part of various political ploys, or alternatively in a positive manner to claim an enviable legitimacy and inheritance.

The political ideologues of the Hindu Right endorse a history rooted in colonial interpretations and are anxious to make that period of history a Hindu utopia.

The alienation implicit in modernization is sought to be assuaged by the creation of a past and of ideologies that legitimize the present.

To stop at moral judgement on whether caste was good or evil is insufficient, as the assessment has to go much further and examine why this form of discrimination/organization was chosen.

On a universal scale the civilized were the colonizers and the uncivilized were the colonized.

If the past is to be called upon to legitimize the present, as it so frequently is, then the veracity of such a past has to be continuously vetted.

The history of Wall Street is inseparable from New York.