पहले एक कविता....
किसे मानूँ मैं सच
जो माँ ने बचपन में बताया था
जो गुरुओं ने पाठशाला में सिखाया था
क्या सच था वह
जो नालंदा एवं गांधार के साथ जल गया
जो मिस्त्र एवं यूनान के साथ लुप्त हो गया
क्या सच है वह
जो धरती के गर्भ मेन समाहित है
जो पर्वतों की कन्दराओं में गुम है
वह भी सच था
जो इतिहास में लिपिबद्ध है
जो पत्थर की शिलाओं में उत्कीर्णित है
वह भी सच था
जो किसी की आँखोंदेखी है
जो सिद्ध पुरुषों की अनुभूति है
सत्यता क्या प्रमाणिक है
सत्यता क्या किसी की खोज है
सत्यता क्या व्यक्ति विशेष वैश्लेलिक है
सत्यता क्या हृदय एवं मस्तिष्क का खेल है
सत्यता क्या छह एवं नौ का फेर है
सत्यता क्या केवल दृष्टिकोण का अंतर है
सच को तौलना अत्यंत कठिन है
समय के विशाल परिवर्तन या जन-जन की भिन्नता
या फिर जिसका शासन सच भी उसीका।।
Now the prose...
"You can't handle the Truth" scowled Jack Nicholson's character to Tome Cruise's in the Hollywood Movie "A few Good Men". It was a quest to find and uncover the truth. At least it was fresh in people's memory, there were eyewitnesses and some documented stuff which was very recent.
Now how do you deal with the truth that tests all these boundaries. Instead of recent events you are dealing with uncovering or truth over centuries. Instead of eyewitnesses you have stories passed through generations. Instead of impartial, unbiased and complete documentation, you have a version of history written by courtesans of that time's ruler. Instead of archeological evidences you have just ruins.
It becomes my History versus yours and an utter conflict ensues. Seldom this conflict makes any difference to population at large. Vested interests try to rally the population on their sides and make it an ego-centric issue of Win or Loss of the larger community.
Does it matter on what date the event took place or at what specific place it occurred? What should matter is that it took place due to certain circumstances and that it had an impact. What History is really for is to learn from circumstances and their impact. The socio-economic, cultural, political scenarios and conditions that led to the circumstances of the event and the fallout. What else is noteworthy is that all the conditions keep on changing as per time and hence what led to the historical event at a particular time and place gets null and void as the time passes or as the mentioned condition variables change.
Often it is seen that the historical event is judged not as a point in time event but on a timescale. How can one judge the event with conditions prevalent today? It becomes a difficult situation and raises a conflict that has no right answer. Someone has pointed out, there is nothing as a long term planning or long term vision because in long term, we are all dead. People part of the historical event and even their descendants are long dead in many cases and what we are left with are bits and pieces of history. We try and evaluate these bits and piece together the puzzle. Not an easy task for everyone. We put faith in the highest arbitrator available to us and hope that the puzzle will be solved. What comes out is a point of view that again is true to the evidence in hand and conditions prevalent. If any of the variables change, the arbitrator's point of view is again in question.
Historical events, thus, though have happened in the past but history keeps on evolving and the Truth becomes a point of view with many shades at that point in time.
सच
किसे मानूँ मैं सच
जो किताबों में अंकित किया है
जो सदियों से श्रुति - स्मृति ने सौंपा है
जो माँ ने बचपन में बताया था
जो गुरुओं ने पाठशाला में सिखाया था
क्या सच था वह
जो नालंदा एवं गांधार के साथ जल गया
जो मिस्त्र एवं यूनान के साथ लुप्त हो गया
क्या सच है वह
जो धरती के गर्भ मेन समाहित है
जो पर्वतों की कन्दराओं में गुम है
वह भी सच था
जो इतिहास में लिपिबद्ध है
जो पत्थर की शिलाओं में उत्कीर्णित है
वह भी सच था
जो किसी की आँखोंदेखी है
जो सिद्ध पुरुषों की अनुभूति है
सत्यता क्या प्रमाणिक है
सत्यता क्या किसी की खोज है
सत्यता क्या व्यक्ति विशेष वैश्लेलिक है
सत्यता क्या हृदय एवं मस्तिष्क का खेल है
सत्यता क्या छह एवं नौ का फेर है
सत्यता क्या केवल दृष्टिकोण का अंतर है
सच को तौलना अत्यंत कठिन है
समय के विशाल परिवर्तन या जन-जन की भिन्नता
या फिर जिसका शासन सच भी उसीका।।
Now the prose...
"You can't handle the Truth" scowled Jack Nicholson's character to Tome Cruise's in the Hollywood Movie "A few Good Men". It was a quest to find and uncover the truth. At least it was fresh in people's memory, there were eyewitnesses and some documented stuff which was very recent.
Now how do you deal with the truth that tests all these boundaries. Instead of recent events you are dealing with uncovering or truth over centuries. Instead of eyewitnesses you have stories passed through generations. Instead of impartial, unbiased and complete documentation, you have a version of history written by courtesans of that time's ruler. Instead of archeological evidences you have just ruins.
It becomes my History versus yours and an utter conflict ensues. Seldom this conflict makes any difference to population at large. Vested interests try to rally the population on their sides and make it an ego-centric issue of Win or Loss of the larger community.
Does it matter on what date the event took place or at what specific place it occurred? What should matter is that it took place due to certain circumstances and that it had an impact. What History is really for is to learn from circumstances and their impact. The socio-economic, cultural, political scenarios and conditions that led to the circumstances of the event and the fallout. What else is noteworthy is that all the conditions keep on changing as per time and hence what led to the historical event at a particular time and place gets null and void as the time passes or as the mentioned condition variables change.
Often it is seen that the historical event is judged not as a point in time event but on a timescale. How can one judge the event with conditions prevalent today? It becomes a difficult situation and raises a conflict that has no right answer. Someone has pointed out, there is nothing as a long term planning or long term vision because in long term, we are all dead. People part of the historical event and even their descendants are long dead in many cases and what we are left with are bits and pieces of history. We try and evaluate these bits and piece together the puzzle. Not an easy task for everyone. We put faith in the highest arbitrator available to us and hope that the puzzle will be solved. What comes out is a point of view that again is true to the evidence in hand and conditions prevalent. If any of the variables change, the arbitrator's point of view is again in question.
Historical events, thus, though have happened in the past but history keeps on evolving and the Truth becomes a point of view with many shades at that point in time.
