History is an important “issue” because it goes beyond the confines of academia and everyone has an opinion on it. It helps in creating identities. Identities which are often contested and imagined. The relationship between history and nationalism is like – as Eric Hobsbawm would have put it – “what poppy is to an opium addict”; it serves a purpose. What we are today has its roots in history and that is why history as a discipline is always on the radar of political regimes. In India, as lay people we do not read enough and often imbibe hearsay, WhatsApp forwards and political speeches as history and condemn historians for their “prejudice” in attempting to write academic histories.
https://thewire.in/history/are-we-moving-towards-a-medieval-understanding-of-history
History never remains static; it is ever changing. Rewriting history is natural and essential. With every new interpretation or evidence, history changes.
And it is not uncommon for different political regimes to have different perspectives on history and to try to influence the historical narrative in the curriculum.
History should be understood in its totality, that is, with its context. Totality should not be confused with the “entirety” of the past, which is virtually impossible to achieve.
by Eshan Sharma
28/04/2023