School of Thought Applied to Indian History: The Six Rungs from Empire to Civilisational Plurality

School of Thought Applied to Indian History examines how historians’ questions, assumptions and methods produce different interpretations of the same past. Prof. Subash Chandra Padhy compares the Imperialist, Nationalist, Marxist, Subaltern and Post-Subaltern traditions before presenting his proposed School of Civilisational Plurality Studies. Organised around a six-rung framework, the book explores each school’s principal thinkers, sources, methods, contributions and limitations. Resistance movements in Ghumsar and the wider history of Ganjam and Odisha provide recurring examples through which these approaches are compared. Regional and tribal perspectives connect methodological debates with questions of colonial power, community, identity and historical representation. The book presents the six schools as interconnected approaches that challenge and extend one another, encouraging readers to examine both historical evidence and the frameworks through which it is understood. Written for students, teachers, researchers and interested general readers, it supports the study of Indian historiography through comparative discussion, chapter references and a select bibliography.