In the APSA Public Scholarship Program, graduate students in political science produce summaries of new research in the American Political Science Review. This piece, written by Komal Preet Kaur, covers the new article by Nicholas Haas and Emmy Lindstam, My History or Our History? Historical Revisionism and Entitlement to Lead.
How does history shape a sense of belonging to a national identity? Do historical narratives affect historically disadvantaged or marginalized groups’ political inclusion? With rising ethnic nationalism and the emergence of movements seeking to rewrite historical narratives, the way history is portrayed holds political implications. Particularly, these narrative revisions often come at the expense of historically disadvantaged communities. As a result, it is a timely question as to how marginalized groups’ sense of belonging to national identity and political inclusion changes with the shifts in narratives about history. For example, Muslims constitute 14% of the Indian population but occupy only 5% of seats in the current Indian parliament. Further, the Hindu Nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in India has been actively altering textbooks and renaming cities, streets, and monuments to reflect a narrative that glorifies Hindu identity while marginalizing Muslim identities. In a recently published APSR article, Nicholas Haas and Emmy Lindstam examine the political effects of varying portrayals of history in the Indian context. Haas and Lindstam carried out an innovative experiment with 1,592 Hindu and Muslim respondents to examine how people respond to different descriptions of Indian history in school textbooks. Respondents were assigned to read one of the following three types of texts sourced from these textbooks: The first category, an inclusive representation treatment, included texts highlighting diversity and acknowledging Muslims’ contributions to Indian history. The second category, an exclusive representation treatment, glorified India as a Hindu nation and portrayed Muslims as invaders and foreigners. The third category was unrelated to the topic and acted as a neutral, control condition. Afterward, respondents were asked some questions about the text they had read. They were then randomly divided into groups of three to carry out similar tasks with other participants. Before the group task, respondents were asked to express their willingness to volunteer as a group representative and rank their preference of other members for a group representative, who might have been identified as Hindu or Muslim through avatars they had selected previously. The representative would choose a task to count for group payoffs, and their selection thus carried implications for respondents’ earnings.
These findings highlight how the state handles historical narratives can have far-reaching implications for politics.The results reveal that the inclusive representation treatment increases Muslim respondents’ perceived belonging to India, while the exclusive representation treatment increases Hindu respondents’ perceived belonging to the nation. Exposure to inclusive representation treatment among Muslims is also linked with higher levels of willingness to volunteer as a group representative as well as a positive evaluation of Muslim political leaders. Muslim participants exposed to exclusive representation narratives appeared to be less willing to learn about ways to be politically involved. Further, the results indicate that Hindu participants do not feel threatened when exposed to inclusive historical narratives, nor are they particularly moved by them. Overall, inclusivity in historical narratives appears to positively impact underrepresented groups without alienating the majority group.
These findings highlight how the state handles historical narratives can have far-reaching implications for politics. Narratives of inclusion can improve minority groups’ perceptions about their centrality to the national identity, their leadership aspirations, and the perceived legitimacy of their political leadership. These findings show that the implications of shifting historical narratives to exclude minorities are not merely symbolic. Rather, they can also explain how minorities perceive their role in contemporary politics.
- HAAS, NICHOLAS, and EMMY LINDSTAM. 2023. “My History or Our History? Historical Revisionism and Entitlement to Lead.” American Political Science Review, 1–25.
- About the APSA Public Scholarship Program.