CSP214 | Some Problems in Indian History

This course is designed to supplement the core courses in History taught in the first two years of the B.A. LL.B. (hons) programme. The objective of this course is to delve deeper into a few of the problems that one confronts when pursuing a study of India’s past which may not always be possible while teaching/studying the core courses, for eg., the prehistoric period of the Indian sub-continent, but the understanding of which will go a long way to create humility and understanding of the peoples that make up India today. The very antiquity and vastness of the time and geography at the same time the scarcity of sources will help one understand the complexity of pursuing any study of the past.

I think this delving into the problems of Indian history is necessary in order to appreciate the value of analysing all available facts about the past, using scientific methods of analysis so that one doesn’t rush into conclusions. I have chosen only a few of the problems in Indian history, given the paucity of time, but the problems selected will go a long way towards developing a better understanding of the diverse peoples, cultures, histories of what is India today. Focus is on problems that may not be discussed at all or discussed only in passing in the core courses or till the students graduate from school. I have decided to include 2 sessions on what is history, philosophy of history, historical methods and rewriting history so as to provide a basic understanding of the discipline of history before wading into the problems of Indian history.

The reading materials selected for this course are recent works like that of Tony Joseph, Early Indians, as well as the must-read books like What is History? By E.H. Carr. This ensures that students are exposed to works by historians who are thoroughly professional about their practice of history while being exposed to more recent research at the same time. Newspaper articles and those published in well known magazines are also included so as to keep pace with recent archaeological findings which will take decades before they are included in any History textbook.

The teaching methods that will be used for this course will be a mix of lectures, interactive sessions and discussions. The purpose of providing the reading list is to encourage students to read and come to class that informed discussions can take place. Students are encouraged to raise questions because asking questions will compel us to think about the topics we discuss.

The first module will be creating the foundation for the whole course – what is history, historical methods, facts and interpretation etc, followed by the discussion on rewriting of history. The second module will then begin at the very beginning of human history, viz.,

prehistory – the archaeological findings, the sites and what they tell us about the peoples who inhabited the sub-continent till the dawn of the proto-historic period i.e., 3500 B.C. The third module will be about one of the oldest but most controversial periods, in terms of the theories regarding the origin, the people and the decline, the Harappan period. Though this culture existed over 5000 years ago there has been so much of interest in it in the last two to three decades as identity politics has come to be at the centre of political mobilisation in India today.

This particular period has fascinated me since my student days and each new discovery and theory has only further sharpened my interest. Simultaneously excavations in Tamil Nadu along the river Thamiraparani provide evidence of a 3200 years old civilisation. When all these archaeological findings are tried and tested and written into textbooks history of India as we understand maybe rewritten in a manner that will require us to open our minds to redefine who we are as Indians.

The next module will be on Buddhism, not so much about its founder and its spread as much as about when and how it declined, because most of us have read in our school textbooks that Buddhism suddenly underwent a decline and disappeared from the Indian peninsula while it flourished in Sri Lanka, Burma and South-East Asia. Evidence from Tamil Nadu suggests otherwise. In fact there is reason to believe that Buddhism continued to exist in South India till at least the 16th Century. The impact of Buddhism on law and judicial administration is not well explored in the study of India’s past, therefore, that will another aspect of study in this module.

Following this will be the study of the place of the Dharmasastras, the Dharmasutras and the Smritis, in law and judicial administration. Were these books ever considered a source of law?

In which kingdoms were they the basis of state law or even for that matter which people/s followed the instructions contained in these texts. Or were these texts only Brahmanical aspirations and finding their way into state administered law only when Brahmins held administrative positions in some of the kingdoms in the early medieval period?

The last module is focussed on South India between CE 600 and 1200 in order to understand the rise and growth of Saivism and Vaisnavism on the one hand and the decline of Buddhism and Jainism as a result of the changed socio-economic conditions. This is also the period of the construction of large number of temples in this region.