Nature and Scope of History What is History? History is as

Nature and Scope of History

What is History? History is as historians see it. History has been seen by different historians in different ways. For one thing, a historian, no matter how objective he would like to be, can only base his writings on the material available to him at a particular time, he may accept or reject the evidence before him or give his own interpretation to events but at least he must have his facts right. But what if the ‘facts’ themselves are open to question? Besides, what exactly is the role of the historian; merely to tell the story or to interpret it to the best of his abilities? And where is he to draw the line between recounting events and interpreting them?

Admittedly, writing history is a hazardous occupation. The historian is always liable to the charge that his writing has been based on inconclusive evidence or that it has been loaded in favour of one or other party.

Different Concepts and Definitions of History

There is no universally agreed definition of history. It has been defined differently by different scholars. Following definitions indicate the meaning and scope of history. History is the transmission of our mental, moral, technical and aesthetic heritage as fully as possible, to as many as possible, for the enlargement of man’s understanding, control, embellishment and enjoyment of life… Ariel and Will Durant. History is the record of what one age finds worthy of note in another…

Burckhardt. History is a continuous process of interaction between the historian and his facts, and unending dialogue between the present and the past… Carr, E.H.

History as past politics… Freeman. History is the record of the life of societies of man, of the changes which those societies have gone through, of the ideas which have determined the action of those societies, and the material conditions which have helped or hindered their development… Charles Fifth.

Historical records are a law of right or wrong… Freud. If time were to stand still, history would soon cease, once the existing evidence was fully sifted… Galbraith, V.H. History is a scientific study and record of our complete past… Ghose.

History of all hitherto existing societies is a history of Class Struggle…

Hegel. History is a serious attempt to ascertain the severest truth as to the past and set it forth without fear or favour… Henry C. Lea (An American Historian).

History is the record of human society, a world civilization, of the changes that take place in the nature of that society, such as savagery, sociality and group solidarity, of revolutions and uprisings by one set of people against another, with the resulting kingdoms and states, with their various ranks, of the different activities and occupations of men, whether for gain ing their livelihood or in the various sciences and crafts, and in general of all transformations that society undergoes by its very nature… Ibn Khildun (1379).

History, in its broadest sense, is everything that ever happened… Johnson.

History is a veritable mine of life experiences and the youth of today studies history so that he may profit by the experiences of the race… Jones. What men have done and said and, above all, what they have thought that is History… Maitland.

History is the science of men in time… Marc Bloch.

Sacrilege and the mocking of false goods are the historian’s first duty. his indispensable instrument for reestablishing the truth… Michalet (French Historian).

The course of life is like the sea, men come and go, tides rise and fall, and that is all of history… Miller.

In a wider sense, history comprehends all knowledge, the urge which leads to philosophical speculation or scientific discovery being as much a part of human record as the creation of an empire. But in practice the scope of history is confined to political events, social and economic life and culture… Mujeeb, M.

To be a history in the true sense of the word, the work must be the story of the people inhabiting a country. It must be a record of their life from age to age, presented through the life and achievements of men whose exploits become the beacon lights of tradition… Munshi, K.M.

History is a fable agreed upon… Napoleon. History is the scientific study of past happenings in all their aspects, in the life of a social group, in the light of present happenings… NCERT, Erfective Teaching of History.

History is not just a record of the doings of big men, of kings and emperors and the like. If it were so, history might as well shut up show now; for kings and emperors have almost ceased to strut about the world’s stage. But the really great men and women do not, of course, require thrones or crowns or jewels, or titles to show them off… Real history should deal, not with a few individuals here and there but with the people who make up a nation, who work and by their labour produce the necessaries and luxuries of life, and who in a thousand different ways act and react on each other. Such a story of man would really be a fascinating story. It would be the story of man’s struggle through the ages against nature and the elements, against wild beasts and the jungle and some of his own kind who have tried to keep him down and to exploit him for their own benefit… Nehru.

