People study history for many reasons, and I will not try to provide a list in this regard. I want to talk about some problems that arise from history.

History is full of wars, conflicts, genocides; rise and decline of power; population movements; growth of knowledge, innovations and discoveries; etc.

Those who study history seriously – due to their interest in the subject, curiosity, family tradition or because they want to acquire political and military power – are the ones who have the power to dominate. Most often, they do use their superior powers for their benefits by dominating, confusing, redirecting and exploiting those who are relatively less knowledgeable in terms of history. But there are also some historians that belong to the dominant groups who try to utilise history to liberate people from the domination of their groups and peers.

To help change the advantages and disadvantages that people experience due to their differing levels of knowledge of history, all groups in society and the world must develop their historical knowledge and critical thinking ability. This will help achieve a balance of power in this regard and minimise the imbalances that arise from the differing levels of historical knowledge in different groups.

One serious problem of history is that it plays a role in creating or recreating or perpetuating conflicts between communities. In most cases, certain selective interpretations and promotions of history are utilised to create and perpetuate conflicts between peoples and communities who have done nothing wrong to each other.

For example, today’s Bengali Muslims and Bengali Hindus have done nothing wrong to each other, but many among them hate each other for some actual or perceived wrongs done to each other in the past by some members from their ‘respective communities’.

This is also true for Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. The Pakistani people did nothing wrong to Bangladeshi people in 1971 or during the 23 years of one country, but the actions of a Pakistani junta under the leadership of General Yahya Khan have made permanent enemies where a large number of Bangladeshis hate Pakistani people who are totally innocent. And many Punjabi Sikhs and Pakistanis still think Bengalis are inferior because the British designated the Punjabis as one of the martial races of India. In Bangladesh, many Bengali Muslims blame Bengalis Hindus for the 19th Century and pre-partition period’s Zamindari exploitation of poor Muslim peasants and when some Bengali Hindus looked down on Bengali Muslims.

The underlying principles in studying history – especially when there are current communal conflicts and disagreements partly caused by how the past has been interpreted and promoted – should be the following:

1. No generations are responsible for the wrongs done by any past generations.
2. Many advantages and disadvantages that peoples and groups face today around the world are due to the wrongs done in the past by one group against another group, or by a group of groups against another group or a group of groups.
3. Unless ways are found to redress the current advantages and disadvantages that peoples and groups face, based on past historical wrongs, done by one group against another, nothing will be solved.

This means that, for example, Bengali Muslims have to try to understand and develop empathy with how many Bengali Hindus feels about the 550 years of the Turkic, Habshi, Arab, Afghan, Moghul and Nawabi rule of Bengal that changed their lives forever. And Bengali Hindus have to try to understand and develop empathy with how many Bengali Muslims feel about the way that the British used some Bengali Hindus to try to other and delegitimise Muslims and their traditions/culture in Bengal and blame them for more than half a millennium of so-called Muslim rule of Bengal.

This can only be done if both sides develop a good knowledge of history, achieve parity in historical knowledge and critical thinking ability, and prevent and push out people who want to use people’s weak knowledge of history to poison minds and create or perpetuate communal conflicts based on history. Honest and open debates, based on knowledge and understanding of history, are necessary to resolve deep history-based conflicts that we face today, even if that creates a lot of uneasiness, temporary problems and pains. The end of the process or further down the road will be better for all.