Who was Shivaji by Govind Pansare

Description

Hindutva icon or secular nationalist? Feudal potentate or peasants’ king? Protector of cows and brahmans or shudra ruler? Medieval marauder or builder of an empire? Who was Shivaji? Govind Pansare was one of Maharashtra’s most prominent public intellectuals. And among the bravest. He was felled by an assassin. But his rationalist view of human history is impossible to kill. This book is testimony to the power of ideas. “Shivaji Kon Hota? questions the way in which dominant Maratha historiography has enforced modern, i.e., colonial and post-colonial, religious categories on a past where people lived and did things differently compared with the age of modernity. Readers will not fail to notice the ease and humility with which the late Govind Pansare has raised and answered these questions. He does not claim originality, but only the ability to rationally re-interpret the facts of Shivaji’s career, for facts do exist – despite the claims of contemporary intellectual fashion to the contrary.