Itihasa means past events accompanied by or arranged in the form of stories (Katharupam) and conveying instruction in Dharma (Morals), Artha (Wealth), Kama (Desire) and Moksha (Salvation)… Philips, C.H. History is the memory of a nation or a race… Radhakrishnan.

History is a connected account of the course of events and the progress of ideas… Rapson. This human world permeated with meaning is the subject matter of hu man studies. In its temporal extension it is the subject matter of history… Rickman.

The value and the interest of history depend largely on the degree in which the present is illuminated by the past… Smith, V.S.

There is only one history-The History of Man… Tagore. History is not simply information regarding the affairs of kings who have passed away, but is a science which expands the intellect and furnishes the wise with examples… Tarikh Daudi.

History is an investigation into human affairs on the move… Toynbee. I wish to write a history not of kings and wars, but of society, and to ascertain how men lived in the interior of their families, and what were the arts which they commonly cultivated… My object is the history of the human mind, and not a mere detail of petty facts, nor am I concerned with the history of great lords… but I want to know what were the steps by which men passed from barbarism to civilization… Voltaire.

Human history is in essence a history of ideas… Wells, H.G. Broad Definition of History. Johnson has stated that, “History, in its broadest sense, is everything that ever happened… history, in the usual acceptance of the term means history of man. The materials to be studied are the traces left by his existence in the world, the present ideals, present social customs and institutions, language, literature, material, products of human industry, physical man himself, the physical remains of man, his thoughts, feeling and action.”

History is concerned with the description of the ways in which the people lived and the vast movements which had a lasting impact on the minds of the masses. The plough and the loom of the common man are as important as the crown and the throne. History is not the story of the dazzling conquerors, devastating battles, political rivalries and thrilling exploits. A descriptive and interpretative study of the past makes us aware of the true nature of the present. A study of history of the past warns man of his follies and crimes and encourages him to draw sustenance from the inexhaustible legacy that the saints, sages, statesmen, scientists, artists, poets, musicians and philosophers have left behind. History is the foundation on which the unity of mankind has to be patiently built up through mutual respect for the varied cultures.

Nature and Characteristics of the Study of History To make our concept of history more definite, we may say, that a study to be termed History should have the following characteristics:

(a) It is a study of the past happenings in the life of a social group, based on objective evidence as far as possible. Every precaution should be taken to base the data on original sources and make them free from subjective interpretation. In fact the happenings should not be placed before the readers without some indication of the amount of faith which may be placed on their authenticity.

(b) These happenings should cover aspects of the life of the social group and need not ordinarily give predominance to any one aspect of life (e.g. political aspect, which had so long dominated history). This is because all aspects of the life of a social group are closely interrelated.

(c) Every happening in the life of a social group need not be included in the study of history, only those happenings which are relevant to the under standing of its present life (e.g. those happenings which are casually related to the present) may be considered as the subject-matter for history. It may be noted that the present has evolved out of the past and the business of history is to study this evolution. An understanding of this principle should enable one to know which of the past happenings are important for history. and which are not.

(d) Necessarily the selected happenings should not merely be narrated; the causal relationships between them should be properly unearthed. The tracing of these relationships should lead to the development of general laws which should be able to reveal the real nature of the happenings. In trying to develop such general laws, comparison and contrast with the casual relationships existing among similar happenings in other social groups may also be made. This should improve the reliability and validity of these laws.

(e) The development of general laws regulating historical happenings may not be considered enough; attempts have to be made to predict future happenings on the basis of the laws.

History of History

In the middle ages history was a handmaid of theology. The historians were primarily interested in discovering and explaining the Divine Plan in history.

In the 17th century two major influences i.e. a system study based on the examination of historical authorities and the use of nonliterary sources like coins, inscriptions, etc., led to the development of critical history.

In the 19th century we find the impact of scientific principles and methods. The historians were attracted by the prestige of the physical sciences and they wanted to raise history to the level of a science by apply ing scientific procedures.

