1 How, When and Where - NCERT

1 1 How, When and Where1 How Important are Dates?There was a time when historians werefascinated with dates. There were heateddebates about the dates on which rulerswere crowned or battles were the common-sense notion, history wassynonymous with dates. You may haveheard people say, I find history boringbecause it is all about memorisingdates. Is such a conception true?History is certainly about changesthat occur over time. It is about findingout how things were in the past andhow things have changed. As soon aswe compare the past with the presentwe refer to time, we talk of before and after .Living in the world we do not alwaysask historical questions about what wesee around us. We take things for granted,as if what we see has always been in theworld we inhabit. But most of us have ourmoments of wonder, when we are curious, and we askquestions that actually are historical.

2 Watchingsomeone sip a cup of tea at a roadside tea stall youmay wonder when did people begin to drink tea orcoffee? Looking out of the window of a train you mayask yourself when were railways built and how didpeople travel long distances before the age of railways?Reading the newspaper in the morning you may becurious to know how people got to hear about thingsbefore newspapers began to be 1 Fig. 1 Fig. 1 Fig. 1 Fig. 1 Brahmans offering theShastras to Britannia, frontispieceto the first map produced byJames Rennel, 1782 Rennel was asked by RobertClive to produce maps ofHindustan. An enthusiasticsupporter of british conquest ofIndia, Rennel saw preparationof maps as essential to theprocess of domination. Thepicture here tries to suggest thatIndians willingly gave over theirancient texts to Britannia thesymbol of british power as ifasking her to become theprotector of Indian carefully at and write a paragraph explaininghow this image projects an imperial perception.

3 2022-23 OUR PASTS III2 All such historical questions refer us back to notionsof time. But time does not have to be always preciselydated in terms of a particular year or a it is actually incorrect to fix precise datesto processes that happen over a period of time. Peoplein india did not begin drinking tea one fine day; theydeveloped a taste for it over time. There can be no oneclear date for a process such as this. Similarly, wecannot fix one single date on which british rule wasestablished, or the national movement started, orchanges took place within the economy and society. Allthese things happened over a stretch of time. We canonly refer to a span of time, an approximate period overwhich particular changes became , then, do we continue to associate historywith a string of dates? This association has a was a time when history was an account ofbattles and big events.

4 It was about rulers and theirpolicies. Historians wrote about the year a king wascrowned, the year he married, the year he had a child,the year he fought a particular war, the year he died,and the year the next ruler succeeded to the events such as these, specific dates can bedetermined, and in histories such as these, debatesabout dates continue to be you have seen in the history textbooks of the pasttwo years, historians now write about a host of otherissues, and other questions. They look at how peopleearned their livelihood, what they produced and ate,how cities developed and markets came up, howkingdoms were formed and new ideas spread, and howcultures and society dates?By what criteria do we choose a set of dates asimportant? The dates we select, the dates around whichwe compose our story of the past, are not important ontheir own. They become vital because we focus on aparticular set of events as important.

5 If our focus ofstudy changes, if we begin to look at new issues, a newset of dates will appear an example. In the histories written byBritish historians in india , the rule of each Governor-General was important. These histories began with therule of the first Governor-General, Warren Hastings,and ended with the last Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten. Inseparate chapters we read about the deeds of others Fig. 2 Advertisements help createtasteOld advertisements help usunderstand how markets for newproducts were created and newtastes were popularised. This1922 advertisement for Liptontea suggests that royalty all overthe world is associated with thistea. In the background you seethe outer wall of an Indianpalace, while in the foreground,seated on horseback is the thirdson of Queen Victoria of Britain,Prince Arthur, who was given thetitle Duke of , Wellesley, Bentinck, Dalhousie, Canning,Lawrence, Lytton, Ripon, Curzon, Harding, Irwin.

6 It wasa seemingly never-ending succession of Governor-Generals and Viceroys. All the dates in these historybooks were linked to these personalities to theiractivities, policies, achievements. It was as if there wasnothing outside their lives that was important for us toknow. The chronology of their lives marked the differentchapters of the history of british we not write about the history of this period ina different way? How do we focus on the activities ofdifferent groups and classes in Indian society withinthe format of this history of Governor-Generals?When we write history, or a story, we divide it intochapters. Why do we do this? It is to give each chaptersome coherence. It is to tell a story in a way that makessome sense and can be followed. In the process we focusonly on those events that help us to give shape to thestory we are telling. In the histories that revolve aroundthe life of british Governor-Generals, the activities ofIndians simply do not fit, they have no space.

7 What,then, do we do? Clearly, we need another format forour history. This would mean that the old dates will nolonger have the significance they earlier had. A newset of dates will become more important for us to do we periodise?In 1817, James Mill, a Scottish economist and politicalphilosopher, published a massive three-volume work,A History of british india . In this he divided Indianhistory into three periods Hindu, Muslim and periodisation came to be widely accepted. Canyou think of any problem with this way of looking atIndian history?Why do we try and divide history into differentperiods? We do so in an attempt to capture thecharacteristics of a time, its central features as theyappear to us. So the terms through which we periodise that is, demarcate the difference between periods become important. They reflect our ideas about the show how we see the significance of the changefrom one period to the thought that all Asian societies were at a lowerlevel of civilisation than Europe.

8 According to his tellingof history, before the british came to india , Hindu andMuslim despots ruled the country. Religious intolerance,caste taboos and superstitious practices dominatedHOW, WHEN AND WHEREFig. 3 Warren Hastings becamethe first Governor-General of Indiain 1773 While history books narrated thedeeds of Governor-Generals,biographies glorified them aspersons, and paintings projectedthem as powerful your motheror another member ofyour family to find outabout their life. Nowdivide their life intodifferent periods andlist out the significantevents in each the basis ofyour 2022-23 OUR PASTS III4social life. british rule, Mill felt, could civilise india . To dothis it was necessary to introduce European manners, arts,institutions and laws in india . Mill, in fact, suggested thatthe british should conquer all the territories in india to ensurethe enlightenment and happiness of the Indian people.

9 ForIndia was not capable of progress without british this idea of history, british rule represented all the forcesof progress and civilisation. The period before british rulewas one of darkness. Can such a conception be accepted today?In any case, can we refer to any period of history as Hindu or Muslim ? Did not a variety of faiths exist simultaneouslyin these periods? Why should we characterise an age onlythrough the religion of the rulers of the time? To do so is tosuggest that the lives and practices of the others do notreally matter. We should also remember that even rulers inancient india did not all share the same away from british classification, historians haveusually divided Indian history into ancient , medieval and modern . This division too has its problems. It is aperiodisation that is borrowed from the West Where themodern period was associated with the growth of all theforces of modernity science, reason, democracy, liberty andequality.

10 Medieval was a term used to describe a societywhere these features of modern society did not exist. Can weuncritically accept this characterisation of the modern periodto describe the period of our study? As you will see in thisbook, under british rule people did not have equality, freedomor liberty. Nor was the period one of economic growthand historians therefore refer to this period as colonial .What is colonial?In this book you will read about the way the british came toconquer the country and establish their rule, subjugatinglocal nawabs and rajas. You will see how they establishedcontrol over the economy and society, collected revenue tomeet all their expenses, bought the goods they wanted atlow prices, produced crops they needed for export, andyou will understand the changes that came about as aconsequence. You will also come to know about the changesBritish rule brought about in values and tastes, customsand practices.