History – Meaning and Methodology

• History is very much 'scientific.’

• It involves critical thinking.
• It involves formulating hypotheses based on evidence and
testing them.
• Historical methodology is the process by which historians
gather evidence and formulate ideas about the past.
• It is the framework through which an account of the past is
constructed.
 HISTORY
• Derived from Greek word “historia” means “knowledge acquired
through inquiry or investigation”
 HISTORIAN
• HISTORIAN not to seek historical evidences and facts but also
interpret these facts
• To give meaning to these facts and organize them into a timeline
• establish causes
• write history
• a person of his own who is influenced by his own context, environment,
ideology, education, and influences
• his interpretation of the historical fact is affected by his context and
circumstances
• his subjectively will inevitably influence the process of his historical
research: the methodology he will use, the facts he shall select and
deem relevant, his interpretation and the form of his writings
 HISTORICAL METHODOLOGY
• Compromises certain techniques and rules that
historians follow in order to properly utilize sources and
historical evidences in writing history
• Certain rules apply in cases of conflicting accounts in
different sources, and on how to properly treat
eyewitness accounts and oral sources as valid historical
evidence
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• History is more complex than many people realize.
• No, for real.
• It is so much more than memorizing names, dates, and places.
• History is very much 'scientific.' It involves critical thinking.
• It involves formulating hypotheses based on evidence and
testing them.
• That is what this lesson is about.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Historical methodology is the process by which historians
gather evidence and formulate ideas about the past.
• It is the framework through which an account of the past is
constructed.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Throughout the world, studying history is an essential element of
good liberal arts education.
• Knowledge of history is indispensable to understanding who we are
and where we fit in the world.
• As a discipline, history is the study of the past.
• In other words, historians study and interpret the past.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• In order to do this, they must find evidence about the past, ask
questions of that evidence, and come up with explanations that make
sense of what the evidence says about the people, events, places,
and time periods under consideration.
• Because it is impossible for a single historian to study the history of all
people, events, places, and time periods, historians develop
specialties within the discipline.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Carr’s What is History? has long been read by
students, helped no doubt by the fact that it is very
short.
• Much of its argument has long since passed out of
current thinking and, on its own, it is perhaps an
inadequate introduction to historiography, as Carr
would doubtless have been the first to admit.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• The past does not exist; it is gone in a moment and can
never be recovered.
• But if the past itself has gone, it has left a vast amount
of material behind from which historians construct their
versions of it.
• For any age beyond living memory this material will be
physical evidence, and from it historians construct a
pattern of events which, they contend, actually
happened.
• Historians usually do this with a certain degree of
confidence, even if the evidence base is fairly small.
History – Meaning and Methodology
• For example, a historian might find, tucked away in a
local newspaper, a review of a village pantomime in
1931.
• It might appear to be an example of resilience at local
level during the difficult years of the Depression or an
indication of the uses to which the village halls erected
after the First World War were actually put.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• However, unless the historian were studying the village
in detail, it is unlikely that he or she would seek
corroborating evidence of the performance: there is
nothing particularly startling in the idea of a village
pantomime and we have no ostensible reason to
assume the local paper would make such a thing up.
• The historian is thus presenting this pantomime as an
event, as something that happened.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• But how do historians decide which, among the
thousands of facts they encounter, to marshal in
support of their arguments?
• This issue was brought into new prominence in the
early 1960s when Professor G. Kitson Clark gave a
series of lectures at Oxford about The Making of
Victorian England
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• He took a broad-brush approach, looking at British society
in the first decades of Victoria’s reign, supporting his
imagery with examples culled from his reading of court
records, newspapers and so on, as one would expect of a
historian with in-depth knowledge of the period.
• The following year, however, his work was latched onto in an
unexpected way in a series of lectures given in Cambridge
by Professor E.H. Carr, an eminent historian of the Soviet
Union.
• Carr’s point related not to the Victorian subject matter but
to Kitson Clark’s selection and use of his factual material.
