In 1953, the artist Willem de Kooning agreed to give his
fellow artist, Robert Rauschenberg, a drawing to erase. Rauschenberg worked on
the drawing for over a month using a variety of erasers. Despite all efforts,
traces of the original drawing remained. In 2010, digital imaging revealed much
of the original drawing. This act of erasure symbolises attempts to erase histories,
whether individual or collective.
Neuroscientist, Charan Ranganath, finds that within 20
minutes people forget 40% of what they learn and after a few days only 20% is remembered.
Since the past is over, why should we
remember? It helps in making sense of the present and making better choices for
the future.
Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking Fast and Slow, says memories
are all we get to keep from our experience of living. In reality memory is
selective and may be far from accurate. Some memories are preserved in diaries
and letters, or in autobiographies, but even the most meticulous accounts are from
a personal perspective. Siblings remember their shared childhood differently.
Ranganath suggests memory is less like a photograph and more like a painting,
what psychologist Frederick Bartlett calls an imaginative reconstruction.
What of consciously erasing the past? A successful
businessman may hide his humble origins. Migrants may change their names to
blend in, or people may change names to hide their identity. While the tabloid press
which thrives on celebrity gossip, reveals too much, mainstream press is
accused of hiding the true facts.
Editorial policy, often under political pressure, dictates
which stories to go with, and which to ignore, language may show racial or
gender bias, or vilify political opposition. In Pakistan, editors with a
conscience, were known to leave blank columns to draw attention to censorship.
Dr. Ramzy Baroud, journalist, author, and editor of The
Palestine Chronicle, calls independent journalism ‘a battle for history’.
Recently the Guardian newspaper carried a story of the successful efforts of UNRWA
to smuggle out of Gaza 30 million documents and original registration cards of
Palestinian refugees who had sought safety in Gaza in 1948, including birth,
marriage and death certificates dating back generations. This counters the
efforts of Israel to erase the historic presence of Palestinians.
One of the ways Empire exerted dominance was through
changing the names of conquered places. Many reverted to their original names
such as Mumbai, Attock and Kolkatta. African countries created new names for
countries created by colonisers. In India, Mughal cities like Allahabad have
been changed to erase Muslim history.
As Christianity spread westwards, Christ became blond and
blue eyed instead of looking Middle Eastern. John Wycliffe anglicised the names
of Matityahu, Markos, Yohanan, Loukas into Matthew, Mark, John and Luke, when
he wrote the first English translation of the Bible in the 14th Century.
Perhaps the most systematic managing of histories is in
history books themselves. Educational boards of countries ensure that history
curriculums follow the national narrative. As Putin declared in 1924, “wars are
won by teachers”. However, independent scholars across the ages have also been
guilty of deliberate omission of historic facts. The Renaissance in Europe erased its debt to
Muslim scholarship, creating a direct Greece to Europe legacy, laying the
foundations of a Eurocentric ‘world’ history.
Frantz Fanon and Edward Said were early intellectuals who
challenged Western scholarship, from African and Arab perspectives. More
recently, the Afghan American Tamim Ansary’s Destiny Disrupted and The
Invention of Yesterday, and British Croatian, Peter Frankopan’s The Silk Roads:
A New History of the World, have presented compelling new perspectives. The
travelling exhibition, 1001 Inventions, curated by Iraqi born Professor Salim
Al-Hassani, presents the intellectual contributions of Muslims.
Post-colonial nations struggle with reclaiming their
histories, as archives are dispersed, and 20 C state boundaries often cut
across shared histories. Pakistan and India are deeply insecure about writing
objective histories. India seeks to erase the contribution of Muslims, and A.R
Siddiqui’s poetic book, An Emperor’s Dream, ruminates upon the confusion
arising from dividing cultural heritage.
George Orwell wrote in his novel 1984, "Who controls
the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."
Today social media controls the present, with opportunities for new scholarship
to bypass the gatekeepers, and to present a counter narrative for every
narrative.
Durriya Kazi
May 16, 2026
Karachi
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