COMING OUT OF HISTORY BOX

Millions of people take birth, live their life to the fullest and perish. Very few live their name behind. Very few of these very few make their way to history pages. History pages are difficult to define. The names of Prime ministers and Chie ministers are recorded. Can a page giving their chronology called as History page ? Even the police keep history sheets of the criminals. Are these History pages ? We have dynasties ruling India and some other parts of the world. History painstakingly records their chronology. Is it history ? In fact present school of thought does not classify chronologies of dynasties and wars as history. Only those who make difference to societies are given a place in history page. You find Mahatma Gandhi on history pages even if he did not rule for a single day. The purpose of this introduction is to show how difficult it is to get into history box But that is not the aim of today’s blog.

The aim is to trace those who come out of history box and continue to influence the society even after their time has come to end. They are not necessarily rulers ( including democratic rulers like Churchill.). Rulers are forget as soon as they stop to rule. Some go into oblivion like Gorbachev before death. They may get into history box and remain their unnoticed till some scholar decides to do some research. I do not think of myself as historian like Boxwel or Yadunath Srakar or Rajwade. Nor I have any inclination to follow some person or some era. I simply want to tell about some people which resurface again and again after the death.

Che Gavera for instance. He has outdone Fiedel Castro who continued to live and rule for long time after the revolution. I do not know if today’s youth prefer him on their T shirts for the face or for his work. I hope it is latter.

Apart from rulers and politicians some people gain or continue to gain acceptance much after their death. Very few knew Keshavsut and very few cared. He got recognition as father of modern Marathi Poetry much later. So much frustrated was he that he has written that People will not know how I looked like but some time in future they will know about me by my lines. Similar fate had befallen even on Shakespeare. Balkavi Thombre would have remained a character from autobiography of Laxmibai Tilak, But the merit of his poetry gained recognition much after death. No other poet writing for children in Marathi come any where near him. Shree Saibaba of Shirdi was not a God in his life time. Only a awaliya. This recognition came much after his death.

Similat fate comes way of some music and songs. “ Vaishnav jan to”is written by Narsi Mehta but became popular after Gandhi. So much so that western musicians composed tune for it more than fifty years of Gandhi. “Lakh;ahkti Chanderi “ was a song from Prabhat pictures. Modestly popular at its time. Not like icon state it has achieved today. Lata Mangeshkar sand “Jay Jay Maharshtra Maza” fifty years back and again on golden jubilee celebration of Maharashtra state. Not sung by her for the first time even fifty year back. Jyotsnabai had already made it popular. Original poem was written by Kolhatkar neither for Jyotsnabai or Latabai. It achieved icon state much later.

The merit and explosion of communication media is playing important role in such magic tricks . Perhaps many more resurrections are in the offing.

Arvind Khare