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VOL. 5, ISSUE 4 (2023)
Reimaging history through literary lens: A critical assessment of historians’ interpretations of literature in shaping historical narratives
Authors
Maishy Charan
Abstract
As the rediscovery of India’s past began in 19th century
colonial India, Indian texts became an important medium for understanding
India’s culture, laws and history. Europeans trained in the objectivist
tradition believed that Indians lacked historical consciousness. Though
numerous historians from the 1950’s began questioning the positivist conception
of history and the notion that Indians lacked historical consciousness, they
could not break out of many of the practises and premises laid down by colonial
historiography. Thus only certain texts continued to be used to reconstruct
history. Primacy was given to Sanskrit literature while vernacular literature
was largely ignored. These problems are now being acknowledged and a consequent
shift can be seen in the works of historians discussed in this paper. Attention
is now being paid to all literary genres for historical reconstruction. More
significant is the more refined conceptual frameworks that are being formulated
to analyse literary texts. Historians have begun to acknowledge the need to
study South Asian literature within a methodological framework that takes
cognizance of the particular characteristics of local literary traditions. This
paper explores the use of literature in history writing by discussing the works
of Sheldon Pollock, A.K Ramanujan, Shonaleeka Kaul and Uma Chakravarti.
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Pages:50-52
How to cite this article:
Maishy Charan "Reimaging history through literary lens: A critical assessment of historians’ interpretations of literature in shaping historical narratives". International Journal of Social Science and Humanities, Vol 5, Issue 4, 2023, Pages 50-52
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