History makes Sense
I’m not a historian, never did I learn history as a major subject nor did I read it much, I did my graduation in Engineering and works in an environment where history and related topics are of literally zero use in my daily activities. History and historical thoughts, still I believe, need to be seeded, discussed and taught.
History is not some day’s story of someone else’s past but it is our own story as how we evolved, how we developed, how we were brought up; the introspection of our own identity to the qualified, blossomed social animal and to a larger extend the story of our existence too. To know the information 1000 years back may not fetch you the next day’s meal, but it can tell us the reason why we eat, the way we breathe and the reasons behind each and every human action, the end result of tireless work of numerous historians - the fact, even if we accept it or not.
’Why should you bother what you are, who you will be and what you have to be’? - This is a high degree of individualism and pseudo independent thought. Forget about the civilized human populace, every single species in the whole of universe depend each other for existence, denial of which would be a mere darkening of the truth. We need to keep safe the gains and falls of the past to have a better tomorrow.
Isn’t there a difference between scoring and knowing? Remembering a fact without understanding how it is related to life may score us couple of examination marks, true; but as individuals, we know and grow little; gain as well. This is applicable everywhere. A mathematical formula can be read re read and over a period of time can be memorized, and once we spit it right on an answer sheet we may gain few marks or grades, but those are mere figures, or expressions unless we relate them to actual life; as useless as the dumb information we read from the history books.
It is these insights from the whole string of good and bad experiences make men a developed species. And there helps history and the historical thoughts which make us more rounded as human beings. The means, the ways and more importantly the mistakes our predecessors committed in their lives define ours too and it is foolishness to state that we care them not.
The very fact that incidents of distant past will not leave its traceable remnants makes the job of a historian challenging. It is not the historians who cannot see beyond the nose, but it is those who manipulate the facts for their selfish needs. Is it not the same history that taught all of us to denounce Hitler and the perpetrators of all the genocides over the world? Is it not the same history that taught us that the problems all over the world are always the struggle between the haves and have-nots’? Then how can history be harm to humanity?
We cannot diverge from the truth to say, that only a well written history is the epic of real life. It focuses the actions of men in an attractive and jubilating luminance. Rejecting what is unjust and superfluous, it mixes its picture with real, warm, and well drawn images. Yes, it is a story and all historians are story tellers. He, who controls the present, controls the past. He, who controls the past, controls the future. History is not a single college book or a news paper article published in the past. It is the record of the things that we experienced, united with others. Well written history must always be the result of genius and taste, as well as of research and study. But history, while it throws the light and speaks, confines itself to facts, related to actual events. The absence of a well knit nest of history and historical study in the modern day scenarios does not necessarily mean that history and historians have lost their significance.
The dignity of history consists in recalling the incidents with integrity and accuracy, and in presenting human agents and their actions in an interesting, instructive and informative form. The primary element in history, therefore, is truthfulness; and this truthfulness must be developed in a constructive form. Efforts must be to revive the truthfulness in our history, the integrity of the facts that we push on to the coming generations, the transparency and the open ness to accept, acknowledge and correct the old mistakes, and not to put the blame on history for all our ills.
Yes it is true, history was always written by the victors, but remember, there are no chronic victors in humanity. The only ultimate victor is truth and time; both are fantastic historians!
History is not some day’s story of someone else’s past but it is our own story as how we evolved, how we developed, how we were brought up; the introspection of our own identity to the qualified, blossomed social animal and to a larger extend the story of our existence too. To know the information 1000 years back may not fetch you the next day’s meal, but it can tell us the reason why we eat, the way we breathe and the reasons behind each and every human action, the end result of tireless work of numerous historians - the fact, even if we accept it or not.
’Why should you bother what you are, who you will be and what you have to be’? - This is a high degree of individualism and pseudo independent thought. Forget about the civilized human populace, every single species in the whole of universe depend each other for existence, denial of which would be a mere darkening of the truth. We need to keep safe the gains and falls of the past to have a better tomorrow.
Isn’t there a difference between scoring and knowing? Remembering a fact without understanding how it is related to life may score us couple of examination marks, true; but as individuals, we know and grow little; gain as well. This is applicable everywhere. A mathematical formula can be read re read and over a period of time can be memorized, and once we spit it right on an answer sheet we may gain few marks or grades, but those are mere figures, or expressions unless we relate them to actual life; as useless as the dumb information we read from the history books.
It is these insights from the whole string of good and bad experiences make men a developed species. And there helps history and the historical thoughts which make us more rounded as human beings. The means, the ways and more importantly the mistakes our predecessors committed in their lives define ours too and it is foolishness to state that we care them not.
The very fact that incidents of distant past will not leave its traceable remnants makes the job of a historian challenging. It is not the historians who cannot see beyond the nose, but it is those who manipulate the facts for their selfish needs. Is it not the same history that taught all of us to denounce Hitler and the perpetrators of all the genocides over the world? Is it not the same history that taught us that the problems all over the world are always the struggle between the haves and have-nots’? Then how can history be harm to humanity?
We cannot diverge from the truth to say, that only a well written history is the epic of real life. It focuses the actions of men in an attractive and jubilating luminance. Rejecting what is unjust and superfluous, it mixes its picture with real, warm, and well drawn images. Yes, it is a story and all historians are story tellers. He, who controls the present, controls the past. He, who controls the past, controls the future. History is not a single college book or a news paper article published in the past. It is the record of the things that we experienced, united with others. Well written history must always be the result of genius and taste, as well as of research and study. But history, while it throws the light and speaks, confines itself to facts, related to actual events. The absence of a well knit nest of history and historical study in the modern day scenarios does not necessarily mean that history and historians have lost their significance.
The dignity of history consists in recalling the incidents with integrity and accuracy, and in presenting human agents and their actions in an interesting, instructive and informative form. The primary element in history, therefore, is truthfulness; and this truthfulness must be developed in a constructive form. Efforts must be to revive the truthfulness in our history, the integrity of the facts that we push on to the coming generations, the transparency and the open ness to accept, acknowledge and correct the old mistakes, and not to put the blame on history for all our ills.
Yes it is true, history was always written by the victors, but remember, there are no chronic victors in humanity. The only ultimate victor is truth and time; both are fantastic historians!
posted by arjun sagar at 3:17 pm
1 Comments:
well said. Agree to your points.
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