ABSTRACT
History occupies a rather unique space within the urban, literate, upper-caste/middle-class imagination in India at present. The sectional and subsectional heads give us a sense of the contents and focus of the text, the connections envisaged between society, economy, and political change, and the concern with relatively marginalised groups such as women and slaves. As a historian, one would like to answer the question in a quick, confident, affirmative. Yet, in order to make the affirmation effective, there is clearly much that needs to be done. More important, the political will to do so is an urgent and inevitable prerequisite. History, as indeed many of the other social sciences/liberal arts subjects, seems to be poised at a critical juncture, demanding that practitioners revisit their academic concerns and work out ways and means of connecting the past and the present.
