BY DR ABDUL AHAD
As against these constructs, the Capitalist view of history is based on acquisitive efforts of workforce and employers who follow their own self interest while pursuing their respective goals of earning wages and making profits. Through the unending pursuit of their own benefits, they replace one epoch with another to ensure that the modern economy strikes its roots in the society with all its inbuilt institutions and corporations and attendant disparities between the workers and employers. The health and prosperity of the new system, controlled by private owners for profit generated by the exploitation of the workforce, depends on the market forces/ the law of supply and demand which also determines the prices of goods. The untiring endeavours of the workmen and the huge investments made by the capatalists benefit the whole society which by and large recognizes the inequality between the two on the belief that the capatalists are divinely ordained to be wealthy, talented, meritorious and virtuous than their employees. This attitude becomes a cause of annoyance and loud protestations of the workforce.
Then there is Subaltern school of history that is more interested in exploring the position and role of common masses: peasants, artisans, handicraftsmen and ordinary men and women who constitute the bulk of society and are exploited for no fault of theirs. Deprived of benefits of social living, justice and equality and excluded from the socio- economic institutions of society, these common masses are always clouded by gloom and despair and their voice goes unheeded and is often lost in wilderness. Seemingly on the left, this chool of thought is opposed to the Marxian interpretation of history that remains focused on the elite consciousness which in turn inspires the masses for their protests against their colonizers.
In all these cases History draws, thus, a clear line of demarcation between right and wrong, virtue and evil, moral and immoral, good and bad and beauty and ugliness. It shows how the historical forces operate to motivate the human behaviour of mutual interdependence to integrate people together for common good. It teaches us why and when these forces instigate people to disintegrate themselves and fall apart on the basis of religion, language, race or culture, embroiling them, thus, in violent communal skirmishes, riots and bloodshed.
It becomes quite clear now that history is indisputably an ocean without shores which absorbs and accommodates all streams, rivers and their tributaries in its vast and deep waters to shape ultimately a seamless fusion of knowledge, wisdom and experiences. It is essentially and inherently a multidisciplinary subject that accumulates enormous materials relating to different epochs and aspects of life to make a huge repository of knowledge. It explores societal issues through multiple perspectives and interdisciplinary approach, and always remains on look out for collecting, after every event/episode, food for its thought to reflect that unequivocally for our good. It inspires other disciplines, like philosophy, anthropology, science, arts, literature etc to have their separate histories whose compilations involve subject-specific and history-based methodology.
The wisdom so accumulated by history reaches us via the monumental works which historians compile after a painstaking research and thorough analysis of the data they collect from a variety of sources such as archives, archaeology, museums, architecture, artifacts, handwritten manuscripts, folklore, diaries, letters, and other primary and tertiary sources. These works are real sources of truthful historical Knowledge as they are shaped by independent, impartial, apolitical and non-commissioned historians. They reaches us through the objective channels of informations and publications rather than that of propaganda, and Twitter and WhatsApp Universities.
Objective historians take full and final responsibility of acting as impartial intermediaries between history and people (readers). Through their comprehensive nonpartisan works, they enter into a dialogue with us to clarify our understanding, and remove our doubts if we have any regarding any historic episode, event, thought or personality. They constitute an unshakable bridge between us and our predecessors, between our past and present, and between two distinct realms of our lived and living lives and, thereby, provide us with a vital link, passage/pathway that facilitates our journey to our future. The feedback they supply is used to improve societal conditions and rectify wrongs if any, enabling us, thus, to repeat not what have remained the cause of our ancestor’s angst.
Let us now turn to another important question. Does history tend to repeat itself?
Despite not being an organic and thinking specie, history works like a robot in the hands of nature and obeys it actively to carry its commands, and, thereby, tends to repeat itself. Whatever nature wants it to repeat, it does so obediently. Without any reservation or hesitation it repeats natural clamities like volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, pandemics, floods, fires occasionally with same speed, energy, ferocity and magnitude as it did in the past, and brings colossal devastation in their wake. Man-made calamities too repeat but with more severity than before. The invention of gun powder, and the advanced technology and science and nuclear weaponry have given altogether a new dimension and colour to wars, making them more dangerous than before. But the underlying cause of the wars has remained unchanged and is almost the same as it was in the past, especially the same passion and same lust for power, territories, economic gains etc. Their consequences are increasingly identical to earlier ones and are likely to happen similarly in the future as well. We are not far too far to press the nuclear button of third World War with the consequences of total devastation because the historic recurrence of striking similarities are bound to happen in the future. The study of the past and the present becomes, thus, very important to understand that we live by same desires, same feelings and same aspirations as our ancestors . It enables us to forsee what is likely to happen in future not in linear terms but as a terrible repetitive process and sameness.
Dr. Ahad is a historian and author
