Question

How do historians divide the past into periods? Do they face any problems in doing?What changes took place during 900 and 1750?

Answer 1

Time is not just passing of hours, days or years for historians. Instead it is the reflection of social, economic, cultural and religious changes that occur through the ages. Division of past into large segments—periods—make it easy to study time for historians. British historians, in the middle of the nineteenth century, divided time into three periods—Hindu, Muslim and British. This division was made on the basis of the fact that no significant change other than the religion of the rulers could occur during these periods. But as a matter of fact this division ignored the rich diversity of the subcontinent. Few historians take this periodisation even today while most of them take the economic and social factors into account in order to characterize the major elements of different moments of the past. The history of the past thousand years has seen considerable changes. As a result the sixteenth century was not the same as the eighteenth century or the eighth or eleventh centuries. Hence it is very difficult for the historians to describe the entire period as one historical unit.

Answer 2

Historians divide the past into large segments—periods—that possess shared characteristics. In the middle of the nineteenth century British historians divided the history of India into three periods: "Hindu", "Muslim" and "British". This division was based on the idea that the religion of rulers was the only important historical change, and that there were no other significant developments—in the economy, society or culture. Few historians follow this periodisation today. Most look to economic and social factors to characterize the major elements of different moments of the past.Historians face many problems while dividing the past into periods. The reason is that there was a good amount of technological development in the medieval period which can be called modern in the contemporary context. Despite that the period is not called modem but medieval. On the other hand, the modern past is followed by the medieval past.