In this study, Romila Thapar argues the importance of understanding and positioning various well-established perspectives on the Indian past in order to arrive at an informed understanding of contemporary situations--such as disputes between Hindus and other Indian communities. It is vitally important for historians and informed lay readers to consider the wide range of opinions and views that are available on the Indian past, interpretations have often risen out of ideological conceptions. Thapar shows that the most influential ideologies which shaped the writing of early India initially had their moorings in European concerns; later, the rise of Indian nationalism questioned many of these conceptions; and most recently, these nationalist interpretations have also been questioned.