History – Meaning and Methodology
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• History may be defined as "an integrated narrative or description of
past events or facts, written in a spirit of critical inquiry, for the whole
truth".
• History differs in method from the natural sciences.
• Instead of the direct observations used in science the historian
usually must depend on the observations of others.
• Therefore, ·the historical method involves "a procedure
supplementary to observation, a process by which the historian seeks
to test the truthfulness of the reports of observations made by
others"
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• "Historical approach to the study of any subject denotes an effort to
recount some aspect of past life".
• So historical method is an attempt to narrate an accurate account of
some aspect of life and its scientific analysis and presentation.
• The process involves investigating, recording, analyzing and
interpreting the events of the past for the purpose of discovering
generalizations that are helpful in understanding the past,
understanding the present, and to a limited extent, in anticipating the
future".
• Historical research is "the application of the scientific method of
inquiry to historical problems"
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• STEPS IN HISTORICAL RESEARCH
• Historical method being a scientific one, a historical researcher has to pass
through stages similar to those of an experimental research worker, such as
stating and delimiting the problem, and selecting the sources.
• There are three major steps in historical research.
• They are:
• a. Collection of data through primary and secondary sources.
• b. Criticism of the data, including the internal and external examination.
• c. presentation of facts in a readable form involving problems of
organization, composition, exposition and interpretation.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• The pre-requisite of research is the collection of adequate, accurate
,and reliable facts about the problem under investigation.
• The success of research depends on the, validity of the information
that is collected.
• ‘Therefore the selection of suitable instruments for collecting relevant
data is important.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Collection of Data Historical sources usually fall into two categories,
namely, primary and secondary.
• Primary Sources, "Primary sources are the original documents or
remains, the first witness to a fact.
• It is the only solid basis of historical work " .
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• They may be of two kinds.
• (a) Consciously transmitted inforrnation in the form of oral or written
testimony or recods kept and written by actual participants or
witnesses of an event.
• Constitutions, charters, court-decisions, official minutes or records,
autobiographies, letters, diaries, genealogies, deeds, wills, permits,
licences, declarations, proclamations and reports come under this
category.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• b) Unconscious testimony in the form of remains or relics, e.g.,
human remains (fossils, tools, weapons, household articles and
clothes) and language, literature, arts,and institutions of various types
• Primary sources are extensively used in this study.
• Primary sources used in this study are letters, minutes., reports,
published and unpublished documents, periodicals. newspapers and
books.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Letters
• A large number of letters sent by the missionaries in Kerala to the
mission authorities in England are preserved in the archives of the
Council for World Mission in the School of Oriental and African
Studies of the London University and in the Church Missionary
Society Archives in London
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Minutes:
• A large number of minutes of committee meetings are used in this study.
• Important among them are the followings
• Minutes of the Travancore District Committee (TDC).
• The Travancore District Committee is a body of LMS missionaries.
• Another is the Minutes of the Meeting of the Eastern Committee.
• In these minutes there are pieces of information regarding the
establishment and management of schools.
• These are either in manuscript or in printed form.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Reports:
• There are large collections of reports sent from the mission stations to the
head quarters.
• They are preserved in the Archives of the School of Oriental and African
Studies and the Archives of the Church Missionary Society in London.
• The Reports of the Basel Evangelical Missionary Society are preserved in
Basel (Switzerland) and in the University Library at Hamburg (Germany).
• These sources are used extensively in this study.
• They give detailed descriptions of the history of women's education in the
Malabar area.
• The manuscript reports are marked 'MS' to distinguish them.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Government Documents, Another kind of primary source used in this
study is the Government documents.
• Most of the educational activities of the local governments are
mentioned in the Travancore Administration Reports·.
• Back volumes of these reports are preserved in the British Museum
Library in London.
• Cochin Administrative Reports are kept in the India Office Library and
Records in London.
• These sources are used in this study.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Interview:
• "The interview is, in a sense, an oral questionnaire.
