The History Project

When I was in school, one of my least favorite subjects was history. Text books full of events, dates, figures, narratives; teachers with nothing to offer in addition to the text, their primary function being reading the textbook out loud as a way of explanation- the subject sucked the joy out of life. I couldn't understand the point of it and eventually I came to the conclusion that the only reason why society would expect its children to learn up these details was because it was afraid everything would be forgotten. An apocalyptic scenario presented itself in my head. What if all the books were destroyed? What if all the Elders were killed? What would happen to our past? And so, I thought, everything else in the world must became secondary to collective memory. And a collective memory so perfect, that the same sentences rang in everyone's heads year after year, each having mugged up the same books.

I realize now that it is not simply a fear of forgetting that motivates historical study. And also that the kind of histories we studied in school were biased, simplistic and deeply problematic. We grew up believing in the sanctity of the historical narratives provided to us and the validity of the prejudices that came with them. No one told us histories are subjective and incomplete. No one told us all of us were historians too. The fear of being overwritten necessitated the creation of a hegemonic view of the past.

No teacher ever attempted to question the biases of the text. Or to add stories that might not have been inked. Not until Chitra Maam, in class 11, crossed out, slashed, skipped, scowled over, and over wrote the text book. She never taught from one book. She even refused to teach from the prescribed textbook one year for its blatantly obvious political and religious prejudices. She made us contextualize each other as well as rulers from the distant past. We played characters, sang songs, listened to music from different parts of the world, fought historical and contemporary battles verbally and learnt to see reality as a fuzzy, messed up construction.

I remember becoming aware of history as a personal story in her classes, and not something out there, unapproachable and unconnected to my existence. I became aware of my position as both subject of history as well as its writer. It takes one History Project to change your perspective of the world around you; especially from a teacher who always remained a student of history herself.