Date:25/02/2008 URL:
http://www.thehindu.com/2008/02/25/stories/2008022553731100.htm
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Back Opinion - Interviews
Upholding scientific principles of historical writing
C. Gouridasan Nair
NCERT textbooks are used only in 3 per cent of schools in the country.
The remaining 97 per cent of schools use textbooks that are much more
communal.
Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar
Professor K.N. Panikkar.
Professor K.N. Panikkar, the eminent historian who was recently elected
General President of the Indian History Congress (IHC), talks about the tasks
before historians today, and related issues. He says the Sethusamudram
controversy underscores the need for historians to continue to invoke and
reaffirm scientific principles of historical writing and interpretation.
Excerpts:
As the general president of the Indian History Congress (IHC), how do you think
its academic work and organisational practice could be further advanced? The
IHC has a well-established tradition of organising its work through annual
conferences. Its strength lies in the large number of historians who come
together on its platform. Paradoxically, that is also its weakness.
Given such large participation, it is unable to find enough time for what it
is primarily meant for: reporting and discussing the ongoing research by its
members. An unfortunate consequence of this paucity of time is that research
pursued outside the main centres fails to get adequate attention.
One possible solution is to give freedom to scholars to organise panels on
the areas of their interest as is done in the International History Congress.
Such an opening up may be particularly attractive to young historians who are
grappling with new thematic and methodological issues.
Generally, what would you consider to be the main tasks before historians in
India today?
The main task is to preserve, pursue and promote the basic tenets of history
as a discipline, which has been facing methodological and interpretative
challenges in recent times. Some of these challenges go against the grain of
objective historical investigation and interpretation.
Among them, the threat to secular historiography from the communal camp has
been the most serious one. However, it did not succeed in its mission because
of resistance from within the discipline, of which the IHC has been at the
forefront. Yet, the influence of communal interpretation has
persisted.Therefore it is necessary to continue to invoke and affirm the
scientific principles of historical writing.
The second task is related to the production of historical knowledge which is
contingent upon the unearthing of primary information about historical
processes. The interpretative history is possible only when basic knowledge
about historical events is available. Therefore the collection, documentation
and systematisation of sources deserve particular attention. Thirdly, history
should be brought closer to the social sciences through interdisciplinary
research and analysis.
These three appear to be the most pressing tasks, among many other
engagements, both theoretical and thematic, which demand the attention of
historians.
History is being invoked by certain political forces to secure legitimacy for
their unscientific positions. In the process they discard the rigour of
historical inquiries, in favour of emotional appeal. How do historians meet
this challenge? The Sethusamudram issue may be an example. Historians should
face such situations by scrupulously separating myth from history. In the
popular imagination they are often seen as interchangeable. While myth may help
to unravel some riddles of history, myth is not history. There is also the
question of evidence without which history cannot be constructed. In the
Sethusamudram issue what is important is to respect this separation. The
controversy is a result of its possible potential for religious mobilisation.
It has happened in the past in the case of Ramjanmabhoomi. Historians then
played an important role in bringing out the historical evidence, or the lack
of it, regarding the temple.
They have not done it sufficiently in the case of Sethusamudram. It would be
good if those who decide these matters pay heed to the professional opinion of
historians.
There is increasing interest in micro-history. Is there a deflection of
attention from the larger issues as a result?
There is such a tendency, particularly with the influence of post-modern
theories. In a way it is a global phenomenon. But the focus on micro-history
need not necessarily dissociate the micro from the macro. As Eric Hobsbawm
observed, more historians find the microscope useful at present, but this does
not necessarily mean that they reject the telescopes as out of date. In Indian
historiography, micro-history has not had many practitioners and therefore
methodological issues have not been adequately debated. For a long time
mega-narratives have held centre stage.
However, micro-history is now gaining ground, particularly in the writing of
regional history. The history of smaller localities is being written, which has
brought to the fore a variety of methodological and conceptual questions.
