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Just Being: A Memoir
Not yet published
Expected 5 Aug 26Historian Romila Thapar reflects on a rich, path-breaking life—and the ideas, friendships, and journeys that shaped her.
In Just Being, historian Romila Thapar invites us into her illustrious world—a rich, extensive memoir from a scholar who has profoundly shaped our understanding of India’s past and present.
From her childhood growing up in British India, through her years of education in London, her extensive travels to archaeological sites across Asia and beyond, and her trailblazing role in shaping the Centre for Historical Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Thapar reflects on a life lived in the service of inquiry and education. Composed over the past few years, Just Being is a testimony to Thapar’s ability to view herself within the larger flow of history, and to illumine it with a scholar’s depth and a storyteller’s sensitivity. It reveals not only an extraordinary, boundary-defying life but a profound conviction that understanding our past in the light of irrefutable evidence is essential to an insight into the present and to shaping a more thoughtful future.
In Just Being, historian Romila Thapar invites us into her illustrious world—a rich, extensive memoir from a scholar who has profoundly shaped our understanding of India’s past and present.
From her childhood growing up in British India, through her years of education in London, her extensive travels to archaeological sites across Asia and beyond, and her trailblazing role in shaping the Centre for Historical Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Thapar reflects on a life lived in the service of inquiry and education. Composed over the past few years, Just Being is a testimony to Thapar’s ability to view herself within the larger flow of history, and to illumine it with a scholar’s depth and a storyteller’s sensitivity. It reveals not only an extraordinary, boundary-defying life but a profound conviction that understanding our past in the light of irrefutable evidence is essential to an insight into the present and to shaping a more thoughtful future.
540 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication August 5, 2026
About the author
Romila Thapar
98 books383 followersRomila Thapar is an Indian historian and Professor Emeritus at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
A graduate from Panjab University, Dr. Thapar completed her PhD in the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
Her historical work portrays the origins of Hinduism as an evolving interplay between social forces. Her recent work on Somnath examines the evolution of the historiographies about the legendary Gujarat temple.
Thapar has been a visiting professor at Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the College de France in Paris. She was elected General President of the Indian History Congress in 1983 and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy in 1999.
A graduate from Panjab University, Dr. Thapar completed her PhD in the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
Her historical work portrays the origins of Hinduism as an evolving interplay between social forces. Her recent work on Somnath examines the evolution of the historiographies about the legendary Gujarat temple.
Thapar has been a visiting professor at Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the College de France in Paris. She was elected General President of the Indian History Congress in 1983 and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy in 1999.
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Review of advance copy
In Just Being, Thapar invites us into her deeply rewarding life spanning over nine decades. She grew up in British India, went to London for her higher education, and then returned to take a gamble on what free India had to offer to a young ambitious woman. The memoir chronicles the progress of her career, her endless travels, and her experiences as an unmarried woman trying to make a life for herself.
From toasting to India’s first female Prime Minister to humorously debunking the ‘ballroom dancer’ myth about herself mentioned in Amartya Sen’s memoir, Thapar is an evocative writer able to capture the many layers of her life. Time and again, we witness just how fiercely unapologetic she is about what she thinks and knows.
At almost 700 pages, the memoir can sometimes feel a little repetitive. But if you ask me – Thapar has done just too much in her life to not have the chance to recount it once and for all.
This one is a slow, comfort read that I would definitely recommend.
From toasting to India’s first female Prime Minister to humorously debunking the ‘ballroom dancer’ myth about herself mentioned in Amartya Sen’s memoir, Thapar is an evocative writer able to capture the many layers of her life. Time and again, we witness just how fiercely unapologetic she is about what she thinks and knows.
At almost 700 pages, the memoir can sometimes feel a little repetitive. But if you ask me – Thapar has done just too much in her life to not have the chance to recount it once and for all.
This one is a slow, comfort read that I would definitely recommend.
Displaying 1 of 1 review