![]() ![]() The debate about the veracity and efficacy of such a micro-historical approach, or what Omissi calls ‘history from below’, is a perennial one. ![]() The first, employs formal ethnographic research methods (interviews, participant observation etc), and provides a succinct, detailed account and history of the Rohingyas grappling with the most hopeless kind of Statelessness (among other devils) the second is a startling reconstruction of the 1971 War from the three distinct, heterogeneous first-hand perspectives, while the last one is a poignant collection of letters, written by Indian soldiers fighting in Europe during World War I. Think Nasir Uddin’s The Rohingya: An Ethnography of ‘Sub-Human Life’ think Anam Zakaria's 1971: A People's History of Bangladesh, Pakistan and India or David Omissi’s edited, Indian Voices of the Great War: Soldier’s Letters, 1914-18. ![]() It has been a long-held personal opinion that if one wants to really grasp the undercurrents, those subtle vignettes, and raw blood and bone of any historical event, one should either turn to historical fiction, or to oral histories and ethnographic accounts – the latter referred to as a micro-historical approach to reconstructing a historical phenomenon. Recollections of Balraj Bahri (from chapter, The Kitchenware of Balraj Bahri) What a dirty word, I had thought to myself even then, in complete disbelief”. THE POWER OF ‘HISTORY FROM BELOW’, RENDERED GRACEFULLY ![]() Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers, New Delhi ![]()
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