Q.Kipling violated his own observation on interviewing by __________. (The Interview)
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Interview History Journalism
Think of a history textbook. It tells you what happened — wars were fought, laws were passed, leaders made speeches. But it rarely tells you what it felt like to be there. Interview history journalism is the method that fills that gap. It is the practice of using recorded conversations with eyewitnesses to build a historical record.
The everyday intuition
Imagine your grandmother tells you about her childhood during a festival. She describes the smell of food, the sound of music, the way people dressed. That story is not in any official document. But it is history — lived, personal, irreplaceable. Interview history journalism does this at scale, with discipline. A journalist or historian sits down with people who were present at a significant event and asks them to describe what they saw, heard, and felt. The result is a primary source: a first-person account that can be preserved, analysed, and shared.
The precise meaning
In the NCERT textbook for Class 11 (Mass Media Studies), interview history journalism is defined as a form of journalism that relies on oral testimony to reconstruct past events. It is distinct from news reporting, which covers current events, and from documentary filmmaking, which often uses visuals. The core tool is the recorded interview — structured or unstructured — with a participant or observer of a historical moment.
Key characteristics:
- Eyewitness basis: The interviewee must have been present at the event. Second-hand stories are not acceptable.
- Retrospective: The interview happens after the event, sometimes decades later. Memory is both a strength and a limitation.
- Narrative form: The account is told in the interviewee's own words, not paraphrased by the journalist.
- Verification: The journalist cross-checks the account against other sources — documents, photographs, other interviews — to ensure accuracy.
Interview history journalism is not the same as oral history, though they overlap. Oral history is a broader academic discipline that collects and studies oral testimonies. Interview history journalism is a journalistic practice that produces publishable content — articles, books, podcasts — for a general audience.
Why it matters
Official records — government files, newspaper archives, court transcripts — are incomplete. They record what authorities chose to write down. They miss the voices of ordinary people, marginalised communities, and those who were not literate. Interview history journalism recovers those missing voices.
Consider the Partition of India in 1947. Government documents record the political negotiations. But the experience of millions who crossed the border — the fear, the loss, the survival — is captured only in interviews. Without them, the history of Partition is a skeleton without flesh.
The method also matters for events that leave few written records. A protest in a village, a natural disaster in a remote area, a cultural practice that is dying out — these can be documented only by talking to those who lived through them.
How it is done
The process follows a clear sequence:
- Selection: Choose a person who was present at the event. Verify their connection to it.
- Preparation: Research the event thoroughly so you can ask informed questions.
- Interview: Record the conversation. Let the person speak freely, but guide them with open-ended questions — "What did you see?" not "Did you see the explosion?"
- Transcription: Convert the recording into text. Mark pauses, emotions, and interruptions.
- Editing: Select the most relevant portions. Do not change the meaning or tone.
- Contextualisation: Write an introduction that explains who the person is, when and where the event took place, and why this account matters. …
The irony the essay highlights is that Kipling denounced the interview in the harshest terms — 'immoral', 'a crime', 'an assault' — yet did not keep to his own principle. Despite condemning the practice, he himself acted as an interviewer, seeking out and interviewing the American writer Mark Twain. In doing so he committed the very 'assault' he had so fiercely criticised. …
Kipling condemned the interview as immoral and an assault, yet violated his own stance by interviewing Mark Twain himself.
The essay is built around a paradox. Kipling was one of the fiercest critics of the interview, calling it 'immoral', 'a crime' and 'an assault' — something no self-respecting person should inflict or endure. That was his stated observation about interviewing.
The contradiction is that Kipling did not merely submit to an interview; he actively conducted one. Early in his career he sought out the celebrated American author Mark Twain and interviewed him. By taking on the role of interviewer, Kipling personally performed the very act he had denounced as an assault on another person's privacy. …
- CBSE 2025Set 1/6/11 markMCQQ.Select the correct option from those given in brackets to fill in the blank: His academic work and children's books reveal __________ (similar/experimental) interests. (The Interview)
›Reveal solutionSolution
The sentence implies a common thread in the author's work across different genres. "Similar" correctly conveys that the underlying interests are alike, making it the appropriate choice.
The core of this question lies in understanding the precise meaning of the words "similar" and "experimental" and how they fit the context of "academic work and children's books." We need to determine which word best describes the relationship between the interests revealed in these two distinct types of output from the same person.
