If you could erase one trend from history, what would it be?
The content emphasises the importance of accurate historical representation, contrasting dramatisation with genuine historical facts. It reflects on the grandeur of historical monuments, like Fatehpur Sikri, and the over-dramatisation often presented by local guides. History is presented as a chronographic record that should not be altered or erased, highlighting the insights it provides into past human experiences, cultures, and societal norms. The piece discusses both prehistoric findings and more recent historical atrocities, such as the Holocaust, pointing out that such accounts are essential for understanding humanity’s progression. Lastly, it warns against fabricating narratives that distort true events, advocating for a factual representation of history.
Table of contents
Key Takeaways
- The article emphasises accurate historical representation versus dramatization, highlighting the importance of genuine facts.
- It discusses the significance of history as a chronographic record and how it offers insights into human experiences and societal norms.
- The piece warns against fabricating narratives and advocates for factual representation, especially regarding events like the Holocaust.
- It argues that understanding history helps humanity evolve by learning from past mistakes and recognizing cultural contexts.
- Dramatisation can distort true events, while history should provide an honest account that fosters understanding and growth.
Dramatisation of history
Wandering in a five-century-old but properly kept historical monument at Fatehpur Sikri, near Agra, is an excellent experience to feel the grandeur of a popular Mughal monarch, Abu’l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar. The total pink stone structures of the walled city are an excellent way to peek into the past. The most amusing thing is the dramatic way of introducing various spots of the monument by local guides. With their flowery language laced with fiction and prestidigitation, they try to win the hearts of tourists. They pretend to present a true story, but in reality, it is an over-dramatisation of facts to captivate their clients.
Photograph by the author
History: Chronographic record
History is a chronographic record of past happenings. The prehistoric period also contains a wealth of evidence and materials etched into the record of events by time. It is irrevocable and remains unchanged. It should not either. Just as one can’t change family and mother, history stays unchanged. It has happened; that is a truth. It is up to the person how they take it. (Wikipedia)
History is Not only a collection of dates
The study of history is not merely a collection of dates and events. It is interesting to know why an incident occurred and what its result was. It is equally interesting to consider how people of yore lived, what they ate, and what they did. This helps in understanding the progression of human lives. Learning from past mistakes and taking help from past strengths, humanity evolves. It is persistent. Nature wrote human history before they learned to write. Humans wrote and began record keeping after they learn writing.
History of Prehistoric era
During prehistoric times, long ago before humans appeared on the globe, there used to be dense forests, large morasses, peats, bogs and water bodies. Huge lizards used to roam on the Earth. It was the era of huge lizards, dinosaurs. Scientists, archaeologists and historians joined their heads and burned the midnight oil to ascertain the identity, character and behaviour of the organisms that lived billions of years ago. They studied every small thing: a tooth, a scrap of a bone, part of a skull, nests, pot shards and everything that could help in understanding past life. They painstakingly joined the pieces of evidence to get a clear picture of the excavated object. These findings are an irrevocable thing about history.
Unwritten history
Even after the advent of modern humans, Homo sapiens, it took long to write the history by humans themselves. In the oldest known Indus Valley Civilisation, the writings were present but not yet deciphered. Subsidiary sources of information are used to understand them. Whatever we know about the life and lifestyle of Indus Valley People is based on the material things of their use found during excavations. Thus, the information and study is near perfect, not fully or substantially. Nonetheless, it also can’t be denied or negated that such people or things were present and have now vanished forever, leaving their spoor on the moist soil of time, which hardened and turned to stone in due course of time.
Romans
It is history which tells the atrocity of the Romans on their slaves. It also tells almost everything about their intellectual nuances, their values and their style of living. A few dilapidated buildings, aqueducts, bridges and fragments of their artwork tell volumes about their way of life. Closing the eyes or blindfolding will not erase past incidents, no matter how important they were or how horrible they may appear today.
Roman monuments
Taking out the stories of gladiatorial fights from Roman history is akin to taking out the soul of the culture prevalent at that time. Ruins of the Colosseum and Circus Maximus cause horripilation in people watching them even today. With evolution, the human race has learnt deeply about humanity and human values. In modern times, the past stories of forced suffering horrify people, but they were not only prevalent but also accepted as deep-rooted norms of the then society. The archaeological evidence about Pompeii and Herculaneum also tells the same stories in intricate detail.
Way of life
People may disagree, but that was the way of that time. Things change, and so do the systems and customs. The situation and customs prevailing at a particular point in time shape lives. Study of past incidents in their true light is the way to understand what and why in our lives.
History of Holocaust and exodus
It is very difficult, if not impossible, to forget about the genocide committed by Hitler during his atrocious regime. It is estimated that about six million Jews were killed by Nazi in the Holocaust. Similarly, the conflagrations and mass exodus following the vivisection of India in and around August 1947 are difficult to forget. These incidents are prominent in the annals of history. The stories of suffering are not to sensationalise them for petty gains, but to remember the agony and pain of millions of sufferers who were made to pass through them. It is the historical knowledge that helps people grounded and firmly attach themselves to their customs and traditions.
Realisation
For some, the horrific stories of history may be “disturbing”, and they may try to replace them with comparatively rosy and concocted stories, but it would be a distortion of facts. The reminiscences of agony and pain the people of the time give a realisation and strength to fight back such situations or to moot about the way out.
Action and reaction
Every incident or happening has a cause and its reaction or aftereffects. If there is a rot, there must be a cause behind it. Identifying the causes help treatment of it. Buddhism propounds four noble truths. They say that there is suffering, suffering has a cause and remoal of cause suffering is ceased. The fourth one teaches the way. It is true to history, which, by telling the reasons, helps understanding the root cause and the way to overcome it. History doesn’t necessarily mean a series of political incidents or happenings; it encompasses everything that lived in past and tells its story by various pieces of evidence. Natural History thus tells us about the History of organisms, their journey and evolution vis-à-vis the Earth and the Universe.
Objective becomes subjective: History
History becomes subjective when it is blended with figments of imagination. Folklore tells a story that exaggerates things or people, sometimes blown out of proportion. This allures people, but distorts the facts. Historical accounts are not fictional stories woven around a person or incident. It is an honest account of happenings narrated on the basis of findings and facts. Telling a lopsided story to appease a section of society doesn’t do good to history or its readers. It casts aspersions and vitiates the psyche of people.
History is an important and inseparable aspect of life. It should be told in its original form without distortion or dramatisation.
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Kamal Kishore Srivastava
A retired government officer turned writer and photographer, Kamal Kishore Srivastava is a regular blogger and essayist who explores life’s deeper meanings through immersive reflections on nature, impermanence, and happiness. On his blog Nature’s Narrative, he blends philosophical storytelling with practical insights. Writing 1,200–1,500 words or more regularly, Kamal is committed to refining his craft, expanding his audience, and building a sustainable space where thought and feeling intersect.
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