In the twentieth century, there was a shifting of emphasis from the political to the economic and social aspects. Marx made an important contribution in this respect. History began to be studied from cultural, economic and social aspects alongwith political aspects. Thus history became broad-based. After the Napoleonic Wars, France and Germany introduced modern history in schools. Dr Amold, a great Headmaster at Rugby (1828-42) was perhaps the first to introduce modern history in the curricula of a public school in England. Arnold drew attention in the language of Dean Stanpey’s language, to the historical, political and philosophical value’ not only of writers such as Thucydides and Tacitus but modern historians such as Guizot, Mignet and other French and German writers.

Lord Eldon’s ban imposed in 1805 on modern and commercial subjects in endowed Grammar schools was lifted with the passing of the Grammar School Act in 1840. The Honours School in Law and Modern History was introduced at Oxford in 1852. Bishop Stubbs (1866-84), Freeman (1844-92) and Froude (1892-94) at Oxford and Lord Acton (1895-1902) at Cambridge gave impetus to the study of modern history at the two ancient seats of learning. Dr M.W. Keatings made valuable contribution to the teaching of history at the middle school by writing a textbook entitled Studies in the Teaching of History in 1910.

John Dewey of America also did a pioneering work in the field of teaching history. Others to follow Keatings and Dewey were Cadwell Cook, Helen Parkhurst, Happold, Decroly and Cousinet who with their researches brought about a revolution in the methods of teaching history.

Changing and Modern Concepts of History The concept of history has been changing from time to time. From the ancient concept of ‘story telling’ to the modern concept of ‘studying the

growth of societies’ various meanings have been given to the term ‘history.” Herodotus is considered in the West as a pioneer in writing a systematic history. E.H. Carr in his book, What is History mentions, “Herodotus the father of History, defined his purpose in the opening of his work; to preserve a memory of the deeds of the Greeks and the barbarians.”

Drastic changes occurred in the concept of history during the nineteenth century. Henry Johnson observed, “Nineteenth century historians reconstructed so much of the history which earlier historians had written, extended so vastly the boundaries of historical knowledge and changed so radically the general conception of the past that the nineteenth century come to be called the century of history.”

In the broader sense, history considers every action and every thought that man has had since his first appearance and records every significant advance or recession. It attempts to evaluate all the developments in science, in art, in literature, in philosophy, in architecture, in sociology, in politics, in war, in religion and in law. It sketches as complete a picture as possible of everything that has influenced man directly or indirectly concerned with man’s cultural advances and his society as well as with charters, constitute Lions and wars. To make the history complete, the present historian makes use of the work of the ethnologist, the anthropologist, the geographer, the archaeologist, the geologist, the psychologist, the astronomer, the zoologist, the biologist, the chemist, the sociologist, the educationist and the economist.

In the words of R.C. Majumdar and P.N. Chopra, “History is much more than a mere chronicle of events. It should, as far as available data permit, seek to explain or throw some light on the gradual evolution of the characteristics of the society with a view to help solve the problems which it faces today.” Dr J.E. Swain in A History of World Civilization (1981) has observed, “History has become more than war and politics. To make the story complete, the historian of the new school makes use of the work of the ethnologist, the anthropologist, the geographer, the archaeologist, the geologist, the biologist, the chemist, the sociologist, and the economist. He is concerned with man’s cultural advances and his society as well as with charters, constitutions, and wars.”

Dynamic Nature of History

D.D. Kosambi in his preface to The Culture and Civilization of Ancient India in Historical Outline (1981) has laid stress on the dynamic aspect of history in these words, “It is doubtless more important to change history than to write it, just as it would be better to do something about the weather rather than merely talk about it.”

Michael Honeybone in an article “The Nature of History and the National Curriculum’ published in Teaching History (Historical Association, No. 60, July 1990) has observed about the changing nature of history as “Relentlessly, the nature of historical study is changing. There is nothing which can be done about this as building styles change, as artists’ interpretations change, as constitutional government changes, so what people call history is no longer what it was.”

The nature of change has been described as under: Firstly, it describes the reality of people’s lives.

Secondly, this new history describes the perception of people from all layers of society. Thirdly, it moves from people’s individuality into an attempt to describe the culture within which and through which they express themselves.

