India's Cultural History

Cultural History is interesting in itself, but it becomes even more so since it takes away the heat and dust from political and economic history and can be pursued with much more objectivity and a sense of discovery than the other two genres of history. Of course social history can sometimes be more fascinating. But in India due to lack of efforts and lack of documented sources, social history is very underdeveloped. By the way the distinction between political, economic, social and cultural histories are not easy to make and really history is not divided in this manner. These categories are nothing more than vague points of reference like so many international borders and should be taken as such. Culture is as much determined by politics as social is influenced by economics.
Be that as it may, if one were to focus on the cultural history, one would find very little to read, especially about Ancient and Medieval India. It is surprising that since the work of A L Basham, The Wonder that Was India, not much work has been done in that area. Basham continues to be a classic covering the cultural history of the whole of India from Kashmir to Kanyakumari [North Indian historians continue to neglect teh history of south and vice versa!]. It is a thick book, but the easy prose and the excellent translation from Indian languages make it a pleasure to read even for the non-practitioner. In recent times, I am happy to report that there have been an Indian writer who has been following on the footsteps of Basham and has written some excellent books on various facets of cultural and social history. I refer of course to Abraham Eraly and the following books by him: The Lives and Times of the Great Mughals and The Seeding of the India Civilization. For a complete list of Eraly's books see here. Of course, Romila Thapar's India Volume I and Percival Spear's India Volume II by Penguin continue to be classics especially the former.

Mongols

The Mongols have beenmuch maligned in history as uncivilized marauders who left behind a trail of blood across the continents of Asia and Europe reducing to dust whatever came on their way. This analysis has had a long European and Asia tradition and is based on contemporary writings and eyewitness accounts mainly from Europe and Persia. Part of this outlook about the Mongols also derive from the ambivalent attitude of the Church at Rome towards them. But this outlook is patently flawed and biased. Recent research has shown that Mongols in many ways were on a civilising mission - whereever they went they brought on their wake flourihing trade and commerce, connected people and introduced new technology. Recent history looks at Mongols as some sort of medieval globalisers - connecting the then known world and ending the isolation in many senses.
In the past, if Mongols were not looked as uncivilised barbarians, they were looked as a classic case study of nomadic and pastoral lifestyle and the how presuably how different they were from the civilised and sedentary agriculturists.
The new perspective on the Mongols come out very clearly in brilliant book by an American historian, J. McIver Weatherford called the Ghengis Khan and the making of the Modern World. There is no guessing here, in the title itself the author accepts the role of Mongols in modernising the world. Even if you are not interested in history this book is worth a look.
Incidentally, the Mongols founded some of the most important ruling dynasties across Asia including Persia, China, Turkey and India.

Students in History

In recent history students as a group sometimes have played an important role. France and US in the 1960s and India especially Bihar in the 1970s, Bengal in 1960s and 70s and more recently Delhi in the arly 1990s were political situations where students took the lead and attempting a social change. Often violating established norms and structures of authority and power is such acts as defying teachers, elders etc.
The fact that students are a volatile but peaceful lot who occasionally surpise elders and teachers by acts of violence and politics, is a "modern" concept. I do not know what students in madrasas and pathshalas did in India in the medieval India, but if you were to read the most fascinating account of Childhood "Centuries of Childhood" by the renowned historian Phillipe Aries, you would be amazed by the fact that most of the attributes of a child or of a student and or very recent provenance [I am tempted to call it theVictorian conceot of childhood, more accurately it is the modern perception of childhood and students.
Aries recreates the concept of childhood precisely to question the Modern notions of childhood and suggest that at least in medieval France, childhood an sudents meant something altogether different from the 19th and 20th century notions. The book is a very vivid in desciption, rich in information and subtle in argument.
But Aries makes it clear that there never was in history a qunessential notion of childhood and that our current notions of childhood are recent constructs. Here is just one example of from Aries: Apparently it was common among 12 13 year old student in French schools to carry swords to school and it was not uncommon for them to nick a teacher should the excitement of an argument demanded such an action.... Can you imagine doing that to your teacher? Certainly not!
More recently it would seem that we have come full circle, incidents of students carrying guns to schools [in delhi] and using those guns to kill [in the US] are not too uncommon...

Dissolve the Congress!

Did you know that after independence Mahatma Gandhi had sugessted that the Congress Party be dissolved? He was correctly of the view that the Congress Party was formed as a popular movement to gain independence from the British rule and once that was achieved there was no need for the part anymore! Very logical. I am sure the Congress leaders who were just about reached the best part of their political careers were shocked at the idea. Just imagine what would have happened if Gandhiji's wishes were carried out?
Did you know in an interview to Louis Fisher his biographer, the Mahatma had spoken about taking drastic steps against the zamindar who did not surrender their excess lands to peasants voluntarily? In reality the Zamindari Abolition Act which was implemented by some states was a sham.
Did you now the Mahatma's presence is East Bengal [Noakhali] prevented communal riots post partition. The British could not deploy soldiers to the East Bengal becuase of heavy deployment of soldiers in West Punjab. Of course the worst riots happened in Punjab where soldiers were deployed. The Mahatma alone achieved in East Bengal what a whoe battalion could not achieve in Punjab.
The best analysis of Mahatma Gandhi according to me is in Prof Sumit Sarkar's Modern India. Sumit Sarkar is one of the best modern Indian historians. His Modern India which is a best seller is also the best text book on Modern Indian history. Louis Fischer's biography of the Mahatma is a tome and unless u are deeply interested in Mahatma Gandhi, you would not be able to finish it.
Finally, did u know that the Mahatma was a prolific writer he wrote on everything from bowel movements to politics. His collected works I think runs into 98 brick sized volumes. When did he have the time?

Edward Hallet Carr

History is one of the funniest subjects and little wonder that only a few dodgy characters like me study it throughout their careers and end up getting a PhD. There are even fewer [count me out here] who use that degree skillfully to pass on the knowledge to succeeding generations.
The biggest fun is history is constantly changing. Do not confuse it with the notion that history is always being made. History is like quicksand...... chameleon.... Same same history becomes different with time and with who is narrating it.
Through this blog, I would try to share some of interesting hostory books that I have read and continue to read and also share interesting bits and pieces.
The first book to read to look at the fun side of history would be What is History? by Edward H Carr. It's a very thin book, excellently written by someone who contributed to the making of History and also wrote history. Remember to to read about the author whenever u read a history book.