How, When And Where
CLASS 8MEDIEVAL HISTORY
10/25/20244 min read
How, When and Where
Historians concentrated on specific dates because they believed that history was a chronicle of important occurrences like conflicts and victories of royal families. However, history is more than just dates; it studies how cultures and customs changed throughout time by comparing the past and present.
Historical narratives of colonial accomplishments were shaped by the British method of studying Indian history, which concentrated on the acts of British. Later historians started looking at the lives and means of subsistence of regular people, especially those that are frequently left out of official records. after understanding scale of social and cultural change, it is now important to think about history from a variety of angles, not believing only official documents.
Living in the world we do not always ask historical questions about what we see around us. We take things for granted, as if what we see has always been in the world we inhabit.
There was a time when history was an account of battles and big events. It was about rulers and their policies. Historians wrote about the year a king was crowned, the year he married, the year he had a child, the year he fought a particular war, the year he died, and the year the next ruler succeeded to the throne.
They look at how people earned their livelihood, what they produced and ate, how cities developed and markets came up, how kingdoms were formed and new ideas spread, and how cultures and society changed.
Consider an example. In the histories written by British historians in India, the rule of each GovernorGeneral was important. These histories began with the rule of the first Governor-General, Warren Hastings, and ended with the last Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten.
important GovernorGenerals Viceroy Hastings, Wellesley, Bentinck, Dalhousie, Canning, Lawrence, Lytton, Ripon, Curzon, Harding, Irwin.
All the dates in these history books were linked to these personalities – to their activities, policies and achievements. It was as if there was nothing outside their lives that was important for us to know. The chronology of their lives marked the different chapters of the history of British India.
. In the histories that revolve around the life of British Governor-Generals, the activities of Indians simply do not fit, they have no space.
How do we periodise? In 1817, James Mill, a Scottish economist and political philosopher, published a massive three-volume work, A History of British India. In this, he divided Indian history into three periods – Hindu, Muslim and British.
demarcate the difference between periods – become important. They reflect our ideas about the past. They show how we see the significance of the change from one period to the next.
Mill thought that all Asian societies were at a lower level of civilisation than Europe. according to him" it was necessary to introduce European manners, arts, institutions and laws in India. Mill, in fact, suggested that the British should conquer all the territories in India to ensure the enlightenment and happiness of the Indian people. For India was not capable of progress without British help."
British classification, historians divided Indian history into ‘ancient’, ‘medieval’ and ‘modern’. This division too has its problems. It is a periodisation that is borrowed from the West where the modern period was associated with the growth of all the forces of modernity—science, reason, democracy, liberty, and equality. "Medieval " term used to describe a society where these features of modern society did not exist.
What is colonial? here we get to know British came to conquer the country and establish their rule, subjugating local nawabs and rajas, how they established control over the economy and society, collected revenue to meet all their expenses, bought the goods they wanted at low prices, produced crops they needed for export, and you will understand the changes that came about as a consequence and the changes British rule brought about in values and tastes, customs and practices.
When the subjugation of one country by another leads to these kinds of political, economic, social and cultural changes, we refer to the process as colonisation. That is why, the book is called Our Pasts in the plural.
Administration produces records
The British believed that the act of writing was important. Every instruction, plan, policy decision, agreement, investigation had to be clearly written up.
This conviction produced an administrative culture of memos, notings and reports.
The village tahsildar’s office, the collectorate, the commissioner’s office, the provincial secretariats, the lawcourts – all had their record rooms. Specialised institutions like archives and museums were also established to preserve important records.
In the early years of the nineteenth century, these documents were carefully copied out and beautifully written by calligraphists – that is, by those who specialised in the art of beautiful writing. By the middle of the nineteenth century, with the spread of printing, multiple copies of these records were printed as proceedings of each government department.
Surveys become important The British believed that a country had to be properly known before it could be effectively administered.
By the early nineteenth century, detailed surveys were being carried out to map the entire country. In the villages, revenue surveys were conducted. tury, Census operations were held every ten years. These prepared detailed records of the number of people in all the provinces of India, noting information on castes, religions and occupation. There were many other surveys – botanical surveys, zoological surveys, archaeological surveys, anthropological surveys, forest surveys.
What official records do not tell ----- From this vast corpus of records we can get to know a lot, but we must remember that these are official records. They tell us what the officials thought, what they were interested in, and what they wished to preserve for posterity. These records do not always help us understand what other people in the country felt, and what lay behind their actions.
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