History without Discomfort is Propaganda

What is history and why is it important? It is study of the past based on various sources that are credible, and it is important for understanding how we got where we are socially, culturally, economically, and militarily. And it also helps us understand a pattern that keeps on repeating or rhyming so that we can contemplate future. But unfortunately it has become a tool to appease pride, insight fear, tell stories that at times are untrue.

Discomfort is Good

History without discomfort is propaganda – A quote that I had come across and it summed it up perfectly what I saw around. Let me explain, if you are admirer of a historical figure or an era thinking it was all good superb, and then you think of another figure or era as all bad – that is what it means. History cannot be always comfortable, it won’t always align to your worldview. If someone tells you that – that’s either propaganda or appeasement of your biases. Either to make you feel proud or to exploit your insecurities. Sometimes they can also be true – but not always.

Storytelling is not History

Narratives are not history. History is never black & white. Historical people were people, they weren’t characters from the movies to be all good and all bad. Yes, some were a lot better, and some were a lot worse. But everything is in different shades of grey. When you watch a movie based on history you see a storyteller’s narrative. But when you look at evidences from documents, and archaeological sources, you see that reality is quite different from it. The story of Padmavat, Prithviraj Raso and many other ballads were not exact history.

Stories from popular lore are often considered to be history, but they are simply stories. For example, Shivaji Maharaj never said Gad aala pan Simvha gela or The fort was conquered but Lion was lost. It came from a Marathi play which was a creative liberty. But people believe in it. Shivaji Maharaj never named Kondana fort as Simhagad after Tanaji Malsure. Historical documents confirm that it was called Simhagad even before Tanaji’s capture of the fort.

Similarly, Aryan invasion of India is a story that is talked about, but it is not based on any direct evidences but a concoction of various data weaved into a narrative driven story. There are so many contradictions in such narratives if you check the evidences.

Good Story is Creative Liberty

The problem is that everyone wants to tell a story because people like to listen to stories. But these stories have their biases. History is not stories based on biases. History can be just a collection of boring mundane data that may not always be interesting. I know that because I am a fiction writer and also a history researcher. Even when I try to turn an interesting episode from history into a script for a movie, not all events are that interesting or make a good story. So, I have to take liberty to make them interesting. But in process the story drifts from what would have happened.

You see, if you heard that a dog bit the man, you won’t be interested because its mundane. But you heard that a man bit a dog, you would be interested because that’s an interesting story. But in reality, humans don’t bite dogs, it’s always dogs bite humans – and that is History.

On this channel it is my attempt to tell the story of history that is both true and interesting. And for stories that is untrue or highly fictionalised – I also have a channel Prav Yav Nav Original Stories.