Who Owns the Past?: How Historians [Re]Wrote India's Past & Present, 1870-2020

Why does history in India ignite such fierce debate? Who gets to shape the story of a nation―and to what end?

In Who Owns the Past?, historian Shaan Kashyap delivers a gripping, deeply researched account of how India’s history has been written, rewritten, contested, and politicized from the colonial era to the age of social media. This is not just a book about the past―it’s about the power struggles that define the present.

From Macaulay and James Mill to Romila Thapar and Vikram Sampath, Kashyap traces the intellectual battles that have shaped the “Idea of India.” He examines how textbooks are crafted, how institutions influence memory, and how political shifts leave their imprint on the stories nations tell about themselves.

Blending sharp archival work with vivid portraits of historians, policymakers, and power brokers, Who Owns the Past? is both a sweeping narrative of Indian historiography and a timely exploration of identity, ideology, and nationhood.

Provocative, balanced, and essential reading, this book asks a simple but urgent question: if the past is constantly being rewritten, what does that mean for our future?

Perfect for readers of history, politics, public policy, and anyone invested in understanding the intellectual fault lines shaping contemporary India.

Shaan Kashyap studies and writes about Modern History. Having studied and researched the subject at BHU (Varanasi), JNU (New Delhi), and Ravenshaw University (Cuttack), he has witnessed the miscellany and medley of educational and political debates in India. He has presented his research to diverse audiences at venues ranging from IIC, New Delhi, to Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. He frequently writes for different news portals and reviews books. He is a Sir Jadunath Sarkar Fellow for Indian History (2024-25) with FIHCR.