History remains a continuous narrative of preselected events, where neither the basis for the selection of those particular events is examined, nor their relevance. Students of history therefore are trained to receive a certain body of information which they generally commit to memory and which they then go on repeating ad infini- tum when they in turn become teachers of history or when they attempt writing history. Another reason for this highly unsatisfactory research in a particular field of history is rarely incorporated into stan- dard works and textbooks. Thus in most schools and colleges the student of history is still learning the subject, both in content and in technique, as it was taught one generation (if not two) ago. Romila Thapar PeaceWorks—an initiative of The Seagull Founda- tion for the Arts addresses this and many other issues through its History for Peace project by showcasing and engaging with alternative work— in the arts—in education and in civil society—at an annual conference, with the aim of exploring pos- sibilities of bringing these into classrooms. This volume is a compilation of presentations at the 2017 History for Peace conference in Bangalore. The International conference The Idea of India was held in Calcutta from 14 to 17 August 2017. Published by The Seagull Foundation for the Arts, Calcutta, 2018. Printed and bound by Hyam Enterprises, Calcutta. Typeset by The Seagull Foundation for the Arts. Cover design Meena Megha Malhotra. THE IDEA OF INDIA Conference Proceedings Calcutta 2017 Contents NAVEEN KISHORE / 1 Opening Address ROMILA THAPAR AND GAYATRI CHAKRAVORTY SPIVAK / 5 In Conversation ROMILA THAPAR, ALOK MATHUR, AMITA PRASAD, TINA SERVAIA / 37 IN CONVERSATION KRISHNA KUMAR, HARI VASUDEVAN, SHIREEN MASWOOD, MANISH JAIN / 78 IN CONVERSATION: HISTORY TEXTBOOKS AND THE IDEA OF INDIA SUDHANVA DESHPANDE / 99 THE UN-EQUIVALENCE OF VIOLENCE: The Communal Question in Janam’s Plays An Illustrated Talk T. SANATHANAN / 114 HOW TO DRAW HISTORIES? ART AS METHOD JOY LK PACHUAU, RYAN LOBO / 131 THE CAMERA AS WITNESS JERRY PINTO / 177 BIOGRAPHY AS HISTORY VIJAY PRASHAD / 194 INDIA IN THE RUINS OF THE PRESENT RADHIKA BORDIA / 207 SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE IDEA OF INDIA NAVEEN KISHORE OPENING ADRESS Despite popular notions to the contrary, giving up is never easy. Failure is never comfortable to face up to. Resignation in the face of odds, the ones stacked against you, stepping back, or aside, or sideways, or all of the above, as a feint, a strategy, with survival in mind. But also a fight, one in which you are only biding your time, and not running away from the battlefield out of a sense of despair. Not giving up, that part of it is fine. The world that adores the heroic in you will accept that. As will you. The trouble begins when you let the numbers arrayed against you overwhelm you, when you accept the inevitable even before it has identified itself, when you arrive at the point of giving up. When you tip over. It’s not easy. Then again, the opposite is hard too, perhaps more so. Persevere—a word that also comes with heavily stacked odds. The word. Suggests that the prospect of success in situations that demand perseverance is usually low. The romance that the word conjures up dies out swiftly when you’re faced with the obstacle in question, be it emo- tional, or political, or life threatening, or a point of principle, far from static, nimble-toed, a Birnham Wood on roller- skates. You have to decide quickly. 2 Teaching History 3 A mountain is making its way to you, guns blazing. Will you persist? Heroic and stubborn to the core, dig in your heels, con- tinue, carry on, keep going, squaring your shoulders, ham- mering away, persistent, quietly determined, stand your ground and blow trumpets of tenacity from hurriedly assembled barricades. Promise to stand fast. Firm. Send sig- nals of going the distance, staying the course, stopping at nothing short of soldiering on. Pledging to leave no stone unturned in your desire to persevere, hang on, plug away, stick to your guns. Or. Will you take off the white shirt you wear. Rip it. Wave it in surrender. Like everything else, ‘goodness’ is an acquired taste. You have to learn the skill. Study its variations. Practice. Hour after hour. For days at a stretch. For a lifetime. Angry times, these. Times that tend to push you to the edge of rage. A little provocation. A nudge in the wrong direction. Enough to plunge you into an unforgivable moment of anger. The abyss that offers no return. We are taught to believe that being desperately angry