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33-656: Sanjeev Sanyal is an Indian economist and popular historian . A member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India , he has helped prepare six editions of the Economic Survey of India and has represented India at G7 and OECD meetings. He is also the Chancellor of Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics , and has written several books on Indian history to mixed reviews. Sanjeev Sanyal

66-627: A "rewriting" of history by "properly revisiting" primary sources. In The Ocean of Churn , Sanyal argues that the primary sources used in painting a humane image of Ashoka can also be interpreted to reconstruct him as a genocidal tyrant. According to Sanyal, Ashoka did not convert to Buddhism out of laments at the Kalinga War but due to political pressure exerted by the Jains . A host of other sources are invoked to compare Ashoka with " modern day fundamentalists ", whose Dhaṃma Mahāmātās were "religious police";

99-415: A Brahmanical seat of learning. According to Frazier and Flood, the highly systemized Vedic model of learning helped establish Buddhist Mahavihara at the site, and later Nalanda (mid 5th century CE), Odantapuri (8th century CE), and Vikramashila (late 8th century CE). These Buddhist institutions not only taught Vedic texts and the ritual but also the different theoretical disciplines associated with

132-522: A historian of ancient India at Jawaharlal Nehru University , held Sanyal's reinterpretation of Ashoka to be entirely lacking in "contextual understanding" of the King and a politically motivated endeavor on the overall. Sanyal was awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship in 2007 for his work on urban issues. In 2010, he was named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum . He has been an Adjunct Fellow of

165-402: A historian of ancient India, finds him ignorant of methodologies in historical research. For all his clarion calls to go back to primary sources, Sanyal's citations remained restricted to secondary sources and mostly, mainstream histories that he sought to critique. In deconstructing the narrative of Ashoka, Sanyal failed to apply source-criticism and imposed a host of anachronistic categories on

198-664: A long-term vision for the city-state. In March 2023, Sanyal led the first edition of the Delhi University Literature Festival as its patron, alongside Swapan Dasgupta as the festival director. On, 7 October 2024, he was appointed as the Chancellor of the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics , replacing Bibek Debroy . Sanyal has been a vocal critic of Nehruvian socialism , which he deems to have stemmed from an "inward-looking cultural attitude". Nehru and P. C. Mahalanobis are criticized for treating

231-517: A new medium for the dissemination of popular history, in which the contributions of Americans Dan Carlin and Robert Evans are notable. John Julius Norwich , Charles Allen , and Tariq Ali are popular British historians who have never been academics. English-Canadian writers of popular histories include journalists Pierre Berton and Peter C. Newman , humourist Will Ferguson , folklorist and pulp fiction writer Thomas P. Kelley , and television presenter Patrick Watson . François-Xavier Garneau

264-541: A pan-Indian empire and who then wrote Arthashastra about a centralised Mauryan economy. Only when the Arthashastra is retrofitted to India's current political economy —by fixing the judicial system, investing in internal security, and simplifying taxation rules— among other things, Sanyal believes that we can return to the "golden age" of India that had birthed "yoga, algebra, the concept of zero, chess, plastic surgery, metallurgy, Hinduism, [and] Buddhism." Manu Pillai ,

297-522: A popular historian, commended The Ocean of Churn for being a "delightful introduction to the world of the Indian Ocean" despite the possibility of professional scholars challenging his narrative and conclusions; he welcomed Sanyal's command over a layered and complex past, his "accessible" yet "captivating narrative", and especially the reevaluation of Ashoka. Shiv Visvanathan , a social anthropologist specializing in science and technology studies , praised

330-474: A previous generation – Eric Hobsbawm , Paul Johnson , E. P. Thompson , A. J. P. Taylor (a pioneer of history on television) and Christopher Hill . Podcaster and pop history author Tom Holland , while not holding any formal qualifications in the field, does retain an academic affiliation. Much of Hugh Trevor-Roper 's output was also directed at a popular audience. There is also Stella Tillyard and her work Aristocrats , which combined scholarly research with

363-410: A series of documentaries with a tie-in book. Recent examples of American popular historians with academic affiliations include Daniel J. Boorstin , Stephen E. Ambrose , Doris Kearns Goodwin and Pauline Maier . Recent examples of British popular historians who are also academics include Niall Ferguson , Mary Beard , Christopher Hibbert , Simon Sebag Montefiore and Simon Schama , and – from