• Instead of writing the response, the subject or the interviewee gives
the needed information verbally in a face-to-face relationship".
• The interview is relatively a more flexible tool than any other written
enquiry form and permits explanation, adjustment and variation
according to the situation.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• With a skillful interviewer, the interview is often superior to other
data gathering devices.
• One reason for this is that people are very often more willing to talk
than to write especially on intimate confidential topics.
• The 'purpose and meaning of questions can be explained to get valid
responses.
• It is also possible to check the truthfulness of the responses
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• SECONDARY SOURCES
• It is not always possible to obtain primary evidence, and therefore at times
the historian has to rely on secondary sources.
• "The sources of information transmitted by one who was neither a
participant in, nor an eye witness to the original event are called secondary
sources"
• Secondary sources include such materials as history, encyclopedias and
books.
• In this study also secondary sources have been used to supplement the
primary sources.
• Therefore a number of books have been consulted.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• CRITICISM OF DATA
• A historical research worker has to depend on the conscious and
unconscious testimony of others for the study.
• One cannot say how much valid, reliable or significant the collected
data is unless a careful analysis is made.
• The process of appraisal which is used to derive usable and
trustworthy data, is known as historical criticism.
• It involves the dual process of external and internal criticism.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• EXTERNAL CRITICISM
• It is aimed at establishing the authenticity or genuineness of the data lest the
researcher may waste his labour on forged or counterfeit documents.
• "External criticism is concerned with genuineness of the document itself, whether
it really is what it purports or seems to be and whether it reads true to the
original".
• To establish the genuineness of the age or authorship of documents, one may
have to use many an intricate test of signature, handwriting, script, type, spelling,
language, usage and documentation.
• It may involve chemical and physical tests of the material data of ink, paint, paper,
metal and cloth.
• In other words, the validity of the sources used must be established before their
content is evaluated and used for research purposes.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Internal Criticism
• "Internal criticism deals with the meaning and trustworthiness of
statements that remain within the document.
• "It weighs the testimony of the document in relation to the truth.
• It is aimed at evaluating the accuracy of the documents.
• The errors, omissions and additions in documents in copying, printing
and translation can be detected by internal criticism.
• It is also an important factor in determining the validity of the data.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• The Research worker must make use of both internal and external
criticism for assessing the validity and reliability of the data.
• In this particular study the data collected through primary and
secondary sources were subjected to internal and external criticism.
• In the missionary reports and their publications, and in some of the
government reports, the investigator sometimes noted a sort of
rhetoric which over estimated their works and the results of their
works.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• In order to overcome such shortcomings and to make the study more
objective the investigator referred to other contemporary sources.
• Thus sufficient care has been taken to make the study objective and
impartial.
• The investigator also personally visited the places where the work had
begun and also the institutions originally started.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Presentation of Facts
• There was a time when historical writings were done chronologically.
• However, according to present understanding, the historical material
may be organized according to the theme or topic.
• It is known as topical, thematic or functional arrangement.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• But the method suited for this study is found to be a combination of
both chronological and thematic arrangements.
• Therefore attempt has been made to arrange the materials
chronologically.
• But in a few places chronology was discarded for the sake of clarity
and coherence.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• According to Good and Scates ,
• "Historical composition is a synthetic and constructive
process that involves the mechanical problem of
documentation, the logical problem of selection and
arrangement of topics and sub-topics and the philosophical
problem of interpretation".
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• The problem of documentation in writing the report of a historical
research is in no way different from the problem of
documentation in reporting any other research study.
• Therefore in giving references, the procedure adopted in
other research studies was followed in this study
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• HISTORICAL SOURCES
• Primary sources
• sources produced at the same time as the event, period, or
subject being studied.
