question_answer

Describe the different sources from which we can reconstruct the political career of Gandhiji and the history of the nationalist movement.

Or

Describe the strengths and weaknesses of oral history. Mention any four sources from which the history of partition has been constructed.

Answer:

(i) We have many resources to reconstruct the political career of Mahatma Gandhi and the history of National Movement of India. These are personal writings, autobiographies, official records, etc. The writings of Mahatma Gandhi and his contemporaries play an important role in understanding the view of Mahatma Gandhi. In this magazine The Harijan, Gandhiji published those letters that others wrote to him. The autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi. The Experiment with Truth7, similarly gives us of information about Gandhiji and freedom movement. Autobiographies are based on memories and whatever the author writes largely depends on his memory. From the fortnightly report of police we also get invaluable information about the national movement and Gandhiji. These reports were written on the basis of the information received from the local people. According to the report at the time of the Salt Satyagrah it is clear that Home Department was not willing to accept that Mahatma Gandhi was receiving large support of people. In the report, the Salt March was being painted as a drama of hopeless people.

(ii) Another vital source is newspapers published in English language and in other Indian languages which also provide valuable information about Gandhiji and the national movement. Newspapers monitored the movement of Gandhiji, News related to Gandhiji were published in these newspapers. They also helped in understanding the view of the people regarding Gandhiji. It would be justified to say that these information received from the different sources are read unbiased, they may be important source of information about Mahatma Gandhi and National Movement of India.

Or

Strengths of oral history:

(i) Oral history helps us grasp experiences and memories in detail. It also enables historians to write richly textured, vivid accounts of what happened to people during partition.

(ii) It is impossible to get this kind of information from government documents.

(iii) Oral history also allows historians to broaden the boundaries of their discipline by rescuing from oblivion the lived experiences of the poor and the powerless.

Weaknesses of oral history:

(i) Oral data seem to lack concremess and the chronology they yield may be imprecise. Historians argue that the uniqueness of personal experience makes generalization difficult, a large picture cannot be built from such micro evidence and one witness is not witness.

(ii) Oral accounts are concerned with tangential issues.

(iii) The small individual experiences which remain in memory are irrelevant to the unfolding of larger processes of history.

Following are the four sources from which the history of partition has been constructed:

(i) Diaries: It helps us grasp experiences and memories in detail. It enables historians to write richly textured, vivid accounts of what happened to people during Partition. It is not possible to extract this kind of information from government documents. The latter deals with the policy and party matters and various state sponsored schemes. In case of partition, government reports and files as well as the personal writings of high level functionaries throw ample light on negotiations between the British and the major political parties about the future of India or rehabilitation of refugees.

(ii) Memories and experiences: Millions of people viewed partition in terms of the suffering and challenges of the times. For them it was no mere constitutional divisions or just the party politics of the Muslim league, Congress and others. For them it meant the unexpected alterations in life as it unfolded between 1946 and 1950 and beyond requiring psychological, emotional and social adjustments. Memories and experiences shape the reality of an event.

(iii) Oral narration: Oral history allows historians to broaden the boundaries of their discipline by rescuing from obligion, the lived experiences of the poor and the powerless. The oral history of partition has succeeded in exploring the experiences of those men and women whose experience has hitherto been ignored, taken for granted or mentioned only in passion in mainstream history.

(iv) Family histories: The accounts of family histories tell us about the agonies faced by the members of the families, their sufferings and trauma during the partition.

First hand written accounts are also important sources to understand the experience of those who lived through those traumatic times.