Interview: Vikram Sampath On 'Reclaiming Voice, Memory, And Nuance' Of Indian History And Mentoring Next-Gen Scholars At FIHCR

2 September marked an important milestone in the life of Dr Vikram Sampath, the celebrated historian best known for his works on Veer Savarkar and Tipu Sultan.

On this day, the first batch of Sir Jadunath Sarkar Fellows graduated, a landmark for the Foundation for Indian Historical and Cultural Research (FIHCR), which Sampath established just a year ago to nurture fresh approaches to history writing.

With this, Sampath moves beyond individual scholarship into institution-building, fostering a new generation of historians who will revisit India's past and enrich its narrative with neglected voices and perspectives.

Swarajya caught up with him to discuss the fellowship, his vision, and his reflections on history writing.

What motivated you to establish FIHCR, and how do you envision its role in reshaping the narrative of Indian history?

The Foundation for Indian Historical and Cultural Research (FIHCR) was born from a deep dissatisfaction with the way Indian history has been written, taught, and consumed for decades. Our historical narrative has long been held hostage to colonial frameworks and ideological filters that either exoticised or distorted our past.

The civilisational depth of India was often reduced to footnotes, and complex indigenous traditions were dismissed or caricatured. There was and still is a serious vacuum for rooted, rigorous, and responsible historical research that speaks to India on its own terms. And beyond merely complaining about it, there was not much institutionalisation of an alternative view point and scholarship in Indian history.

As someone who has spent over two decades researching and writing about India's forgotten heroes, cultural legacies, and contested pasts, I felt the need for an institution that could support younger scholars doing similar work. FIHCR is that space. It is a platform that values primary sources, interdisciplinary inquiry, and clarity over jargon and rhetoric. It's not about agenda-driven rewriting of history. It's about reclaiming voice, memory, and nuance.

I see FIHCR playing a long-term role in shaping how Indians understand themselves; not through borrowed lenses, but through grounded, well-researched scholarship. It's about building a new ecosystem of history-writing where civilisational confidence and academic rigour go hand in hand.

You have described the fellowship as a "nation-building initiative" and said FIHCR was created to reclaim, research and reimagine India's civilisational story. What does "nation-building through history" mean to you, and how do you ensure that the work remains academically rigorous and evidence-based whilst pursuing this vision?

Nation-building through history doesn't mean writing hagiographies or manufacturing pride. Empty rhetoric, jingoism, romanticising the past glories is not nation-building. Replacing one version of distorted history that the Marxists gave us with another kind is not a service.

But true nation-building means offering citizens a clear, honest, and comprehensive understanding of where we come from and why that matters. A civilisational nation like India cannot afford to forget its roots or misremember its past. Doing so weakens the cultural confidence necessary for social cohesion, policymaking, and identity.

The problem is, for far too long, we were told that national pride and academic rigour/honesty cannot coexist. At FIHCR, we reject that false binary. We believe that history can be both inspiring and intellectually sound. It also should take a very dispassionate and critical look at our collective national failures and social ills that kept us down and enslaved. Denying and negationism of the good or the bad, or empty eulogies is not history writing.

Our approach insists on primary sources, inter-disciplinary validation, peer reviews, and transparent documentation. Every Fellowship proposal or own internal Projects that we undertake are judged on its methodological robustness not just its theme. And once selected, each Fellow works closely with a team of editors, researchers, and advisors who help sharpen the research without interfering with its core direction.

To me, nation-building through history is about creating a citizenry that knows, understands, and respects its own story. Not blindly, but critically and with clarity. That's the only kind of historical awareness worth striving for.

The Sir Jadunath Sarkar Fellowship was launched in collaboration with the OLA Foundation. How did this partnership come about, and what role do corporate philanthropic collaborations play in supporting the fellowship's goals and the wider mission of FIHCR?

Our partnership with the OLA Foundation was anchored in a shared belief that history matters, and that civilisational confidence begins with knowing who we are. Bhavish Aggarwal (Founder, OLA) and Rajalakshmi Aggarwal (Chairperson, OLA Foundation) have both shown a deep and sincere interest in cultural preservation and historical awareness.

When I first discussed the idea of this Foundation to foster new scholarship in Indian history and this Fellowship idea with them, the response was immediate and wholehearted. They understood that meaningful impact isn't just about infrastructure or technology it's also about ideas, narratives, and memory.

This kind of corporate philanthropy is crucial, especially in fields like history, which have often struggled for funding and institutional support. It allows us to build something long-term without bureaucratic delays or ideological strings attached. The support from the OLA Foundation has given us the freedom to back serious scholars, fund original research, and create an entire pipeline from study to publication.

