Ans. I. Feminist History involved writing about the role and achievements of women in hisoty by studying and compiling the historical wrigings of women. Earlier this was neglected as male scholars were involved in the writing of Indian History.
Ii. Tarabai Shinde was the foremost among the women authors who wrote about women in the 19th Century and the caste system in her book, Stri - Purush Tulana, published in 1882 which is considered as the first feminist book in India. The book titled ‘The High Caste Hindu Woman’, written by Pandita Ramabai was publised in 1888.
Iii. In the post - independence era, issues like employment of women, treatment meted out to them at their work place, their right to political equality, etc. was reflected through feminist literature.
Iv. The recently published feminist literatur contains:
A. Meera Kosambi’s book, ‘Crossing Thresholds: Feminist Essays in Social History’ Which contains essays on the life stories of women like Pandita Ramabai and Dr. Rukhmabai (the first practicing lady doctory of India)
B. Literature unforlding the viewpoint of Dalit women in Maharashtra.
For e.g. Dr. Sharmila Rege’s book, ‘Wriging Caste, Wrting Gender, Reading Dalit Women’s Testimonies’ which includes her essays on the autobiographies of Dalit women.
Ans. I. Subaltern means the ‘bottommost ranks’ and subaltern history developed from the idea that history should be written from the bottommost rank of people in the society. This idea was developed by the italian historian Antonio Gramsci and its seed are supposed to be found in the Marxist historiography.
Ii. One of the important sources of writing subaltern histories is the folklore.
Iii. The Indian historian, Ranjit Guha, played a major role in establishing subaltern history as an important academic school of historiography. Prior to him, similar thoughts were expressed by Mahatma Jyotirao Phule and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar.
Iv. Mahatma Phyle drew attention to the exploitation of women, Shudras and atishudras done under the name of religion. In his book, Gulamgiri, he unfolded the history of the shudratishuda community. The terms shudra and atishudra indicates the bottommost ranks in the caste system.
Similarly, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar wrote about the role of people belonging to Dalit castes in shaping the various cultural and political aspects of India which was neglected in the colonial and nationalistic historiography. His two books ‘Who Were the Shudras’ and ‘The untouchables’ are examples of the history of Subaltern type.
Ans. I. Nationalistic Historiography includes the writings of Indian historians who were trained in the British educational system. They aimed at restoring the pride in the ancient glory of India and self - esteem of the Indian readers.
Ii. The nationalistic historians tried to seek the golden era of Indian history, although at times, they ignored the critical analysis of the historical truth.
Iii. Naionalistic type of historiography also helped in triggering the independence movement of the Indian people against the British. For e.g. ‘The Indian War of Independence, 1857’ written by Vinayak Damodar Savarker.
Iii. Moreover, the writing of regional histories gained momentum due to the nationalistic historiography and drew attention of the historians tot he geographic conditions & history of south Indian regions.
Iv. Vishnushastri Chiplunkar who criticised the prejudiced history of ancient India written by British officers, inspired nationalistic writings in Maharashtra. Some other renowned nationalistic historicans include Mahadev Govind Ranade, Ramkrishna Gopal Bandarkar, Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, Rajendra Lal Mishra, Kashi Prasad Jayswal, Radha Kumud Mukherjee, Anant Sadashiv Altekar, Bhagwan Lal indraji, Vasudev Vishnu Mirashi and V.K. Rajwade.
Ans. I. The European scholars who had curiosity, admiration and respect for the civilisations & countries of the East are known as ‘Orientalists’. They focused on Vedic tradition & Sanskrit literature and also studied the similarities between Sanskrit & some of the European languages. These studies formulated a notion about an ancient language that could be the origin of all Indo - european languages.
Ii. The Asiatic Society founded by Sir William Jones in 1784 in Kolkata, opened the doors for research in ancient Indian literature and history.
Iii. According to the Orientalist scholar, Friedrich Max Muller, Sanskrit was the most ancient language of the Indo - European languages, He was deeply interested in Sanskrit literature and translated the Sanskrit text of Hitopadesh in German. Moreover, he edited 50 volumes of ‘The Sacred Books of the East’. He even compiled and published Rigveda in Six volumes as well as translated it in German.
Iv. However, a scholar named Edward Said re - evaluated the orientalist writings and highlighted the imperialistic interest of the orientalist scholars.
Chapter 1: Historiography - Development in the West.
3. Annales School.
Ans. i. Annales School was a new school of historiography.
Ii. It arose in France at the onset of the twentieth century.
Iii. It was started by French historians and gave a new direction to history writing.
Iv. According to this school, history was not only about the political events, kings, great leaders, politics, diplomacy and wars but it also included the climate, local people, agriculture, trade, technology, means of communication, social divisions and their collective psychology, etc. in the historical times.
Chapter 1: Historiography - Development in the West.
2. Dialectics
Ans. I. The method of analysis of history based on opposites, as presented by the German Philosopher Georg. Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel is known as ‘Dialectics’.
Ii. Hegel proposed that human mind can grasp any event only after understanding its meaning in terms of two direct opposites. For e.g. True - False, Good - Bad, etc.
Iii. According to this method, a theory is proposed at the beginning, which is called, ‘Thesis’ followed by another theory contrary to the thesis, called the ‘Antithesis’.
Iv. A new thesis is then proposed, after a thorough logical discussion, which includes the gist of both the thesis and antithesis. This process of arriving at the new thesis is called, ‘Synthesis’.
Chapter 1: Historiography - Development in the West.
1. The tradition of recording history in the summer civilisation.
Ans. i. The tradition of recording historical event dates back to Sumer civilisation in Mesopotamia.
Ii. The various inscriptions of that time preserve the names of Sumerian kings and the stories of battles fought by them.
Iii. The earliest of these inscriptions, which records a battle fought between two kingdoms, dates back to 4500 B.C.D. It is displayed at the Louvre Museum in France.
Iv. A part of the inscription shows a forward marching file of soldiers holding shields and spears with the General in the front.
Daughter breastfeeding her father starving in Prison – A European Emotional Story
After looking at this photograph you might be getting lots of Negative or Positive thoughts in mind, but after knowing the reality of this photograph you might get tears in your eyes.
In one of the European country, an old man was sentenced to hunger death, he was put in prison. The punishment was like that he would be put on hunger until his death.
His daughter pleaded with the government to meet her father daily until his death.
She was granted permission, she used to get checked by prison officers. So that she couldn't bring any eatable items.
She can't see the condition of her father like this. She looked at her father with the eyes of a caring mother. So, in order to keep him alive, she used to feed him breast milk on daily basis.
When after so many days, the man was not dead. The security guards got suspicious and caught the girl breastfeeding her father. A case was registered against her, but her selfless nature won the heart of the jailor and she won the freedom of her father.
The painting is one of Europe's costliest paintings.
