the present volume on Themes and Individuals in History reflects much of T this concern of Marc Bloch. The articles in the collection have been organised in three sections: Themes in History, Individuals and the Nation, and Individuals and History. In the recent times, reading, writing, teaching and research in history have changed significantly. The inclination to adopt an inter-disciplinary approach to studying the past, the intellectual impact of post-modernism, a general lack of interest in the past, the popularisation of a tendency to view the past more as a frozen heritage than as a dynamic discipline, the impact of information technology and the emergence of super-specialisation in the domain of historical research have all caused a fragmentation of the notion of time, space and chronology.
The practice of history, which necessarily tries to show the inter-connectedness of historical processes from the pre-modern to the modern and the contemporary, has been further challenged with the introduction of semesters and module-based teaching at the graduate and post-graduate levels, which expose the students to only fragments of the past. Omissions and selections in such exercises often cause a distorted view of the past. In such circumstances, history as a discipline is constantly trying to re-invent itself to retain a holistic sense of the past, with inter-connected chronological narratives tracing the continuities and changes in the historical processes.
In such circumstances a thematic approach to history writing is increasingly gaining ground, especially in addressing many issues which are shaping our contemporary times. The four essays in the volume's first section, Themes in History', deals with four such themes: religious syncretism based on pluralistic experiences, labour and labour movements, origins of technical education as part of the modernising process, and vigilantism in an era of proliferating crime, violence and inter and intrastate terrorism. An in-depth study of these themes with historical hindsight brings new dimensions to the standard narratives of history, and lends it agency, rendering it capable of influencing the present and the future.
In conventional histography the role of the individual is often underplayed to emphasise the significance of the collective in the making and unmaking of history. Biographies and life-story studies are generally delegated to the domain of literature with its strong emphasis on the "personal", the 'subjective and the 'atypical". But recent researches have opened up new ways of reassessing the role of individuals in history, by demonstrating either their power of intellectual intervention, or their ability to mobilise people through their creative output and political activities. Five articles in the second section entitled 'Individuals and the Nation' bear testimony to this trend, and three articles in the last section on Individuals in History outline three different ways of using the lives of individuals to understand historical processes and link them with contemporary concerns. They throw light on the 'particular' and the 'atypical to illuminate the general and the mainstream. In particular, the article by Hari Vasudevan uses the life and after-life of an individual to raise a fundamental issue about the philosophy and politics of history, and reasserts that history writing and teaching influence the present as much as they mould the future. His article can be taken as a refutation of the claim that bygones are bygones.
Amit Dey's essay on "Sufism and Society in Medieval Indu' - the first article in the first section of the volume-deals with an important aspect of India's syncretic and pluralistic culture. The author argues that in a country like India, where religion continues to play an important role in shaping the consciousness of its people, an engagement with religion and the religiosity of the Indian people should draw the attention of the academic community. By focussing on the life and teachings of Sufi saints in medieval India, he delves into the deep spiritual, syncretic and popular elements in Sufism. He uses many unconventional sources like the life-stones of the Sufis, and their lyrical compositions, songs, music and other forms of cultural expressions, to understand their mystical quest. The physical manifestations of such religiosity in the architecture of the Dargus, Khankas, and Pir Sthaes have also been highlighted in the essay. Dey argues that premised upon an intermingling of faith, cultural exchange and spiritual quest, the Sufi movement dissolved the boundaries between the 'elite' and the 'popular' to embrace a wider domain of human interaction, and contributed to the making of the idea of India.
Hindu (935)
Agriculture (118)
Ancient (1086)
Archaeology (753)
Architecture (563)
Art & Culture (910)
Biography (702)
Buddhist (544)
Cookery (167)
Emperor & Queen (565)
Islam (242)
Jainism (307)
Literary (896)
Mahatma Gandhi (372)
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