Social divisions in contemporary India have a long and complex history. This collection of eleven essays in the Themes in Indian History series, discusses various historiographical approaches to the study of marginalized society in early India in the period before 1500 AD. This volume analyses the historical roots of social oppression and exclusion of the ‘other’ that have marked the making of identities in the Indian subcontinent. With contributions from Romila Thapar, Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya, Vivekanand Jha, eleanor Zelliot, Uma Chakravarti, Dagmar Hellman-Rajanagayam, and other renowned scholars, the book highlights how the Indian civilization dealt with problems of diversity and yet did not let go of hierarchical social relations. In view of how easily historical sources are appropriated and misinterpreted today, the essays discuss source material in different historical and ideological contexts so that simplistic generalizations privileging one tradition or viewpoint can be rejected. The substantive introduction by Aloka Parasher-Sen situates these readings in their ideological and historiographical contexts and simultaneously hinges these essays on the central concern-identities in contemporary India and their not so recent history born of ritual exclusion. An important reader for students, teachers, and scholars of Indian history and society, this volume will also greatly interest Indologists, social and political activists, and the informed general reader.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Aloka Parasher-Sen
Aloka Parasher-Sen, Ph.D. (SOAS, University of London) is currently Professor, Department of History, University of Hyderabad where she has been teaching since 1979. She was DAAD Fellow at the Sudasien Institut, Universitat Heidelberg in 1986 and Visiting Professor and Fullbright Scholar at the University of Calilfornia, Berkeley in 1992. She received the British Council Fee Award (1975-77) and the UGC Career Award in Social Science and Humanities (1989-91). She has been Member Indian Council For Historical Research, New Delhi (1994-97) apart from serving on Academic Bodies of various Universities and Research Institutions as expert. Some of his major publications are: Mlecchas in Early India, Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 1991; Absences In History Towards Recovering History Of The Marginal In Early India, Indian History Congress Symposia Series: Monograph 3, Delhi, 1992; Social and Economic History off the Deccan, Some Interpretations, Manohar, New Delhi, 1993; (Co-edited with Harsh K. Gupta and D. Balasubramaniam) Deccan Heritage, Universities Press, Orient Longman, Hyderabad, 2000. Subordinate and Marginal Groups in Early India up to A.D. 1500, an OUP Reader Themes in Indian History Series volume edited by her is in press. She has written extensively in the form of articles, research monographs and encyclopedic entries on the special area of her interest in the Social History of Early India with particular emphasis on looking at the history of marginal groups and regional history.
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