• eyewitness accounts of convention delegates and their memoirs
are used as primary sources
• Archival documents, objects, collectables, letters, census, and
government records
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Secondary sources
• sources that are produced by an author who used primary
sources to produce the material
• are historical sources, which studied a certain historical subject
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• EXTERNAL CRITICISM
• The practice of verifying the authenticity of evidence by
examining its physical characteristics; consistency with the
historical characteristic of the time when it was produced; and
the materials used for the evidence
• Examples of the things that will be examined when conducting
external criticism of a document include the quality of the paper,
the type of ink, and the language and words used in the
material, among others
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• INTERNAL CRITICISM
• Looks at content of the source and examines the circumstances of
its production
• Looks at the truthfulness and factuality of the evidence by looking at
the author of the source, its context, the agenda behind its creation,
the knowledge which informed it, and its intended purpose
• Entails that the historian acknowledge and analyze how such reports
can be manipulated to be used as a war propaganda
• Validating historical sources is important because the use of
unverified, falsified, and untruthful historical sources can lead to
equally false conclusions
• Without thorough criticisms of historical evidences, historical
deceptions and lies will all be probable
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Historical writing is not an easy task; its path is strewn with
rough pebbles and prickly thorns which none but the most
determined, patient and the pain staking pilgrim could cross.
• Any man could make history, but only great men can write
history.
• Good history is not merely addition of details, interpretation
of facts and explanation of processes & conditions, but also
philosophizing the ideas to get at the essence and spirit of
history by pressing the facts to yield historical juice.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• A Historian ought to be exact, sincere and impartial.
• Free from passion, unbiased by interest, fear, resentment or affection
and most importantly truthful.
• Historian is the preserver of great actions, enemy of oblivion, witness
of the past, and the direction of future.
• In short, he must have an open mind and readiness to examine all
evidence even though it might be spurious.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Dr. B. Sheik Ali says:
• “History is a sacred subject and is dying.
• History is objective and history is truth.
• Definition of truth is reflection of reality without any kind of
prejudice.
• When you kill truth, then you are killing God.
• Truth is God and God is truth.
• A country without truth will not have future.
• We need historians who are very objective.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• German historians wrote French history, where even French could not
find any fault.
• When Leopold Von Ranke and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel wrote
French history, people said - “here is truth”.
• We must rise above all without any prejudice, should think correct
and history is a foothold on which you should stand united.”
• Although Dr. B. Sheik Ali held the objectivity standpoint, he still
observed that no one could escape from some sort of philosophizing
ideas to get at the essence and spirit of history.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• History and that all historical reconstruction essentially depends
upon documentary evidence
• As a historian he believes that it was not only important to state the
facts as they are, but also to have constructive purpose.
• It is also true that it was impossible as a human to be value neutral.
• The historian is governed and moulded by factors of known and
perceptible environment.
• Hence the renowned historian Will Durant remarked “know the
historian before you know his history”.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• “The historian’s duty is to separate the truth from the falsehood, the
certain from the uncertain, and the doubtful from that which cannot
be accepted........
• Every investigator must before all things look upon him-self as one
who is summoned to serve on a jury.
• He has only to consider how far the statement of the case is complete
and clearly set forth by evidence.
• Then he draws his conclusion and gives his vote, whether it is that his
opinion coincides with that of the foreman or not.”
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• The first important use of imagination is that imagination
helps to fill gaps in historical reconstruction.
• However, in using imagination to fill gaps through historical
reconstruction it has to be remembered that this
imagination has to be constructive, in the sense that one
should objectively try only to answer the question.
• Secondly in using imagination, the historian has to keep his
reconstruction within the parameters of available
documentary evidence.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Justice cannot be done to a subject unless one has a full
grasp of the development of that subject over a fairly long
time, the nature, method and technique adapted in its
development; and a perception of what more is needed for
further development.
• History writing is nothing but reorganizing and
reconstructing the experiences of the past, finding new
meaning into those experiences and finding new directions
to experiences.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• History writing is in deed a very complex affair, as it deals with man’s
mind; and there is no limit to the manifestations of this mind in its
cosmic effort to know the reality of the situation.
