Latest news with #Truschke
Scroll.in
4 days ago
- Politics
- Scroll.in
Scroll Adda: Why this Mughal historian fears coming to India
Play While completing her PhD in 2012 in New York, Audrey Truschke did not imagine that her work would one day rile up a section of Indians so much that she would feel physically unsafe. So much so that Truschke tells Shoaib Daniyal in this episode of Scroll Adda that she fears coming to India. Truschke's work on medieval Indian history has severely angered India's ruling Hindutva ideologues. She has written on the significant role Sanskrit played in Indo-Muslim culture, a 5,000-year history of the subcontinent and her most attacked book, a slim biography of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb that showed that his demonisation is a much later phenomenon and during his own time, he was looked at with reverence by both his Hindu and Muslim subjects, as any Mughal emperor would be. Truschke is not shy when it comes to her politics. She compares Hindutva to fascism and her CV has "Hindu nationalist attacks" in the honours section. She sees no contradiction when it comes to being a historian and in fact says that having a moral compass is necessary to study the humanities.
News18
17-07-2025
- Politics
- News18
Audrey Truschke: A Demagogue With A Megaphone
Last Updated: With Professor Audrey Truschke's latest work -- 'India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent' -- now in circulation, the stakes have never been higher On the streets of New York, Audrey Truschke — then Assistant Professor of South Asian history at Rutgers University — stood with a megaphone and declared to a crowd: 'Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his political party, the BJP, openly adhere to Hindutva." She then launched into her historical comparison: 'Hindutva came about roughly 100 years ago… It was inspired in its early days by Nazism. Did I say Nazis? Yeah, I said Nazis." She emphasised: 'I want to be clear that I am talking about real, actual, historical Nazis." Then came the most inflammatory claim: 'Early Hindutva espousers openly admired Hitler… They praised Hitler's treatment of the Jewish people in Germany as a good model for dealing with India's Muslim minority." With this inflammatory rhetoric, she branded India's ruling BJP and its adherence to Hindutva as Nazi-like — by extension tarring the hundreds of millions of Indians who democratically elected this government, as fascists. It wasn't scholarship; it was street theatre designed to demonise an entire community. For Hindus across America, this wasn't just academic discourse — it was public vilification. To rub salt into the wound, the department of history at Rutgers gleefully posted Truschke's diatribe on their Facebook feed with the endorsement: 'That's what we call public history." Now, with her latest book India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent hitting shelves this month, Truschke's troubling methodology is reaching an even wider audience. The timing couldn't be more urgent for examining what happens when academic platforms become weapons of ideological warfare. THE HITLER ANALOGY: HISTORY STRIPPED OF CONTEXT Truschke's accusation draws from a controversial passage in We or Our Nationhood Defined, published in March 1939 and attributed to MS Golwalkar of the RSS. The reality is more complex than her megaphone moment suggests. The book wasn't authored by Golwalkar but paraphrased and translated by him. The historical context matters crucially: in 1939, the full extent of Nazi atrocities against Jews was not yet known. The Holocaust — the systematic extermination of six million Jews — wouldn't begin until 1941. For many colonised peoples worldwide, including some Indians, Hitler was viewed primarily as an enemy of Britain — their colonial oppressor. To draw parallels between Hindutva and Hitler isn't just inflammatory — it's a moral inversion of history that anachronistically applies knowledge of the Holocaust to judge a misattributed quote from an earlier period — and then use that nearly 100-year-old aside to define a contemporary political movement. This is not academic history; it is political pamphleteering. A PATTERN OF DISTORTION This isn't an isolated incident. Truschke's 2017 book Aurangzeb: The Life and Legacy of India's Most Controversial King whitewashes a well-documented record of temple destruction, discriminatory taxation, and forced conversions. Despite abundant evidence from Aurangzeb's own firmans (imperial decrees) documenting systematic iconoclasm and forced conversion of Hindus, she claims he 'simply left temples alone" and was a protector of Hindus, dismissing documented destructions as merely following 'an Indian stance dating back, at least, to the Chalukyas and Pallavas". This false equivalency ignores a crucial theological distinction. When Aurangzeb's contemporary sources praise him for hitting against the 'infidels" and spreading Islam through 'holy war," these aren't political calculations — they're expressions of religious doctrine. In Islamic theology, idol worship is the gravest sin, making temple destruction an act of piety. Hinduism contains no such mandate. Political motivations aren't identical to doctrinal imperatives. Truschke dismisses scholars like Jadunath Sarkar as unreliable while downplaying Persian sources that contradict her narrative. Her approach isn't history — it's revisionism designed to obscure inconvenient truths. Her recently published India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent promises more of the same: selective citations, interpretive sleights, and wholesale demagoguery. We can expect the 600-page tome to follows the familiar pattern — Hinduism cast as irredeemably oppressive, Islam framed as emancipatory. There's little interest in balance, complexity, or competing narratives. It is only in the