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396-430: A simplicity that synced to majoritarian prejudices — Sanyal's work having not been critiqued or contested by professional historians, who have never taken him seriously, is why, Visvanathan suggests, he has grown in stature and confidence. Rohan D'Souza , a historian of South Asia at Kyoto University , approved of Visvanathan's critique as a "reality-check" to Sanyal's amateur efforts at rewriting history. R. Mahalakshmi,

429-550: Is frequently mentioned as a university centre where students could get instruction in almost any subject, religious or secular, from the Veda to mathematics and medicine, even to astrology and archery." The role of Taxila as a center of knowledge grew stronger under the Maurya Empire and Greek rule ( Indo-Greeks ) in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE. In the early centuries CE it was a prominent centre of Buddhist scholarship as well. It

462-433: Is proposed that popular history is a "moral science" in the sense that recreates the past not only for its own sake but also to underscore how history could facilitate an ethically responsible present. Some view it as history produced by authors who are better interlocutors capable of translating the language of scientificity to ordinary everyday language. Some scholars partly attributed the development of popular history to

495-519: Is where Aruni and his son Shvetaketu each had received their education, while 4th century BCE grammarian, Pāṇini , mentions the city in his Aṣṭādhyāyī . According to John Marshall, Taxila emerged as a centre of learning after the Persian conquests due to its geographical position, "at the North-Western gateway of the subcontinent," and the "cosmopolitan character of her population." It started as

528-707: The Institute of Policy Studies at the National University of Singapore and Senior Fellow of IDFC Institute (Mumbai). Sanyal has been a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society , London, visiting scholar at Oxford University, adjunct fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies (Singapore) , and a senior fellow of the World Wide Fund for Nature (formerly World Wildlife Fund). In 2022, Sanyal's Revolutionaries: The Other Story of How India Won its Freedom won

561-601: The Kushan Empire around 30 CE, to flourish as a seat of Buddhist learning, to be conquered, destroyed, and the site abandoned by the Hunas in the 5th century CE. Taxila was at the crossroad of the main trade roads of Asia, and was probably populated by Indians, Persians, Greeks, Scythians and many ethnicities coming from the various parts of the Achaemenid Empire. The 4th - 3rd century BCE Buddhist Jataka tales assert Taxila

594-498: The limbs or the sciences of the Vedas, which included disciplines such as linguistics, law, astronomy and reasoning. Taxila was particularly renowned for Vedic science, medicine, and the arts, but both religious and secular subjects were taught, and even subject such as archery or astrology in. According to John Marshall, "In early Buddhist literature, particularly in the Jatakas , Taxila

627-626: The 1990s. He worked as chief economist for South and Southeast Asia at Deutsche Bank until 2008, leaving to research and write Land of the Seven Rivers , and returned in 2011. By end-2015, when he resigned, he was a managing director. In February 2017, he was appointed as the Principal Economic Adviser to the Indian Ministry of Finance and in that job helped prepare six editions of the Economic Survey of India . In February 2022, he

660-582: The Indus Valley , around 540 BCE, Taxila became the capital of their Hindush satrapy (colony), the earliest known archaeological remains date to this period. The city surrendered to Alexander in 326 BCE, was annexed by the Maurya Empire around 317 BCE, became part of the Indo-Greek Kingdom , around 200 BCE, annexed by the Indo-Scythians around 80 BCE, conquered, destroyed, and a new city founded by

693-670: The best Non-fiction Book Award 2022 in English at the Kalinga Literary Festival . In 2023, he was awarded the KPS Menon Memorial Award for 2023 for his contributions to economic policy-making and public service. Sanyal is an occasional columnist for the Hindustan Times , Project Syndicate , The Economic Times , Live Mint , Business Standard , and several other publications. Popular history It

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726-468: The economy as a "mechanical toy", leaving little scope for the flourish of private enterprises, and ultimately throttling creativity. Sanyal praises the 1991 liberalisation reforms as the harbinger of Indian Renaissance, and argues for the application of Complex Adaptive Systems framework to economic issues. Among his most-espoused views is that the historiography of India has been distorted with "Colonial, Nehruvian, and Marxist" biases — thus, requiring

