1.
HOW,WHEN & WHERE
How Important are Dates?
Earlier, history was synonymous with dates. History is about finding
out how things were in the past and how things have changed.
Previously, history was an account of battles and big events such
as:
• The year a king was crowned.
• The year he was married and had a child.
• The year he fought a particular war or battle.
• The year he died.
• The year the next ruler succeeded to the throne.
• Now, historians look more towards why and how things happen
and not on when things happened.
Which dates?
• The dates we select become vital because we focus on a
particular set of events as important.
• If the focus of the study changes, a new set of dates will appear
significant.
How do we periodise?
We divide history into different periods in an attempt to capture
the characteristics of a time, its central features as they appear to
us.
British classification of Indian History
In 1817, James Mill, a Scottish economist and political philosopher,
in his book 'A History of British India' divided Indian history into
three periods:
• Hindu
• Muslim
• British
According to Mill, all Asian societies were at a lower level of
civilisation than Europe.
Another Classification of Indian historyHistorians have
usually divided Indian history into ‘ancient’, ‘medieval’, and ‘modern’.
This division too has its problems.
• This periodization 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 was a term used to describe a society where these
features of modern society did not exist.
Many historians refer British rule period as ‘colonial’ because in
this rule:
• People did not have equality, freedom or liberty.
• No economic growth and progress took place
What is colonial?
• The British came to conquer the country and establish their rule,
subjugating local nawabs and rajas.
• British 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
• British rule brought about values and tastes, customs and
practices.
• When the subjugation of one country by another lead to these
kinds of political, economic, social and cultural changes, we
refer to the process as colonisation.
Administration produces records
• The official records of the British administration are one of the
important sources.
• Every instruction, plan, policy decision, agreement, and
investigation was written as the British believed that the act of
writing was important.
• British setup record rooms attached to all administrative
institutions as they felt that all important documents and letters
needed to be carefully preserved.
Surveys become important
• The British believed that a country had to be properly known
before it could be effectively administered, therefore, practice
of surveying became common under the colonial administration.
• By the early nineteenth century, detailed surveys were being
carried out to map the entire country.
• In the villages, revenue surveys were conducted to know the
topography, the soil quality, the flora, the fauna, the local
histories, and the cropping pattern.
• From the end of the nineteenth century, Census operations were
held every ten years which provided detailed records of the
number of people in all the provinces of India, noting
information on castes, religions and occupations.
• Other surveys such as botanical surveys, zoological surveys,
archaeological surveys, anthropological surveys, and forest
surveys also done.
What official records do not tell
• Official
records do not tell what other people in the country felt,
and what lay behind their actions.
• We need to look at these things in unofficial records which are
more difficult to get than official records.
•
Sources of Unofficial records:
• Diaries of people
• Accounts of pilgrims and travelers
• Autobiographies of important personalities
• Popular booklets in the local bazaars
• Newspapers
• Written ideas of Leaders and reformers
• Written records of poets and novelists.
Limitation of Unofficial records
• They were produced by those who were literate.
• From there, we can't understand how history was experienced
and lived by the tribals and the peasants, the workers in the
mines, or the poor on the streets.
