How fascinating! I most certainly fall in the “amateur” ranks, as far as history is concerned, but agree that it is incredibly important to “try” and grasp it in order to make sense of what’s going on in the “now”. I look forward to your newsletter. May I take this opportunity to put out one topic for you to consider at some point. Your opening remarks focus on history from a “nation’s” point of view. My query is whether we need to move away from the national perspective and possibly even challenge the concept of nationhood in this era of global interdependence. Thanks
Thank you for pointing this out! We absolutely agree with you that ‘the nation’ is no longer the only or dominant framework from which to tell history. The most interesting recent scholarship tries to fit some of the most compelling ‘national’ characteristics of an imagined political community—the circulation of print and other media, the development of a shared language—into much more expansive spatial categories. For the sake of Independence—and to interrogate what it means to be free and to belong somewhere—we opened with the nation. But some of the best modern historians out there have now moved on, and work on topics such as cross-border mobility, transnational political movements, oceanic trade, diasporas, and on the meanings of words such as ‘qaum’ during historical periods when a person’s allegiance was not ‘national’. We intend to pay them a most thorough homage in upcoming issues, so do stay tuned!
I can't wait for your first newsletter and I'm looking forward to see the topics that you decide to tackle. I wouldn't be so bold as to even call myself as 'amateur' historian, so I look forward to being a student and learning something new every fortnight about my country and our origins.
Some topics that I personally find very interesting and in the event that you do too, I hope to read about them in an issue in the future:
(1) The history of our North-Eastern states' union with India and the cultural identity of 'other' that our North-Eastern citizens often face in our country.
(2) A nuanced view as to what the creation of Pakistan has meant for our country socio- and geopolitically.
(3) A list of some of the biggest red herrings or mischaracterisations in "Mainstream" Indian history as we know and understand it.
But, you know, you guys do you and I will enthusiastically read every issue regardless!
Thank you! The topics you've listed are all quite interesting to us, and we've been thinking about how best to engage with them so we'll keep you posted :)
Wonderful of you both to take up this project. Looking forward to your fortnightly newsletters. Be warned I am sitting here all set to dissect, question, etc.... And hoping to learn. I am hoping you'll be looking at history beyond political history. Congratulations and best wishes in this new venture. Ravi
Thank you, and absolutely! We’re as tired as you are of the litany of kings, kingmakers, and battles. Some of the themes we have coming up include the history of friendship in India, the idea of modern marriage, the rise of the ‘business family’, and what it might mean to have a secular Indian festival—though we come at these issues from the principle that all history is ‘political’, even if not considered so in the conventional sense. Dissect away! We love to hear from you :)
Amazing. You'd be amazed how many of my "over represented IIT classmates" have disavowed technology, 30 years after graduation, and now believe they are historians.
The debates in our groups are all about alternate histories, and how what we were taught in schools were superficial for sure, and wrong debatably.
I'm happy to be the drunk uncle at a wedding, spoiling for a fight. I believe the history we were taught was important to weld various warring satraps and princelings into a single nation. There was no united india before 1947, and without this shared history (fiction?), there would not be one 73 years later.
Thank you for always being willing to argue with us, even at our most self-assured and obnoxious, and for helping us to experience the joy of fighting a good fight! A lot of the impetus behind this newsletter (and why we chose the August 15 weekend to start) came from the realization that a history that was supposed to weld us together has now hemmed us in to the point where we are tearing at each others’ throats. How could it be that the more history has grown as an academic field, the fewer people are willing to accord it value? That more and different perspectives are being revealed, that lost traditions are being recovered, just as the audience for them seems to be bristling and closing itself off? We'll look forward to the drunk/heated debates!
There always have been parallel campaigns
This one is accessable
Brilliant. Nice to see a young thinking duo. Mubarak gals
It promises to be fascinating. So looking forward to more - and to hearing the alternative points of view.
Thank you! We have grand plans for this and hope to live up to them!
Looking Forward... Eagerly 😊
Thank you!
How fascinating! I most certainly fall in the “amateur” ranks, as far as history is concerned, but agree that it is incredibly important to “try” and grasp it in order to make sense of what’s going on in the “now”. I look forward to your newsletter. May I take this opportunity to put out one topic for you to consider at some point. Your opening remarks focus on history from a “nation’s” point of view. My query is whether we need to move away from the national perspective and possibly even challenge the concept of nationhood in this era of global interdependence. Thanks
Thank you for pointing this out! We absolutely agree with you that ‘the nation’ is no longer the only or dominant framework from which to tell history. The most interesting recent scholarship tries to fit some of the most compelling ‘national’ characteristics of an imagined political community—the circulation of print and other media, the development of a shared language—into much more expansive spatial categories. For the sake of Independence—and to interrogate what it means to be free and to belong somewhere—we opened with the nation. But some of the best modern historians out there have now moved on, and work on topics such as cross-border mobility, transnational political movements, oceanic trade, diasporas, and on the meanings of words such as ‘qaum’ during historical periods when a person’s allegiance was not ‘national’. We intend to pay them a most thorough homage in upcoming issues, so do stay tuned!
I can't wait for your first newsletter and I'm looking forward to see the topics that you decide to tackle. I wouldn't be so bold as to even call myself as 'amateur' historian, so I look forward to being a student and learning something new every fortnight about my country and our origins.
Some topics that I personally find very interesting and in the event that you do too, I hope to read about them in an issue in the future:
(1) The history of our North-Eastern states' union with India and the cultural identity of 'other' that our North-Eastern citizens often face in our country.
(2) A nuanced view as to what the creation of Pakistan has meant for our country socio- and geopolitically.
(3) A list of some of the biggest red herrings or mischaracterisations in "Mainstream" Indian history as we know and understand it.
But, you know, you guys do you and I will enthusiastically read every issue regardless!
Good luck!
Thank you! The topics you've listed are all quite interesting to us, and we've been thinking about how best to engage with them so we'll keep you posted :)
Wonderful of you both to take up this project. Looking forward to your fortnightly newsletters. Be warned I am sitting here all set to dissect, question, etc.... And hoping to learn. I am hoping you'll be looking at history beyond political history. Congratulations and best wishes in this new venture. Ravi
Thank you, and absolutely! We’re as tired as you are of the litany of kings, kingmakers, and battles. Some of the themes we have coming up include the history of friendship in India, the idea of modern marriage, the rise of the ‘business family’, and what it might mean to have a secular Indian festival—though we come at these issues from the principle that all history is ‘political’, even if not considered so in the conventional sense. Dissect away! We love to hear from you :)
Amazing. You'd be amazed how many of my "over represented IIT classmates" have disavowed technology, 30 years after graduation, and now believe they are historians.
The debates in our groups are all about alternate histories, and how what we were taught in schools were superficial for sure, and wrong debatably.
I'm happy to be the drunk uncle at a wedding, spoiling for a fight. I believe the history we were taught was important to weld various warring satraps and princelings into a single nation. There was no united india before 1947, and without this shared history (fiction?), there would not be one 73 years later.
Bring on your arguments and sources...
Thank you for always being willing to argue with us, even at our most self-assured and obnoxious, and for helping us to experience the joy of fighting a good fight! A lot of the impetus behind this newsletter (and why we chose the August 15 weekend to start) came from the realization that a history that was supposed to weld us together has now hemmed us in to the point where we are tearing at each others’ throats. How could it be that the more history has grown as an academic field, the fewer people are willing to accord it value? That more and different perspectives are being revealed, that lost traditions are being recovered, just as the audience for them seems to be bristling and closing itself off? We'll look forward to the drunk/heated debates!