India’s Nationhood: History as Contemporary Politics

Abstract

The discipline of history has failed to recognize that it has always been affected by contemporary politics in diverse ways, despite attempts to maintain its autonomy. The article argues that unless the relationship between history and contemporary politics is defined, both would be misused for partisan ends. On this backdrop, the article explores relations between the two in the Indian context and argues that, in India, history was always influenced by political imperatives and contestations. History was used to affirm or deny the claims of the existence of an Indian nation since times immemorial. The article further argues that the use of history for the political project of historically constituting an Indian nation was integral to the events surrounding independence and partition.