How relevant is History?

 

We all read history in our school days. Why do we have to study history. Of what use is it? Are historians heavily paid chaps ? If so do they earn more than software geeks? Science understandably gives food these days ., so does commerce. Lawyers make a living out of every cat fight in the society, with every broken bone of people at large, a doctor builds his mansions, with ever increasing greed and consumerism engineers have  a field day. Ah playing cricket is profitable too.

But historian ………..

Why at all history?

Society as always consists of many strata of people . some wise ,some mediocre some brawny ,some lazy, some utterly foolish. Later being the majority. No society can boast of peaceful existence ever and ever and ever after. Problems arise everyday if not from wise than definitely from the majority , more due to ignorance..when faced with problem , wise try to find the solution for it. The first step in troubleshooting is :

have we faced this kind of problem before? If yes then how was it solved.

If no, circumstances leading to this problem ;have they occurred earlier? If yes what measures were taken to contain those circumstances?

If no, have wise in the past predicted such events, if yes what did they foretell about the solution.

If no , then who is the most expert on the subject : problems of the world ? Call him and assign him the job of finding solutions.

 

For most of the part answer will be yes, because it is history which keeps record of the events and ready to point out everything about the problems we face today.

If history of a subject is known then its evolution to the present can be analysed to predict the future. It is precisely the success of this procedure that leads to successful troubleshooting.

So in whatever field you are , if you need to be on the forefront , then you must be aware of the history of your subject thoroughly well.

 

History gives rise to legacy. If legacy is missing the progress is standstill. Without legacy , you will always depend on foreign legacy to sustain your growth and stability. Thus you will ever remain slave to the growing alien legacy.

 

To create your own legacy, you should be able to  relate to a powerful history. This creates  a sense of pride . In turn more and more people take pride in your pride. Thus a legacy is created.

 

History that is taught to us is alien , we cannot relate to it ,feeling proud is fetish.

But traditional history is full of pride . When my father said, my lineage goes back to 40 lakh years , I take pride in it. I have a culture of paying tribute to my seers in the lineage whose names we can take in seriatim. I have sense of belonging when history shows the names of my ancestors in the past . I respect my forefathers .

 

Darwin wants us to believe our forefathers were apes , I can rebuke it , nowhere apes  were known to father a human in the history of mankind.

is it not akin to disrespecting  our lineage.

Darwin might have said this, in utter contempt to his lineage. Subsequently it reduces our faith in our holy books which speaks of lakh of years of civilization. This history is irrelevant.

 Archaeologists say they confirm on the basis of artefacts, but do artefacts tell about a civilization.

Every 100 years a village gets transformed into a city and a capital gathers dust as a common dwelling hutments with remnants of just recent past.

A rich man out of contempt to a king, mints his own  face on a few coins , throws them away . Few centuries later an archaeologist finds them and argues the man having face on the coins , was the king of those times . Is it believable?.

Mohenjo daro city was found? Did no city before that or after that built there . If so did they not overlap. Will my house today get buried as it is and stay for centuries, with no furniture to be found and with no TV will it be possible to say our era was the most boring, no wealth ,only ceramic tiles, no entertainment and no sanitation , people had to clean their own …. Because each had their own toilet.

All this seems irrelevant imaginations.

 

Only valid history gives correct interpretations, Right guidance and future progress.

 

Manu says people should always try to imbibe teachings of history and refrain from acting similarly like great people in History. So history is relevant only for learnings not for adherence. You should always respect your father Like RAM ,but do not go to Jungle , learn not to gamble but not put your wife on stake. Learn not to lie but don’t act like Harishchandra in giving up his family.  Society moves on , hence act according to times and place. Desh kala paristithy anukoola vartanam.

srikrishnarpanmastu