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Webcast: Romila Thapar: History and Contemporary Politics in India Running Time:
1 hour, 32 minutes Professor Romila Thapar examines both the historical tradition and the contemporary scene in the India of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP). Romila Thapar Perhaps India's most eminent historian of its ancient history and culture, Professor Thapar is the author of the path breaking Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas as well as A History of India published by Penguin Books. Long the standard text on early Indian history and in print since 1966, the latter volume, thoroughly revised, will be republished by the University of California Press in February 2003. In 1983 Professor Thapar was elected General President of the Indian History Congress and in 1999 a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. She holds honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Chicago, Oxford University and Calcutta University. In addition to her extensive writings on ancient India, Professor Thapar has engaged actively in the ongoing controversies regarding `Hindutva,' Ayodhya and more generally the polemic uses of the past in contemporary India. As an historian steeped in the literature of the past, she brings to the politics of the present day an informed, thoughtful perspective. Her two lectures in Berkeley’s Sibley Auditorium examined both the historical tradition and the contemporary scene in the India of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP). Professor Thapar's lecture was held on November 6, 2002 at the University of California at Berkeley’s Sibley Auditorium and sponsored by the Center for South Asia Studies and the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies
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