Political Change and Agrarian Tradition in South India (1600-1801 A Case Study)

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Sequences of natural events and the tale of human actions constitute 'History'. 'Sequences of natural events' include facts and phenomena relating to the sub-human. They are relatively stable and uniform, condensed for fairly long periods in the general rather than configured in the particulars of the passing hour. The History of Man, the tale of human actions though a part of nature had cut out for itself a claim to a distinct kind of treatment. Divergences apart, History is the concomitant of the dynamic element in the Universe by which the existing order continually changes in EVERY ASPECT of it yielding place to new. It is the sign of life, for life means activity and History is the story of such activity. When such activities and its details are recorded, remembered, reconstructed and retold, they become a present interpretation of a past experience. To a mind that has the capacity to think, the sequential narrative reveals consequential relations which transmute apprehension of historical facts into appreciation of their import and leads on to the appraisal of their value. In this process, a 'characteristic' becomes a 'character' and a cold fact acquires the warmth of a historical event possessing a glamorous glow responsively iridescent to the illuminating intellect.

Man is a part of the Cosmos and also an intelligent and understanding participant in its activity. He has the power, individually and collectively to interfere with his environment, modify it and attain mastery over it. The march of Civilisation' is measured in terms of the mastery that man acquires over Nature. From this point of view though a part of cosmos, man is still apart from it. He plays a double role as Subject and Sovereign in the cosmic kingdom and he is ceaselessly engaged in reducing his subjection and in effecting accretion to his sovereignty. He is also conscious of his fragmentary nature, enters into conscious relations with other fragments like himself in various contexts and tends to bring about a progressive completion of his being, which includes other aspects than the merely physical. Actions of other men at other times and places which the intellect 'apprehends' and memory 'preserves' guide him in the accomplishment of this completion process and in that sense human history is of special significance to man and it becomes worth his while to record, interpret and implement in his own life-activities.

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