Micro-history would unearth new types of evidence and highlight new dimensions
of social and cultural diversity. The multiplicity of voices it would recover
would enrich the quality of historical assessment. However, they cannot be
addressed by dissociating the micro from the macro. [This can be done] only by
exploring their integral connection.
There is a kind of fast-forwarding taking place in life, with technology
intervening tremendously in our lives. Do you think these processes in
contemporary life impinge on historiography?
I think it does. The way history is now being approached is a direct
reflection of the larger changes in society. Consider, for instance, the
current interest in global history. It is not the old World History. It is
directly influenced by what is happening around us today, in technology, in
politics and in economy. In fact, the opening session of the International
Conference of Historians in Sydney two years ago was devoted to Global History,
in which historians reflected on the emerging tendencies. They were really
looking at the future through the past. Their opinions were an indication of
the way history as a discipline is responding to changes today. But in India
there is very little interest in contemporary history.
Whatever little we have written does not attempt to locate our history in the
global context, without which contemporary history makes no sense.
In Asia, or at least in South Asia, we have had a common historical experience.
Has there been enough work to link the experiences of at least the South Asian
countries and to trace the processes that have brought us to the present stage
and the way things have evolved in these countries? Very little, perhaps
none. A few years ago some of us did make an attempt to initiate a project to
write a history of South Asia. The idea emerged out of a dialogue with
Pakistani historians while I was in Lahore as part of a cultural delegation. It
was generally welcomed in both countries, but for some logistical reasons that
could not be accomplished.
Even recently, during the 1857 celebrations, a suggestion was mooted by
some of us for writing the history of the event from a South Asian perspective
because other countries in South Asia were also involved in the Revolt. I
thought such a perspective and collaboration between historians would be
useful, but unfortunately what has happened during the last few years is the
further isolation of historians of the subcontinent. I do not think the IHC
receives a delegation of historians from Pakistan or Bangladesh or Sri Lanka at
its annual conference. Nor are we able to exchange or market publications. It
is a pity because we have so much to share in terms of common historical
experience.
Detoxifying textbooks was a proposition advanced after the last election.
Almost four years of UPA rule are over. Are you happy with the way that process
has progressed?
Not at all, if you are talking about history in the larger context. The
government took some positive steps to change the textbooks published by the
National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT). But NCERT
textbooks are used only in 3 per cent of schools in the country. The remaining
97 per cent of schools use textbooks that are much more communal than the NCERT
textbooks concocted by the BJP dispensation. If detoxification were to be
effective, this large segment had to be cleansed of communalism. A suggestion
was to set up a National Commission, which could keep vigil over the quality of
textbooks used for all subjects and take cognisance of communal or anti-secular
views in them. The commission should have enough teeth, judicial powers, like
the Minorities Commission or the Womens Commission, so that whenever there are
departures from secular norms it would be able to take action. But the
government did not undertake an all-out fight against communal
ideology. As a result, communal interpretation of history continues to be
present in an overwhelming majority of the textbooks.
After your well known work on the Mappillas, you seem to be concentrating on
intellectual and cultural history, as is evident from your latest publication,
Colonialism, Culture and Resistance published by Oxford University Press in
2007. What lies ahead? What happened to the controversial Towards Freedom
volume, which the BJP government withdrew? Hopefully it would be published
this year. About 1,500 pages of the manuscripts which were lost, according to
the ICHR, have now been restored from my copy. That sordid story is over.
Currently I am engaged in a couple of other projects. First is a cultural
history of Colonial India, which is mainly an attempt to explore the evolution
of the public sphere in terms of the cultural contexts within it.
Simultaneously I am working on a social history of Kerala which focusses on the
complexities and contradictions in the evolution of modernity. I am also in the
final stages of putting together my popular writings on communalism and
secularism. A couple of books in Malayalam are also in the pipeline. That is a
handful, isnt it?
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