Indian Cultures as Heritage: Contemporary Pasts

One of India’s preeminent historians examines the role of history in contemporary society.

Every society has its cultures: patterns of how people live and express themselves and how they value objects and thoughts. Recently, there has been considerable debate about what constitutes Indian culture and heritage and about how much diversity those categories ought to contain. Romila Thapar begins by explaining how definitions of culture have changed over the past three centuries. She suggests t...