Manipur, July 22 -- If history was merely about records, probably there would not have been such a fuss about it. But the fact is, it is not, and rightly so too, for records, indispensable though they may be, are not in themselves complete stories and they have first to be given a coherent meaning and a binding thread to demonstrate how they are a string of causes and consequences. History tells of how data are not only interrelated but also products of volitional acts of the people whose story it tells. This central binding thread is without doubt the state institution, which is also why it is often said people among whom the state institution had not evolved were non-historical. Indeed, what would history tell if it is not about the state...