Don't confuse faith for history: Romila Thapar

Eminent historian Romila Thapar recently received the prestigious Kluge Prize 2008 of the United States Library of Congress, for lifetime achievement in the study of humanity. Well known for her contribution to creating a new pluralistic view of Indian civilization, she speaks to Shruba Mukherjee of Deccan Herald. Excerpts:

Does study of history have a future?

History as practised at the professional level has a good future. But what passes for history at the popular level often does not reflect the work of serious professional historians. This is partly because historians have distinctive methods of subjecting data to critical analyses. This helps explain what happened in the past and why in a more factual manner and the analyses can change with advances in knowledge. Popular notions of history seldom apply rigorous methods of examining data from the past.

Faith is based on belief which means anything can be believed without having to be proved correct. This is the opposite of history. So when people of faith want to impose their beliefs onto history, there is a conflict with historians. more from Deccan Herald


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