New Delhi, July 6 -- The horizons of History have to go beyond the here and now
- Romila Thapar
I took the firm resolve after reading the two monumental memoirs written by the two Olympians, Goethe and Rabindranath, that I would not pick up a third. Poetry and Truth (Goethe) and Jibansmriti (Rabindranath) were simply incomparable in style and substance, in the multiplicity of themes explored, in the interweaving of the personal and the social, and above all, in the enunciation of their identical aesthetic philosophy based on creative humanism.
I clung to my resolution for quite some years but then my mentor's Memoir appeared, Amartya Sen's Home in the World in 2021, I had to read it, 450 pages at a blitzkrieg pace. It was a different though exhilarating experience because Sen is a social scientist and philosopher, not a creative genius, like Goethe or Rabindranath.
Fortunately, I broke my resolve again two weeks ago when my close friend, Naveen Kishore, sent me the Grand Dame's exquisitely written Just Being. What an incredible profusion of themes she has covered in 700 pages, from her fervent recollection of her childhood in Lahore to her restless academic quest in England and then to her dedicated role as a teacher of history at JNU, and to so many more. Well, willnilly, I had to choose and I opted for the evitable - recalling her epistemic exploration of the nature of history. In other words, trying to read history with her and unravel her historiography, which is not overtly complex but multifaceted and irrevocably committed.
The historian Romila is devoted to poetry and, therefore, she depends on two of her favourite poets, Faiz Ahmed Faiz and T.S. Eliot, to articulate the first few digits of her scholarly engagement. From Faiz she has learnt that as a historian she has to speak, come what many, the indestructible truth. The poet decreed Speak, that truth still lives/ Speak to whatever is to be said. It is this dedication to unflinching truth quoted in the very beginning of the book that brings the poet and the historian indivisibly together. Further, it explains why Romila is still waging her relentless battle against the crass falsification of history and dubious mythmaking in its name. So, that is the first ingredient of her historiography. I am reminded here inescapably of our remarkable poet Sankha Ghosh's firm declaration. "A poet has only one function to fulfil, speak the truth", and also Sir Jadunath Sarkar's outspoken obligation, "The one and only aim of the ideal historian is to seek and understand truth".
Romila Thapar then turns to T.S. Eliot to unearth the very essence of history, to discover the integral connection - often complex and concealed -- between past, present and future. She recalls those unforgettable lines of the conservative, Anglican poet: Time present and time past/Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past. (Burnt Norton / Four Quartets). Moreover, she preface these words with her own commentary: "The voice you hear in these pages is that of my limited reflections. Yet it is my voice. Through time, it evokes the past, touches on the present and hints at the future." (Prologue, XIX)
The journey of historiography has just begun. Her next ambitious aim is not to treat her subject as an autonomous, isolated monad divorced from everything else but as a palpable experience embedded in other social sciences and, simultaneously, interwoven with creativity, archaeology and even anthropology. In short, her indelible stress is on the cross-weaving of different disciplines, with one illuminating the other ceaselessly. She emphasises the fruitfulness of this epistemic approach by saying, "the growing interaction of history with social sciences enlarged historical studies to way beyond the narrative of dynasties." (Page 241). Such bold interaction prompts fascinating queries: "Could the theories of explanation from the social sciences be applied to past societies? If early Vedic Society was that of agro-pastoralists, could studying the patterns of life of other agro-pastoralists help historians in investigating the life of the Rig Vedic cattle herders?" (Page 241)
An indefatigable examiner of monuments and temples, palaces and ruins, she forges an intrinsic link between history and archeology. Nevertheless, her historiography warns against the statist misuse of archaeology to sponsor divisive political agendas. Obviously, she employs the harshest expression to condemn such patently unhistoric schemes, "For me, the insistence of these established archaeologists working for government but refusing to object to the destruction of a historical monument was the theatre of the absurd." (Page 413)
One just has to take a small step ahead from this terrain to arrive at the next indispensable milestone in her vision of history, namely dissent. We learn from her that disagreement, dispute - often acerbic, conflicts of thoughts advanced by different schools constitute the very lifebreath of history. That is why she details with infinite patience the acrimonious between Brahmanas and Shramanas and quotes Patanjali with happy conviction, "The relationship between the Brahmanas and Shramanas is as one between the snake and the mongoose." One has only to read her masterly Voices of Dissent, along with this Memoir, to comprehend the crucial worth of such combative differences.
Once we have resolutely posited dissent in its destined place in her historiography, her redemptive weltanschauung emerges spontaneously and we confront her multifaceted concepts of culture and civilisation, her very own theorems of reconciliatory nationalism and her ultimate ideology, which is not restricted to any specific doctrine but blessed by the invigorating principles of many. While her impassioned attachment to a pluralist culture and civilisation reveals itself when she affirms. "Cultures imbued with plural origins have to be nurtured. They cannot be reduced to a single strand emanating from those that wield power. . now historians are viewing civilisation not as the culmination of a unique evolution but as the interaction of many cultures . Civilisations, therefore, are porous in terms of the societies they build and their interactions with others." (Page 698-699). Her sense of history seeks a resplendent summation in the faith, "I have all my life spoken and written in favour of a democratic, secular society and preferably broadly socialist in structure." (Page 689)
Yet, in spite of the crystal clear map she has drawn, she does not succumb to unreal fancies and indulgent dreams. Her corrective sense of history prompts her to say, "We still have a long way to go to become a practising democracy, despite our claim of adherence to the Constitution." (Page 689).
Dear teacher, dear historian, we remain fellow-travellers on this arduous path.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.