The Study of History: The Futile Search for Heroes and Villains

Before we dwell into the theme central to our title, I wish to digress and focus on a slightly different but relevant topic, cognitive sciences. One of the most intriguing books I read in the recent past was “The Case Against Reality” by Donald D. Hoffman, Professor of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. In his book, he makes a compelling case to argue that we are incapable of seeing reality objectively and instead we perceive a version of reality, or a part of reality, relevant to our evolutionary objectives and instincts. The language of this perception comprises of space, time, texture, taste, odor, etc., which fails to describe reality when there is no perceiver.

Of relevance for today’s topic is the reference to the delayed-choice experiment, which suggests that depending upon the choice the observer makes to measure or trace the path of a photon from a distance quasar, the very story and journey of the photon changes. The same photon could, thus, have two different histories attached to it, simply based on the point of view of the observer and the story teller. In other words, as conscious perceivers, we have the means to reach back in time and distance to re-write history. Forgive the lack of accuracy in capturing the science. This is not my area of expertise. Rather than defending the scientific merits of what I have understood, I wish to dwell more into what this understanding means for the post on history.

I begin the specific discussion on today’s topic with two illustrations from History- Gandhi and Tippu Sultan.

• Gandhi, a prolific writer, leader and speaker, one who fought and won an assymetric war for freedom against militarily superior enemy. His celibacy experiments with his niece, hardly inspired any suspicion as to his character back in his time and certainly did not come in the way of him being declared as a father of the nation. Yet, when the morals of Indian society evolved to embrace the viciousness of child marriage and sexual relations with a child and the power dynamics that vitiate informed consent, Gandhi testing the limits of his celibacy by sleeping in the nude with his niece, presents to us, a more complex character of study.

• Tippu Sultan and his father, Hyder Ali, represented a very formidable, well organized and concerted armed defense against the might of the British Empire. Hyder Ali, had the good sense to leverage political faultlines in Europe, specifically Anglo-French rivalries, to partner with his French Allies to defeat the English and in one instance, almost decisively. Bengaluru, specifically the Hindus who perform the Karaga ceremony, remember Hyder Alia as a noble and generous patron and credit him for fortifying the city and creating the Lal Bagh. Tippu while accused of strategic indecisiveness, kept up a spirited fight against the British. Yet, equally true, is the atrocities of Tippu Sultan against the Coorgis, the Melkote Iyengars and the Christians of Mangalore. If you belong to these communities or relate even to them, then Tippu Sultan exists as a Tyrant. But if you are sensitive to his words of sympathy to the seer of the Sringeri Muttha, following the Maratha onslaught against it, he is a defender of the pious.

From these examples, what emerges is that ?every action of historical characters worthy of study, are ultimately the study of just two things, the context and the circumstances, which then guide us towards a better understanding of the intent and motives of the subjects of our historical study. Context and circumstances are gathered, by several factors, two of the principal ones being the following,

• Time: When time variables change, the history changes. Between 2001-2004, history tells us that the USA won the war on terror in Afghanistan. Expand the field of vision from 2001 to 2024, the history changes to “USA invaded Afghanistan and after a bloody war that ran for almost two decades, they were beaten by the Taliban”. Between 1600 and 1947, history tells us that the British ruled over India and left us worse off. Cut ahead to 2024, an Indian origin Prime Minister is the executive head of the United Kingdom.

• Space: Similarly, when the field of vision of the world around a historical character zooms out, a wider geographical picture emerges. Portuguese atrocities in its Indian colonies, can in turn be traced back to the fall of Byzantine Constantinople to the Islamic Turks. Cornwallis’ dogged determination to win the battles in India, goes back to his defeat at the hands of the American Freedom Fighters. Aurangzeb’s ascendancy to the throne over his more tolerant brother, Dara Shikoh, resulted in a stronger Mughal government, which probably deferred the pillaging ambitions of the British. However, this respite came at the cost of the tragedies inflicted on the Hindus and Hindu Temples. Tippu Sultan’s empathy towards the Sringeri Muttha, following the Maratha strikes had perhaps, as much to do with the Marathas being his enemy and being across the border, as much as it had to do with his personal sentiments towards the his holiness, the seer of the Sringeri Muttha.

Thus, every character of history simply is a variable in an equation, influenced by the volatilities of time and the events, elsewhere in space. As variables, these characters in the historical equation of how the world came to be what it is today, keep shifting roles from being protagonists to antagonists. Thus, if one has to study history, one has to make peace with the fact that history is ultimately boring, for it lacks the flair of a story with a protagonist and an antagonist embroiled in a war of good over evil. Rather the study of history reveals to us, not the full truth, but only the story of the one observing it, the sources that the said observer studies, the comparison of those sources with other sources and the opinion of other observers, to ultimately present the many different points of view, that do not shape history but our perception of it.

The objective of historical study is not to judge the historical characters for their moral integrity or bankruptcy. Rather, it is to simply arrive at an unemotional understanding of how the world, with its many idiosyncrasies, came to be. Unfortunately, we are who we are as a result of the good, the bad and the ugly. A true historian can ultimately recognise that as much murder and cruelty as Hitler perpetrated, the tragedy inspired the universal declaration of human rights. She knows that the Americans who fought for the dignity of the “undesirables” against Hitler, were at peace in dropping the atomic bomb on Japan and not Germany, because the caucasian American leadership perceived the asiatic Japanese as sub human. Historians do not have the luxury of living in a world of good and evil, nor should we impose that burden on them. For if they were to engage in the search for heroes and villains in our past, they are likely to be left disappointed with what their findings will be.