Ram Sharan Sharma (1920–2011) was one of the pioneering historians of post-independence India. His work has shaped our understanding of Indian history as we know it today.

Sharma believed that history and theory are intimately linked, and that history is a form of knowledge which is theoretically accessible. Yet, he could combine the use of refined theoretical tools to analyse problems and communicate them in the simplest possible language. He saw historical writing as an intensely political activity and led the battle of ideas against colonialist, communal, chauvinistic and obscurantist approaches to the study of history all his life.

[Source: Orient Blackswan]