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Ram Sharan Sharma (1920-2011) was one of the pioneering historians of post-independence India. His work has shaped our understanding of Indian history as we know it today.

Sharma believed that history and theory are intimately linked, and that history is a form of knowledge which is theoretically accessible. Yet, he could combine the use of refined theoretical tools to analyse problems and communicate them in the simplest possible language. He saw historical writing as an intensely political activity and led the battle of ideas against colonialist, communal, chauvinistic and obscurantist approaches to the study of history all his life.

With the underlying goal of studying the diverse forms of state, social and political institutions, and their role in the making of history, this volume brings together contributions from some of India’s finest historians to focus on some of Sharma’s key preoccupations. Section I includes essays on sociology and history, the state, trade and urbanisation, and the shudras—highlighting recent developments, while acknowledging Sharma’s pioneering work in these areas. Section II focuses on archaeology and its use in reconstructing history, including essays on the pre-Satavahanas, Satavahanas, Ajivikas, servitude, the Kaliyuga, forced labour and peasantry, war in ancient Indian thought, and Kavya literature and historical change. The final section engages with the theory and practice of colonialism at different locations, with essays on new religious sects as exponents of radical socio-political ideas, the concept of civilisation and womanhood.

Contents: Foreword/Basudev Chatterji. Preface.Introduction/Bhairabi Prasad Sahu and Kesavan Veluthat. Part I: R. S. Sharma and Early Indian Historiography: 1. Ram Sharan Sharma (1920–2011)/Romila Thapar. 2. Studying India’s past: the need for a sociological turn/K. Paddayya. 3. Cracking the narcissist’s mirror: the historiographical legacy of R. S. Sharma/B. Surendra Rao. 4. R. S. Sharma and the histories of state in early India/Bhairabi Prasad Sahu. 5. The unspoken debate: revisiting Mid-20th Century conceptualisations of the shudras/Kumkum Roy. 6. Ways of seeing: R. S. Sharma’s study of trade and urbanisation in the first millennium/Suchandra Ghosh. Part II: Querying The Early Indian Past: 7. Dynamics of ‘state’ organisation in pre-satavahana and satavahana settlements in the Deccan/M. L. K. Murty. 8. Revisiting the Ajivikas in epigraphic records/Susmita Basu Majumdar. 9. Changing forces, relations and forms of servitude in early India/Rajan Gurukkal. 10. Making the best of a bad bargain: the brighter side of Kaliyuga/Kesavan Veluthat. 11. The problem of war in ancient Indian thought/Upinder Singh. 12. Texts and transitions: early Indian literature and the problem of historical change/Shonaleeka Kaul. 13. Forced labour and peasantry in medieval Tamil Nadu (900-1300 CE)/Y. Subbarayalu. Part III: Domination and Resistance: 14. New religious sects as exponents of radical socio-political ideas: case studies from eastern India, 1769-1882/Binay Bhushan Chaudhuri. 15. The Concept of Civilisation in the Theory of International Law in the 19th Century/Sabyasachi Bhattacharya. 16. Womanhood and anxiety in a marginal colony: a Goan episode/Amar Farooqui. Selected Writings of Professor R. S. Sharma. Index.