CHENNAI: “There is a dire need for India and Indians to stay acquainted with enlightened royal dynasties from southern and eastern India, historian Vikram Sampath said while speaking at the ThinkEdu Conclave in Chennai on Friday.
“It is only after a Tamil film named Ponniyin Selvan was released that many were aware of the great Chola Dynasty. A number of royal houses don’t even feature in this larger narrative that we call the history of India.
The Ahom ruled for 600 long years (in northeast India), but how much of their story forms a part of the history?” he asked. Speaking at a session titled ‘One Nation, Many Histories: The Paradox of Uniformity’, said, “Bharat needs to snatch back her story from Delhi.”
Stating that outside voices are being strangled in the arena of history, he said that in the decades following independence the stranglehold of ideology of one kind of group had destroyed the careers of many in academia. “Many like me have a PhD in History but have opted to not be part of the academic set-up because there are people who still think I am not good enough to be on the inside.”