759-456: The famed edicts about religious tolerance are read as propaganda. Sanyal blames the Nehruvian project for having established Ashoka as a "great king", and stresses on the urgent need of a post-socialist reading of history. In Sanyal's version of this reading, the central character is Chanakya , a "professor of Political Economy at Taxila university " who had helped Chandragupta Maurya establish

792-598: The increase of writers-turned-historians such as Benson Lossing , David Pae, and Mary Botham Howitt , who wrote historical events "in good style" and, thus, more appealing to the public. Some popular historians are without academic affiliation while others are academics, or former academics, who have (according to one writer) "become somehow abstracted from the academic arena, becoming cultural commentators." Many worked as journalists, perhaps after taking an initial degree in history. Popular historians may become nationally renowned or best-selling authors and may or may not serve

825-569: The interests of particular political viewpoints in their roles as historians that write for a wide-ranging readership. Many authors of supposed official histories and authorized biographies would qualify as popular historians serving the interests of particular institutions or public figures. Popular historians aim to appear on the "general lists" of general publishers, rather than the university presses that have dominated academic publishing in recent years. Increasingly, popular historians have taken to television where they are able, often accompanying

858-604: The past; likewise, Sanyal remained oblivious of recent scholarship on Mauryan India and misrecognised a shastra of political economy, as it developed in Ancient India, as a manual of Mauryan statecraft. Similarly, Sanyal's analysis of the Mahabharata was held to be an exercise in speculation to fit preconceived notions of history. Overall, Visvanathan found his works to be "riddled with holes" which commanded popularity among masses only because of Sanyal's "rhetorical flourish" and

891-546: The popular method of presentation. Canadian academics whose work has crossed over to public consciousness are few. Examples might include Michael Bliss , Donald Creighton , Desmond Morton , J. L. Granatstein , or Margaret MacMillan . In French Canada the influence of Father Lionel Groulx in the historical thought of the twentieth century was preponderant. American non-academics include Walter Lord , Bruce Catton , Shelby Foote , David McCullough , Max Cutler , Ron Cutler , and Barbara W. Tuchman . Podcasting has become

924-473: The same work for being a feisty, combative, and comprehensive history of the Indian Ocean aimed at a general audience; like Pillai, he commended the "devastating" reconstruction of Ashoka and recovering figures from the margins of history. Nonetheless, Visvanathan cautioned that "a professional historian might crib" at Sanyal's efforts. Academic historians have rejected Sanyal's revisionism. Meera Visvanathan,

957-625: Was a center of the Gurukula system of Brahmanical education in Taxila , Gandhara , in present-day Punjab , Pakistan , near the bank of the Indus River . It was established as a centre of education in religious and secular topics. It started as a Vedic seat of learning; while in the early centuries CE it became a prominent centre of Buddhist scholarship as well. Following the Achaemenid conquest of

990-785: Was appointed member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister in the rank of the Secretary to Government of India. Sanyal has also represented India at G7 and OECD meetings. In 2004, he and environmental economist Pavan Sukhdev created the Green Indian States Trust to promote sustainable development. He has also served on the Future City Sub-Committee of the Singapore government tasked with building

1023-530: Was born in Kolkata and studied at St. Xavier's School and St. James' School . He received a Bachelor's degree in economics from Shri Ram College of Commerce , New Delhi. He then went to St John's College , University of Oxford , where he received a BA in philosophy, politics and economics in 1992, he was a Rhodes scholar , and received an MSc in Economics in 1994. Sanyal began working in financial markets in

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1056-500: Was not a university in the modern sense, in that the teachers living there may not have had official membership of particular colleges, in contrast to the later Nalanda university in Bihar . The destruction by Toramana in the 5th century CE seem to have put an end to the activities of Taxila as a centre of learning. Influential teachers who are said to have taught at university of Taxila include: According to Stephen Batchelor ,

1089-731: Was the leading historian in nineteenth century French Canada from outside the academy. Polemicists in the national unity debate have also written influentially about Canadian history, notably militant Pierre Vallières and journalist Normand Lester critiquing the Canadian state and novelist Mordecai Richler critiquing Quebec nationalist historians as anti-Semitic. Notably, Canada has produced several writers who have written popular histories of specific ethnic communities, including Ken McGoogan (Scots and Irish), Myrna Kostash (Ukrainians), etc. University of ancient Taxila The university of ancient Taxila ( ISO : Takṣaśilā Viśvavidyālaya )

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