Historical empathy refers to the ability to understand and appreciate the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of people in the past within the context of their own time and circumstances. It involves putting oneself in the shoes of individuals who lived in different historical periods and trying to comprehend the world from their perspectives.

The Indian freedom struggle was simply the greatest, socially diverse—in terms of caste, community, religion, every sense of the word ‘diverse’—movement.

It was ordinary people who made the mightiest empire in the world come to its knees.

P. Sainath in his book titled   tells us about all the unsung heroes of the freedom struggle.

He says, ‘The first ‘War of Independence’ was not the 1857 ‘Sepoy Mutiny’ but the one fought by the Adivasis of Jangalmahal, because the East India Company came to Bengal first and the revolts began there. Then they went to the South and a second round of uprising took place. It is 60 to 90 years later that the first bullet was fired in 1857. In the quest for Indian freedom, adivasis were the first to die for it and the last to benefit from it. Today we have a university named Sidho Kanho Birsha University in Puruliya. Those who do not know or have not heard of Birsha will also not know about Sidho and Kanho. These were the leaders of the Santhal hool (revolt) before 1857. When twenty thousand people were wiped out in two days, the Santhals stood up to the British canons, rifles—long range, by the standards of the day—and fought back with axes and arrows. This was the heroism of the freedom fighters who stood up against the British.’

About his book he says, ‘The book is about farmers, labourers, cooks, couriers, homemakers, lots of women who you don’t see in the textbooks on freedom struggle, because we have looked at the freedom struggle through largely male eyes. And, like in every culture and like everywhere else, what women do is considered less important. How can a cook be an important person in freedom struggle, right? How can a homemaker be important? Actually, they were incredibly important, often more than the men they worked for, who went to jail. I’ll give you one example. Bhabani Mahato, 104 years old from Purulia, denied being a freedom fighter. When I first interviewed her she said, my husband was one, he went to jail but I never went. You know what she was doing against the British government? In 1942, at the height of Bengal famine, she was growing and harvesting foodcrops, transporting that produce, cooking it, feeding a giant family of 25 and feeding another 20 to 25 underground revolutionaries in the forests of Purulia, for up to two months. This unbelievably courageous lady was feeding the underground revolutionaries of 1942. Her husband went to jail for 13 months and I don’t think it was half as risky as this. Therefore, cooks, couriers, homemakers, forest-produce gatherers like Salihan, the Adivasi in Kalahandi, Barkagaon district—these were the people who stood up and fought.

There are more women in this book than you will find in any book on freedom fighters, except for books that are written specifically on women. And the book begins with the incredible Hausabai Patil of Maharashtra. In 1943 the province of Satara declared independence from British rule. They formed a prati sarkar, an underground government and an armed wing called the toofan sena (storm troopers). The underground leader of that toofan sena died last year. His name was Captain Ram Chandra Bhao Sripati Lal, also known as captain Elder Brother, Captain Bhao and Captain Dada. Hausabai Patil’s story begins when she is thrashed to a pulp by her husband in front of Sangli police station. He beats her but the police did not come out to help. Man beating wife is perfectly Indian, right? It is the national sport. When he picked up a rock and threatened to break her skull, the police had to act. Having a man beat his wife is all right but murdering her at one’s doorstep is inconvenience and troublesome. So the police went out, intervened, scolded both of them, reconciled them for half an hour  to 40 minutes and then escorted them to the railway station, bought them tickets, put them on the train and told them that they never wanted to see them idiots here again. Hausabai thanked them—she was bleeding from the slaps and cuts—and they went away. The police returned to find that when they were counseling Hausabai and her fake husband, her comrades of the toofan sena had looted the police station of all its rifles, ammunitions, weapons, money and were gone. And the man was not her husband, it was a fellow comrade of the freedom struggle; they had put on that act. You can see Hausabai’s video on the People’s Archive of Rural India website. I asked her what was the most vivid memory of that period. She said that scoundrel comrade hit me too hard. Then I asked her why didn’t you tell him to stop. She said I told him to stop but he said, ‘No it has to look authentic and only then the police will come.’ She was laughing when she said this at the age of 92.’

