History in the Public Domain

This articulate collection of engaged writings...highlights the value of rigorous historical research as part of knowledge production. The book stresses the need to protect respectful co-existence in composite India, managed by a diversity-conscious state that uses historically-informed templates and guidance to maintain feasible balances between order in the public realm and cultivating freedom of expression in this troubled post-truth era."" - Werner Menski, Emeritus Professor of South Asian Laws, SOAS, University of London, UK

""Raziuddin Aquil is one of the most engaged, lively and brilliant of Indian historians writing today. This collection of essays and reviews on subjects ranging from language, religion and identity to animals, architecture and music demonstrates history's unique power of intervention in public debates. In an easy, accessible style, wearing its scholarship lightly, Aquil's book illuminates issues that tear our polity apart, showing how we can learn lessons of peace from the turmoils of the past, and use historical evidence to sift and judge contemporary truth-claims."" - Supriya Chaudhuri, Professor (Emerita), Department of English, Jadavpur University, Kolkata

""This fine collection of essays and book reviews on entanglements of religion and politics is addressed to an educated public, because false views about both history and religion are being used to target 'others' as internal enemies of the nations of South Asia. The book reveals the author's own scholarly virtues: impartial judgment, generosity and respect for the work of many different colleagues, on wide-ranging themes of crucial import in history and the present. His own essays provide refreshing correction to many ideas about Islam, from the supposed ancient Islamic sacredness of the colour green to the presumed Islamic condemnation of dogs and music. Essays also display the author's hope that when history and historians enter the public realm, they may help restore a centuries-old understanding of how to create more peace in a multi-religious society."" - David L. Curley, Professor Emeritus, Western Washington University, USA