First of all, I’d like to say that I think this was an excellent article by Bahadur. She points out a major flaw in our records of history – that usually only those who are in power or are wealthy are capable of creating written records of their experiences. Not surprisingly, groups of people who are subjected to unfair and agonizing lives, such as these women from South Asia, lacked the necessary tools to record their experiences. It seems like a common theme throughout history that those who are oppressed were incapable of expressing themselves, unable to make themselves heard. Bahadur suggests an interesting solution. She suggests that through speculating answers to many questions regarding self identity of ourselves and of our ancestors, we can attempt to form an image of the experiences that they have gone through. If I were to construct an archive of your own family history, the first place I would go to is my parents. An oral record can form a chain of information and experiences going through the generations. I can ask my parents about their parents, who may have known about their parents, so on and so forth. While a written record of history may not exist, there may be a hidden oral one preserved through the generations.
I watched the interview of Grant Din. He tells the story of his great-great-grandfather, Gong Gim Hik, who worked on the railroad. Despite all of Grants efforts, he has been unable to find any sort of written record of his great great grandfathers immigration and work. This is something that is very similar to the dilemna Bahadur discussed in her article. The only information he was able to obtain was from oral records. He talks about how Gong Gim Hik opened a local laundry business to make money and build a new life here in the United States. The whole recounting is really cool, and it definitely confirms what I had previously thought, that many people immigrated to the United States in search of a better life. What I would like to know is what kind of hardships these people faced on a day-to-day basis. I can imagine it is fairly difficult moving to a country where people speak a different language and have a much different culture.
Hi Jacob,
It is actually interesting that the story of the article and the interviewee coincided. I agree with your sayings. It is sad but true that the privileged individuals are mostly capable of recording their experiences and people like Bahadur’s great- grandmother, Gong Gim Hik’s story were never mentioned in the history. I believe if proper documents were present then we would have learnt a lot from their struggles and how they built themselves against all the odds .
I’m so glad you enjoyed the article! You raise important points about her method and why it was needed– her study illustrates larger issues with documentation of history, power, and oppression. I love that you lifted up her point about “speculative history”– her method is creative and empirical (meaning that it is based on evidence even as she has to construct the archive) but it also includes a lot of imagination, guessing, uncertainty.