• To know the reality itself is difficult, but much more difficult is to
explain, analyze, interpret and draw valid conclusions from that
reality.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Since truth or objectivity is our goal which should be synthesized in
the context of causes, conditions, processes and conclusions that
resulted in the phenomena; the job of a historian becomes extremely
sophisticated.
• He has to become a thinker, a philosopher, a scientist, an analyst, a
psychologist, a sociologist and so on in order to get at the truth of
events and personalities of the past.
• Therefore, a good knowledge of the theoretical aspects such as
nature, meaning and scope of history would be absolutely essential in
order to be a good historian.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• This work is a trinity of three aspects:
• Part 1 - Theory,
• Part 2 - Methodology, and
• Part 3 - Historiography in one volume.
• The first part deals with theoretical problems such as what
constitutes history, its nature and scope of history, value and
subject matter of history, philosophy and theories of history,
and structure and form of history
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• The various conceptions regarding the definitions of history are
analyzed by illustrating history as a record of past events, history as
knowledge base, and history as being scientific in nature.
• The nature of history shows us that it is humanistic, for it deals with
human beings, it consists of events, is concerned with change, is time
and place oriented, is scientific in nature, and it is also an
independent branch of study.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• The scope of history is wider than any other discipline and practically
unlimited in its interest.
• The encyclopedic and all-embracing scope of history makes it a
universal discipline.
• It is multi-faceted encompassing different sub-fields.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• The objectives of the study and writing of history which include
knowledge of historical facts, time and space, insight into causal
relationships, appreciation of the contributions of great people,
development of interest in the study of history, and history as a
necessity for posterity.
• He brings out the manifold uses of history.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• It provides a historical background as well as employment, and
imbibes intellectual, educative and moral values, leads to the
realization of human dignity and gives lessons of historical
experiences.
• He says history has relevance in the contemporary times, as all of us
are constantly and continuously calling upon history and making
historical judgments about contemporary issues.
• History not only enriches us with knowledge of the past, but also
provides us with analytical skills applicable to solving problems in
many areas of life.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• The second part is about methodology; it complies with preliminary
operations, analytical operations, synthetic operations and concluding
operations.
• In other words, Dr. B. Sheik Ali examines the method to be adopted in
carrying out research related activities.
• A good research proposal convinces others that the research is worth
undertaking; it enables the researcher to demonstrate expertise and
competency in his or her particular area of study, serves as a contract
between the researcher and his or her funders and is like a planning
tool for the researcher.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• The researcher has to convince other people like other researchers,
research funding agencies, educational institutions and supervisors,
that the research is worth getting a grant.
• The value of the work has to be highlighted by illustrating how the
research will make a difference to the world, or by identifying a
dilemma in existing theory, which the research will help to resolve.
• The main purpose of the research proposal is to convince the reader,
for which it is important that a clear and professional writing style is
adopted.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• SURVEY OF LITERATURE forms the first step in the framing of a
research proposal.
• It refers to reading other researcher’s studies in order to learn how
they have conducted their research and what have been their
findings.
• Although a time consuming task, surveying the literature helps in
deciding which factors are important to study, how they are to be
assessed and what findings are to be expected.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• The literature review provides a conceptual framework for the reader,
so that the research question and methodology can be better
understood.
• It also demonstrates to the expert reader that the researcher is aware
of the breadth and diversity of literature that relates to the research
question.
• It is important that the researcher is able to provide an integrated
overview of the field of study.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• This means that researcher should show awareness of the most
important and relevant theories, models, studies and methodologies.
• The review of literature proves that the particular piece of research
has not been worked upon before.
• The researcher has to critically analyze the kind of work done on it
and ensure that the idea of research has not been undertaken yet.
• By doing this, the researcher’s solid theoretical knowledge in the field
is demonstrated which forms the theoretical basis of the project.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Choosing a topic for a research proposal is a very important step.
