In 2023, when former journalist Amit Arora and Prof. Rakesh Basant, former Dean at IIM-Ahmedabad, organised India’s first History Literature Festival (HLF) at Ahmedabad University, they worried that the experiment might fall flat. But, to their astonishment, more than 1000 people turned up on the very first day, demolishing the old cliché about history being a dreary discipline restricted to the walls of classrooms.
Over the past few years, this is becoming somewhat of a norm, with several outside-the-classroom initiatives drawing an ever-expanding audience of students and history enthusiasts across age groups.
Accessible storytelling
Eric Chopra who founded Itihāsology, a youth-led history platform in 2019, feels that, apart from the tedious narratives typically found in textbooks, a key reason people avoid engaging with history is the perception that it’s distant and not relevant to their lives. Basant agrees and adds that historical narratives tend to mainstream socio-political issues, frequently overlooking the large variety of topics. He also finds that the historical discourse is often devoid of diversity in views. Not surprisingly, then, a common feature running through most such initiatives is an emphasis on captivating and accessible storytelling that explores a wide spectrum of topics from a variety of viewpoints.
The Itihāsology page on Instagram showcases an eye-catching selection of art contextualising bits of history built around it. Chopra and his co-founder Kudrat B Singh also host a history podcast For Old Times’ Sake. Karwaan: The Heritage Exploration Initiative, a student-led history collective founded by Eshan Sharma has created a rich archive of lectures, dialogues and panel discussions featuring eminent intellectuals on YouTube. Past HLF sessions, which can now be viewed on YouTube, include discussions on histories of music, science, technology, archaeology and food among other things. Historian and author Anirudh Kanisetti has produced a diverse and vibrant body of historical content online, including Echoes of India, a hugely popular podcast on ancient India.
In a country that currently has more than 800 million active Internet users, most of whom are between 16 to 39 years old, the meticulous use of social media helps such initiatives increase their reach and create an accessible archive of their work, without burning a hole in their limited budget.
Responsible history
“There is a lot of conversation about the past in today’s political landscape, leading to questions, curiosity and concern,” says Chopra. While this has undoubtedly contributed to the subject’s growing popularity in an age of easy dissemination, it has also led to the rise of fake news and the ‘WhatsApp University’. Against this backdrop, most initiatives feel that they have an urgent responsibility to share well-researched factual history.
As Sharma puts it, “A lot of our audience are new voters and they need to be able to question dominant narratives instead of believing everything they are told. For example, there is a popular story that the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan chopped off the hands of workers who built the Taj Mahal. Yet, there is no concrete evidence for this. Instead, a vast settlement called Taj Ganj was created for the workers and many of their descendants continue to live there.”
Apart from putting out social media posts, videos and podcasts, these initiatives also offer opportunities for deeper online and offline engagement. At Karwaan, participants can join online clubs to discuss books and films around different aspects of history. Itihāsology brings out an annual digital journal for which it invites submissions from school, undergraduate, and postgraduate students, which are reviewed by eminent scholars. Eventually, eight entries, which undergo an exhaustive editorial process, are accepted and published.
Heritage walks through monuments and museums are a popular offline activity. “Historian Sohail Hashmi had conducted our first walk at Delhi’s Tughlaqabad Fort in 2019,” recalls Sharma. Since then, Karwaan has organised walks in Delhi, Mumbai, Vadodara, Kanpur and Lucknow. At Itihāsology, these walks prompt the young and old to feel, imagine and relate what they see to aspects of their own lives.
History for Peace, a network of educators and civil society members, organises conferences, short talks and workshops through the year and publishes journals containing the lectures and discussions. It has a rich archive of freely available resource material on its website.
At the Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata, historians have been bringing out illustrated history books for children in Bengali, English and Assamese, under the History for Children initiative supported by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung South Asia. These are freely available online, and the initiative organises workshops to review them and expand outreach.
Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard once said that, though life must be lived forwards, it can only be understood backwards. Going by the options, there are plenty of avenues available to those interested in understanding life by plunging into the past.
