For smooth Ad free experience
Academicians often fail to connect with the very people they're writing about, but archaeologist and professor DK Chakrabarti is cut from some other cloth.
Born on 27th April 1941
Human beings are naturally curious people. Curiosity is the very thing that led to the evolution of ideas and technology and what makes humans different from other species. It is curiosity that makes us wonder about the world outside and the world beneath us. It is this very attribute that makes us wonder about the time that will come and the time that has long gone by.
Leaving the task of future predictions on astrologers, let us come to history. When curiosity arises, we simply pick up a book and read it and get to know which king ruled in which era and what were people, in general, doing in the past in a specific time period. In the modern era, this task has become even easier as every information available in the world can be accessed with one simple click.
But have you ever wondered what goes into reconstructing a past? It takes days of toil and labour in the open fields as well as in the dusted shelves of libraries to construct one small fact from the long span of time that has passed by.
Among others, Dilip Kumar Chakrabarti, born on 27 April 1941, put his name on the small list of people who were busy digging for the past. Chakrabarti began as a lecturer at Calcutta University and from there went on to become the first 'professor' of ancient Indian history at Cambridge University.
Archaeology is a risky business. It is a destructive science in the sense that once a site is dug and studied, it is destroyed for posterity. There are no second chances. This makes the entire process super slow and super cautious. Crossing these hurdles Chakrabarti dug through Kangra Valley, Chhotanagpur plateau and the entire Ganga-Yamuna plain and made a path-breaking discovery in the use of iron in early India. This was a metal that changed the face of civilization in the land.
It is not just in ancient texts that history exists but material elements are a more significant and crucial part of history as they are not shrouded by myths and tales.
Chakrabarti has been a proponent of connecting history to the land it belongs to create a national consciousness among people. He believes that the current approach towards history is ideological and is disconnected from the land. He is also critical of the Left tilt in history writing in the subcontinent and hopes to challenge it by academic researches and archaeological findings.
Being the face of many controversies, a major break came in his life when he was appointed to the Indian Council of Historical Research, one of the topmost platforms of history in the country. Since then he has made rigorous efforts to put forth a Right-wing view of History. Politicised as he is because of his associations with RSS, many question his position and authority!
You might be interested in reading more from
