When historians
read documents, maps and texts from the past they
have to be sensitive to the different historical
backgrounds - the contexts in which information
about the past was produced. explanation?
Answers
Answer:
When historians read documents, maps and texts from the past they have to be sensitive to the different historical backgrounds – the contexts – in which information about the past was produced.
Historical records exist in a variety of languages which have changed considerably over the years. Medieval Persian, for example, is different from modern Persian.
While the idea of a geographical and cultural entity like “India” did exist, the term “Hindustan” did not carry the political and national meanings which we associate with it today.
In the medieval period a “foreigner” was any stranger who appeared say in a given village, someone who was not a part of that society or culture. (In Hindi the term pardesi might be used to describe such a person and in Persian, ajnabi.) A city-dweller, therefore, might have regarded a forest-dweller as a “foreigner”, but two peasants living in the same village were not foreigners to each other, even though they may have had different religious or caste backgrounds