politicised ghetto of 'South Asian Studies", where practicing Hindus have little voice, that an academic would get away with this level of propaganda. At a recent Georgia Tech event, a Hindu student described confronting Truschke at Princeton about her portrayals. Instead of engaging his respectful questions, she dismissed his concerns as 'Hindutva propaganda" and shut him down. The room fell silent — a moment of intimidation, not academic exchange. Hindu students at Rutgers report similar experiences: hesitating to speak in her classes, fearing they'll be branded bigots for defending their faith. Many now avoid her courses entirely. In 2021, students petitioned against her teaching Hinduism, citing her claim that the Bhagavad Gita 'rationalises mass slaughter" and her suggestion linking Hindus to the January 6 Capitol riot. Rutgers defended her academic freedom and promised dialogue with the Hindu community. That dialogue never materialised. THE DOUBLE STANDARD PROBLEM American universities rightfully crack down on antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Black racism. Yet when Hindu students raise similar concerns, institutions often look away, or worse, actively endorse such writing. Truschke positions herself as the victim of 'Hindu nationalist trolls" while sidestepping legitimate concerns from students who feel unsafe in her academic spaces. When she tweeted that Lord Rama was a 'misogynistic pig" — later claiming scholarly translation — even Robert Goldman, the scholar she cited, publicly rejected her framing. One wonders how the academy would react if a professor used the same language about a different revered figure, say Prophet Mohammad. The damage spreads beyond academia. Hindu students report being mocked as 'cow piss drinkers", stereotyped as 'Brahmin oppressors", or casually equated with fascists. When they respond, they're accused of extremism — silenced not by force, but by fear. This isn't about suppressing legitimate criticism of Hindutva politics. It's about distinguishing between scholarly critique and rhetorical abuse. Truschke's defenders, including Romila Thapar and Sheldon Pollock, argue that attacking Hindutva isn't Hinduphobia. In practice, targeting Hindutva often disguises targeting Hindus. When Truschke abuses Rama, she is attacking an iconic figure in the Hindu tradition, revered across the length and breadth of India. There can be no better evidence of what her target is. Would such treatment be tolerated toward any other faith community? The answer is obvious. Hinduism, as a non-Abrahamic tradition, remains open season in many Western academic spaces. This double standard isn't just unjust — it's intellectually dishonest. THE PATH FORWARD Universities must confront this hypocrisy. If 'safe spaces" truly exist for all, Hindu students deserve the same dignity afforded every other community. That means distinguishing between legitimate academic inquiry and inflammatory demagoguery — whether delivered through peer-reviewed journals, street megaphones, or 600-page histories now being peddled as the history of India. Academic freedom must be balanced with academic responsibility. Scholars have the right to challenge religious and political traditions, but they also have an obligation to maintain scholarly standards, engage in good faith, and create inclusive learning environments. With Truschke's latest work now in circulation, the stakes have never been higher. Her interpretive framework isn't confined to specialised academic journals — it's shaping how a new generation learns about Indian civilisation. Until universities address this imbalance, the promise of inclusive academia remains hollow. Hindu Americans will continue raising their voices — not to suppress debate, but to demand what every community deserves: fairness, intellectual honesty, and basic respect. The megaphone may be loud, but truth has a voice of its own. (Sankrant Sanu is the CEO of Garuda Prakashan and tweets at @sankrant. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views) tags : Adolf Hitler Hinduism Hindutva Narendra Modi Nazism religion view comments Location : New Delhi, India, India First Published: June 16, 2025, 21:08 IST News opinion Opinion | Audrey Truschke: A Demagogue With A Megaphone Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Indian Express
20-06-2025
- General
- Indian Express
‘Earliest Indians were migrants…India has been connected to the world from the very beginning,' says historian Audrey Truschke
A quarter of humanity today is made up of South Asians, and for the rest of the world, their lives are constantly being shaped by South Asian culture—be it through films, spices, yoga or religion. US-based historian Audrey Truschke begins her monumental work tracing 5,000 years of Indian history with this crucial reminder to her readers about the impact the subcontinent has made upon the globe for millennia. Truschke's India: 5,000 Years of History on the Subcontinent (published by the Princeton University Press) begins with the much-discussed and debated Indus Civilisation, and goes right up till the post-Independence period, including the caste wars of the 1990s and the rise of the Hindu right. Throughout her re-telling of Indian history, Truschke reminds her readers of the vital connections that India has maintained with the world from the very beginning of its existence, through migration, trade and cultural exports. The earliest of Indians, as she reveals, were migrants who built the foundations of urban civilisation and shaped the oldest literary tradition of the region in the form of the Vedas. She also underlines the necessity of understanding the past of the subcontinent through the lens of the marginalised, particularly through the voices of women and the oppressed castes. In an interview with Truschke talks about her findings of the Indus Civilisation, the use of