Rethinking India's Past is a collection of twenty-one essays on different topics spanning more than six decades of scholarship. Encompassing large portions of Professor R. S. Sharma's landmark and foundational work, this book covers a time span from approximately 1500 bce to the twelfth century ce.
The majority of the chapters explore the linkages between social formations and modes of production. These essays, which are parts of different monographs and most of which appeared decades ago, challenge and critique several stereotypes about early India. The essays cover political ideas and institutions, on which there are two essays, as well as economic patterns, developments, social orders, and practices. Through the analysis of ancient social formations, Sharma comments on themes such as Oriental despotism, the position of sudras, feudalism, urban decay, and sati. Rich in historical materialism and theoretical approaches to several important issues, he cautions against the uncritical use of models and theories, and he surveys the various ideological frameworks of exploring the past, including the colonialist, nationalist, and materialist schools.
Barring three short essays, the rest are reprints from previous publications by Sharma. The publications include Material Culture and Social Formations in Ancient India, Perspectives in Social and Economic History of Early India, Light on Early Indian Society and Economy, Urban Decay in India, c. 300–c. 1000, and Aspects of Political Ideas and Institutions in Ancient India. Some of the essays are valuable, and it is useful to find them in a single volume. Other essays, however, do not adhere to an overarching theme, and hence it would not be incorrect to suggest that there seems to be an attempt by the publisher to fill a certain number of pages through the inclusion of arbitrary essays by the author. These include those randomly added without following any chronological or subject theme, such as a book review of Romila Thapar's monograph From Lineage to State, published in 1985. There is also a short essay on Rahula Sankritayana, an intellectual who was a social and political activist. Emphasizing his Marxian approach, Sharma feels he was noteworthy for many reasons: “Though it is welcome to know that there was a scholar who certainly could write in English and some other foreign languages but he successfully resisted the temptation to be recognized internationally at the cost of being unknown to the common people in India” (p. 287). One fails to understand the necessity or relevance of the inclusion of this chapter in this book.
The last chapter, “Rethinking the Past: Problems of Members of Lower Orders,” briefly discusses changes in the occupations of the people, such as the Dusadhs, based on caste, with examples from his own village area in Bihar. Sharma also discusses the color differences between different castes albeit very sketchily, citing examples from Europe, East Asia, and the Ladakh Valley of Kashmir. This essay is again incidental to the overall theme, and it is more in the realm of a reflective and anecdotal piece, moving as it does from the “problem of transition to chiefdom and state among the Aryans.”
Several chapters deal with the transition from the ancient to the medieval period, underlining the accompanying socioeconomic changes and characteristics of the early medieval period. There is considerable repetition and overlapping in chapters 12–16. They are somewhat dated, in light of the several useful publications out in the past decade. Interpretations of the period from 300 to 600 ce have moved away from describing the era as one of just feudalism, as even though land-grant inscriptions reflect changes in agrarian relations, they intensified only in the early medieval period. There is insufficient material evidence to argue for a marked decline in urban center crafts and trade in this period, as this period witnessed the development of complex religious pantheons and institutions, which may be further corroborated by the presence of elaborate sculpture and architecture. The latter would have, undoubtedly, been dependent on the patronage of urban elites.
The flier of the book states that the book “presents a comprehensive and accessible account of the history of early India.” No doubt this is true for the intended readers—students, teachers, and scholars of early Indian history who, with some discrimination, can get the essence of Sharma's considerable scholarly oeuvre in one volume. However, besides the curious lumping of these articles into one volume, the editing at places leaves much to be desired, and the diacritical marks are not consistent. The book is titled Rethinking India's Past, which is a bit of a misnomer, for there is not much rethinking, and the updating of the historiography present in this volume remains a desideratum.
