Historical Teleologies in the Modern World by Trüper Henning; Chakrabarty Dipesh; Subrahmanyam Sanjay

Author:Trüper, Henning; Chakrabarty, Dipesh; Subrahmanyam, Sanjay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Published: 2019-12-10T00:00:00+00:00

6. Character as the mediator of providence and history

Later historians have mostly missed the intellectual significance of the category of character in the historiographical tradition that Sarkar both drew on and enriched. It has recently been said, partly in criticism of Sarkar, that those who ‘look for causes of decline in the character of the reigning emperor and the alleged moral degeneration of Mughal aristocracy’ end up ‘over simplifying … the complex issues and factors involved in the discussion of the collapse of Mughal empire.’71 I hope I have shown that character was no simple matter in Sarkar’s thinking.

Character was what made the logic of providence open to the historical foibles of human beings. By the same token, the imperial-liberal idea of character helped to open up an imaginary and utopian space for a politics of will: as in the case of the individual, a nation also could enjoy its tryst with destiny, provided it had the will to develop character. What was the nature of this will? It was the capacity to face up to one’s defects and not allow the temptation to glorify an identity – be it of the individual, a caste, a region, an ethnic group, a religious community, or a nation – to stand in the way. This is where Sarkar found a moral place for the historian. As he said about his researches on Maratha history:

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