literature written by women to tell the story of Buddhism, as well as the dark side of the history of Hindu nationalism. Excerpts from the interview: Q. Your book title suggests that it is about 5,000 years of Indian history. How and why did you decide on this specific number? Audrey Truschke: For the last century, the conventional beginning of Indian history has been about 4,600 years ago with the Indus Civilisation. That is where I begin my narrative. We rounded up for the title, because publishers like round numbers, so that is where the 5,000 comes from. I do not adhere to this time frame strictly, however. I do start in earnest with the Indus Civilisation, which began around 2600 BCE. But before that, I give a brief account of how people populated the subcontinent in the first place. And that story goes back 1,20,000 years. Q: Why do you choose to begin with the Indus Civilisation? Truschke: The beginning of Indian history geologically goes back millions of years when the subcontinent was formed; the Himalayas are still rising today from the crashing together of two tectonic plates. Human history in India goes back a more modest 1,20,000 years. I begin the book with recorded human history, devoting attention in earnest first to the Indus Civilisation, which was robust enough that it left behind significant material evidence for us to work with. Not all of the past is recoverable. But history is a positivist discipline. We work with the evidence we have. And so there is no value judgment that the Indus Civilisation was somehow more important than other groups of people doing other things in India around the same time. It is simply that they are the ones for whom we have significant material evidence to reconstruct their lifestyles. Q: We know that there is a lot of politics around the Indus Civilisation lately, with different political parties trying to appropriate it around religious or regional lines. How do you respond to that? Truschke: I think every single political party in India will be disappointed with my take on the Indus Civilisation. I know there is a huge push right now for it to be a Dravidian civilisation. There is no positivist evidence that shows that. It is plausible, but a lot of things are plausible. The bottom line is we don't know much about who the Indus Civilisation people were. We know they built cities. We know how they lived. We know a fair amount about their diet. These are certain things that are recorded in the material and skeletal records. But we don't fundamentally know who they were, except that they were from northwestern India. That was a long time ago, and we really don't know how the Indus people map onto modern linguistic, political, and ethnic groups. For those who are making modern political claims, that comes with all the limits of political claims. But insofar as some people are trying to make a historical claim, they need to be a little bit more realistic about the evidence. Q: There is a section in your book where you speak about the first Indians. Could you elaborate a bit on who the first Indians were? Truschke: I am taking from Tony Joseph there, who has an excellent book called The Early Indians. The first Indians were not actually the first Homo Sapiens to set foot on the Indian subcontinent. That would be the group that came 1,20,000 years ago. But they all died out. About 65,000 years ago, another migrant group came. They came eastwards roughly from Africa and entered the subcontinent, and some of those people survived. They have left behind a genetic lineage that is shared by some, not all, modern Indians. It is especially strong in South India. We call them the first Indians because they are the first ones to make it. Q: You also write that you have included a diverse representation of voices, especially those of women and the oppressed castes, in your telling of Indian history. Could you give a few examples? Truschke: Like many historians right now, I too think it is so important to have a more diverse set of voices when we are looking at the past. The thing is, it is hard because the people who tend to be recorded tend to be members of dominant social groups. In South Asia, that means they tend to be men, they tend to be upper caste, and they tend to be Hindu. I am looking for people who don't fit that bill. I think it is important to find diverse voices to explain key shifts in South Asian history. For example, when I cover the advent of Buddhism about 2,400 years ago, I cite from the Therigatha, which is a collection of poems and hymns by Buddhist women, collected in the early centuries BCE. Later on, I bring in female voices, for example, when I talk about the Hindu reform movements and criticisms of Hinduism that arose in the 19th century. I do talk about some of the men, such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Vivekananda, but I also talk about Pandita Ramabai, a Brahmin woman who later converted to Christianity. It is harder to bring in voices from the oppressed castes. From ancient India, for instance, we have very little to nothing that was actually written by Shudras and Dalits. It is not until later that we get texts authored by Shudras and Dalits, but I at least try to bring in texts about them. For example, I have a section where I am talking about caste in the 17th century, and I talk about some Shudra kings. I also print part of a Telugu drama written around 1700 CE. It is written by an upper caste individual, but it depicts a Brahmin in a very poor light. It depicts this Brahmin who is lusting after a Dalit woman and is abusing his Brahmanical privilege. He cites Sanskrit verses to her and plays with religion to try to lure the Dalit woman. This is not a Dalit voice, but at least it is a Dalit character. You work with what you have for the historical evidence. There is no getting around the fact that dominant groups are better