Audrey Truschke’s first book, Culture of Encounters, looked at the interactions between Sanskrit and Persian intellectual worlds at the Mu...
Audrey Truschke’s first book, Culture of Encounters, looked at the interactions between Sanskrit and Persian intellectual worlds at the Mughal court, challenging modern ideas of India’s past. Her third and latest, The Language of History, continues in a similar vein, focusing this time on histories of Muslims rulers written by Sanskrit intellectuals primarily in the medieval era.
The book seeks to break down conventional understandings of what qualifies as history in the pre-modern era, while also pushing back against Hindutva readings of India’s past that sees the last millennium as one of unending Hindu-Muslim conflict.
Between the two books came Aurangzeb: The Life and Legacy of India’s Most Controversial King, the book that brought Truschke attention – and also hate. Over the last month, the historian who teaches at Rutgers University has been on the receiving end of a hate campaign from Hindu nationalist organisations, starting with a petition to the university calling her Hinduphobic and extending to vile messages and even death threats. The university has extended solidarity to Truschke, while also committing to understand the sentiments of the Hindu community on campus.
Scroll.in spoke to Truschke about the most recent controversy, the death threats, and also new approaches to Indian pre-modern history, why there is much more to learn from Sanskrit...
