What is the need of history as a subject? This is the most common question that I come across both as a history teacher and history student. This is not an irrelevant question at all, we must know the utility of the knowledge that we are taking. The big point here is, the answer to this questions has never been provided satisfactorily and at a right time. Most of the students that opt history for higher education are also not aware about the importance of history in daily life, they choose history because they like to study history. Most of the students don’t opt for history because they feel that history is not an active subject, it has no utility at all and those who opt for history also land up preparing for some sort of government exam. Today in our discussion on history we will try to eliminate all the myths related to history as a subject and we will try to understand the importance of history in shaping our nation and daily life.
History as a source of knowledge- History can be called the mother of all subjects. All the activities that we are involved in today have their origin in the past. The political structure that we have today is the gift of History. History as a source of knowledge helps us to analyze various situations and adopt the best. All the inventions around the world are gifts of History. History is a record book and in absence of this record book, no inventions and political evolutions would have taken place. So it can be said that history has acted as a testing ground on which different inventions and political ideas were tested and what we are enjoying today is the outcome of those tests hence it becomes necessary for students to study History to understand the evolution process and flow of ideas.
History as a reference book- History as we have already discussed can be defined as the record book of events of the past, hence being a collection of knowledge it can be utilized as a book for reference whenever required. When we have a complex new situation, we try to scan history to check whether we had a similar situation in the past or not. If similar situation is found we can adopt that solution to the present situation with little modification. But here we need to understand that matching two situations is not easy, it requires complete knowledge of the incident that has taken place in past, and after a deep analysis of circumstances, health risk, finances, climatic conditions, administrative challenges etc. a possible solution can be developed for present situation. Hence students need to be aware of past events so that a possible solution can be developed for new challenging situations with minimum risk. We must understand that complete risk cannot be eliminated but it can be minimized and history can very well do this for us without wasting resources and time. For example after world war 1, Germany was punished for the WW1 and this created a situation for WW2. But after WW2 Germany was not punished because from their past experience they knew that punishment will not bring desired result hence, it was decided to support Germany instead of punishing it.
History as an administrative tool- administration is one of the most complicated jobs on Earth. What makes it complicated is the involvement of people from different social backgrounds and this difference in the background is due to historical reasons, hence it is very important for an administrator to know and understand the reason behind the social setup of a particular group. History also helps in dealing with the conflicts between social groups. If you notice the pattern of social conflict they are mostly related to the rituals and control on land, both the groups try to establish themselves superior, in such cases knowledge of history become essential especially the historical records as these are the only documents from which reference can be taken to solve the issue. Not only administrators even courts has to take reference from history to solve cases. Honorable supreme court and high court has announced many verdicts based on their observations from the history. Famous Ram Janam Bhoomi case is a good example of such case from Supreme court. Certain social rituals like marriages, transfer of property, and the birth of a child are still guided by the personal laws of the people and these personal laws are because of History.
Histories as a cultural tool- As we have already discussed the social and cultural differences are due to history. This difference sometimes leads to conflicts but most of the time this difference adds colors to life. Without festivals and celebrations humans will be more like robots. Thus cultures add the human touch to life and these cultures are the gift of History. In absence of History, these festivals would have been completely unknown to us and life would not have been as colorful as it is today. This culture also adds a distinct characteristic to a country. If we talk about India, millions of tourist visit India just to observe and enjoy the culture of India, and you will be surprised to know that India is the largest employer in tourism industry, more than 5 Crore people are employed in tourism industry in India and cultural tourism is important part of it. Apart from Tourism, culture also helps in establishing international ties, It has been found that countries with common culture tends to have stronger political ties than country with different culture, Hence Culture acts as administrative tool as well.
Respect for the homeland- Countries that exist today are the result of past events. lot of leaders has sacrificed their life for the country. History is the only subject that tells us about their idea of the country and it is the ideas of great leaders of our countries that make the guiding principles for the administration of the country. For example- In the case of India it is the ideas of Gandhi Ji that were the guiding principle in the making of the constitution. Infact it would not be wrong to say that history is the only subject that teaches values, values related to the respect for homeland, values related to society and values for relations. The worst problem that world is facing today is the degradation of values, corruption and red-tapism both are the result of degrading values. It is time that history must be revised and our focus must shift from political history to the history of ideas.
History for self discovery– we all go through a point when we ask ourselves, what we are and for what purpose are we here? For me the bigger question is what is the purpose of life? This is where the self discovery comes into picture. Self discovery is nothing but understanding our own thoughts, ideas and potential. India is known as the spiritual capital of the world, the work done by India in the field of spirituality will remain unmatched for the centuries to come. There is a lot we can adopt from the ancient history of India and this will help you in bringing your real potential into action. But many people confuse the idea of self discovery with values. We must understand that self discovery is about realizing potential and aim, whereas values are a set of principles that we must adopt for betterment of society as a whole. This can be best explained with the example of Gandhi ji, he utilized his potential to use a simple concept of satyagraha against British. Potential will not change things magically it will give you mental strength to perform simple things extraordinarily.
History as a source of entertainment- Entertainment industry is one of the biggest industries in modern times. It not only generates huge revenues but is also one of the highest employment-generating industries. History is full of events and these events are used by the entertainment industry to entertain people. If talk about India we have the largest collection of historical and cultural events of the past in the world. Theatres, movies, documentaries, and biopics are all these forms of entertainment require knowledge of History.