The Idea of India: A Dialogue

A lively discussion between two eminent Indian academics that examines what it means to be an Indian.

Through a stimulating dialogue, two old friends trace the history of the idea of India through digressions, anecdotes, and observations. Historian Romila Thapar and theorist Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak reflect on the challenges posed by essentialism and exclusion whenever cultures attempt to define and assert themselves. They also emphasize the role of education in fostering a more inclusive and accurate understanding of the nation’s complex history. Their conversation revolves around the narratives that have shaped Indian identity--from Vedic times to the present--and those whose voices and visions for this land remain unheard and unseen.

Ranging from nationalism to religion and beyond, TheIdea of India discusses an urgent question: What does it mean to be an Indian in contemporary society?

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is university professor in the humanities at Columbia University and the author of many books, including Nationalism and the Imagination, also published by Seagull Books. Romila Thapar is an emeritus professor of history at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and she was previously general president of the Indian History Congress. She is a fellow of the British Academy and holds honorary doctorates from Universities of Calcutta, Oxford University and the University of Chicago, among others. She is an Honorary Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and SOAS, London. In 2008, she was awarded the prestigious Kluge Prize from the Library of Congress.