• If a researcher has a choice of topics, it is always better to pick one
that interests him or her and to which he or she would have at least
some access.
• Identifying the research problem and developing a question to be
answered are the first steps in the research process.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• The research question will guide the remainder of the design process.
• When writing a hypothesis about different research fields, chances
are many that somebody has already made that exciting discoveries,
or written that splendid paper that awoke everybody’s interest in the
first place.
• If this is the case, the researcher should get a fresh point of view
upon the subject and make new connections.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• This will make the project even more stimulating to the reader.
• A good researcher will always structure the work in advance, in the
sense that he or she will clearly know what he or she intends to say
before writing it.
• For the writing to be clear, every sentence must contain only one
idea.
• Each sentence must follow logically from the one before, since a well-
written text is a chain of ideas.
• While writing, the reader’s needs must be kept in mind.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• This provides a verbal chart of the document so that the reader
knows what to expect.
• The writing style of the research proposal should be such that it
should appear as a professional looking proposal.
• It should be interesting and informative, at the same time it should be
concise, precise and easy to read.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• It should be interesting and informative, at the same time it should be
concise, precise and easy to read.
• Research methods can be classified in various ways; however one of
the most common distinctions drawn is between qualitative and
quantitative research methods.
• Qualitative research methods were developed in the social sciences
to enable researchers to study social and cultural phenomena.
• Examples of qualitative methods are research interviews, case study
research, surveys and scaling techniques.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Qualitative data sources include observation and fieldwork,
interviews and questionnaires, documents and texts, and the
researcher’s impressions and reactions.
• Quantitative research methods were originally developed in the
natural sciences to study natural phenomena.
• Examples of quantitative methods, which are now well accepted in
the social sciences, include survey methods, laboratory experiments,
formal methods and numerical methods such as mathematical
modeling.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Qualitative research deals with the collection and analysis of useful
information through various techniques and procedures.
• It involves the use of qualitative data such as interviews, documents,
and participant observation data, to understand and explain social
phenomena.
• Qualitative researchers can be found in many disciplines and fields,
using a variety of approaches, methods and techniques.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• All research whether qualitative or quantitative is based on some
underlying assumptions about what constitutes valid research and
which research method is appropriate.
• When historians who are new to a subject area come across an
important question that they cannot answer, their first reaction is
often to interview people who they feel will know the answers.
• Questionnaires are convenient for obtaining information from large
number of respondents but involve many methodological problems.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Wording of questions must be intelligible to uneducated and
uninterested persons also, they must convey standard meanings to
persons of varying backgrounds, they must avoid topics that arouse
resistance and refusal to complete the questionnaire, and they must
not be too complex or difficult so that returns are insufficient or
constitute a biased sample.
• Precisely wording the questionnaire is very important as slight
alterations in the wording of questionnaires may produce
considerable variations in the pattern of responses.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Case study research is one of the most common qualitative research
methods used.
• It is an empirical enquiry that investigates a contemporary
phenomenon within its real-life context, especially when the
boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly
evident.
• The naturalistic observation is a type of study classified under the
broader category of field studies and is a nonexperimental approach
used in the field or in real-life.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• In the naturalistic observation method, the researcher very carefully
observes and records some behavior or phenomenon, sometimes
over a prolonged period, in its natural setting.
• In the social sciences this usually involves observing humans as they
go about their activities in real life settings.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• The participant observer field technique is well established in
anthropology and has been adopted by other disciplines such as
history and sociology too.
• Participant observation is a fundamental method of research used in
cultural anthropology.
• It involves a researcher living within a given culture for an extended
period of time to participate in all its richness and diversity.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Scaling technique refers to a cross-analysis of areas of interest of a
given audience.
• In other words, it denotes classifying people in consumer surveys
according to their areas of interest.
• The survey is a non-experimental and descriptive research method.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Surveys can be useful when a researcher wants to collect data on
phenomena that cannot be directly observed (such as opinions on
some historical occurrence).