Main Constituents of the Historical Canvas

These may be listed as under:

1. Political institutions, their growth and decay.

2. Technological breakthroughs and their impact on economical aspects of human life.

3. Consequent economic system, productive and distributive.

4. The interacting cultural groups.

History: Understanding the Past by the Present (Excerpts from Marc Bloch) Misunderstanding of the present is the inevitable consequence of ignorance of the past. But a man may wear himself out just as fruitlessly in seeking to understand the past, if he is totally ignorant of the present.

For here, in the present, is immediately perceptible that vibrance of human life which only a great effort of the imagination can restore to the old texts. I have many times read, and I have often narrated, accounts of wars and battles. Did I truly know, in the full sense of that word, did. I know from within, before I myself had suffered the terrible, sickening reality, what it meant for an army to be encircled, what it meant for a people to meet defeat?… In the last analysis, whether consciously or not, it is always by borrowing from our daily experiences and by shading them, where necessary, with new tints that we derive the elements which help us to restore the past. The very names we use to describe ancient ideas or vanished forms of social organization would be quite meaningless if we had not known living men. The value of these merely instinctive impressions will be increased a hundredfold if they are replaced by ready and critical observation. A great mathematician would not, I suppose, be less great because blind to the world in which he lives. But the scholar who had no inclination to observe the men, the things, or the events around him will perhaps deserve the title, as Pirenne put it, of a useful antiquarian. He would be wise to renounce all claims to that of a historian.

There is, then, just one science of men in time. It requires us to join the study of the dead and of the living. What shall we call it? The ancient name, “history” seemed to me the best. It is the most comprehensive, the least exclusive, the most electric with stirring reminders of a more than age old endeavor. In proposing to extend history right down to the present (contrary to certain prejudices which are not so old as history itself), I have no desire to expand the claims of my own profession. Life is too short, and too vast, to permit even the greatest genius a total experience of humanity. Some men will always specialize in the present, as others do in the Stone Age or in Egyptology. We simply ask both to bear in mind the historical research will tolerate no autarchy. Isolated, each will understand only by halves, even within his own field of study; for the only true history, which can advance only through mutual aid, is universal history.”

Overview of the Changing Concept of History Concept of History in the Beginning: To start with history was defined as everything that ever happened. So every event that ever happened on the face of the earth, be it cultural, economic, political or social was the phenomenon under investigation in history.

History as a Truthful Narration: Herodotus, called the ‘father of history’ included only those events in his book on history, about whose truth he was fully satisfied. He took great pains in sifting truth from the untruth. History Towards a Science: Thucydies, in his history The History of the Peloponnesian War tried to analyse the causes and effects of war-their relationships i.e. he tried to answer the ‘why’ of the events.

Emphasis on the Present: Interrelation of Events: The focus of history now is on the present although its subject-matter belongs mostly to the past. Take for instance, the historical happening-the partition of India. A modern historian would not confine himself to events like the Quit India Movement and Mountbatten as the Governor-General and Viceroy of India. He would go back to the much earlier events beginning with the Muslim rulers. At the same time, a modern historian may also consider many other kinds of happenings such as economic, religious or social etc.

Evaluation and Problems for Discussion

1. “History is no longer a faithful record of names, dates and places but the outcome of certain ideas that operate at a certain time.” Discuss.

2. “History should arouse the imagination of the learner and kindle a desire in him to know further. However, the stress should be on the functional aspect of history.” Discuss the nature and scope of history in the light of this statement.

3. Write a note on the history of history.

4. What imperfections do you find in India’s history? What attempt has been made to remedy them?

5. “The scope of history is wide the theme is the past, present and future of man.” In the light of this statement, discuss the scope of the subject.

6. “The scope of history is vast. It starts with the past, makes present its sheet-anchor and points to the future.” Elucidate.

7. Explain the changing concept of history.

8. “History in no longer the story of the exploits of kings and queens.”

Elucidate the statement and bring out the modern concept of history.