+History

Why examine history?

  • Intellectual discourse and debates within any society play a major role in determining its future course. Oftentimes, such debates draw support from various narratives/ stories about history (internal or foreign)
    • Often these narratives have an excessively narrow focus, and contain factual errors, leading to spurious claims about various courses of action and ways of life. Such claims need to be countered - only a thorn can remove a thorn.
  • It is useful as individuals to observe the good and bad qualities of various heroes.

Why not to examine history?

  • History is not central to benefiting from the hindu worldview (../compared to the abrahamisms). Understanding living traditions and texts considered holy is far more important as a way of benefiting from the lessons learned by passed sages (see also Rituals: Knowledge transmission).
  • This is illustrated by a stark contrast between the worldview of a paNDita and the (dominant) worldview among indologists [AA]. Particularly, divergences in the commitment to:
    • memorization of the core of the shAstra,
    • the devaluation of historicity ( which seems to anticipate what I’ve heard about “histori-centrism” popularized by rAjIv malhotra ),
    • the following of some severe codes of conduct. It also explores the differences in society that support these/ result from such divergent types of scholarship.

How to examine history?

Pursuit of truth.

In order to avoid these suprious claims which adversely affect our future, it is important to seek historical truth - pleasant or otherwise.

असतो मा सद्गमय, तमसो मा ज्योतिर्गमय, मृत्योर्मा अमृतं गमय। ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः॥

Acknowledge bias.

One should admit that the study of history involves explaining relatively sparse data with convincing patterns. Here bias comes to play.

  • Common narratives include:
    • The subaltern/ Marxist narrative places a huge focus on class warfare, on the oppression of many by the elite few. One claim is that the dharma is inherently incapable of benefiting the many.
    • The Fabian narrative places a big focus on the ‘civilizing’/ ‘modernizing’ effect of colonial rule in India. A common claim is that, were it not for the British, the Indians would be a primitive, superstitious people, lacking in social and economic development. Another common claim is that India would be politically divided into principalities which could not withstand external threats, and that the dhArmika civilization, which was falling into decay during Muslim rule, was rescued by the British.
      • The dharma-centric narrative emphasizes the intellectual and cultural efflorcence of the dhArmika civilization, the devastating effects of Islamic and European conquest, and is hopeful about the dharma’s ability to adapt to the modern world and bring prosperity to many.
      • Eg. Ram Swarup. Sitaram Goel. KS Lal. Koenraad Elst
      • As Koenraad says: “I applaud the insight that we should write history, rather than piecemeal refutations of the false history put out by the secularists.” [FB]
  • Of these, I am most sympathetic to the last, but I try my best to not foresake the truth. I am under the impression that the Marxist narrative is the worst offender in terms of compromizing and twisting facts to suit their political agenda.
  • State of the academia: Main article here.

Identify patterns

  • Patterns in history of cultures can be viewed in terms of interacting memes, temes and genes.
  • Though it was vertical for the most part, just as in the case of genes, there is lateral transfer of temes and memes accross cultures.
  • Example: Schism of liberals (KV15).

Bio structures

  • Biological notions of homology, analogy, phase of development in lifecycle to group similar historical phenomena together can be used. Spengler and MT (MT16).
  • Similar morphological structures arising at some point in the lifecycle due to shared ancestry
  • Phases in lifecycle: Similar transitions from one morphological expression to another predictably occurs in a wide variety of species and civilizations. But, the clock can be reset (at a cost), since these phases can be cyclic.

Temes, their survival and fitness value.

  • Survivability
  • Fitness value to the host
    • Lateral transfers
  • Causing senescence

References -

Drawing lessons

  • Hindu approaches in the itihAsa-s, purANa-s and kAvya-s was to digest the most important lessons in a form that is pleasing (eg. context of a drama or story), abstracted away (with supernatural elements, fictional characters) and dramatized (to enhance contrast between positive and negative decisions.)
  • Periodic reminders are useful: This day in hindu history.