Discussion Paper

A New Approach to Historical Methodology Discussed

through Local History as Micro History

Shanker THAPA
Professor, Central Department of History
Tribhuvan University

Today’s subject of concern is Micro history as recently adapted approach to historical

methodology.1 This is an important issue about the study of history or interpretation of
history in the prevailing native context. It is described with the support of a micro historical
form – the Local history.2
3
In addition to Local history, there are also other Micro historical forms such as -
History of everyday life, History from below etc. These micro historical forms are worthy to
reveal broader historical knowledge through digging out smaller historical segments.4

Bird’s Eye View of Learning History in Nepal

Before discussing micro history as a methodological tool in historical researches

adapted by western historians not long before, let us see where do we stand in historical
knowledge production and obtaining knowledge of history. It means we need to reevaluate
our context of study of history and intensity of historical researches.

Let us first revisit the past activities of learning history in Nepal.

 A greater number of history graduates obtained degrees in history from TU. A small
number of Nepali historians studied at different Indian universities. A few of



This paper was presented at Third National History Conference organized by Central Department
of History, TU, and History Association of Nepal from Mangsir 20-23, 2076.
1
Nicholas L. Rion, "Forty Years of Microhistoriography" (2011). Research Papers. Paper 283, p. 4
http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/gs_rp/283.
2
Paul M. Angle, ‘On Writing Local History,’ Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1908-
1984), Vol. 37, No. 4, Dec., 1944, pp. 358-362.
3
Alf Ludtke, The History of Everyday Life: Reconstructing Historical Experiences and Ways of
Life, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995, 32-78.
4
Carlo Ginzburg, John Tedeschi and Anne C. Tedeschi, ‘Microhistory: Two or Three Things That I
Know About It,’ Critical Inquiry Vol. 20, No. 1, Autumn, 1993, pp. 10-35

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 Nepalese historians did Ph.D. from Indian universities. Exceptionally, quite a few
also studied history at American or western European Universities.
 Many of these people have been engaging in teaching activities at Campuses.
 Very truly, there is no difference in quality among historians regarding the
institutions they attended in home or abroad.
 No difference has been noted in historical techniques they learnt. At least, it is not
reflected in their writings.
 A majority of our teachers were trained in India but a few were trained by them in
Nepal.
 The consequence of this situation is that we neither reached up to the level that
prevailed under the British in India nor we became able to compete in knowledge
creation with those in other countries.
 We did ample number of researches but how many of them crossed the border to
reach other historians.
 For about sixty years, learning history came to reflect itself only as a mean of
employment, but not a subject of intellectual discourses. We can find interesting list
of responsible actors on why and how historical knowledge deplete.
 The impact is of entire situation is the compromise with analytical approach to
historical interpret. Consequently, descriptive or narrative history writing dominated
entire scene of history writing. We can’t become assertive to support narrative
history as the best tool of historical interpretation nor it is not useful.5
 But now we all are aware of this situation.

The situation contributed to:

 Lack of critical historical thinking

 Over emphasis on narrative history as a method of writing. It left behind the popular
use of theoretical paradigm in history writing.
 Lack of knowledge of native tradition of historiography. This idea is about elaborating
how medieval scholars of Nepal perceived history and historical interpretation along with
citing medieval writings such as Vamsavalis and still extant historical notes in the
manuscript forms. Do we have native skill and type of history writing?
 Scanty knowledge of history.

5
Eileen H. Tamura, ‘Narrative History and Theory,’ History of Education Quarterly, Vol. 51, No. 2,
May 2011, pp. 150-157.

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  Wrongful understanding of history and history writing.6 For scientific history writing
a well-defined historical methodology needs to be adapted.

History is to be understood as -

 A very broader idea overtaking all other areas of knowledge and mother discipline
that we can study as an independent subject of knowledge.
 Nepalese society generally limits history to political boundary related to the regime
itself .7
 It has been a most ignored subject in the society. Those who need to learn it have low
level of historical understanding.
 Now we need to consider two important questions.
 Is it worthy to give attention to history as a subject of knowledge?
 Why is historical knowledge important or, unimportant?

Local History as Micro History

In such a scenario of learning as well as discourse of historical knowledge in Nepal,

let us discuss microhistory as an alternative historical methodology to proceed to dig out
historical knowledge from small units of human activities.

