In an interview to talk about his fascinating series on Indian history called ‘Indians: A Brief History of a Civilisation’, which covers a sweep of time from the Indus Valley Civilisation to the dawn of the British age, and has attracted tens of millions of viewers, both within India and abroad, historian Namit Arora says Indian civilisation is both an idea but also an enigma. The first is easy to understand the second is intriguing.
In an interview to talk about his 10-episode series which recently concluded on The Wire’s platform, Arora reveals that he is, in fact, an engineer and a graduate from IIT Kharagpur who developed a fascination for history which is entirely self-taught and self-motivated. Arora has engaging details to offer about how he was attracted to history, how he has taught himself and why he embarked upon this series.
The interview also discusses critical questions his series throws up. In particular, these include issues to do with the Indus Valley Civilisation, the arrival of the Aryans, the Kingdoms of the South, Ashoka, Akbar and Aurangzeb, the accounts of foreign travellers such as Alberuni, Marco Polo, Ibn Batuta, Bernier, Megasthenes, and why the series ends with the dawn of the British age in the 17th/18th century.
Now, Arora is working on a second series called Modern Indians which will cover the period post the 17th/18th century.
