HAIL HISTORIAN!

HAIL HISTORIAN! ... 1

It is very well to criticise eminent leftist historians like Romilla Thapar, Irfan Habib and the rest but you have to provide your own historians of matching excellence in academics to replace them. What are the current crop of pseudo-historians doing who habitually state, "As a historian I can say," as if to remind the audience that they are historians after all? Perhaps they do so to remind their own selves as well and by repeated affirmation drive home the point that they are historians after all. This crop of self-declared historians say such things as 'Mānto-Morley Reforms' instead of 'Morley-Minto Reforms' that make not only laughing stock of them but a mockery of what seems to be going on in the national scene by way of what once used to be called historical research. Criticising erstwhile brilliant left-leaning academics is easy but effectively replacing them calls for academic brilliance as well. Mere loud patriotism is not enough. And surely if knowledge be there in-depth, historical training thorough and self-confidence abounding, you will not have to announce thus, 'As a historian I say," but will go about your articulate business with authority and solidity in factual presentation and incisive, accurate analysis thereof. 

HAIL HISTORIAN! ... 2

Superficial knowledge doth not make a historian. You need depth of study and prolonged meditation on the happenings of the past to duly ascertain their historical causes, not in clear-cut contours quite perhaps but in shades and grades that do better justice to the material at hand. Scholarship deep and critical thinking are the sine qua non for a legitimate historian, not a cursory glance through the annals of the past, their biased interpretation and erroneous inferences. It is unfortunate that the current crop of pseudo-historians are a breed in the latter mould.