We all know that those people who are not alive to what history tells, are likely to repeat it. It is not that the historians are always right. Historians are also fallible, but it is the collective wisdom that emerges from the multiple shades of history

Abstract

We all know that those people who are not alive to what history tells, are likely to repeat it. It is not that the historians are always right. Historians are also fallible, but it is the collective wisdom that emerges from the multiple shades of history that can guide a people towards better options and destinies. It is this quality of history that compelled certain writers to conclude that the politicians should at some point of time in their career take courses on history. Sir Ernest Barker, for example, had suggested that members of parliament, ‘would be all the better if they took refresher courses in history at one of the residential universities’.1 One would not like to go to that extent here but one can take the liberty of suggesting that are parliamentary decisions should in some way benefit from judgments made in the historical can text. Public policy decisions informed by historical wisdom are likely to respond more adequately to the needs of a society at a given period of time.