History that matters

The debate regarding teaching of history in schools must go beyond what is included and what is omitted from history. More relevant topics for debates are ‘why teach history?”; ‘how to teach history?’ Answering these would lead us to answering questions related to which historical content needs to be part of school syllabus.

To begin with the question ‘why teach history?’?The most predominant reason is to learn from history. Those who fail to understand their past may well be condemned to repeat the mistakes of their past. Our past shaped our present and our present shapes our future. History influences the nation’s ethos.?It becomes important therefore that if we want to prepare children to become responsible citizens, they must understand their collective past.??

That brings us to the second question ‘how to teach history?’

To learn from history, we need to be critical thinkers. This requires us to teach history by developing children’s critical thinking competencies. It means going beyond memorising facts, dates, and events, it means helping children understand how we evolved as a society as a nation.

The approach towards history teaching would require that we give children activities and projects where they develop a scientific outlook towards historical events. They get to explore and analyse historical data from scientifically verified sources, from documents and archaeological remnants. They get to assess the impact of the events as they unfolded, and list out the lessons that the historical events throw up. It means a more dynamic curriculum and an equally dynamic pedagogy.

If history is approached with a scientific outlook, where historical facts, data and archaeological findings are used, the question of what to teach becomes irrelevant, what becomes relevant is what are the lessons we want to learn from our history. Do we want to repeat the mistakes of the past, or do we want to learn from the glorious events of the past? Do we evolve as a nation or do we limit ourselves by only focusing on the glories of the past?

If we choose to learn from our past, we will learn to be more empathetic, we will be more critical of social, cultural, or religious norms that are detrimental for us. As a nation we will not repeat the mistakes of the past such as our inability to stave off invaders; we will also gain from our collective successes as a nation such as our ability to use invasions to enrich our Indian ethos rather than kill it.

History is fascinating, why not make teaching and learning of history equally fascinating.

That finally brings us to the question of ‘what to teach in history?’

Indian history is vast, fascinating, and complex due to the variety of regional histories across the landmass that has now evolved as the “India” as we know it.

Therefore, if we must understand India today, we must also understand all that makes us Indians, our past, our history.

In primary grades, this may include individual family histories, community histories, local histories, state histories. At upper grades it may include understanding ancient Indian history, early Medieval history, the subsequent Mughal history and the advent of the British and the post-colonial history. To leave out any part would mean to obliterate a complete understanding of how we evolved as a nation.

We are a nation of multiple identities and cultures and religions and our history tells us why and how we came to be thus.

If we can understand our history, we learn to appreciate our Hindu identities, our Muslim identities, our Sikh identities, our Buddhist identities, our Christian identities, our Zoroastrian identities among our many other identities.

Therefore, it is crucial that we do not obliterate anything from the past. Know that there were Muslim invaders who looted, desecrated, and destroyed Hindu temples, but also learn to empathise and be inclusive towards other cultures, because we ourselves were victims at some point in history.

Omitting Moghul history will not help us understand what happened to the dynasty it replaced and why. Nor would we understand how the British displaced the last Moghul emperor, how and why. We will not appreciate the golden period of the Hindu kingdoms of early Medieval India, nor the beauty of the temples that still stand. We will not appreciate the existence of the Qutub Minar, the tower that stands as a symbol of Hindu-Muslim architectural blends, nor would we be able to understand why the iron pillar standing next to it bears Sanskrit inscriptions in Brahmi script of 4th century AD.

History is fascinating, let us make teaching and learning of history equally fascinating.?