The Public Life of History

in Four articles on Indian history Rohit Copra links to some recent articles on Indian history of which I found Dipesh Chakrabarty's "The Public Life of History: An Argument out of India" in Public Culture (20: I, 143-168)very interesting. The full article needs subscription but Chprs gives link to an excerpt:
here. Dipesh Chakraborty asks " If one could think of the life of this discipline within the university—composed of classrooms, courses, examinations, seminars, conferences, journals, and so on—as its "cloistered life," as it were, then by its "public life" one could mean the connections that such a discipline might forge with institutions and practices outside the university and official bureaucracy. Can this discipline have a public life in my sense of the term when the public actually debates the past?
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Given their expertise, it is only understandable that historians in India should seek a role in adjudicating disputes about the past in India. But what prevents them from realizing this aspiration? It is to answer this question that I provide a history of history in India before returning, in conclusion and with some comparative glances at relevant debates in Australia and the United States, to the larger concern from which this essay arises: can history, the academic discipline, have a public life in a situation when the past is a matter of contestation in everyday life?"
My guess is 'probably not'. For one thing, official histories including many records on which they rely seem to be written by winners at the given moments. When it comes to current readings of the past, they often depend on the school or country of the writers and it takes a lot of effort to even it digest different views. In contrast, the current views of many seem to be decided by current political or market realities and often by leadership which does not care that much for hitorical truths based on facts (on many issues such 'facts' seem doubtful anyway). On the other hand, there are many theses,articles from universities and institutes about identity effects in business and politics ( a small sample like the ones by John Harriss in LSE Working Papers or Jeffrey Witsoe in CASI 'India in Transition' Papers many papers in IDS or EPW )which seem to give an indication of how things work now. But this is an outsider's view. Possibly more careful discussions will take place in Rohit Chopra' blog which already has several thoughtful posts on Nandigram and other issues.