It is sad that even today, a lot of corporates and HNIs in India happily fund western think-tanks and universities. Some, not even doing basic due-diligence of what kind of research is getting funded through their grants and if anti-India or Hinduphobic elements are getting subsidised in this process.

Even within India, when it comes to investing in foundational research, not many show interest as here the impact is not immediate, but it is a subtle, yet long-term inter-generational and civilisational impact. Possibly tough to depict in CSR's tangible impact metrics and dashboards!

I believe this model that OLA has fostered with FIHCR is very unique and can be a game-changer. When visionary individuals from industry begin to see the value of investing in India's intellectual and cultural capital, it opens up new frontiers. The Sir Jadunath Sarkar Fellowship is proof of what becomes possible when private initiative meets public purpose.

Each fellow receives a grant of ₹15 lakh for the year. Beyond the financial support, what kinds of mentorship, archival access, or other resources and guidance does FIHCR provide to ensure that the fellows' research projects succeed?

The grant is only one part of the equation. What truly sets the Fellowship apart is the ecosystem we've built around the researcher. Each Fellow has constant access to our dedicated programme managers who support everything from structuring timelines to navigating sources. We also offer access to a wide network of senior historians, subject experts, and editors who review work at critical stages not to police it, but to sharpen it.

Archival access is another key area. We work to connect Fellows with regional archives, private collections, university libraries, and even lesser-known repositories that hold invaluable primary materials. In some cases, we've helped digitise rare documents specifically for use in a Fellow's project.

Regular check-ins, peer workshops, and collaborative reviews create a culture of intellectual engagement rather than isolation. We also run sessions on how to convert academic research into publishable books, pitch to media, or speak at public forums.

Visibility is critical. Our communications team helps Fellows publicise their work through social media, videos, reels, and newsletters so that their research reaches wider audiences beyond academia. We treat dissemination as part of the research process, not an afterthought.

The idea is to give our Fellows the scaffolding they need academic, editorial, logistical, and public-facing to turn a research idea into a lasting contribution to the field.

It is heartening to know that all graduating fellows of the first batch have secured contracts with major publishing houses. Could you please walk us through how FIHCR supports fellows in disseminating their research and getting them published? Also, what impact do you hope these new scholarly books will have on the field of Indian historiography?

One of the most gratifying outcomes of the first batch was seeing every senior fellow land a publishing deal with leading houses like Penguin, HarperCollins, BluOne Ink, Westland and Vitasta. This didn't happen by chance. From day one, FIHCR was designed to be a full-stack support system not just for research, but also for dissemination. Through the Fellowship, we also ensured periodic guidance from publishing houses and literary agents who oriented the work of the Fellows towards publication, right from the start.

We work closely with our Fellows to refine their manuscripts, offer editorial inputs, and help bridge the often-intimidating gap between academic writing and public readership. We assist in proposal development, connect Fellows with publishers, and offer long-term mentorship to prepare the work for wider impact.

Post-publication too we seek to create a public profile for our Fellows, if they don't already have one, through placements in important conferences, participation in literature festivals, podcasts and in the media. Scholarship needs nurturing and nourishment and that is exactly what we seek to provide.

What excites me most is that these books aren't niche academic texts buried in journals. They are serious, evidence-based, and yet readable books that can shift public discourse and open up new debates in Indian historiography. They are expanding the boundaries of what gets studied, who gets written about, and how history is told.

This, to me, is the true impact: creating a generation of scholar-authors who are grounded in rigour but unafraid to engage with the world beyond academia.

The first cohort of fellows worked on diverse topics 'from the history of textbook controversies in India to the trajectory of West Bengal from renaissance to communist takeover'. How were these scholars and their projects selected, and what kinds of historical questions do you hope to see future fellows explore?

The selection process was built to ensure both scholarly depth and thematic diversity. We received over 100 applications in the first round alone, and our team along with external reviewers evaluated each one over three stages, with detailed scrutiny of proposals, interviews, and a focus on originality, rigour, and clarity of purpose.

What we looked for were scholars unafraid to ask tough questions and venture into underexplored terrain. Some of them chose subjects that have been systematically neglected, such as regional identities, textbook politics, or constitutional interpretations of religious practice. Others examined long-term intellectual currents like the Bengali shift from renaissance optimism to ideological rigidity and the Hindu kingship frameworks.

Each of these projects adds a missing piece to India's historical jigsaw. The best part is all the 6 scholars have received publishing offers from leading mainstream publishers of the country and their books will start reaching the market in 2026.

The second batch saw an exponential growth with almost 250 applications and superior profiles and submissions. It was a tough task to sieve through these. After a shortlist of 35 who were interviewed, 11 outstanding scholars, as against 6 last year, were selected this time. Each of them will receive a generous stipend of Rs 15 Lakhs each over the course of the coming year, along with mentorship, guidance, support, access to archives and sources and also connects to get their books published.

