Biased History

I like history, I should have been history major but I really doubt I would have learned more in history classes than what I am learning or understanding now. Not to chide the history stream but I am rather skeptical of streams like history, political science etc, as I am very puzzled by consistent rift between the ‘liberal’ outlook of the curriculum and actual outcome it, generated through student.

Discussing history with anyone invariably ends with the sentence that interpretation of history changes according to the person. And I refuse to buy this argument. History is like a fact book. Facts can not be interpreted because that is why they are called as facts. Interpretation may be considered as a best mean to reach the end or decipher the reality when historical data is not completely collected. But when complete data is available, interpreting history is nothing short of criminal act. Sadly that is what we usually witness and, explain it with the argument that winners write the history. Of course, winners definitely write the history but fortunately they almost never succeed to wipe off the real history and it is up to the current generation to find the facts and learn it.

Such examples, where history is not only miss-represented history but also miss-understood history are numerous. I can understand the presenting history that suits the invader or ruler but conveniently misunderstanding history is a crime. I think such a behavior stems from either sheer dumbness and laziness to understanding the reality or incapability of facing the deep wounds suffered by society as a whole.

History is extremely important for any society. History actually defines who we are; it tells us what we aim at and shows the pitfalls in our quest to attain the aim. It is utterly foolish to ‘live’ in history but reaching opposite spectrum by completely denying or denigrating history is foolish too. Polluting the history or accepting the polluted history will make our quest more arduous or in worst case completely throw us off the track, forcing us to live like a headless body.