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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Historian Dipesh Chakrabarty says his study of Jadunath Sarkar began with a correspondence and led to a larger question: how can historians distinguish evidence-based claims about the past from the identities and hopes people bring to it? In a 2016 interview with Scroll.in, Chakrabarty argues that both matter—but they are not the same thing.
What drew Chakrabarty to Jadunath Sarkar?
Chakrabarty told Shoaib Daniyal that correspondence between Sarkar and historian Sakharam Govindrao Sardesai drew him into the subject. Their letters, which the interview says began in 1904 and continued until Sarkar’s death in 1958, raised questions about historical truth, reliable sources, eyewitness testimony, identity, and the difference between facts and inference.
Those questions became the focus of Chakrabarty’s book The Calling of History: Sir Jadunath Sarkar and His Empire of Truth. Rather than treating the historian’s work simply as a store of conclusions, Chakrabarty’s account asks how those conclusions were reached—and what it means to claim that a past event is true.
Why does historical evidence require inference?
In Chakrabarty’s description, Sarkar’s method rested on logic, evidence, and inference. Historical facts are not always directly available as settled, self-explanatory items. A historian may have to assess sources and reason from them to establish what happened.
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Chakrabarty put the point this way: “Jadunath Sarkar understood that facts are not always given, they have to be inferred, you have to reason them out.” He also said, “He understood that establishing facts required the employment of logic, evidence and inference.” These are Chakrabarty’s characterizations of Sarkar’s approach, not quotations from Sarkar.
How does identity shape accounts of the past?
Chakrabarty connects historical writing to the social importance of identity. Groups whose histories have been ignored or devalued may seek accounts of the past that restore dignity and recognition. In the interview, he discusses claims associated with Dalit history and the figure of Jhalkari Bai as examples of how such concerns enter debates about historical memory.
He also warns against collapsing that social purpose into a claim of historical proof. A past can matter deeply to a community without every assertion made in its name being established by evidence. For Chakrabarty, taking identity seriously does not remove the historian’s responsibility to distinguish what sources support from what people wish the past to affirm.
What does the interview mean by “identity politics” in history?
Chakrabarty’s headline observation was: “History writing in India has predominantly been driven by identity politics, whether of low castes, upper castes, Hindus, or Muslims.” The interview presents this as his interpretation of Indian historical writing, not as a quantified finding or a comprehensive survey of historians and their work.
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His point is not that identity-driven interest makes historical inquiry worthless. Rather, he sees a tension: communities have reasons to contest inherited accounts, while public arguments also need standards for deciding whether claims are supported. As he put it, “But, on the other hand, if you have a democracy where you have no struggle for facts or fact-based reasoning, then that democracy will also suffer.”
Why is Sarkar a contested figure?
The interview describes Sarkar as a historian whose work on Aurangzeb and Shivaji drew criticism from different audiences, including Maratha, Muslim, and Bengali readers. It also discusses remarks Sarkar made after Partition that Chakrabarty regarded as communal. These assessments belong to Chakrabarty’s account in the interview; the article does not independently verify them against Sarkar’s writings or the correspondence.
One particularly sharp example is Chakrabarty’s recollection of Sarkar describing Gandhi as “a demented son of a bania playing this hide and seek game with the British”. This is a quotation reported by Chakrabarty, not a passage independently checked against Sarkar’s published work.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Where can readers explore Chakrabarty’s argument further?
Chakrabarty develops his engagement with Sarkar in The Calling of History: Sir Jadunath Sarkar and His Empire of Truth. The interview offers an entry point into the book’s concerns: how historians establish claims, why people struggle over historical memory, and what democratic debate loses when evidence-based reasoning is abandoned.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsRead Shoaib Daniyal’s interview with Dipesh Chakrabarty at Scroll.in, published on 21 April 2016.
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