Sunday 15 December 2024
Islamabad (News International/ Pakistan News - 15th December, 2024 ) Every nation preserves old periods and events by writing the history of its past. But historiography is controlled by the ruling class, which uses its narrative for its own fame and interests. The common people are not included in this historiography.
When European countries conquered the countries of Asia and Africa, one of the arguments they gave to justify these attacks was that since these countries were culturally backward, they should be civilized according to European standards.
The second argument was that these countries had forgotten their civilization. Their state institutions were plagued by corruption and bribery.
Therefore, it is the duty of European nations to bring them out of poverty and cleanse them of corruption. So that they are able to use their resources. The third argument was that these nations have no history and when a nation forgets or loses its history, not only does its identity disappear but also the capital of its past is lost and it has no means to be proud of its existence.
When the German philosopher Hegel gave lectures on the philosophy of history at the University of Berlin, he said about India that it has no history. Because according to him, the change of ruling dynasties is not an important event in history because the rulers change but the system of government remains intact. Therefore, according to his argument, the history of India keeps revolving in a cycle and events keep repeating themselves.
The same idea about history was also held by Hindu thinkers, due to which they did not write history and did not attach much importance to historical events. Regarding Africa, Hegel said that it is a dark continent. The same argument was also repeated by the British historian Trevor Roper. The darkness of the African continent ended when Europeans started the slave trade here and plundered the resources of Africa.
Due to these interests, the tribes of Africa discovered their resources and the languages spoken in them.
According to Hegel, the historical process plays an important role in nations. It develops civilization and civilization. It promotes harmony and encourages the exploration of the geography of the world. Therefore, according to Hegel, God's plans are fulfilled through historical process.
European nations are at the forefront of fulfilling this plan, while the countries of Asia and Africa have become degenerate. Therefore, they do not have the ability, intelligence and energy to get rid of outdated traditions and form a modern civilization.
The East India Company started writing its history to understand India. The first historian who wrote the History of British India was an employee of the company in London and had not yet come to India.
His name was James Mill. In his book, he severely criticized Hinduism and their civilization. While in comparison, his opinion about the Mughal era is positive. Because this history was written from the company's point of view. Therefore, it is argued that the people of India are not capable of governing themselves. Due to caste, their society is divided into many castes.
Therefore, they are defeated by every invader and the invader becomes the winner and rules over them. According to this argument, the East India Company also has the right to rule as the winner. Apart from this, the high officials of the East India Company were also involved in writing the history. They are called administrative historians. One of them was Sir John Malcolm and the other was Montstuart Elphinstone.
They also wrote the history of India. Since both of them were high officials of the company in India. Therefore, their histories include their own experiences and observations along with the events.
These early histories were taught to the employees of the East India Company. Therefore, they saw the society of India in the light of these ideas.
When the Indian Civil Service examinations started, these books were part of the syllabus. So the company officials who came to India had a racial and cultural bias towards India in their minds. The most important thing was that when the people of India were deprived of history, they had no ideology to resist. The company employees were made very empowered. Due to which they considered Indians inferior. For example, the English accused was tried in the court of the English magistrate. There was a separate jail for English criminals. The English who were married used to send their children to England for education and training. They used to have their own clubs, in which Indians were not allowed to enter.
They did not invite Indians to their homes and gatherings and did not want their women to dance in front of Indians.
After this, many changes took place in historiography. When India came under the British Crown from the company's rule, there was also a change in historiography. When the freedom movement started in India, Indian historians, inspired by nationalism, rediscovered their ancient past, middle ages and present times by writing history, and the historians of the nation, which had been deprived of history until now, increased its historical capital by increasing it immensely.
The tragedy is that after the partition, when the history of Pakistan became ideological, there was no room for new ideas in it. Therefore, the subject of history in Pakistan has become uninteresting and has lost its credibility.
Note: The opinion expressed in any blog, comment or column of DW Urdu is the personal opinion of the author, with which DW does not necessarily agree.
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