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Blurs of history

 


“History is the lies of the victors,” says the narrator of Julian Barnes’s novel The Sense of an Ending. The narrator is a young student when he says this. Later he will alter his opinion. When he expresses this opinion, however, his history teacher adds that history is “also the self-delusions of the defeated.” Many years later, having learnt many lessons from life, the narrator says that history is “more the memories of the survivors, most of whom are neither victorious nor defeated.”

Memories aren’t quite reliable, however. That’s another motif in the novel. More often than not, what we remember is not what actually happened. We shape and reshape our memories to suit various purposes such as forging bearable meanings to our experiences and adding colours to our dull existence.

We do that not only for ourselves but others as well. As Barnes says in the same novel, “when we are young, we invent different futures for ourselves; when we are old, we invent different pasts for others.”

We have invented wonderful pasts for a lot of heroes.

You needn’t go too far into the past to understand this. Take a recent example from Kerala. K M Mani was an illustrious finance minister of the Congress coalition for many tenures. The last part of his life was mired in unsavoury corruption charges. The same left party which demanded his resignation as finance minister and prevented him from presenting the annual budget in the assembly is today planning to erect his statue that will cost the weary exchequer Rs 5 crore. A man who sold the people of Kerala to a bunch of liquor barons for a few crore rupees will stand like a hero in a city square for posterity to imagine different pasts. And Mani died just two years ago.

We fight in the name of gods who died a few thousand years ago. For the sake of the pasts we have invented for them. That’s also one way of adding sense to our otherwise senseless existence. For too many people, life would be sheer unbearable agony without those gods and their invented pasts. That’s how life is. Nothing as great as it’s cracked up to be.

That’s okay too. What’s not okay is when we insist on imposing our imaginations and inventions on others too.

Next time before we go to hand over our precious ‘truths’ to the neighbour or the passer-by, it would be good to look back at one or two of the stories we invented in our own personal histories. And remind ourselves that history is also the self-delusions of not necessarily the defeated but the ordinary mortals like you and me.


[Both the pictures above are from the Garden of Five Senses in Delhi, taken about ten years ago.]

PS. This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon

 

Comments

  1. Hari OM
    Memory can be fickle - but usually we have people around us to help measure the accuracy of our memories. Friends and family help to keep us honest. If we lack that support, of course it is possible to fictionalise. Generally, there is no harm to any other from this.

    Reinvention is another thing altogether, designed from self-delusion, first, and to create an illusion for others, second. In the second case, those who are affected by our illusion are betrayed and thus harmed. When talking at individual level, this is generally a result of any one or a combination of;
    simple insecurities
    an inability to cope with reality
    serious desire to appear other than one is for a variety of social reasons
    occupational need (spies etc)
    delusional mental states (medical)
    (other factors may play also - survival in war situation for example).


    When this occurs in the public arena the harm is to society. We do live in times of mass awareness though, the truth is there to be found and history does sort that out... one is minded of Jacques Abbadie, One can fool some men, or fool all men in some places and times, but one cannot fool all men in all places and ages. (A quote that later got rearranged and without proof attiributed to Lincoln.)

    As ever, your post has caused me to think deeply and widely! Thank you for the delightful images of the sculptures. YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for adding a lot more to my post. I am worried about the reinventions happening in my country. They are insidious, to say the least.

      Delete
  2. Do we ever do anything but build stories on our own beliefs and continue to assert the same on generations to come. Your posts are worth pondering upon and offer such a wide range of perspectives..i am reading Black Hole at the moment. Just started.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Replies
    1. Not for all. How reliable? Try asking a few friends about certain events of the past and you'll be surprised.

      Delete
  4. All your writings are food for thought and have so many perspectives. The reality hits hard. This is one such piece that compels the readers to ponder upon.

    ReplyDelete
  5. What am I if not the sum total of my memories? I wonder.

    Like Yamini mentioned above, our family and friends can be good quality checks (if we are lucky enough to have them.) A lot of my childhood memories are based on the collective sharing of my family about what I used to do/say as a child.

    Your point about the expensive statue brings home the appalling and sad state of affairs in India. All that money!!

    Didn't know this Garden of Five Senses existed! Thank you for sharing your pics. Hope to visit it whenever I'm able to go to Delhi.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are more than the sum total of your memories, I'm sure. At least the Gestalt people won't let you get away with that statement. But your book is a strong proof how memories can dominate our present too.

      Garden of 5 senses is a lovely place to spend leisure in Delhi. My pics here are selected for this post. The garden is far more beautiful than what you see here.

      Delete
  6. Memories are fickle indeed, especially with the passage of time. "We fight in the name of gods who died a few thousand years ago. For the sake of the pasts we have invented for them." This is so aptly said! History may not be absolutely correct

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nothing is absolutely correct in the human world except maybe mathematical equations. The dividing line between history and myth is rather blurred especially when we deal with times long ago.

      Delete
  7. "...we invent different past"... How profound! And its real life phenomenon for sure.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If Newton had said that it would have become the fourth law of motion. 😅

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    2. Hehehe... I like that!
      PS: I dont know how but my comments have appeared under "unknown".

      Delete
    3. I was wondering too who this Unknown benefactor was.

      Delete

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