MGS Narayanan — a historian whovoiced against himself

Time of India

26-04-2025

MGS Narayanan
passed away, indeed, a sad demise, inevitable though. He goes down in history as a genuine scholar-historian defined by a dedication to rigorous research, critical thinking and a commitment to empirical analysis of the past. A
historian
who prioritised
primary sources
, engaged in thoughtful interpretation and put across findings with clarity and precision. Our heartfelt condolences go out to his bereaved family.
It was a blessing that I had MGS as my informal teacher, mentor and friend, whose unstinting support by way of making available his profound scholarship and expertise that turned out to be invaluable to whatever humble research endeavour that I undertook. A great loss not only to the student community and fellow historians, but also to the public, to whom MGS was accessible.
Leftist historian and right liberal critic
MGS had always been a leftist in history-writing with his avowed adherence to Marx's theory. Nevertheless, he used to be an inconsistent but staunch critic of Marxist party politics in the state, for reasons quite unclear. Interestingly, all the researchers mentored by him are leftists without this hiatus, that hardly ever mattered in his relationship with them or vice versa. He was always bold in speaking truth to power. Historians in the country still remember his captivating critical speech that kept all the rightists spellbound in the
Indian History Congress
session on the NCERT-Textbook Controversy during the Janata govt of 1977-79.
In the regional civil society, MGS had always been a liberal rightist making skeptical remarks against the Left but without seriously engaging himself in public policy matters. A name of fame, his public statements did matter. But he had not let the Right to contain him. He never allowed any section to represent him either.
As a researcher and professional historian, he walked and that became the path. He wrote his magnum opus
Perumals of Kerala
, apparently a dynastic history, but a seamlessly woven regional history of economy, society, polity and culture of about 400 years from 800-1200 CE. His curiosity in understanding the past through the primary sources led not only to writing a history strikingly fresh and pathbreaking but also to the revalidation and expansion of the sources including what he discovered.
A teacher of distinction
A true democrat, MGS had been a liberal teacher in the literal sense. He used to treat his students as friends and enjoyed encountering them academically. In the classroom, he bored them with hairsplitting analyses of the primary data and the complicated reconstruction of history through the application of subtle indications that he could discover. Outside the classroom he allowed them to argue with him.
MGS was not conscious about the process of engaged learning involved in his friendly and interactive relationship with students outside the classroom. It was his self-delighting enterprise by nature which could effortlessly render the awe-inspiring experience of engaged learning plausible outside the classroom. He enjoyed arguing with anybody without being flippant under the prejudice of status. Whoever could rise to his expectations do matter today in the knowledge-field.
(The writer is a historian and former vice-chancellor, MG University)