More than just a grant, it is the creation of an eco-system and an alumni network of like-minded scholars whose work can move the needle in Indian historiography.

Looking ahead, I want future fellows to probe deeper into India's civilisational journey into neglected dynasties, unsung heroes, philosophical traditions, cultural practices, and the lived experiences of ordinary Indians. I hope we continue to support work that is fearless, evidence-driven, and unburdened by ideological compulsions.

The idea is not to merely "correct" past narratives, but to expand the very scope of what we study and how we study it.

You announced an expanded second batch of 11 Jadunath Sarkar fellows. Can you describe how and why the fellowship is growing (e.g. more fellows, broader scope), and what new directions or themes you plan to introduce in future cohorts?

The expansion was both organic and necessary. When we launched the first batch, we wanted to start small and focused test our systems, mentor closely, and build trust. But the response was overwhelming, and the quality of applicants made it clear that there's a large, underserved pool of serious scholars across India waiting for an opportunity to do meaningful work.

So in 2025, we scaled up. Eleven fellows were selected from over 250 applications, covering a wider range of regions, disciplines, and themes from the Moplah Rebellion of 1921 to colonial incarceration in the Andamans, and from the evolution of Indian foreign policy to the antiquity of Rāma worship.

What this signals is a deliberate move towards thematic breadth and deeper regional anchoring. Future cohorts will continue to explore underrepresented voices, neglected dynasties, cultural institutions, and civilisational questions. We're also looking at collaborations with state archives, regional universities, and digitisation initiatives to give scholars access to untapped sources.

The goal is simple: create a Fellowship that doesn't just grow in numbers, but in depth, direction, and impact.

As per a brochure shared at the graduation ceremony, FIHCR is also conducting research on topics like Aryan migration, the history of the Jaipur Royal family, and the Hindu history of Kashmir. As these are topics on which considerable literature is available, what is it that FIHCR is going to do differently?

The difference lies in three things: methodology, perspective, and courage.

An important vertical of FIHCR is the Research and Projects Team where we incubate these research ideas around historical themes that have a contemporary relevance, in educational institutions. They are undertaken through a multi-disciplinary approach.

For instance, we are working on a project on the history of Buddhism in Bharat at the Nalanda University where a team of scholars including a historian, archaeologist, Pali/Prakrit/Tibetan/Sanskrit scholars and philosophers are addressing this theme from multiple perspectives, to fuse into a common narrative flow, but by going back to the primary sources in their original be it archaeological, epigraphic, textual or numismatic.

Another project on the myth of the Aryan invasion brings together molecular biologists, geneticists, metallurgists with archaeologists, historians, linguists and phoneticists. We've firmed up academic partnerships with Nalanda University, Chandigarh Group of Colleges, RV University, Sri Sathya Sai University of Human Excellence, Post Graduate Government College (PGCC), IIM-Bangalore and so on.

Yes, these are well-written-about topics but there is always scope for a fresh perspective and view of these in the wake of new evidence that surfaces. For instance, the Aryan Migration Theory continues to be presented in some academic spaces as settled science, despite strong linguistic, genetic, and archaeological evidence that challenges its core assumptions. Our project brings together an interdisciplinary team linguists, geneticists, archaeologists, Sanskrit scholars to re-examine the question with fresh eyes and new tools.

Similarly, the history of the Jaipur Royal House or Kashmir's pre-Islamic legacy has often been covered in fragmented or romanticised ways. We're approaching these subjects with a clear focus on primary sources manuscripts, inscriptions, oral traditions and asking the hard questions that have long been ignored or avoided.

What FIHCR adds is not just "more content" it is clarity of purpose. We're not here to repeat old arguments. We're here to create a new standard of historical research that is honest, rooted, multidisciplinary, and unafraid.

For a generation that has grown up reading history textbooks written by those with a Marxist leaning, such as R.S. Sharma, Romila Thapar or Bipan Chandra, what is something about Sir Jadunath Sarkar that everyone should know about today? It could be some of his works or something about him that has influenced you the most.

Sir Jadunath Sarkar stood for something that's increasingly rare in historical scholarship today: intellectual honesty and personal integrity. He wasn't afraid to follow the evidence, even if it led to uncomfortable truths. He didn't write to please political dispensations or academic peer groups. He wrote because he believed that history must be rooted in fact, not theory.

What stands out to me is his meticulous use of primary sources. His multi-volume work on Aurangzeb remains, even today, one of the most rigorous and well-documented studies of any Indian monarch. He was fluent in Persian, worked directly with Mughal court chronicles, letters, and firmans, and refused to sugarcoat what he found.

