Historical Essays (In 2 Volumes)

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Historical Essays by Prof. K.S. Lal is a selection of some of the research articles written by this doyen of Indian history during the last fifty years, or so. The selection is being brought out in two volumes â€“ (1) History and Historiography and (2) Politics and Society. The present volume titled History and Historiography comprises of five articles: (1) Meaning and Purpose of History, (2) Modern Indian Historians of Medieval India, (3) Historiography of Medieval India, (4) Future of Historical Research in India, and (5) Survey of Research work done on Administration under the Sultanate. The first and the largest article in the volume â€“ â€œMeaning and Purpose of Historyâ€ is in the nature of a comprehensive treatise on history â€“ writing in general dealing with its various aspects of their global perspective with focus on India. The author has extensively quoted and analysed the views of savants like Lord Acton, E.H. Carr, Toynbee, Burchardt, Dromgool, Thucydides, Bernard Croce, Hart, Trevelyan, Alberuni and many others. Dr. Lal has discussed the relevant topics such as meaning of history; relation between past, present and future; comparative role of personalities, events and ideas in the unfolding of historical process; the historiansâ€™ task; the issue of bias in history; differences in interpretation; historical style, use and abuse of history; and finally purpose of history. The author concludes with the profound observation that while study of history has a value at all times, it is of utmost importance today when the world is shrinking and we are moving closer to one another. The remaining four articles included in the book contain what their titles convey. They deal primarily with modern Indian historiography on medieval India. Prof. Lal has analysed the basic writings of the period in a critical manner so that their perusal can provide â€œa sort of refresher course to scholars and researchers of history.â€

ABOUT THE AUTHOR K.S. Lal

Professor Kishori Saran Lal (b. 1920) took his doctorate in Medieval Indian History from the University of Allahabad in 1945. Starting as a lecturer in the same University, he served in the Madhya Pradesh Education Service from 1945 to 1963 and taught at Government Colleges in Nagpur, Jabalpur and Bhopal. He was Reader in the University of Delhi for ten years (1963-73) and, for the next ten years, Professor and Head of the Department of History in the University of Jodhpur (1973-79) and the University of Hyderabad (1979-83). He has participated in many seminars and conferences, national and international, in India and abroad. In Madhya Pradesh, he was Secretary of the Madhya Pradesh Itihasa Parishad and Convener of the Regional Records Survey Committee. He presided over the Medieval History Section of the Indian History Congress in 1958, Punjab History Congress in 1975, Rajasthan History Congress in 1978, and Indian History and Culture Society in 1984. In 1977 he chaired a session at the Seventh International Conference of the Association of Historians of Asia, held in Bangkok. He has published a number of articles and monographs on Medieval Indian History. All his books have met a world-wide acclaim; they have been noticed in learned journals in London, Leiden, Chicago, Leipzig, Rome and other centres of learning.