Daily Briefing Current Affairs

Three Chapters, One Frame: Why James Mill's Map of India's Past Refuses to Fade

Romila Thapar, 94, delivered the Second Sitaram Yechury Memorial Lecture at HKS Surjeet Bhawan, New Delhi, on Sunday 25 October 2026, on historiography and early Indian history. She traced popular readings of India's past back to colonial historians, singled out James Mill's religion-based periodisation and argued that the Hindutva interpretation of history is singular and fixed.