represented in the South Asian historical record. That is true of all histories in all parts of the world, but that does not absolve historians of doing the hard work of trying to recover what we can, both about and from the perspective of less-discussed, less-represented groups. Q: You also write that India, throughout its ancient and medieval history, has had global connections. Could you elaborate on some of the key historical moments when India's connections with the world were of key importance? Truschke: India has been connected to the world from the beginning and throughout. How people get to India is a story of repeated migrations. The Indus Valley Civilisation had extensive trade connections with Mesopotamia and, possibly through Mesopotamia, with ancient Egypt. The people belonging to Vedic society, which was founded and flourished after the Indus Civilisation, were also migrants. They came from outside into northwestern India and composed the Vedas. The Vedas are an Indian composition, but the language group of that community does have roots from outside originally. People, things, and ideas also left the subcontinent. And South Asia then has some remarkable cultural exports starting in the few centuries before the turn of the CE era. Of course, Buddhism is probably the most well-known one, which travelled both on the sea trade routes and along the Silk Roads, surviving ultimately largely outside of the subcontinent. There are also stories, such as the Panchatantra, and games like chess and Parcheesi that are still popular across the West today. Then there is Sanskrit that travels east to Southeast Asia. All of this attests to India and the subcontinent more broadly being part of an interconnected world. Q: We know that history in India has become a major topic of debate. How would you say your book addresses the current politics around history in the country? Truschke: Firstly, I think my book is pretty staunchly, openly, and decidedly a non-nationalist history, down to the title. As I say in the introduction, the India that I refer to in the title is not the modern nation state of India. The modern nation state of India was born yesterday from a historian's perspective. It is less than a century old. I use India in the title and throughout most of the book, until the last couple of chapters, in its historic sense of the subcontinent. It is a geographical designation, and it very much includes Bangladesh, Pakistan, and southern parts of Afghanistan. I realise that is going to be a little uncomfortable for a lot of readers who are really used to India being the modern nation state with militarised borders, an army, and a set of nationalist symbols. The second way in which I address nationalism—and I think this will be particularly important for younger readers, under the age of about 30 or 35—is by giving a fair amount of the history of Hindu nationalism. I think Hindu nationalists do not like talking about their own history. There are some dark parts of that history, the Nazi loving stuff, the fascist stuff, the fact that it is largely a European import, and the fact that it was unpopular for most of its existence. Forty years ago, no respectable Indian would touch Hindu nationalism. I think that is very hard to understand if you are 30 years old and living in Hyderabad or Bombay or Delhi or Ahmedabad or wherever, and Hindutva is what you know. My book charts that history, among many other facets of Indian and South Asian histories. Adrija Roychowdhury leads the research section at She writes long features on history, culture and politics. She uses a unique form of journalism to make academic research available and appealing to a wide audience. She has mastered skills of archival research, conducting interviews with historians and social scientists, oral history interviews and secondary research. During her free time she loves to read, especially historical fiction. ... Read More
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Yahoo
Trump Hotel Guest Died After Revolving Door ‘Violently Ejected' Her: Lawsuit
A man is suing Trump International Hotels after he claimed his mother died from injuries she sustained from being 'violently ejected' from a revolving door at the hotel's Las Vegas location in 2023. Diana Truschke, 78, was visiting Las Vegas in March 2023 as an 'invited guest and patron' of the hotel, but was injured when she entered the building's revolving door, according to the lawsuit filed last week and cited by Fox affiliate KVVU. The door sped up its rotation while Truschke was inside and she was struck in the back, the lawsuit alleges. Truschke was 'violently ejected' and thrown several feet, hitting the sidewalk face first, the suit said, as reported by CBS affiliate KLAS-TV, citing the lawsuit. Despite receiving medical treatments, Truschke's health deteriorated and she died on Oct. 14, 2024, 'due to complications from injuries.' Truschke's lawsuit claims the hotel staff should have known that the revolving door was not working properly and informed guests, according to the outlet. The lawsuit accuses Trump International Hotels of negligence; negligent hiring, training and supervision; and wrongful death, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Truschke's son is now seeking damages in excess of $15,000 for several claims including loss of comfort and companionship, emotional pain and economic hardships. Trump International Hotels in Las Vegas did not immediately respond to HuffPost when reached out for a comment on Truschke's son's allegations. An attorney for the hotel was not listed in the court records reviewed by HuffPost. Video Appears To Show Missing Student Possibly Vomiting At Hotel Bar Before Vanishing Man Who Exploded Tesla Cybertruck Outside Trump Hotel Used Generative AI, Police Say Trump Hotel In Las Vegas Evacuated After Cybertruck Ignites Outside Lobby
