Anyone who came in contact with Professor R.S. Sharma — students, teachers, ordinary men and women from different walks of life as this reporter did — could not have remained untouched by him. Gentle and with a sparkle in his eyes, he came out as strong, determined and always principled.
Moreover, as a historian he was never locked up in the ivory tower of academia and did not shy away from engaging in public debates on contemporary issues of caste, communalism and feudalism, that have arisen and shaken the country from time to time. His life and works reflected the larger struggle in India to keep the country secular.
Professor Bipan Chandra, who himself was among those historians who gave early warnings on the attempt by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to hijack the nationalist plank from the Congress, paid him the most handsome tribute: “After D.D. Kosambi, R.S. Sharma was the greatest historian of India.” He recalled that over the several decades since 1964 that he knew him, he read many of his books and monographs on caste in ancient India, feudalism and communalism and discussed it with him at great length.
“He was the first among historians to recognise the danger of the Ayodhya movement,” Professor Irfan Habib said, as he reminisced about his association with him that began in 1958 when he first met him at the Aligarh Session of the Indian History Congress (IHC).
“The industry of which he was capable and the rigour in method which he always adhered to will ever remain a source of inspiration to all of us,” Professor Habib said.
Many of us remember vividly that as a historian he was not just an observer of the momentous events related to the Ram temple agitation and the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. He wrote about the important historical issues involved, in a monograph that became an important tool for those trying to counter the Ram temple protagonists.
He moved the IHC to adopt resolutions asking for protection of the Babri Masjid year after year from 1986 onwards, and even after the demolition, at the IHC in Warangal in 1993 “a very strong resolution was adopted denouncing the proposal of the then government to investigate whether a temple ever existed under the destroyed mosque,” said Professor Habib.
This reporter recalls that he helped prepare scientific papers with historical evidence against the Vishwa Hindu Parishad stance that there was a temple at the disputed spot before the construction of the sixteenth Masjid.
Not many people know, said Professor Habib, that in 1975 when he was Chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research he was instrumental in a resolution being passed by the IHC in Aligarh against the Emergency. “It was the first academic body in the country to adopt an anti-Emergency stance.” But in those days of censorship it got little or no publicity, but is part of the IHC records.
Shireen Moosvi of the Aligarh Muslim University remembers “his gentle ways and his great commitment to the scientific and secular spirit.” Yet another colleague who worked with him in Delhi University, Professor D.N. Jha said: “He was a trend setter in Indian historiography and his works provoked animated debate on the nature of early Indian society and culture.” Further his view was that “those working on Indian history have to be either for him or against him, but they cannot ignore him. His death marks an end of an era in Indian historiography and the void created will not be easily filled.”
In the flood of tributes paid to this giant among Indian historians, his colleagues and associates recalled that though he was ever so gentle, he was rock firm on principles. Professor V. Ramakrishna, who retired from the history department of Hyderabad University, recalled that during an IHC session in Gorakhpur in 1992 before the demolition of the Babri Mosque, then local MP Yogi Adityanath “stunned the delegates when he stormed into the session,” and the delegates had to seek protection from the District Collector.
“Professor Sharma was always a pillar of support during the days when through fraudulent memberships the Bharatiya Itihas Parishad [floated by the RSS] tried to hijack the IHC.”
Perhaps few know that it was R.S., as he was affectionately called, who made the first effort to study and write about the condition of the lower castes in ancient India in his book ‘Sudras in Ancient India,' Professor Habib recalled. Drawing on the seminal works of D.D. Kosambi, he also wrote some path-breaking books on economy, society, ideas and feudalism in ancient India. “He had a steely will when it came to principles,” Professor Habib added.
And, of course, we all remember that his text book for classes 11 and 12 on Ancient India, first published in 1977, was unsuccessfully sought to be banned by the post-Emergency Janata Party government, said Professor Arjun Dev, former history professor at the National Council of Educational research and Training. Hindu communalists attacked the book as it referred to ancient India's beef-eating practices.
Much later and despite a countrywide protest against communalisation of education, the BJP-led government withdrew it as a textbook.
“To this day the book continues to be a major work on Ancient India for the general reader,” Professor Dev said.In a joint statement, the Indian History Congress, the Aligarh Historians Society and SAHMAT mourned his death that had “created a void in the ranks of Indian historians, which cannot be filled.”