There are innumerable true life stories in Sainath’s book. Using any one small account from these can go a long way in the student’s understanding of ‘historical empathy’.

You can find these stories and video interviews at: https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/stories/categories/foot-soldiers-of-freedom/

India's freedom struggle had a global impact, inspiring other nations in their quests for independence. India's success became a symbol of non-violent resistance and paved the way for similar movements worldwide. However, there were consequences that continue to shape the country's trajectory to this day. Consequences that are important for our young to understand. One of the most tragic consequences was the partition of India in 1947 that resulted in widespread communal violence, displacement of millions, and loss of lives.

There were economic repercussions resulting from British exploitation and the transition to self-governance posed numerous economic challenges. Political fragmentation along linguistic and regional lines led to the reorganization of states, which, while addressing some concerns, also sparked identity-based tensions. These are just some of the many challenges the country faced which our young need to have knowledge of. Of these, understanding the partition trauma from multi perspectives is perhaps one of the most important. Over seven decades have passed but in the public domain the dominant focus related to this important historical event remains on the western and eastern regions of the country. The partition affected several other regions in ways that have left a deep social, cultural and political impact. To develop historical empathy teachers could bring some of these narratives into the classroom. Below please find links to a selection of resources that look at the period through the eyes of those who lived through the trauma—artists, poets, writers, ordinary citizens whose experiences differ widely based on their circumstances at the time. These resources also contain well researched accounts along with simple classroom activity ideas of the background to the accession of Hyderabad; the realities of the Chittagong Tracts, the experiences of people in Kashmir and Kargil region.

Including some of these conversations/activities could introduce the concept of ‘Historical Empathy’ into the classroom.

Here are a few simple classroom activities:

1.     Divide the class into three groups. One group interviews one family member/family friend who experienced the 1947 Partition first hand. The other two groups interview a member of the second and third generation respectively from a partition effected family. Follow this up by discussing and comparing the responses collected across three generations. The class can then have their own Partition archives where they can compile and preserve these stories.

2.     Read The Sound of Falling Leaves by Qurratulain Hyder, an eminent woman author of several novels, novellas and short stories who explored these human dimensions of Partition. In this particular writing she illustrates the experiences of an affluent woman from an economically well-off background. Fatima is not only the daughter of a well-to-do individual but she also possesses the necessary educational qualifications to help her find a suitable job and support herself. Despite that, her life does not seem to be going in a way that she would have wanted. Fatima constantly reflects upon her past and finds it difficult to navigate through the present circumstances.

Have the students compare and contrast this with the experiences of other women who may have come from some other socio-economic backgrounds, and how they responded to the dilemmas and challenges of the head and the heart in the face of partition.

Is there some kind of relation between the socio-economic background from which a woman comes and her experiences of partition?

Are there some crucial intersections across class and caste affiliations?

3.     S. L. Parasher was the Vice-Principal of the Mayo School of Art, Lahore, and Founder Principal of the Punjab School of Arts, Simla. Parasher spent 1945–47 as commandant of the Baldev Nagar Refugee Camp in Ambala and Gandhinagar Camp, Delhi. Wrested, like everyone else, from much of what he knew and loved, he spent sleepless evenings walking among the refugees and often stopping to record the visible evidence of all that was lost, in the form of line drawings.

Parasher’s Partition line drawings are a window into this largely empty space. They are that rare transitional item that flows directly from the immediacy of his experience in a transit camp in 1947 to our experience in 2021 trying to imagine hopelessness and despair, of the lives which have given us our own, of a time where everything which was dependable had been ruptured and nothing of the future could be imagined.

Both these drawings focus a close eye on individual portraits within the Baldev Nagar Camp and are yet strikingly distinctive in their portrayal of them.

·      What are the first adjectives that come to your mind on looking at these two drawings?

·      The artist is portraying the experience of refugees in this camp within the same time and space. Yet this portrayal is strikingly different in these two drawings.

·      Discuss: Does one’s identity play a role in the experiences and expressions of loss and oppression during times of violent conflict, as portrayed through these two people in the drawings? 

·      Does gender play a role in these expressions of grief and loss? How?

·      How does being made into a refugee alter identity?