History as a Site of Struggle - Essays on History, Culture and Politics

Author: K.N. Panikkar
Publisher: Three Essays
Year: 2013
Language: English
Pages: 652
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9788188789788

Description

This valuable collection of essays by KN Panikkar chronicles contemporary South Asia as it has unfolded in the last three decades. His being a historian of modern India has lent to his analysis of contemporary concerns a unique vantage point not available in most commentaries of contemporary South Asia.

The author focuses on the alliance between the neo-liberal policies and Hindu fundamentalism in India, and the vicissitudes of politics in all of South Asia, particularly the rights of minorities and the linkages between religious fundamentalism and the erosion of democracy. He gives special attention to the historical context of the Hindu right wing cultural project and outlines the agenda for struggle against the corrosive influence of this home grown fascism.

The destruction of the educational system through privatization by all political regimes, and particularly its communalization during the NDA regime are shown as major setbacks to the secular and democratic project in South Asia. The significance of history as a site of struggle and contestations over history is a running thread in these essays.

The essays are written in a style that is accessible, and are a wonderful illustration of how those involved in academics can make a larger public participate in the intellectual debates of our times. This book would be useful for those engaged in academics of course, but students, civil society activists and concerned citizens would also gain from it and enjoy it tremendously.


The terrain of history, culture and secularity remains bitterly contested in contemporary India as it was during the anti-colonial struggle. Few have written on these themes with greater insight and involvement than KN Panikkar, eminent historian and public intellectual.

Contents

Contents

Editor’s Note
Acknowledgements

HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY
Colonialism, Culture and Revivalism
Outsider as Enemy: Politics of Rewriting History in India
History and Cultural Heritage
A Rational View of the Past: The Babri Masjid Dispute
On Historiography
History Textbooks in India
History Retold: Fascist Future of the Past
Competing Historiographies
EMS as Historian
A Great Historian: Servepalli Gopal, 1923-2002
Alternative Historiographies: Changing Paradigms of Power
‘It is a Fear of History’
History as Site of Struggle
Myth, History and Politics
Writing Local History in the Times of Globalization

NATIONAL POLITICS
Incomplete Struggle
Freedom Fifty: A Critical Introspection
Congress: Loss of Legitimacy
Denationalizing the Nation: Politics of Globalization
Politics without Idealism
Secularism under Siege
History, Politics and Culture
Towards an Agenda for Secular Cultural Mobilization
Media and Public Sphere
Bhagat Singh: Profile of a Revolutionary
Nationalism: Beyond Anti-colonialism
The Secular Way: To Uphold Democratic Principles
On the Great Rebellion of 1857
Communalization and the Retrieval of the Secular
Ayodhya: A Historical Overview
Was There a Renaissance in India?
Was Indian Nationalism Inclusive?
Some Thoughts on Secularism
Corruption and the Middle Class
Jan Lokpal
Corruption – A Threat to Indian Democracy

COMMUNAL POLITICS
Religious Politics: The Possible Future
Religious Symbols and Political Mobilization
The Right to Know
Babri Masjid
Meaning of BJP Politics
Hindu Revivalism: A Political and Culture Project
The Task before the Nation
Communalism in India: Towards an Intervention
Towards a Hindu Nation
‘Worse than Medievalism’
Countering the Revivalist Spirit
Gujarat: Symptoms of a De-civilizing Process
The Agony of Gujarat
Before the Night Falls
A Dangerous Decade
Communalizing Kerala
In the Name of Nationalism
Assassination of the Mahatma
Communalism – the Road Ahead
The Struggle Within

EDUCATION
Democratic Education: Some Reflections
Denationalizing Education
Secular and Democratic Education
Higher Education: Perilous Prospects
Education for Fundamentalism
Whither Indian Education?
Education: Beyond Review and Rectification
Communalization of Education
In Defense of the Right to Know

CULTURE
Cultural Pasts and National Identity
Tradition, Innovation and Identity: Religion and Caste in Colonial India
Globalization, Culture and Communalism
Ungodly Men, Unholy Activities
A Perspective for Intervention
An Agenda for Secularism
Minorities in South Asia
Identity Politics in South Asia
An Agenda for Culture Action
Left Culture Intervention: Perspectives and Practice
Progressive Cultural Movement in India