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In the definition of a nation, along with culture, language, and territory, history is also considered a significant factor. History links the people to form a nation. History is a basic tenet that elucidates the reality of a nation. A nation without history doesn’t last long because it has neither legacy nor pioneers to emulate. But even in this modern and interconnected world, facts are tampered with. How can we be so sure that the history that we possess is free from any bias and partial opinion or wasn’t tampered with?
Such thoughts provoke controversies and to ignite each controversy, history itself has sufficient fuel to fire on.
It is not so clear to form a single strong opinion after knowing history. A person may be a hero in one’s book while he may be the devil in others. We keep scriptures of centuries old but we are not sure about the procedure of construction of pyramids(although many theories have been proposed) Sumerians and Indus Valley civilizations have been proposed to have many similarities but actual linkage has not been formed. Likewise, many unanswered questions tell us that history is incomplete or has been kept incomplete.
What role history can play?
According to some people, looking behind on people and times which have passed will not yield any profit to us. Some believe that with each passing day, the world changes. A new era has its new requirements, which may resemble or contrast with previous eras. So blindly ensuing the past will not be profitable.
But there is another group as well which states that we must know history to learn lessons, overcome our shortcomings, speed up our lagging, and ensure the legacy with modern tools. If we look at the great conquerors of the world, we will know that they took inspiration from history. They were great historians and surrounded them with historians as well. Sultan Mehmet when conquered Constantinople, first knew about the history of that city. And that information helped him a lot to triumph. We call ourselves the most civilized and modern but if we look at ancient civilizations, we will surely acclaim their engineering skills like those of the Romans, Indian civilization, Mughals, and Turks, etc.
History in curriculum:
I was great fond of reading history but for my friends, it was very dry because the teacher never tried to tell them history rather he always tried to teach them history subject. Instead of increasing curiosity inside them to get different references, he relied on telling them in a line. Students didn’t want to bother them in the past. I believe history must be included in the curriculum as a subject and special attention should be paid to it. Instead of treating it as a subject to get good scores, docents must ignite their curiosity. They must find ways to increase their interest. Reading history will surely help in finding answers to many questions.
Conclusion:
There is no doubt that history is incomplete, biased, partial, tampered, and controversial. To read it, a mature mind is needed that doesn’t get affected so easily or form a judgment by reading one or more scriptures. Reading history is one thing but assessing is a real task. If we want our students to read history, their minds must be made mature enough to digest it. They must be sensible enough to handle controversial topics. In the curriculum, uncontroversial, fact-based, and properly researched history must be added. Along with them, students’ curiosity must also arise so that they can properly canvass all the pages of history to get a wider spectrum about a single topic.
But it must not be imposed on everyone because it is not essential that everyone keeps taste for it. Everyone has his own set of interests and reacts according to them. Instead of indulging in past , some might be eager to dive into the future. That's why curriculum must be dynamic covering interests of everyone. Students must be provided with alternatives to select them subject of their own choice. This will help in production of field specific talents.
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