Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it.

“Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write It. “ – Oscar Wilde

What is history? History seeks to study and explain the significant events of the past on the basis of currently existing evidence. History seeks to make a connection between the past and the present. It defines what was important in the past and those certain historical events that we should probably know about. It is important to know these events as they might leave an impression on our lives or in some way or another shape our lives and opinions. More importantly each individual creates some sort of a mark in his or her life, which is defined by the person’s experiences and outlook towards life. Some marks these people left become are known as recollections of the past of history. Without these we cannot find out the ultimate truth of the past and our conclusions about this past become distorted.

History is a source of knowledge for the past. Each version of history is different from one another, as each individual is different from one another. It is more than just a catalogue of events and the main job of a historian is to interpret and explain the past. When it comes to writing history, the historian will usually have to make a selection from the available evidence. Since primary sources are themselves a selective interpretation of the events, this shows that history is a selection of selection of events.

The fact that our knowledge of the past is filtered first through the eyes of the one who witnessed it and then through the eyes of the historian who wrote about it makes it difficult to establish the truth. The writing of history is also dominated by the era in which it is written. The passage of time is constantly adding new pages to the book of history, and this means that what has gone before will be reassessed by each new generation in the light of subsequent experience. History is made up of micro – histories and macro -history which is generally written in the textbook. This macro -history is a generalized version of that particular event, deducting all the small stories and articles associated with it.

There are few accounts of history that overrule the others, and those are the ones written by people in power or influenced by people in power. These particularly are history textbooks written and published by those who intend to set a good example for the society or country and try and glorify the country’s past, deducting the flaws. An example is the CBSE history textbook where all the content completely changed when the party changed from BJP to Congress. Gandhi was glorified even more. This was stimulated by political power and propaganda. Another common example is the Indian and Pakistani history textbooks. In our textbooks, Pakistan is regarded as the country responsible for the partitions and in their books; India is regarded for the division. This shows how both stances to one story are different but the history textbook will only consider one side in accordance with the country and party’s situations. Hence it can be said that history is written by people in power.

This is a sham, as people who are powerful often misuse the past and history as a way of gaining personal benefits. There are many fatal conspiracies in the past, which are uncovered, and many questions unanswered. These truths are known by powerful people but not disclosed to the public. Gandhi is known as our step to freedom but his Harijan upliftment movement did more bad than good to the Harijans as Gandhi met with much resentment from a prominent Harijan leader, Mr. B.r Ambedkar. Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon is a huge conspiracy and now is also regarded as a CIA hoax. But in order to glorify one’s country, such realistic facts are concealed.

Therefore history is a mixture of good and bad events but the fallacy lies in the fact that great writes write history which is a record of the good events, completely devoid of the true essence of history.