Here Local history is ‘Microhistory’ because it is a smaller segment of history. It is a

newly emerged historical typology which lays emphasis on relatively smaller segments of
historical structures. They mean to resort focus on smaller historical units to understand
broader historical contexts.

First, we have to know about this form of Microhistory as new form of historical
methodology.

Local history as such is the study of history in a geographically local context and it
often concentrates on the local community. It incorporates cultural and social aspects of
history in particular.

The definition of local history at first sight is quite simple -8

‘the study of past events, or of people or groups, in a given geographic area.’

6
Marek Tamm, ‘Truth, Objectivity and Evidence in History Writing’, Journal Of The Philosophy
of History 8, 2014, 265–290
7
The operating curriculum at CDH/TU/NEPAL gives a broad idea of history in the Nepalese
context. Master’s Programme in History Semester Programme Syllabus (Unpublished), Central
Department of History, Tribhuvan University, January 2014 - Revised 2016, pp. 1-32.
8
Helen Doyle and Katya Johanson, Publishing History: A Guide for Historical Societies, Canberra:
The Federation of Australian Historical Societies, 2006, p. 1.

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 Conventionally, local histories are believed as the writings about a town, region or
state by an amateur writer for a local audience. In the last decades of the twentieth century,
academics appropriated the term local history to refer to - ‘highly academic monographs that
explore questions about a particular community’9

Local history incorporates an array of research methodologies and is expressed in a

variety of narrative styles.10 These narratives can be conventional local histories written
in the traditional format of the nineteenth century history writing.

Micro History as a Methodological Approach

Historical processes can be interpreted with the help of a number of conceptual

frames. Historical methods are used to reveal historical truth.

There are a number of conceptual paradigms which can be used in analysis of history.
It will facilitate to understand history in the true sense of its meaning. Narrative historical
writing describes historical events where as the application of ‘conceptual paradigms’ helps
to analyze particular historical occurrence. So, there are historical typologies that can be used
as conceptual tools in the analysis of history. Microhistory are some of the selected
conceptual bases.

Let us first define those historical bases.  

In recent times, historical research has shifted from conventional approaches to

smaller to smallest section of historical subjects to interpret human behavior

Microhistory is -

 A micro perspective in historical approaches.

 A relative recent approach in history dating back to the late 1970's.
 Intensive historical investigation of a small area. It is perceptibly more and more
widespread among historians.
 Methodology of historical research which is generally limited to small units –
 Space (e.g. the study of a particular village in a given place),
 Subjects (examining the everyday life of an individual or a family), or

9
Stephanie Pasternak, "A New Vision of Local History Narrative: Writing History in Cummington,
Massachusetts." (Master’s Thesis), February 2014, pp. 10-14.
10
Hayden White, Metahistory: Historical Narratives in the Nineteenth Century Europe, Baltimore:
The John Hopkins University, 1967, pp. 265-280; Hayden White, The Value of Narrativity in the
Representation of Reality Critical Inquiry,’ Vol. 7, No. 1, On Narrative (Autumn, 1980), pp. 5-27;
Aron Grinter, Narrative and History: Hayden White's Objections to Scientistic Changes to the
Study of History, Cosmos and History 13 (1): January 2017, 222-239.

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  Time span (e.g., one or several decades).
 An event, a community, an individual, a settlement and other smaller
units.
 Aspires to ‘ask large questions in small places’. 
 Closely associated with social and cultural history.
 Micro historical units are important to analyse history because they minutely
reveal greater role of less important historical bases. For instance -
 Significance of electrification in local historical construction.
 How do people perceive of activities such as rural electrification?
 How does a Nepalese historian traces historical process in the local
context?

Small changes can be instrumental for bigger changes that deserve historian’s attention.

This is the high time for Nepalese historians to shift from over emphasis in political
history to other non - political histories; from narrative to critical historical analysis.
Microhistory helps understand history from smaller segments to larger contexts.

At the End

Things to do Next

Couple of things cannot be ignored. This is true that our identity as a historian has
been threatened. If we are serious enough, we need to pay attention to:

1. To lay focus on newer and smaller areas for historical inquiry,

2. Understand the shift from traditional focuses is obvious.
3. For paradigm shift, one needs to initiate efforts and also widen the horizon of
historical knowledge.
4. A thorough knowledge of modern historical tools is required
5. Needs to know about native form of historiography. For example, was there a
form of history writing in medieval times. and
6. We lacked knowledge about analytical historians.