HISTORIOGRAPHY: PAST AND PRESENT

Among the social sciences, history is the only discipline dating back to the very dawn of civilization, maintaining its unbroken hold on human mind. Of late, however, it is passing through an existential crisis being confronted with powerful projection of the past in electronic media and intense attacks mounted by the postmodernists rejecting its claim to authenticity and objectivity. It is time professional historians should do some self-introspection so as to evolve required responses by sensitizing the student and teacher community in India to the makeover of history from its unidimensional “grand narrative” character to a multi-dimensional meta-narrative perspective on the past. The eternal and irreconcilable dichotomy between the past in the absolute and its relative character in representations done down the ages constitutes the fundamental and fascinating theme uniting this anthology of articles. The contributions by their very purpose and nature are freelance essays from competent scholars commissioned especially to concretize the nebulous nature of each model by clear and concise presentation so as to be of equal interest to the students, teachers as well as general readers.

Contributors
 Kirit K. Shah
 Meherjyoti
 Sangle
 Pushpa Bhave
 Aniket Jaaware
 Raja Dixit
 Chhaya Goswami
 Aravind Ganachari
 Jatin Wagle
 Maithreyi Krishnaraj
 Radhika Seshan
 C.R. Das
 Umesh A. Kadam

Kirit K. Shah, currently Chairman and Professor, University Department of History, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai, obtained Master’s degrees in three different disciplines in addition to a degree in Law and a doctorate in Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology. He has also been Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. As a scholar, he has contributed substantially in the field of historical research.
Meherjyoti Sangle is faculty member at the University Department of History, SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai. She did her graduation in Microbiology and Biomedical Technology before obtaining Master’s degree in History. Owing to her original interest in medical sciences, she opted for History of Health and Medicine as the field of her doctoral research.