July 21, 2007

If somebody asks you what is history, the simple answer is that history is the record of past events. However, this raises another question: so many events happened in past but all of them are not recorded by history, why?

The answer to this question is that only those events are part of history which had some political, social and cultural impact on society. Therefore, to select the events in view of their historical importance is the task of a historian. It is he or she who decides which events should be recorded and which not.

Historian and history: There is another question about the responsibility of a historian: what is the criterion to select the past events? On what basis does a historian choose some and reject others? There are many explanations.

In the past most historians were employed by rulers and kings to write the history of their reigns. In this case, these court historians had to write what pleased the rulers. They highlighted achievements of their masters and ignored all those events which were not in the rulers’ favour.

Such type of history has its limits. There is no place for people in it. Besides it, generally, historians have also human weaknesses. They have their own likes and dislikes and therefore, many select only those events which they like and ignore those which they do not like. In some cases they may also distort history to prove their own point of view.

However, in modern times, as result of democratic system and the spread of its values, history writing has changed. Modern historians are making attempts to write history of the people rather than that of the rulers. This makes history more interesting because there are topics which were not investigated earlier on, such as the history of childhood, role of toys in history, concept of privacy and history of perfume, etc.

There are historians who now specialise in different fields, such as culture, social life, the environment, etc. On the basis of their vast knowledge, historians claim that they can write on anything, and that nothing is beyond history.

How History is written: The process of writing history begins with the historian selecting his topic and then collecting material from different sources. These include written recodes, oral history, archaeological evidence, coins, inscriptions, paintings, sculptures, literature, letters, diaries, magazines, newspapers, official documents, pamphlets and advertisements. After collecting material related to the topic, the historian proceeds to write history and interpret it according to his/her findings.