That courage to show Aurangzeb as he was, rather than how we might wish him to be remembered (as is done today by agenda-driven propagandists masquerading as historians) is exactly what a serious historian should aspire to.

In today's environment, where ideological allegiance often takes precedence over archival depth, Sarkar reminds us of the importance of scholarly discipline. He is not just a historian of the past he's a role model for the kind of history-writing India needs in the present.

Historians like Sarkar, Dr Romesh Chandra Majumdar, Vishwanath Kashinath Rajwade, Raghubir Singh, Hemchandra Raychaudhuri, Kashi Prasad Jayaswal, Devadatta Ramakrishna Bhandarkar, Govind Sakharam Sardesai and several contemporaries of theirs, many of whom shone in brilliance even under colonial rule, are in my view exemplars of what fact-based, dispassionate historians are.

Given the nature of our education system and job market, which is heavily skewed towards STEM, most people's study of history ends once they pass the 10th standard, leaving a large gap in their knowledge. Is FIHCR making any efforts to reach children and young adults?

Absolutely and that gap you've pointed out is precisely why we created FIHCR YUVA, our youth outreach vertical. The goal is to make history engaging, age-appropriate, and rooted in civilisational memory especially for those who may never return to the subject formally after school.

One of our flagship efforts has been the YUVA Books Series four beautifully illustrated history books for children aged 10 to 18, written by experienced authors like Mala Kumar, Pradeep Chakravarthy, Harini Srinivasan, and Vijender Sharma.

The topics range from the Vijayanagara Empire to merchant guilds, medieval leadership to the Sindhu Sarasvati Civilisation. These are available in seven languages and have been received warmly by educators, parents, and young readers alike.

We also launched the Sri Aurobindo Annual History Essay Competition, which drew over 1,500 entries from students across 320+ schools and 21 states. The essays showed us something very encouraging: when young minds are given the chance to engage with history beyond rote memorisation, they rise to the occasion with sincerity, originality, and curiosity.

If we want historical awareness to grow in this country, we can't wait until people reach university. We have to start early by showing students that history is not a burden, but a powerful tool for understanding who they are.

At the inaugural graduation ceremony, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan emphasised history's role as a "mirror" illuminating the past and mentioned using AI and digitisation (like FIHCR's work with gramophone archives) to preserve heritage. How do you see technology fitting into FIHCR's mission, and what key takeaways did you have from the Minister's remarks?

I was truly heartened by the Minister's remarks, particularly his emphasis on the role of history as a mirror and not a mere museum piece, especially in a living civilisation like ours. His words affirmed what we've believed from the outset that history isn't a luxury or an indulgence, it's a tool of national introspection.

Technology, in that sense, is not an add-on for FIHCR it's integral. Whether it's the Archive of Indian Music (AIM), where we've digitised over 15,000 rare gramophone recordings, or our use of AI-driven tools to translate children's history books into multiple Indian languages, tech allows us to widen access without diluting substance.

In fact, AIM is perhaps the first online digital sound archive for vintage gramophone records going back to 1902 and accessible through the comfort of your homes, free of cost. (https://soundcloud.com/archive-of-indian-music)

Through partnership with another startup that I have founded with technologist and a dear friend Sandeep Singh called NAAV AI (https://naavai.com/) these translations are also underway of all the content we are creating here, as I am cognisant of the fact that limiting this to only English is a self-defeating task because perhaps 5-6% of this vast nation reads and understands English, whilst the soul of Bharat resides in the Bharatiya Bhashas.

The real opportunity lies in making history immersive, accessible, and personal. Virtual exhibitions, AI-assisted research tools, multilingual publishing, digitised manuscripts these aren't gimmicks. They are how we ensure that serious research doesn't remain trapped in ivory towers.

That is why one of the verticals of FIHCR is YUVA which focuses only on children and young adults and seeks to make history inspiring and exciting for them, and not the boring rote learning that it can end up becoming in schools and colleges.

The Minister's call to embrace this fusion of scholarship and innovation resonated deeply. At FIHCR, we see this as the way forward: pairing the depth of tradition with the reach of modernity.

Tell us about your upcoming writings what's next after the stupendous success of your books on Savarkar, Kashi and Tipu Sultan?

The last few years have been incredibly intense and fulfilling from the two-volume biography of Savarkar to Bravehearts of Bharat, Waiting for Shiva, and most recently, Tipu Sultan. Each book has opened new questions for me, and I've found that the more you uncover, the more there is to explore.

Right now, I'm working on a couple of projects that are still under wraps but very close to my heart. Both FIHCR's Projects and my work at NAAV AI are keeping me completely occupied with sleep becoming the biggest casualty. But I have always been a man in a hurry, because I know that there is so much to do, and so little time left. There are miles to go before I sleep, as Frost had commented!