“It must be said here that ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ is not an attribute of patriotism, but of deep patriarchy. Extreme mother-love is a camouflage for extreme misogyny. Over the past few years in India, the nature of the violence… — Romila Thapar Copy Share Image
“The change from the categories of hunter-gatherers to pastoralism to agriculture involved using a decreasing area of land, but an increasingly more intensive use… — Romila Thapar Copy Share Image
“Expanding urbanization often trapped people at the margins of settlements into becoming landless and unable to use their skills and thus gradually forced them… — Romila Thapar Copy Share Image
“I do not believe there is any place in this country for any particular culture, whether it is a Hindu culture, or a Muhammadan culture or a Kanarese culture or a Gujarati culture. There are things we cannot deny, but they are not to be cultivated as advantages, they are to be treated as disadvantages, as something which divides our… — Romila Thapar Copy Share
“That every civilization emerges out of interactions with others, but nevertheless creates its own miracle, was not yet recognized by either European or Indian… — Romila Thapar Copy Share Image
“To conclude on a personal note, these thoughts came to me again and again in the past few months. There has been so much talk about who is national and who is anti-national and those in authority insist that it is all about the kinds of slogans that one has to shout to avoid being called anti-national. But slogans do… — Romila Thapar Copy Share
“Some forms of Indian asceticism, although not all, have a socio-political dimension and these cannot be marginalized as merely the wish to negate life.” — Romila Thapar Copy Share Image
“A later age looks back with nostalgia at an earlier one and depicts it in terms of ideals and activities now receding.” — Romila Thapar Copy Share Image
“Nationalism may begin with ideas among the elite but its propagation involves having mass support. Initially, anti-colonial” — Romila Thapar Copy Share Image
“The use of the plough goes back to pre-Harappan times and one of the words frequently used for the plough – langala – is… — Romila Thapar Copy Share Image
“A number of families constituted a grama, a word used later for village, suggesting that the families in the early settlements were related. Another… — Romila Thapar Copy Share Image
“These passes were used so frequently that it is incorrect to project the north-western mountains as barriers. They were corridors of communication.” — Romila Thapar Copy Share Image
