All history is to some degree subjective, written by individuals who are above all people of their own time.
I am a kind of history buff and like to read as much as possible about our history which is now being rewritten from an Indian point of view rather than from a colonial / racist point of view. And as I write this, history is being made in India by renaming some places to remove Islamic names given by invaders to the original Indian names. Some kind of course correction as it were.
Similarly, there are stories of valiant women which have been kept hidden for centuries which are now being brought out in the open and using social media, spread among Indians so that they can be proud of their heritage. Here is one such about which no history text book ever wrote to my knowledge.
I am also currently reading an amazing book “The Educational Heritage Of Ancient India; How An Ecosystem Of Learning Was Laid To Waste” by Sahana Singh. There are some more books on Indian history waiting to be read, all promising to be very stimulating.
In short, I was rather surprised at the serendipity of the topic for today’s post being suggested by Shackman for our weekly 2 on 1 posts and I have shared my reason for the surprise. Please do go over to Shackman’s blog to see what he has to say about the same topic.
We attacked the topic from similar fronts – what have we not been told – the topoic proved much m,ore interesting than I anticipated.
I had a feeling that we would as I sat to write on it. You have had a much shorter time frame to write on than I with our history going back to 3000 yrs BC!
Women are edited out of history all the time. In the UK there are many female inventors, political activists, scientists, computer engineers etc whose names are virtually unknown, while pioneering males get much more attention.
And as you say, history is invariably written from a nationalist point of view, so history lessons in Britain focus mainly on Britain and say little about the history of other countries.
I didn’t deliberately elaborate on history editing out women and your observation is very valid for Indian history as well. It is only in the last decade or so that some renaissance in the study of real history has taken place here. Here is something that might just interest you https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1sqY-qcx88&t=41s
Probably countries under the rule of other nations have their history’s mostly presented from a perspective of that ruler. So, what is coming to the forefront about India could likely be revelatory. Can imagine you will be intrigued absorbing newly revealed writings and weighing them against previously written materials.
I think a single history source is insufficient to get a relatively clear picture with some account’s reporters/writers/historians closer to being more objective than others. What about where they get their material and many other factors . I think knowing something about a historians background and perspectives on issues can be important to know also. Enjoy your reading!
Shack poiinted out some of the little known items in our U.S. history of which we cannot be proud. Even the content and how it’s presented in our children’s school books is known to be influenced by the State that purchases the most books — they also just happen to have an orientation somewhat different than some other parts of our country, too,
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You have elaborated well what I had thought of conveying in my post. I can’t also stop wondering what the rewritten history that is now being produced will be looked at as, say, two generations down the line!
Yes, and I think of histories written long after events. Christianity’s bible books are also interesting with composition long after the fact and they didn’t even have all the sources on which to refer that subsequent generations have had. Stories can become so mixed up with each retelling.
That is true, particularly in the case of mythology. I find Joseph Campbell quite fascinating when he elaborates.
here to colonial history conveniently wiped from any mentions on those peoples who were already here, their daily business was not portrayed as anything…rather they were seen as needing “help” – some of which has made them dependent on the powers to be forever… and now there is more knowledge coming through, but still you have to search for it, methinks.
Sometimes a book will be published, and immediately it’s refuted and dissed by the apparent assumption it’s more a fairy/novel type of story…
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As my reading progresses, in the last few days since I wrote the post, I have discovered other facts which are simply mind blowing and one of then particularly impresses me so much that I will be posting about it soon. I need to read and copy and that always takes time.
Hi Rummy,
History used to be written according to the Historian’s perspective and perception. Today, History incurs the risk of being written based on ideology. But is it a complete lie? Maybe not, I mean, are dates lies? The event occurred on that day/night, at X time, in Y place, with N people; but the underlying reasons for the events may be subject to interpretation, an agenda, or ideology, yes.
Excellent subject, as always :).
Cheers
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I read history like I would fiction and that enables me to enjoy the experience! Thanks for the encouragement. I really appreciate it.