Histories of the Present

A mountain is making its way to you, guns blazing. Will you persist?—Naveen Kishore

Yes, indeed. We must.

At a recent History for Peace conference, Anirudh Kanisetti spoke of a society-wide pattern that we are encountering from the information asymmetries that have always existed and are now being fuelled through easy access to technology. Multi perspectives and plurality—essential for a democratic society—have taken on a whole new meaning.

‘People are curious about history, but they rarely encounter accessible, critical work, despite the efforts of decades of scholars. So they pick up the first thing that promises insight and if it tells them something new, confirms an existing bias, and makes them feel a certain way, it suddenly becomes unquestionable truth.’