Performing History :Historical Consciousness and Building National Identity in Early Twentieth-Century Bengal

In the early twentieth century, history became a matter of public passion in Bengal. Placed in the well-developed public sphere of Bengal that became the locus of all political and intellectual activities, history transformed into a ‘major site through which, and on which critically important issues of Indian nationhood and tradition were articulated’. A large number of printed tracts assumed the form of works of history because of this project. Books extolling the lives of historical figures like Shivaji, Mir Qasim, Seerajud-Dowlah and Rana Pratap filled the colonial list of published books. Historical books crowded the shelves of public libraries. These publications can hardly be categorised as popular because their readership was restricted to the literate sections alone. As Kumkum Chatterjee has pointed out, during this period historical consciousness restricted itself among the ‘literate middle class reading public’.