"The past is often invoked to legitimise the present." Critically examine this with reference to the historiography of early India.

Historiography studies who investigates the past, how it is propagated and with what intention [1]. Romila Thapar notes that every society seeks a past that explains its origins, and that this past often legitimises the present [1]. The historiography of early India largely bears this out, but the claim needs qualification.

How the past has legitimised the present

• Ancient texts: The Brahmana authors of the Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras, such as the Manusmriti, claimed universal validity for their norms, though real social relations were more complex [4]. They held that rulers should ideally be Kshatriyas [5], so the past was codified to sanction varna hierarchy.
• Colonial: James Mill's History of British India (1817) split Indian history into Hindu, Muslim and British periods. He cast pre-British rulers as despots, so British rule looked like a civilising mission [2]. Orientalists such as William Jones of the Asiatic Society of Bengal turned attention to ancient Sanskrit heritage [3].
• Nationalist: Nationalist historians portrayed eras like the Gupta age as a "golden age" to answer colonial claims of Indian inferiority. This helped mobilise the freedom struggle but often idealised the evidence.
• Contemporary: Thapar warns that a Hindutva reading of history cannot be "single and fixed" [1]. Textbooks spread the past most widely. NCERT's rationalisation removed the Class XII chapter on Mughal court chronicles [6], and critics read this as selective memory.

Limits of the proposition

• Not all invocation is manipulation: Recovering the past also built anti-colonial self-respect and pluralist identities.
• Self-correcting discipline: Marxist and subaltern scholars questioned elite-authored texts. NCERT itself asks students whether Mill's periodisation is flawed [2].
• Evidence as a check: Thapar's four questions ask whose past a source describes, who wrote it, why it appropriates the past and how authentic it is [1]. Used this way, the past is tested, not merely used. Archaeology and inscriptions also check textual claims.
• Stated academic grounds: NCERT justified its cuts by content overlap and reducing student load [6], so not every revision is ideological.

The past has repeatedly been used to justify a present order: Brahmanical, colonial, nationalist and present-day. Critical historiography turns that tool back into a subject of inquiry. The way forward includes transparent textbook revision, teaching students to question sources and academic autonomy for history institutions. This fits the constitutional duties to preserve composite culture and develop scientific temper, Article 51A(f) and (h) [7].