‘We should ask ourselves what we have done to attract youngsters to history’

80-year-old S. Settar has spent half a century researching Indian archaeology, art history, history of religions and philosophy and classical literature.

There are no signs of fatigue or ennui, as he continues to dig deep into history to come up with new gems, with his new area of focus being history of language, script and literature.

As his friends, admirers and students get together to celebrate his life and work on January 29, Prof. Settar is himself busy with three ambitious projects that he hopes will make history accessible to young readers.

The eminent historian, who has held several teaching and non-teaching posts, including Chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research, and Emeritus Professor at National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) at present, spoke to The Hindu .

Excerpts:

Q. What motivates you to keep at research?

A. There is so much wonderful source material that interests and excites me. I also feel ashamed that it is not being explored. Our conventional ways of reading history has made us ignore much of the rich material.

What historical material have we missed?

We have, for instance, not explored literary classics as tools of reading history and culture, beyond their literary value. The history of the evolution of language and script is another fascinating area that has largely remained unexplored.

What should be the focus of historians?

We should stop advising others and complaining about young people not being interested in history. Instead, we should ask ourselves what we have done to attract the younger generation to history. Much has been done, for example, to make Shakespeare or Socrates accessible to the young, which we have not done.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Bageshree S / Bengaluru – January 29th, 2015