is not the solution. Yet how many times a day do we totter on the brink? Like angels struggling before the fall. Wings tied. Feet and legs bound together. Afraid of the unknown. Not the slow descent of the plunger before the detonation. Nor the giant drilling machine that pierces the crust of the earth and bur- rows to the centre. Layer upon layer of viciousness. There is no rock-bottom sometimes. No sense of having arrived. The fall over the rim is into limbo. What does it take to be a good human in these times? Kishore / Opening Address 3 Kozo Yamamura, friend, author, patron of PeaceWorks. A good human. Died on 15th February 2017, of cancer. Professor Yamamura was a world-class scholar, writing or editing more than 20 books on the Japanese economy and its history and on the nature of capitalism. A legendary teacher, Yamamura challenged generations of University of Washington students with courses on postwar Japanese economy and the economic history of Japan. Many bene- fited from his guidance on issues ranging from senior theses topics to career choices. He was a generous academic, mentor, colleague. In retirement, he collaborated with his wife Susan Hanley in writing four novels under the pseudonym Michael S. Koyama, three of which were published by Seagull Books. So we first knew him as an author, one who wrote financial thrillers. One day Kozo found his way to the work that we do under our PeaceWorks programme. Out of the blue, he sent us a generous donation in support of the programme. An unsolicited act of goodness with a courteous letter of quiet praise. This was five years ago. Each year since then he has been donating 30,000 dollars. We never met him, nor did he ever visit Calcutta to see what we were doing with his generous support, but he followed every bit of our work online and showed complete trust and affection, and often told us how important it was in these times to keep doing what we did. It is with immense pleasure and pride that we dedicate this conference to the memory of our friend Kozo. Here is what his wife and partner in his fondness for our work wrote a few days ago, Dear Naveen, I am mindful that your conference is convening in a few days. If you plan to mention Kozo when you address 4 Teaching History 3 the participants, please let them know how much he admired and appreciated what you are doing, and that he was honoured by the tribute you are giving him. I plan to continue the support in his memory. With all best wishes for a truly successful conference, Susan. Thank you Susan, thank you both. Naveen Kishore is publisher, Seagull Books and Managing Trustee of The Seagull Foundation for the Arts. ROMILA THAPAR AND GAYATRI CHAKRAVORTY SPIVAK IN CONVERSATION THE IDEA OF INDIA Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Although we are both guests on the stage, I feel like I’m welcoming my old friend to Kolkata because this is the first time that I’ve seen her here, and Presidency University has had the good sense to give her an honorary doctorate. This is a conversation that began long ago— Romila Thapar. Many many years— Spivak. I’m very excited to be sharing a stage with her, as you can see. This is a conversation that began long ago, many, many years ago, sometimes between the two of us, sometimes in front of an audience, sometimes in New York where I acknowledged the incredible role that the humanities imagination plays in many of the things that she has done. But today I’m only the ques- tioner—because it’s about teaching history, and god knows I don’t know anything about teaching history. So what I really want to ask Romila is, how does one teach the idea of India? Thapar. Let me begin by thanking Seagull for giving me this unique opportunity. Gayatri and I have often chat- ted in the privacy of, should I say, of our homes, in New York, in Delhi, and had long conversations, teased each 6 Teaching History 3 other, joked with each other. This is the first time that we’re performing, as far as I remember, before an audi- ence. So, if we get the giggles or if we start shouting at each other, you must forgive us. This is just out of sheer friendship. You’ve asked a very tough question to start with. What do we mean by the idea of India? Being a histo- rian, I would turn it a little bit and ask: When did the idea of India come into existence? One can’t date it, of course, because one can seldom date ideas with preci- sion. Ideas have a way of wandering around backwards, and so on—you can’t pinpoint them. Let me begin by saying that it’s a modern idea, a concept which I think emerges in colonial times.