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This week @contingent_mag published a mailbag (our explainer pieces) by @narayani_basu. Her essay answered the question, "how do you write a biography?"
If you haven't had a chance to read, I strongly recommend it and here is a short thread why 1/9 https://contingentmagazine.org/2020/05/21/how-do-you-write-a-biography/
If you haven't had a chance to read, I strongly recommend it and here is a short thread why 1/9 https://contingentmagazine.org/2020/05/21/how-do-you-write-a-biography/
To begin, Narayani's biography, "VP Menon:
The Unsung Architect of Modern India" proved an especially challenging work because
a. no comprehensive bio of Menon existed
b. he had a unique role in the history of Indian independence
c. Narayani is VP's great-granddaughter 2/9
The Unsung Architect of Modern India" proved an especially challenging work because
a. no comprehensive bio of Menon existed
b. he had a unique role in the history of Indian independence
c. Narayani is VP's great-granddaughter 2/9
On top of those challenges, her subject VP was a private man, not accustomed to revealing his emotions or inner thinking. So Narayani thought about sources broadly and consulted family records, both immediate & extended, including living relatives, eager to tell their stories 3/9
Besides finding/obtaining family records in India, Narayani's research also took her to London where she analyzed papers on VP's career at sites like:
a. British Library
b. Oxford's Bodleian Library
c. Southampton’s Hartley Library
d. School of Oriental & African Studies 4/9
a. British Library
b. Oxford's Bodleian Library
c. Southampton’s Hartley Library
d. School of Oriental & African Studies 4/9
At the School of Oriental & African Studies Archive, she found gold: the private papers of VP's former boss, Henry Hodson. In those papers were 18 hours of interviews between the two men. VP's voice illuminated the behind-the-scenes drama when India prepared for independence 5/9
Narayani's piece makes the case for oral histories: She writes, "Oral histories provide a fuller, more accurate picture of the past by augmenting (and this is important) the information provided by public records, statistical data, and other historical material.” 6/9
If you're interested in oral histories, and considering conducting one yourself, you must check out Kate Dahlstrand's recent @contingent_mag mailbag, "The Five Oral History Commandments." 7/9 https://contingentmagazine.org/2020/04/21/the-five-oral-history-commandments/
Narayani's mailbag warns about the ideological weaponization of history, and how certain historical narratives are used to vanquish another. Her writings touch on editor Erin Bartram's previous mailbag that asked, "What is Revisionist History?" 8/9 https://contingentmagazine.org/2019/08/08/mailbag-august-8-2019/
I'll close this thread with Narayani's argument for more biographies. She wrote that "there is a strong need, especially in this day and age, to use a biography as a platform to humanize historical leaders and moments." If not, we do history a disservice 9/9 (end of thread)
