“Nationalism may begin with ideas among the elite but its propagation involves having mass support. Initially, anti-colonial” — Romila Thapar Patriotism 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… — Romila Thapar Urbanization Copy Share Image
“Some forms of Indian asceticism, although not all, have a socio-political dimension and these cannot be marginalized as merely the wish to… — Romila Thapar Asceticism 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… — Romila Thapar Change 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… — Romila Thapar Language Copy Share Image
“That every civilization emerges out of interactions with others, but nevertheless creates its own miracle, was not yet recognized by either European… — Romila Thapar Civilization 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… — Romila Thapar Family 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… — Romila Thapar Life 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… — Romila Thapar Common goal Copy Share Image
“A fundamental sanity in Indian civilization has been due to an absence of Satan.” — Romila Thapar Sanity Copy Share Image
“National-ism seeks legitimacy from the past and history therefore becomes a sensitive subject” — Romila Thapar History Copy Share Image
“Democracy ceases to be so if it is governed by permanent majoritarian identities of any kind.” — Romila Thapar Democracy Copy Share Image
“Historiography therefore becomes a prelude to understanding history as a form of knowledge.” — Romila Thapar Historiography 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 Nostalgia Copy Share Image
“The eating of beef was reserved for specific occasions, such as rituals or when welcoming a guest or a person of high… — Romila Thapar Food 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 Barriers Copy Share Image
“To categorize some people as indigenous and others as alien, to argue about the identity of the first inhabitants of the subcontinent,… — Romila Thapar Indigenous Copy Share Image
“Intensely devotional poetry was written by poets, some of whom were born Muslim but worshipped Hindu deities. One of the best known… — Romila Thapar Hinduism Copy Share Image
“The second trial for sedition was in 1908 before Justice D. D. Davar, who had been his counsel in the first trial,… — Romila Thapar Copy Share Image
“It must be said here that ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ is not an attribute of patriotism, but of deep patriarchy. Extreme mother-love… — Romila Thapar Civil war Copy Share Image
