The Future in the Past brings together essays by Romila Thapar on issues and ideas that have preoccupied her throughout her career.These are subjects that surfaced frequently in discussions over theast six decades as they do even more so at present. Amongthem are the use and misuse of history, the myths surrounding the coming of the Aryans, religious fundamentalism in the studyof society, the overt and the insidious attempts by right-wing elements to pervert Indian culture, variants of the Ramayana, theimportance of museums, why dissent is important to democracy, the role of the public intellectual, and much more. Central tothe arguments in these essays (versions of which first appeared in Seminar magazine) is an analysis of how the past permeates thepresent and influences the future.