The Hindu : New Delhi News : Hobsbawm takes up cudgels for facts

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 16, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Hobsbawm takes up cudgels for facts

By Amit Baruah

NEW DELHI, DEC. 15. Get the facts right. That's the message Eric Hobsbawm had for historians and intellectuals who had assembled to hear him speak at the India International Centre today. The famous British scholar said historians had a duty to fight the abuses of history during the past 30 years.

Indians, he said, were more than aware of this — having seen a politically explosive battle over what goes into school textbooks. Prof. Hobsbawm said Marxist historians were not merely interested in describing the past, but explaining the past. Now, historians were more interested in "meaning," he said.

`Source criticism'

Pointing out that myths were treated as "facts," Prof. Hobsbawm strongly recommended "source criticism". As an example, he said historians could establish the death of the Mughal Emperor, Babar — there was no scope for uncertainty on the issue.

Talking with scholars, Prof. Hobsbawm was a trifle impatient with those writing "history from below." So interested were they in getting there, that they don't ask questions, he said .

`Foundational myths'

Referring to the creation of historical museums and sites in Germany and Japan, the 87-year-old scholar said such projects started with "a view" of history. The break-up of empires, he said , had led to the creation of new states that required a flag and "foundational myths."

Prof. Hobsbawm said Marxists have had to change their stance about issues, such as the transition from Capitalism to Socialism or from a non-secular to a secular order. "The only people who believe in teleology are the neo-liberals," he quipped.

History, he said, had been transformed by the natural sciences like biology. Thanks to DNA analysis, it had become possible to have an effective chronology of the human race. A proper framework for world history was now available.

About the speed of change, he said the Internet, which had transformed communication, was barely 10 years old. "It [the Internet] operates at the rate of change of Cabinets," he said in a reference to a change in a Cabinet of Ministers.

Prof. Hobsbawm said Europe did not exist as an effective political and military unit. Europe, he underlined, was an economic unit. He said he had generally been a sceptic as far as European unity was concerned.

Referring to that part of Europe which tried to organise itself outside both the Soviet Union and America after the Second World War, Prof. Hobsbawm said it was not until the 1970s that European affairs became a matter of mass politics.

He said America took Europe seriously only during trade negotiations. The ex-Soviet bloc countries were now acting as client states of the U.S., while the original nucleus of Europe didn't want to be seen in such terms, he added.

`Way down'

Europe, Prof. Hobsbawm argued, faced enormous problems. "We are on the way down," he said, stressing that Europe was living on its capital to some extent. He was of the opinion that the "centre of gravity" of the world economy was moving eastwards — with India, China and Vietnam to play a major role in the 21st Century.

The human consequences of social change were going to be enormous, the Professor felt, pointing out that the texture of human relationships in Europe was largely indeterminate. In Italy, he said , women simply did not want to have children. Family communities were disappearing.

Prof. Hobsbawm said one couldn't be against it globalisation. "It's like saying you are against the tides of the sea." He said there had been an enormous increase in inequalities as a consequence of globalisation. "These problems have to be dealt with," he added.

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