Historian R.S. Sharma passes away
Eminent Marxist historian and Indologist Ram Sharan Sharma, known
for his trenchant observations on institutions in ancient Indian society and
his report on the Bihar-Bengal boundary dispute, passed away late Saturday
night. He was 92.
The end came at a private nursing home here.
He was a tireless fighter against communalism of all hues.
A stalwart among the Delhi Group of Historians, the much feted
Dr. Sharma graced the faculty at universities in Patna, New Delhi and Toronto,
where he taught courses in Ancient and Early Medieval Indian history in an
eventful career spanning more than four decades.
He was a senior fellow at the School of Oriental and African
Studies, London University, where he completed his doctorate studies under the
tutelage of A.L. Basham.
Dr. Sharma was the founding Chairman of the Indian Council of
Historical Research in 1972 and he served as President of the Indian History
Congress in 1975.
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/article2380875.ece
Marxist historian passes away
Eminent Marxist historian and Indologist Ram Sharan Sharma, known
for his trenchant observations on institutions in ancient Indian society and
his report on the Bihar-Bengal boundary dispute, passed away late Saturday
night. He was 92.
The end came at a private nursing home here.
He was a tireless fighter against communalism of all hues.
A stalwart among the Delhi Group of Historians, the much feted
Dr. Sharma graced the faculty at universities in Patna, New Delhi and Toronto,
where he taught courses in Ancient and Early Medieval Indian history in an
eventful career spanning more than four decades.
He was a senior fellow at the School of Oriental and African
Studies, London University, where he completed his doctorate studies under the
tutelage of A.L. Basham.
Born in a poor family in a village near the township of Barauni
in Bihar's Begusarai district, Dr. Sharma commenced his vocation as a teacher
at Ara's H.D. Jain College.
Book banned
He authored more than a hundred books and monographs, which have
been translated in a dozen languages round the world. His 1977 book, ‘Ancient
India' ran foul of the Morarji Desai-led Janata government, and it was banned
the following year. The book courted controversy for Dr. Sharma's views on the
historical role of Krishna in the Mahabharata.
Dr. Sharma headed a stellar cast of historians like Romila
Thapar, Irfan Habib, Bipan Chandra and Aditya and Mridula Mukherjee,
vociferously speaking out against the rampant “communalisation of Indian
education,” especially over deletions made in NCERT history textbooks during
the tenure of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA government between 1999 and
2004.
Dr. Sharma was the founding Chairman of the Indian Council of
Historical Research (ICHR) in 1972 and he served as President of the Indian
History Congress in 1975.
He was a recipient of the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru Award in
1989 and was earlier awarded the Campbell Memorial Gold Medal by the Bombay
Asiatic Society in 1987.
State funeral
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar expressed his condolences on the
death of Dr. Sharma and announced a state funeral on Sunday. He is survived by
his wife and son Gyan Prakash Sharma, a professor of History at the Jamia Millia
Islamia University, New Delhi.
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2380705.ece
R.S. Sharma's works reflected the larger struggle to keep India secular
Anyone who came in contact with Professor R.S. Sharma — students,
teachers, ordinary men and women from different walks of life as this reporter
did — could not have remained untouched by him. Gentle and with a sparkle in
his eyes, he came out as strong, determined and always principled.
Moreover, as a historian he was never locked up in the ivory
tower of academia and did not shy away from engaging in public debates on
contemporary issues of caste, communalism and feudalism, that have arisen and
shaken the country from time to time. His life and works reflected the larger
struggle in India to keep the country secular.
Professor Bipan Chandra, who himself was among those historians
who gave early warnings on the attempt by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to
hijack the nationalist plank from the Congress, paid him the most handsome
tribute: “After D.D. Kosambi, R.S. Sharma was the greatest historian of India.”
He recalled that over the several decades since 1964 that he knew him, he read
many of his books and monographs on caste in ancient India, feudalism and
communalism and discussed it with him at great length.
“He was the first among historians to recognise the danger of the
Ayodhya movement,” Professor Irfan Habib said, as he reminisced about his
association with him that began in 1958 when he first met him at the Aligarh
Session of the Indian History Congress (IHC).
“The industry of which he was capable and the rigour in method
which he always adhered to will ever remain a source of inspiration to all of
us,” Professor Habib said.
