Most of us have read history as lessons in books. Dates with wars and revolutions led by historical figures are memorized. But is this method very good for truly knowing and understanding history? What if history was learned through questions? How great would it be to understand history by meeting historians in person and asking them about your curiosities? Neerja Modi School of Jaipur is taking such innovative initiatives. The school is giving new opportunities to its students to connect with the ideologies and civilizations read in history books. Under the school’s new initiative ‘Relearning India’, students can meet contemporary historians, writers, researchers and storytellers and ask them questions. These people present history in a way that connects directly with students. Conversation with Amish Tripathi opened the way to understanding India’s past. When bestselling author Amish Tripathi reached school, the students’ questions became the basis of the conversation on India’s past and its vibrant presence in the present. When a student asked a question about the Maratha Empire, the conversation moved to the entire world around Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj – the forts, the administrative system and the concepts of state governance that shaped the empire. Another question was related to the languages of Jain and Buddhist texts. It opened the way for understanding the linguistic and intellectual traditions of India. A question asked on the Grand Trunk Road did not limit the students to just knowledge of that ancient route, but took them to the movement, trade and changing political landscapes over the centuries. Amish Tripathi’s new book ‘Dhruv-Tara and the Great Indian History Quiz’ becomes a natural medium to connect students with this idea. His first book written for children introduces young readers to Indian history through adventure and quizzes. Tripathi’s interaction with NMS students showed how information can be made more interesting and meaningful for the youth. He talked about Bhaskaracharya, an Indian mathematician and astronomer who lived about 900 years ago. While sharing the traditional story related to Lilavati, he transformed a historical mathematical text into a part of student conversation through a human story related to it. Not only the students interested in mathematics were impressed by it, the students inclined towards humanities subjects were also equally excited. In the interaction session with the students, Amish Tripathi also spoke openly about his writing habits. He told the students, “I don’t often get writer’s block. I have written 13 books in 16 years. I am very active. Music works for me. I listen to music while writing and eat a lot of cream biscuits.” Students who knew the author through his books now got a chance to meet the man behind those books and learn how he approaches writing. This also gave them an opportunity to understand that historical stories are also prepared through research, imagination and creative skills. This event with Tripathi shows that contemporary Indian writers can act as a bridge between the youth and the country’s past. NMS wants to provide students with more opportunities to understand the past through those who have spent their lives interpreting or retelling history. This opportunity could be in the form of an author talking about a new book, a historian challenging a popular belief, a researcher explaining how new evidence changes our understanding of an event, or a storyteller bringing a distant time period closer through story. History is not a closed subject. Neerja Modi School (NMS) believes that instead of studying history in separate boxes, students should be given the opportunity to understand Indian history from a combination of different perspectives and different ways of storytelling. Presentations by writers and artists provide context to history. In this way, the things about history read in books do not become mere information to be memorized or memorized, but the events of the past and the people associated with them start appearing closer and more alive to the students. This initiative by NMS aims not just to add more history to the syllabus, but to include new voices in the history conversation and change how India’s youth connect with their past. History, mathematics and literature – humans at the center of everything. History, like mathematics and literature, is ultimately the story of people. NMS is making the stories behind books and the people in them more intuitive and accessible to students. These voices are not a substitute for academic education, but a medium to arouse curiosity. Beyond knowing the past, understanding it through questions The importance of schools bringing such personalities among students is that they ask not just what they know about India’s past, but also think about what they have yet to discover and what stories have shaped the country they live in today. This is the thinking behind ‘Relearning India’. Its aim is to bring the country’s history into dialogue with a generation that is growing up in a completely different information environment from previous generations. ‘Relearning India’ does not just mean looking back. This means giving students opportunities to ask questions, to make connections, and to discover in new ways the depth and diversity of the story they have inherited. India’s young generation is increasingly influenced by global culture and digital information. In such a situation, the school sees these meetings as a medium to keep students connected to the depth and diversity of India’s own story. The classroom is its starting point. But beyond this, there are books, dialogues, researchers, writers, stories and questions whose answers are yet to be discovered.
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Impact Feature: ‘Relearning India’ – A new way of understanding India’s past at Neerja Modi School; Students are learning history through questions like maths.
