Know thy History

In India history as a discipline has been a much maligned subject. Just need to look at the controversy each version of the NCERT history texts generate. This does not happen with any other discipline. But as a normal interest area of a student, the importance of history is declining. it is even losing favour with potential Civil Services candidates. I think it would be a sad day for us when our civil servants are not well read and not well read into our history. Among the civil servants especially those who rise high to determine local policies and are responsible for security some books which are quite immortal much be read and updated. I was for example told by a senior civil servant of kerala cadre that William Logan's Malabar Manual written in the 19th century was the most helpful book he ever read as a non Malayali officer of Kerala cadre. He in fact has committed the book to memory. it helped that he was interested in reading as a Engligh literature student and as a polyglot. another important sets of books were the District Gazette series. I have read most of them pertaining to Bihar and Bengal and though written in the 19th century and some of them shoddily updated in the 1970s, they are a wealth of information for the educated district officer. As are the Final Report on Survey and Settlement operations of each district [there would be one for each british district]. As opposed to Col Todd's romaticised Annals of Rajasthan or numberous British translations of Persian and Sanskrit texts, the works that i mention are based on field surveys and meeting with real people and what they thought of themselves and others in thier locality. Also, a must read are the decennial census reports starting in Bengal from 1872 and appearing regularly for each province from 1891 up to today. They are literally invaluable in understanding local language, customs etc. I wonder how many of our civil servants would have read any of these. It does not really help especially since most of our civil servants have little or no training in social sciences [they are mainly engineers and management students or worse still doctors].

To the senior policy makers given the political situation in the country I take the liberty of suggesting an essential reading: William Hunter's "Indian Mussalmans". Published in 1882, less than 30 years after the first "Indian War of Independence " this book is a masterpiece. Hunter was probably the first one to envision that from the Northwest frontier provice [starting in what is now Afghanistan] to the gangetic delta in what is now Bangladesh, there was a continuous tract running through punjab, united provinces {UP}, Bihar and Bengal dominated by the Muslims whose social needs, needs to address their grievances were different as were there responses to the reforming influences of the British rule. Juxtapose this area on a current map of India and you would begin to realise the importance of this book.

Another set of books came out from the mid 20th century till recently. These set of books spoke about civil disturbances, popular movements, millennium movements etc. in a geographical congruous area forming a necklace from southern bengal bihar, chattisgarh, madhya pradesh, andhra pradesh, maharashtra and western parts of Gujarat. Plot this area on the map of India. You will not miss to note two things: a) the area is mostly dominated by "adivasis" b) this is a the now dreaded naxalite belt".

Who says you dont learn from history? it all depends on whether you want to learn anything from it.

Cheers,