CHI213 | History, In the Present

Was Indus Valley a proto-Vedic civilization? Are Aryans originally from India? Are there temples  buried under mosques? Were the Mughals foreign rulers? Such questions have incessantly shaped  the public memory of remembered pasts. They have been invoked by politicians, policy makers,  social activists, and people at large. At times they appear as the stuff of history in social media,  especially WhatsApp groups, Facebook pages, Instagram reels and YouTube channels, while at  other times they sneak their way into courtrooms, boardrooms, and classrooms. The constant  search for a past that is negotiated in the present leads to erasure, violence and harm in the name  of history. While these battles, often protracted through networks of institutions and ideologies,  continue unabated, an ever-increasing space for circulation of information is created through the  intervention of new media, communication platforms, and artificial intelligence. Moreover, the  lure of the remembered past in the public sphere continues to draw a wide range of motley  actors into the scene of historical work – for e.g. curators, conservationists, social activists, policy  makers, content creators, and heritage workers.

Thus, it is important to ask, in what ways has the public life of history challenged the  conceptual frameworks of recovery and reconstruction? How do we recognize history in face of  misinformation and information fatigue? Does the historian need to rethink their engagement  with time, space, and knowledge formation in order to comprehend the public life of history?  What is at stake for the non-historian in the reconstruction of history in the present? Finally, is it

worth asking one more time, what is history? But, now, under the sign of the present? In  answering these questions, in this course, we will bring together perspectives and debates from  Public History, Museum Studies, Heritage & Conservation, Memory Studies, Art History & Architecture, Urban Studies, and Law & Public Policy, along with Cultural and Intellectual  History. This is an introductory-level elective and no prior acquaintance with history of South  Asia is required in order to register for the course.

Course Objectives  

1. Acquaint students with methods of historical research and its challenges in the present.  2. Develop skills towards understanding the role of History in Public Policy, Urban  Planning and Governance, and Law.

3. Acquaint students with the public life of History, especially in the context of the modern  nation-state and its institutions.

4. Nurture historical thinking in the age of fake news, misinformation, and reconstructions  of historical truth.

5. Grapple with the role of history learning and teaching in the time of Artificial  Intelligence.

6. Understand History as a profession outside the History Classroom.