Many of us remember vividly that as a historian he was not just
an observer of the momentous events related to the Ram temple agitation and the
demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. He wrote about the important historical
issues involved, in a monograph that became an important tool for those trying
to counter the Ram temple protagonists.
He moved the IHC to adopt resolutions asking for protection of
the Babri Masjid year after year from 1986 onwards, and even after the
demolition, at the IHC in Warangal in 1993 “a very strong resolution was
adopted denouncing the proposal of the then government to investigate whether a
temple ever existed under the destroyed mosque,” said Professor Habib.
This reporter recalls that he helped prepare scientific papers
with historical evidence against the Vishwa Hindu Parishad stance that there
was a temple at the disputed spot before the construction of the sixteenth
Masjid.
Not many people know, said Professor Habib, that in 1975 when he
was Chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research he was instrumental
in a resolution being passed by the IHC in Aligarh against the Emergency. “It
was the first academic body in the country to adopt an anti-Emergency stance.”
But in those days of censorship it got little or no publicity, but is part of
the IHC records.
Shireen Moosvi of the Aligarh Muslim University remembers “his
gentle ways and his great commitment to the scientific and secular spirit.” Yet
another colleague who worked with him in Delhi University, Professor D.N. Jha
said: “He was a trend setter in Indian historiography and his works provoked
animated debate on the nature of early Indian society and culture.” Further his
view was that “those working on Indian history have to be either for him or
against him, but they cannot ignore him. His death marks an end of an era in
Indian historiography and the void created will not be easily filled.”
In the flood of tributes paid to this giant among Indian
historians, his colleagues and associates recalled that though he was ever so
gentle, he was rock firm on principles. Professor V. Ramakrishna, who retired
from the history department of Hyderabad University, recalled that during an
IHC session in Gorakhpur in 1992 before the demolition of the Babri Mosque,
then local MP Yogi Adityanath “stunned the delegates when he stormed into the
session,” and the delegates had to seek protection from the District Collector.
“Professor Sharma was always a pillar of support during the days
when through fraudulent memberships the Bharatiya Itihas Parishad [floated by
the RSS] tried to hijack the IHC.”
Perhaps few know that it was R.S., as he was affectionately
called, who made the first effort to study and write about the condition of the
lower castes in ancient India in his book ‘Sudras in Ancient India,' Professor
Habib recalled. Drawing on the seminal works of D.D. Kosambi, he also wrote
some path-breaking books on economy, society, ideas and feudalism in ancient
India. “He had a steely will when it came to principles,” Professor Habib
added.
And, of course, we all remember that his text book for classes 11
and 12 on Ancient India, first published in 1977, was unsuccessfully sought to
be banned by the post-Emergency Janata Party government, said Professor Arjun
Dev, former history professor at the National Council of Educational research
and Training. Hindu communalists attacked the book as it referred to ancient
India's beef-eating practices.
Much later and despite a countrywide protest against
communalisation of education, the BJP-led government withdrew it as a textbook.
“To this day the book continues to be a major work on Ancient
India for the general reader,” Professor Dev said.In a joint statement, the
Indian History Congress, the Aligarh Historians Society and SAHMAT mourned his
death that had “created a void in the ranks of Indian historians, which cannot
be filled.”
·
“He was the first among historians to recognise the danger of the
Ayodhya movement”
·
He was a trendsetter in Indian historiography, says D.N. Jh
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2380704.ece
Historian Ram Sharan Sharma passes away in Patna
IANS Aug
21, 2011, 10.56am IST
PATNA: Noted historian RS Sharma died at a
private nursing home here late Saturday after brief illness. He was 92.The Bihar government has announced that it would accord a state funeral to him here Sunday, authorities said.
Born in a village near Barauni in Bihar's Begusarai district, Sharma was a historian of international repute.
He taught ancient and early medieval history of India at Patna University, Delhi University and the University of Toronto. He wrote 115 books which have been published in 15 languages around the world.
He was the founding chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research.
After his retirement from Delhi University, Sharma returned to Patna and spent 15 years of his life here.
He is survived by his wife and a son who is also a history professor at the Jamia Milia Islamia University, New Delhi.
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