History Writing - historians speak

Howard Zinn, author of People's History of the United States

- a historian should aim for scrupulous accuracy in the facts at his disposal
- but what picture will he construct with these facts – a scenario for peace or war? (Socialist Review May 2001).

 

Zinn laments the narrow set of ideas generated within the cloistered and ideologically constrained environment of higher education. Much research funds today come from corporate sources and rightwing foundations. Would a historian so funded be prepared to analyse and expose the ideological slant expected in the final product? [Using the earlier analogy, the raw material is the facts, the design is the ideology or perspective, the workmanship is the writer's skills with the language.]

E H Carr, What is History (Pelgrave 2001) – Socialist Review (Jan 2002)

When he died in 1982, Carr was among the most important British historians of the 20^th century. His main work was the 14-vol History of Soviet Russia published from 1950 to 1978. Carr sought to confront the British approach to history: empiricism - the collection of facts and disdain for theory. Carr argues that facts are useless unless they lead to increase our understanding – primarily of social change - through generalisation and theory.

Carr says: ‘It does not follow that because a mountain appears to take different shapes from different angles of vision, it has either no objective shape or an infinity of shapes… It does not follow that because interpretation plays a necessary part in establishing the facts of history, one interpretation is good as another.’

Romila Thapar  on the historical method (from essay on Knowledge & Education)
[Frontline Volume 22 - Issue 02, Jan. 15 - 28, 2005

"The historian has to think beyond the surface information. And since it is the function of the historian to try and explain the past, and the study of the past involves not just chronology but other social sciences as well, the historian has to be aware of the theories of explanation, not only in history but also in other social sciences, theories that have a bearing on the historical aspect of the study. Theories do not have to be applied literally, but an awareness of suggested explanations can help in formulating questions. If the purpose of history is to understand the past and attempt to explain it, which is what the contemporary approach to history is all about, then the theories of explanation in other related social sciences - archaeology, linguistics, social anthropology, sociology, economics, for instance - all have a bearing on this understanding. It is the inter-relationship of all these strands that go into the making of a historical generalisation. This is why historical explanations can be and often are, complex."

While some social sciences have become quite technical, using mathematics & statistics, history remains the plaything of anyone and everyone. This is largely because the centrality of what is sometimes termed `historical method' in the profession is not generally discussed in the average history syllabus even at college level, leave alone high school. Likewise science teaching ignores talking about scientific method. The result is that scientific formulations are often repeated in school (and even later) as if they were mantras without going through the process of understanding the pros and cons of how they were arrived at.

Historical method involves the processes of understanding the nature of the data and learning how to analyse it. The data, for example, can be a potsherd, a coin, an inscription or a text. Understanding the first two categories requires a knowledge of the material from which they are made and their functions as an object. The information from the latter two tends to be more abstract. It is not enough to be able to say that the potsherd belongs to the Northern Black Polished Ware variety, or that the coin was issued by Samudragupta, or that the inscription is a document recording the grant of land in Tamil Nadu or that the text, the Ain-i-Akbari, is, among other things, a statement on Mughal revenue administration. Each source carries a further range of information, not always obvious, but evident to the person trained to search for the information. The analysis of the information does not stop at the obvious statement, for the well-trained historian can draw out much more evidence than just the obvious, and seek answers to a further set of questions.

UNESCO History of Africa: Vol 7- Africa under colonial domination 1880-1935 (Uni of California Press 1990)

Preface by Amadou-M M’Bow (former Director-Gen of UNESCO 1974-87)

1. Fro a long time, all kinds of myths and prejudices have concealed the true history of Africa. Africans were regarded as people without a history. Non-African experts argue that without written sources and documents it was impossible to engage in a scientific study of societies. African oral tradition, the collective memory of peoples was rejected as worthless. The only sources outside the continent were used to construct a history – only European modes of production, social relations and political institutions were used as the reference point.

Europeans were unwilling to see Africans as the creators of original cultures. The Sahara was presented as an impenetrable space inhibiting the mingling of different peoples or exchange of goods. Hermetic frontiers were drawn between the civilisations of Ancient Egypt and the cultures of the sub-Saharan peoples. The history of Africa north of the Sahara was more closely linked to Mediterranean developments. With the establishment of the slave trade and colonisation, racial stereotypes were constructed, breeding contempt of Africans and distorting their realities. Africans became a kind of merchandise destined for hard labour.

Africans have long felt the need to re-establish an authentic history of their societies. In preparation for the UNESCO history project, experts from many countries began to lay down the theoretical and methodological basis for the 8-volume history. Documents and sources were widely scattered and UNESCO decided to proceed by stages.

Stage 1 (1965-69) was devoted to gathering documentation and work plan. Operational assignments included campaigns to collect oral traditions, the creation of regional centres for these traditions, the collection of unpublished manuscripts in Arabic and Ajami (African languages in Arabic script), the compilation of archival inventories and the preparation of a Guide to the Sources of the History of Africa, culled from the archives and libraries of Europe. Meetings were organised to discuss questions of methodology and set out a broad plan for the project.

Stage 2 (1969-71) was devoted to shaping the History and linking its different parts. It was decided to present the history in 8 volumes with the principal edition in English, French and Arabic, and translations in various other languages; together with abridged editions for the general public, African and others.

Stage 3 involved actual drafting and publication. It began with the appointment of a 39-member International Scientific Committee (ISC), 2/3^rd African and 1/3^rd non-African which assumes intellectual responsibility for the History.

The method used is interdisciplinary and based on a multi-faceted approach.

Among the sources is
- Archaeology provides many a key to the history of African cultures. Thanks to archaeology, it is now acknowledged that Africa that Africa was probably the cradle of mankind and the scene (Neolithic period) of one of the first technological revolutions in history. Egypt was the seat of one of the most brilliant ancient civilisations in the world.

- Oral tradition has now emerged (after long neglect) as an invaluable instrument for discovering the history of Africa – making it possible to follow the movements of peoples in space and time and to grasp the original features of the values defining the cultures and institutions of the continent.

The ISC shed new light on

1) the slave trade responsible for one of the cruellest mass deportations in the history of mankind. It sapped the African continent of its life-blood while contributing immeasurably to the economic prosperity and expansion of Europe.

2) colonisation with its severe impacts on population, economics, psychology and culture;

3) relations between black Africa and the Arab world; and finally

4) the process of decolonisation and nation-building.

This History calls for a new study of the twofold problem areas of historiography & cultural identity, which are mutually linked. The cultural inheritance of Africa is visible everywhere from the southern US to northern Brazil, across the Caribbean and on the Pacific seaboard.

Indian History developments

From Goa-Res-Net on John Correia Afonso (late Director of the Heras Institute, St X College, Bombay)

The writing of history has been undergoing radical changes away from the dry-as-dust narration of battles and political acts of rulers. Indian history’s scope has been widened to include other disciplines – sociology, economics, mythology, archaeology, anthropology and others.

A noteworthy contributor to the new thinking of Indian history was Ashim Das Gupta, Head of History Dept, Santiniketan. In his book Historical Research in India (1979), Gupta introduced the study of communities in the Indian Ocean into our perspective, declaring that “Indian history has been emancipated from its earlier pre-occupations with politics, and is moving towards exploring the structures within which individuals acted.”

Fr John C-Afonso established the Bombay Local History Society and organised walks to explain the meaning and significance of Bombay’s heritage.