History as school course in India

Are you the one who dreaded History classes when we were at School in India? Well like so many of you, I too just hated history. To me, History was the subject that you have to just mug up or as we call “ratta” and somehow pass. I believe that my memory of history teacher would probably be same as yours - teachers holding thick history books in hands, monotonously describing major events of our history , and made history classes sound as interesting as the “doordarshan” news we used to watch during 80s and early 90s’ – namasakar, aaj ke samchar main “Rajiv Gandhi nain kahaa ………….’. In a way, History has encouraged the “rattafication” of our studies behavior, it was such a boring subject that most of us didn`t have any better alternative except to mug it up without knowing any reasonable meaning of this subject and get better score otherwise our ranks would go down. Yes there were other subjects we might have passed through similarly but history topped the list.

What puzzles me most why a fascinating subject was so boring in our school days? We all sneak into our history every moment of our life trying to know something about people, events, science, discoveries, and all that had happened in history. Has history become more fascinating in “AG” than in “BG” (As IT geeks say that out history is not divided in AD and BC now, its AG (After Google) and BG (Before Google) so I am using same terminology). History is definitely more fascinating now that we have complete information at clicks. Like many of us, I am rediscovering events of Indian history and India with the information available in AG world that was not available so easily BG.

My husband is avid watcher of WW2 and period movies; I have picked up his interest as well, especially the period dramas. I have come to like history because watching movies made it easier to visualize - the events, the contributions made by people, the great world wars, the pain, the suffering, the disease/epidemics, and our own India history. It’s so fascinating to know now how the civilization started in our motherland and the glorious history thereafter but back in schools days those event were echoed in an aptly worded, very old hindi song “ sikander ne porus se ke thi ladai toh main kya karoo”. I think that basic problem lies in way of teaching history as may be the case with other subjects in India. I had always “rattafied” this subject, Which is also why it was so hard to grasp/remember and just by reading history text book in class by some boring professor (excuse me for saying that...no offense) didn't make it any easier. I strongly feel that there should be some major improvements in teaching methods on this subject or for that matter on any subject. Teachers should show some type of movie/documentary to relate to the subject so that it would have greater impact on mind which will help us to remember better and appreciate it, and not just do all the “rattafication” for exams and then forget all about it. Although other subjects in science, math’s and commerce can be as boring as you want them to be but irrespective of type of teaching, young generation in India knows very well that way to succeed in India or abroad is to master subjects in science, math’s and commerce so they do whatever it takes to succeed in these subjects and thus history takes complete backseat.

History as a subject is important in India provided the teachers and students put the equal passion and interest. It is this link that tells us about the emergence of India as potential global, economic power and is not new but a renaissance and what we need to learn from some of the great leaders and our glorious history so that we rise with more confidence. Knowing our history well might provide our young generation great insight and wisdom that they may not have to look upon west for all solutions and global issues.

So you see how important it is to know the history, in order to foster personal growth - study history because everything you learn makes you wiser! How we make history a good choice as major in India is another topic and another blog to write later, I guess.