• In a survey, researchers sample a population.
• Hardly any historian can work without visiting the archives at some
point of time or the other.
• Archives is a record office or a repository for an organized body of
records produced or received by a public, semipublic, institutional, or
business entity in the transaction of its affairs and preserved by it or
its successors.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• The third part - Historiography, is a monument.
• Dr. B. Sheik Ali has dealt with vivid and proficient historiography.
• It is an analysis of ancient historiography, medieval historiography,
modern historiography of English school, modern historiography of
other European schools, Indian historiography of ancient and
medieval period, Indian historiography of modern period and
American historiography.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• The historiography of all these schools of thought have been
presented from time to time in terms of the major findings regarding
important aspects of political, social, economic and cultural history.
• When all other disciplines start their study with a history of their
disciplines, it is but natural that history too should commence its
work by the study of the history of History.
• It is not enough if a researcher merely knows what history is, and how
history is to be written, but the novice should also know how history
has been written, which in a practical sense would teach him much
more than the theoretical study of historical writing.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• As long as historians remained in descriptive analysis of men and
events without resorting much to the impact of ideological values,
philosophical concepts, social, economic and material factors on the
flow of history; the importance of the above three aspects (Theory,
Methodology and Historiography) do not figure much.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• In line with the growth of idea on history, there has been a radical
change in the technique of writing history.
• The order of the day made the historians to think and evolve a new
technique called “historical method” to present past events in their
correct perspective by diligent collection of data, by critical
examination of the data to get at the truth, by intelligent
interpretation of the data to explain its significance, and by lucid and
attractive presentation of the data in order to make history a
fascinating tale.
• With this technique, a historian is a scientist, a philosopher and a
litterateur - all in one.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Dr. B. Sheik Ali paid special attention to Indian historiography which
was a neglected area of our scholars.
• At the same time he sufficiently covered the historiography of other
countries.
• Prime fact is that Dr. B. Sheik Ali covered Indian historiography of all
periods: ancient, medieval and modern, and more so of different
schools of thought including revolutionary, reactionary, rationalist,
nationalist and Marxist school of thought.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Dr. B. Sheik Ali very succinctly explains - what we do in history is to
tell man, what man is, by telling him what man has done.
• In other words, the proper understanding of man, by man is the
business of history.
• The function of history is neither to love the past, nor to condemn the
past, nor to free from the past, but to master the past in order to
understand its bearing on the present.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• Three functions make up a historian:
• 1. A Scientist to gather facts,
• 2. A Philosopher to interpret them, and
• 3. A Litterateur to express them.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• “History has the ability to improve the understanding of man.
• History not only tells us about the right principles of life, but also
warns us through concrete examples about the inevitable destruction
of society if these principles were to be neglected.
• History should be made to promote human understanding.
• A wise man learns from his experience, but a wiser man learns from
the experience of others.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• History presents to us the rich heritage of the past through which we
know what factors promote human happiness and welfare, and what
factors hinder happiness.
• History contributes to man’s wisdom and strengthens his virtue by
making him to acquire higher values of life.
• The awareness of self is a reflective process and it is in this sense that
history becomes a vibration of life in the reflective spirit.”
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• History becomes a record of human experiences that links the past to
the present and the future.
• It gives ideas on chronological frameworks for organizing historical
thought, and places significant ideas, institutions, people and events
within time sequences.
• The interpretation of history may change as new evidences are
discovered as history relies on the interpretation of evidence
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• History is a narrative told in many voices and expresses various
perspectives of historical experience.
• History also reveals that cultural elements including language,
literature, art, custom and belief system reflect the ideas and
attitudes of a specific time, and determine how the cultural elements
have influenced human interaction.
 History – Meaning and Methodology
• History is dynamic and is composed of key turning points.
• It is a bridge in understanding groups of people and an individual’s
relationship to society.
• History is a fundamental connection that unifies all fields of human
understanding and endeavor.
History – Meaning and Methodology

Thank you