Important that politics doesn't interfere with literature, history and art: William Dalrymple

New Delhi, Oct 13 Historian, author and photographer William Dalrymple believes that it is imperative that political forces do not interfere with either literature, the arts or writing of history and that goes for any government in power right, left or centrist.

While he does not see anything wrong with re-writing of history as every generation does that and it happens to be an ongoing process, the author of books like 'The Anarchy', 'The Last Mughal', 'The White Mughals' and 'Return of a King' among others, feels that when it done with particular end in mind rather than by impartial looking at the evidence, the same can be very damaging.

"You have to make a fair judgment based on available evidence, and then write as impartially as you can. Frankly, no one is completely impartial, we all come to any given situation with the biases and ideas we were brought up with. And so the writing of history will never be 'complete'," he tells .

Talk to him about the dominance of Marxist left in many history departments in the post war period, and he feels that it is inevitable that there be a reaction against that.

"There is a historiography emphasising economical and social forces at the expense of biography and human agency. Yes, very few biographies have been written by Indian history departments until recently. I support some form of re-balancing, particularly towards more biographically led history and that is what I have been doing in my work already. It makes history much more interesting and accessible. Many Marxist histor researching early India, often ignored the importance of religion as a motivating force in human history," he says.

Dalrymple, whose latest series of photographs 'In Search of Ancient India' is being exhibited