‘Historians need to be on the ground instead of in libraries’

Karachi
A Karachi Literature Festival session on Saturday, titled ‘Uncovering History’, had in conversation historian, writer and broadcaster John Keay, who recently authored ‘Midnight’s Descendants: A History of South Asia Since Partition’.
The session was moderated by Dr Nauman Naqvi, acting dean of the School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.
Keay, who has authored a number of books on popular histories of India and the Far East, while commenting on his relationship with the region, said he had visited South Asia a number of times after visiting Pakistan for the first time in the 1960s.
“I have seen South Asia’s problems from the outside; not belonging to any community made it easier for me to write an unbiased history.”
Sharing his thoughts on what led him to write his latest book, he said it was another book of his, which covered a 5,000-year history of India with respect to South Asia, that had motivated him to cover the region and its problems after the historic partition of 1947.
He said the story of history was as interesting as history itself. Who recorded it and why, and why were specific writings saved while several other records were not, was equally important to understand the whole story, he added.
Speaking on the concept of nationalist history, Keay said it was essentially a European idea that focused on the idea of identity based on a nation state.
He said the only issue with the concept was that imposing one identity over varied identities distorted history and consequently did not work out well for a number of countries.
Responding to Dr Naqvi’s question over historians treating books written by others as the basic source of their research, he said a work of a historian was to be on the ground instead of sitting in libraries and sifting through already published material.
He said it was essential for historians to use non-traditional methods to correctly pen down events as they occurred.
Commenting on modern political identities in South Asia with regard to the role the British played in the partition of the subcontinent, Keay agreed with the moderator’s opinion that the British had a divide-and-rule policy.
However, he added, more research should be done to understand the relationship between the Hindu-Muslim community of the subcontinent back then.
Speaking on whether the India-Pakistan partition could have been avoided, he cited the example of the recent Scottish referendum held in the UK.
He said those voting in favour of the partition had to seriously think through the aftermath of the partition, which was one aspect Mountbatten and others had overlooked.