Quite often, when I try to understand history, I am reminded of the fable of the blind men and the elephant. As each blind man came forward and touched a portion of the animal, his understanding and explanation of it differed. So too with history. A new fact or a difference in perspective can paint the past in radically different hues. Which is the best hue? Which colour would paint the past in its most realistic replication? Is it possible at all? These are questions that doubtless assail most thinkers of history.

With these thoughts agitating my mind, I started examining the canvas of the human past. What I discovered was that the dominant brush strokes of most history writings were confined to political narratives in shades of grey, often to the exclusion or neglect of other colours! That this practice succeeded in creating an almost monochrome picture of the past, did not seem to matter. But it certainly did matter to me.

I often thought that a monochromic reflection of the past may have its own charm. But colour certainly added a vibrancy that carried with it the potential of vastly enriching our understanding of the past. Maybe, this need to allow different colours to complete the picture of the past had set in motion the trend of adding newer perspectives to political explanation. Thus, the emphasis on the study of the economy, the society, history from below, social formation, technology, etc., can be seen as an attempt to add different hues that would add to a more comprehensive understanding of the past.