Lessons from History
MUMBAI – 19 March 2016, Sunil Khilnani, Avantha Professor and Director, King's India Institute, King's College London and Sreenivasan Jain, Managing Editor, NDTV spoke about Khilnani's tome 'Incarnations: India in 50 lives' in an in-depth and engaging conversation at Asia Society India Centre. The evening began with Khilnani highlighting the personalities featured in his book. Starting with the edicts of Ashoka, Khilnani illustrated how through India’s long and tumultuous history, remarkable people have shaped the course of the country.
From Kautilya’s teachings to Mahatma Gandhi’s marches and Periyar’s politics to J.N. Tata’s industrial ethic, Khilnani showcased the leaders strategies and shortcomings. Defining their impact on society, Khilnani highlighted that a civilisation such as India is open to radical experiments in self-definition which leads to its evolution. Jain opening the discussion remarked that the book is elegant and erudite and a light read, which employs the story form to delve into a historical exploration.
Speaking about the book, Khilnani mentioned that the personalities chosen were ones through whom the full arc of 2,500 years of Indian history could be told. Some are personalities who have been forgotten with the passage of time and a few are personalities whose afterlives Indian’s encounter today as road signs or statues. Undertaking the book as a project to educate himself, Khilnani found that the 18th century painter Nainsukh was his greatest discovery.
The conversation set a historic and political context for the country as it stands today, emphasising the need to retell history in an unbiased fashion. After all as Khilnani poignantly mentioned, "studying the arc of history is not a backward looking indulgence, it is a means of propelling ourselves forward".
Reported by Antaraa Vasudev, Programme Assistant, Asia Society India Centre.
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