HISTORY, CALLED TRADITION

 

 

 

One Often hears Reejections filled sighs from armchair elites of society , if there comes mention of the indian tradition in a conversation .They discard everthing related to the word tradition. They look at tradition as orthodox and anti-modernist. Unfortunately they make big mistake. for they do not realise that through rejection of tradition they are blocking an opportunity to enrich collective understanding of history . Yes! Any tradition can very well be referred to as history. A good practice of today becomes a tradition of tomorrow. However, a practice forced upon society because of fear or through coercion or sycophancy transforms itself into a tradition that fades away with time.That is how a society works. Through traditions and practices and beliefs, it accepts or rejects a part of history over time. In fact, history lives on not only in documented forms or scriptures or monuments or literature, but also in smaller things like daily or occasional practices, cuisine, clothing, agriculture, ballads, proverbs, riddles, idioms, and even what come to be called as ‘superstitions’. Various examples can be cited if one looks at those as important pointers to history rather than devoting time in discussing rightness or wrongness of certain practices. Merits of a practice may be debated but context of history cannot be missed. For instance, ‘Sati’ tradition prevalent in certain parts of the country could be traced back to fear of invaders or cruel rulers violating the chastity of widows a few hundred years ago. Since the situation changed and enriched collective understanding of the futility of the practice in the modern world, this practice did not stand the test of time and faded away. Still, its fading away does not erase the historical reality that formed the basis for ‘Sati’ tradition coming into being. There is another example too. Renowned author Mr. Prashant Pole cited this in one of his recent articles.

 

In Chhattisgarh, a community has a tradition of offering water to river to seek her blessings and forgiveness, before solemnising any marriage.Why? They feel it is their duty towards the river, whose water will be drawn excessively for the use of guests coming for the marriage ceremony. If traced scientifically, this tradition may be rooted in a drought in history that taught the community to worship the river as a deity, and not just as a water-body that can be abused. Similar examples can be found ingrained in daily practices of many Indians. They remember ‘Bhumi Devi’ or Earth when they recite ‘Samudra Vasane Devi’ every morning. They recite names of seven holy rivers while bathing every day. A part of the Ursa Major constellation is referred to in India as ‘Saptarshi’, with each of the seven stars named after seven sages.All these reflect the respect for environment, rivers, and study of astronomy ingrained in social consciousness of those who still follow traditions. And, what to say about the epics ‘Ramayana’ and ‘Mahabharata’? They contain wisdom passed on from one generation to another through storytelling. The wisdom contained in the ‘Vedas’ cannot be attributed to any one author. Rather, those may be among the only documents reflecting collective cultural contribution by people from the era when wisdom had not been looked at from the narrow lenses of caste, religion, politics, ideology etc.

 

One can go on and on quoting several examples of why traditions should be treated as‘institutionalised consciousness of history’ in Indian society. Similar things could be found in other geographies of the world. These traditions have got nothing to do with modern-day definitions of religion. These need to be looked at as reflections of history that have survived through the vortex of time. Unfortunately, in the name of adopting modern values, study of history got confined to certain norms that originated in culturally and civilisationally younger parts of the world. Today, methodologies emerging from theWestern world alone are treated as ‘scientific’. But, not every form of history fits in the frameworks invented in the Western world. This can be reflected in the fact that the world has started recognising ‘oral history’ as something of societal significance only recently, as compared to India that integrated oral history with social practices and human pursuits in life. In India, that is Bharat, history is intertwined in the rich repository of traditions. Certain practices and beliefs, apart from proverbs and idioms in not only languages but also dialects, can be traced back to some historical event or character.

 

If one can filter out the misrepresentations and misinterpretations from those, forgotten dimensions of history start emerging from the debris of the past. Those questioning everyone and everything need to look at the Indian traditions as important contributions to understanding of history. Proper research on historical roots of customs and traditions in India becomes all the more significant today, because a lot of unauthentic and unverified information is being produced in the digital space and fed to gullible populations to vitiate their minds towards own roots so that they not only disbelieve but also feel inferior about own history. Adding to the confusion are two global projects namely ‘alternative history’ and ‘horizontal history’. Such projects may become tools to weaken a society by presenting or even inventing history with a divisive political agenda. But, looking at traditions as important markers of history has potential to liberate history research from presentday political colours. For, a society that forgets its history loses its identity in due course of time.