Seminar abstract

[Kamal Adhikary]

Dear Colleagues: 
	As a part of South Asia Seminar at the Center for Asian Studies at UT 
Austin , Texas, Prof. Cynthia Talbot had given a talk on "History, Ethnicity 
and Identity: Who is Indian?" Here is the abstract of the talk:


History, Ethnicity and Identity: Who is Indian?

Cynthia Talbot

In this paper I focus on two aspects of premodern Indian historiography --
the nature of the medieval Hindu-Muslim encounter and the question of
Indian civilization's protohistoric begininngs -- that are in dire need of
reconsideration, both because existing scholarly constructions are
inadequate and because alternative interpretations inspired by Hindu
nationalist or Hindutva perspectives are being vigorously propagated.  The
Hindutva rewriting of history is driven by the desire to recast the
question "who is Indian?" in such a manner that the answer will inevitably
be "Hindu."  As with other attempts to formulate national, ethnic, and/or
community identities, the revisionist Hindutva historiography accentuates
the boundaries that separate the group from its Others while at the same
time stressing the primordial unity of the group itself.  Hence, the main
thrust of the Hindutva historiography on medieval India is the exclusion of
Muslims, who are represented as an implacably hostile and foreign element
in the Indian body politic.  On the other hand, the Hindutva claim that 
the Harappan urban civilization was Aryan in character asserts the continuity
of Indian society and the common origins of all non-Muslim Indians.

In both instances, Hindu nationalist scholars are utilizing simplistic
constructions of community identity inherited from Orientalist scholarship
of the colonial period.  Rather than summarily dismissing the revisionist
historiography, therefore, I urge professional historians to seize this
opportunity to reassess the premises of the standard historiography.  We
need studies of specific time periods, regions, and genres of literature
from the medieval era in order to trace the geneaology of modern constructs
of the Hindu and Muslim.  Whether these distinctions were actually
meaningful or of primary importance in medieval India is a question that
urgently requires investigation.  Similarly, archaeological research
increasingly calls into question our earlier models of the Aryan migration
into India.  With little evidence of any foreign intrusion in the material
record, we must reformulate our conceptions of how Indo-Aryan languages
came to be dominant.  While the contemporary agenda of Hindutva revisionism
makes its version of Indian history suspect, it does expose the weaknesses
of previous accounts.  Hence, scholars working on premodern India must rise
to this challenge by re-examining the basic assumptions in the field and
offering more sophisticated interpretations of the Indian past.

****

You can find the above abstract at:
	http://asnic.utexas.edu/asnic/subject/CynthiaTalbotWhoisIndian.html

Thanks.
kamal


_______________
Kamal R. Adhikary, Ph.D.
Internet Coordinator, Asian Studies
UT, Austin, Texas 78712
Tel:512-475-6034
Email:kamal at asnic.utexas.edu