Who writes our story?

Without a doubt, 1857 is an important milestone in the evolution of modern India. But the lacklustre character of the celebrations surrounding the one hundred and fiftieth year of India8217;s First War of Independence raises some profound questions about the relationship between the nation and the important events that made it. The first is the striking contrast we still see between India8217;s religious celebrations and its civic ones. The former are colourful, spontaneous, diversely imagined and organised by the people. The latter remain for the most part dull, solemn, doled out in standardised formats and manufactured by state.

The question is: why aren8217;t citizens taking charge of their own history, commemorating them in their own way? The reasons are complex. Part of it has to do with the state constructing 1857 as an icon, rather than lively history. 1857 is also a touchy subject, because there many competing narratives about these events. And for all our talk about unity in diversity, these competing narratives can expose our faultlines. There is also something to the claim that the character of our patriotism may be changing: rousing narratives of sacrifice do not move us in the same way they used to. But an important part of the answer is that Indians still have not taken charge of writing their own history. While Indian historiography is theoretically sophisticated in many ways, the art of great narrative historiography written by Indians is all but dead. We depend upon the curiosities of foreigners to keep the story alive. One of the greatest storytelling nations has stopped producing stories about its own past, forgetting that ideological battles over history can never be a substitute for enticing narratives. William Dalrymple8217;s masterly The Last Mughal subtly undercuts the significance of this event for Indians: its wonderful recovery of a time when nation state ideologies had not congealed our identities, also glosses over the hierarchies colonialism produced. 1857 has the power to move because, it is, above all else a darn good story. Too bad, there is simply no contemporary Indian narrative of the event of any power.

But historical amnesia and indifference to the cause of liberty and self rule pose real dangers to a nation that has forgotten how to write its own history. If the indifference to the story of 1857 becomes a sign of indifference to India, we will be in deep trouble.