ABOUT THIS BOOK

Historian Romila Thapar reflects on a rich, path-breaking life—and the ideas, friendships, and journeys that shaped her.

In Just Being, historian Romila Thapar invites us into her illustrious world—a rich, extensive memoir from a scholar who has profoundly shaped our understanding of India’s past and present.

From her childhood growing up in British India, through her years of education in London, her extensive travels to archaeological sites across Asia and beyond, and her trailblazing role in shaping the Centre for Historical Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Thapar reflects on a life lived in the service of inquiry and education. Composed over the past few years, Just Being is a testimony to Thapar’s ability to view herself within the larger flow of history, and to illumine it with a scholar’s depth and a storyteller’s sensitivity. It reveals not only an extraordinary, boundary-defying life but a profound conviction that understanding our past in the light of irrefutable evidence is essential to an insight into the present and to shaping a more thoughtful future.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Romila Thapar is an emeritus professor of history at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and she was previously the general president of the Indian History Congress. She is a fellow of the British Academy and holds honorary doctorates from the University of Calcutta, Oxford University, and the University of Chicago, among others. She is an Honorary Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and SOAS, London. In 2008, she was awarded the prestigious Kluge Prize from the Library of Congress.

REVIEWS

Praise for Romila Thapar:
“The preeminent historian of early India, Romila Thapar opened the study of its rich, ancient civilization to habits of inquiry and conceptual frameworks arising out of the modern social sciences. She formulated new questions about the social development of nearly 2,000 years of Indian history and challenged existing historical paradigms from both the colonial era and the more recent nationalist period.”—Library of Congress

Praise for Romila Thapar:
“Romila Thapar has transformed our view of India’s past, questioning myths first devised by British colonial ideologues before they were taken up by Hindu chauvinists. Her courage and integrity have put her at odds with Narendra Modi’s government.”—Jacobin

Praise for Romila Thapar:
“Throughout her academic career, Thapar’s focus has been on understanding history not as mere factual inquiry but as questioning a cultural and ideological phenomenon. Her oeuvre has transformed the understanding of the Indian subcontinent globally. Thapar has also been a consistent and vocal advocate for education through rational, evidence-based inquiry and research-oriented approaches.”—The Caravan

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface
Prologue: Starting at One Book-End of My Life
1 The Child
2 Anticipations & Misgivings of Adolescence
3 Becoming an Adult
4 Going Home?
5 Returning Home to Much Floundering
6 The Ground Beneath My Feet
7 The Gelling
8 History Rocks!
9 Of History and Politics
10 The JNU Years, 1
11 The JNU Years, 2
12 Family and Friends
13 The Aftermath of Momentous Events
14 Wanderings: Purposeful or Aimless
15 Retirement, but More in Theory
16 Politics in the Readings of Archaeology
17 The Media & Politics
18 Inching Towards a New Millennium
19 Into the New Millennium
20 Anything New in the New Millennium?
21 The Confrontation
22 A Return to the Old, but Not Quite
23 Diverse Wonderings
24 The Kluge Prize, 2010
25 Historiography Delivered
26 What Has Happened to Democracy?
27 From the Other Side
28 A Failed Conference but An Impressive Felicitation
29 The Seagull Space in My House
30 Pandemic of More than the Usual Kind
31 Farewell Years
Epilogue: The Other Book-End