Rewriting History for our Times
The Indian diaspora is relearning—and retelling history in new ways.In May, we celebrated the first-ever Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month,marking the arrival of the first immigrants from the Asian continent into the United States.But Indians in the diaspora and the subcontinent have long been reflecting on their uniquehistory on an unlikely platform—Instagram.Accounts on Instagram have been making thousands of years worth of history attractive to anaudience that possibly snored their way through their school lessons. They’re fascinating,relatable, and enriching. And the platform’s visual-centered design makes it a perfect place tointeract and engage with it.Perhaps the most popular example of this is @brownhistory, an account with a whopping 612kfollowers. With the unique purpose of retelling South Asian history from the perspectives of“the Vanquished," it became famous as an Instagram account sharing fascinating profiles andhuman-centered stories from the annals of South Asian history. Split away from traditionallycolonial tellings, it brings people’s lived experiences front and center, fostering an intimatesense of connection with the past.It has expanded beyond the platform into a newsletter, podcast, and online shop where you canbuy fascinating vintage posters, painting prints, and other artifacts.@brownhistory’s popularity speaks to the deeply-felt desires of an audience to connect withtheir roots, regardless of where they live or hail from.Another history platform, @itihasology, chooses art as a mode of learning. It tells stories fromIndia’s history through its rich and glorious artistic traditions, and 42.8k individuals are herefor it.
According to founder Eric Chopra, using art is more than just an aesthetic choice—it’s anentryway to discovering and learning about more expansive areas of history like the economy,socio-political scenario, and imperial ideology of the time. Although grounded in academicrigor, @itihasology still manages to be relatable. Its success has extended beyond Instagraminto a podcast, a YouTube channel, and the Itihāsology Journal, which has been reviewed bywell-known scholars like Dr. Arshia Sattar and Dr. Sekhar Bandyopadhyay. Itihasology alsocollaborates regularly with art galleries, museums, and renowned publishing houses. For Chopra, history initiatives like @itihasology are essential to the moment. “We live in timeswhere history is being challenged, re-written, and misunderstood, primarily due to thepervasion of the hearsay generated on social media—in this context, it only seemed apt topromote well-researched, reliable, and multifaceted academic narratives using social mediaitself,” he says.Focusing specifically on Hyderabad, Hyderabad history account @thathyderabadiboy has aslightly different approach. Journalist and owner of the account Yunus Lasania conductsinterviews and frequently draws from oral histories of people who’ve lived through the events ofthe city’s history.
“I talk about oral history a lot because I feel it is one of the most important ways to understandhow our histories and cities have evolved,” he says. “Someone who is 90 years old wouldremember the way Hyderabad has changed. What we read in books from the sameperiod—someone has seen it and witnessed it…""[Even] ordinary people have their own stories to tell. So I wanted to focus more on that…The fact that more and more people now know about Hyderabad a lot better is what iscomforting to me and drives me to do my work,” adds Lasania.Every platform has its approach to history, but the common thread running through theirsuccess is their encouragement of dialogue and the active participation of their audience.As history is what lays the foundation for the present and future, any constructive discussionaround it by ordinary people is a positive for political participation as well.As another popular history platform, Kaarwaan Heritage, states boldly on its website, “For abetter future, we need to preserve our past because when you are in the present, you cannotescape your past, and when you study history, you cannot escape the present.”Many platforms like @thathyderabadiboy, @itihasology, and @karwaanheritage have beenable to drag their followers away from their screens out to museums, history walks, and even totext-heavy newsletters and journals—flying in the face of the notion that today’s internet usershave too little patience for words.History is essential because it’s a story that tells us who we are. As late Michael Crichton oncesaid, “If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’tknow it is part of a tree.” If the success and proliferation of history accounts on social media isanything to go by, Indians are well aware of it.
Pratika Yashaswi is an independent journalist mainly covering design, lifestyle and culture. Her words have appeared in Vice, Huffington Post, Dezeen, and Seema. She’s passionate about canines and mental health and writes with a perpetually peckish golden retriever at her feet.
