ABSTRACT
In the fifty years since independence, Indian historians have undoubtedly assumed charge of their own history. Although historians—more than archaeologists, anthropologists, professional philosophers, or linguists—can be public figures everywhere, in few countries have they acquired such a prominent public presence as they have in India. Historians and scholars around the world have looked to the writings of the subaltern historians to pose questions about the politics of knowledge. With the advent of independence in 1947, the creation of an Indian history, for and by Indians, became something of a national imperative. The consensus of nationalist historians was that the work of other British historians was only slightly less offensive to the sentiments of Indians, being just as rooted in palpable falsehoods. But India, to good fortune, is still far from reaching that stage in which its culture will be reduced to giant amusement parks, historic homes, national monuments, museums, and other sanitized and bracketed spaces.