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Analyze the context: The sentence states, "His academic work and children's books reveal __________ interests." This means we are looking for a word that describes the nature of the interests that are evident in both his academic writings and his children's books. The implication is that there's a connection or characteristic shared by the interests across these two different domains.
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Understand "similar": The word "similar" means having a resemblance or likeness, though not identical. If his academic work and children's books reveal similar interests, it suggests that the underlying themes, subjects, or areas of passion are consistent across both. For example, a scientist who studies marine biology might write academic papers on ocean ecosystems and also children's books about sea creatures. In this case, the interest in marine life is similar in both.
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Understand "experimental": The word "experimental" refers to something new, untried, or based on experiment. If his academic work and children's books reveal experimental interests, it would imply that the interests themselves are novel, exploratory, or perhaps even unconventional. While academic work can certainly be experimental in its approach, and children's books can explore new themes, the word "experimental" here would describe the quality of the interests as being new or untested, rather than describing a commonality between the interests in two different types of work. …
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- CBSE 2023Set 1/3/11 markMCQQ.Kipling viewed interviews with(a) compassion.(b) condemnation.(c) reconciliation.(d) gratitude. (The Interview)
›Reveal solutionSolution
Rudyard Kipling regarded interviews with outright condemnation, treating them as an intrusion and a violation of privacy. The answer is (b) condemnation.
The lesson surveys how different public figures reacted to the interview. Some welcomed it as a way to reach readers; others resented it deeply. Kipling belonged firmly to the second group. His objection was not mild irritation but a strong moral revulsion. …
- CBSE 2023Set 1/3/11 markMCQQ.Kipling assaulted __________ with an interview.(a) H.G. Wells(b) Joseph Stalin(c) T.S. Eliot(d) Mark Twain (The Interview)
›Reveal solutionSolution
Rudyard Kipling famously confronted Mark Twain with an uninvited interview early in his career, an episode Twain later recounted with humor. The answer is (d) Mark Twain.
This question draws from the prose piece The Interview (often attributed to Christopher Silvester's compilation), which explores the history and nature of the interview as a journalistic form. The text references several famous writers' attitudes toward being interviewed, and one memorable anecdote involves a young Rudyard Kipling.
In 1889, when Kipling was still an unknown journalist traveling through the United States, he sought out Mark Twain in Elmira, New York. Twain was already a literary celebrity. Kipling arrived unannounced and essentially forced an interview upon Twain—hence the word "assaulted" in the question, used metaphorically to mean imposed upon or ambushed with an interview request. …
- CBSE 2023Set 1/3/11 markQ.Complete the analogy with a word from the extract: attack : assault : : committed : _______ (The Interview)
›Reveal solutionSolution
The analogy is based on synonym pairs — "attack" and "assault" are synonyms, so "committed" must pair with its synonym from the extract. The word is dedicated.
Concept and Intuition
This is a word analogy question from the Class 12 English chapter The Interview. The relationship between the first two words is the key: "attack" and "assault" mean the same thing — they are synonyms. So the task is to find a word in the given extract that is a synonym of "committed".
The word "committed" here doesn't mean "performed an action" (like committing a crime). In the context of The Interview, it means devoted, dedicated, or loyal to a cause or belief. You need to scan the extract for a word that carries this same sense of strong dedication.
Watch outA common mistake is to think "committed" means "pledged" or "sentenced" — but in this chapter, it's used in the sense of being deeply devoted. Don't confuse it with legal or formal meanings.
Step-by-Step Reasoning
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Identify the relationship
The pair "attack : assault" shows a synonym relationship. Both words mean the same thing: a violent attempt to harm or defeat someone/something.
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Understand the target word in context
The word "committed" appears in the extract from The Interview (likely referring to Umberto Eco's description of his work ethic or a character's dedication). In the chapter, it means wholly devoted — for example, "committed to his work" means dedicated to it.
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Find the synonym in the extract …
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- CBSE 2023Set 1/3/11 markQ.Kipling violated his own observation on interviewing by __________. (The Interview)
›Reveal solutionSolution
Kipling condemned the interview as immoral and an assault, yet violated his own stance by interviewing Mark Twain himself.
The essay is built around a paradox. Kipling was one of the fiercest critics of the interview, calling it 'immoral', 'a crime' and 'an assault' — something no self-respecting person should inflict or endure. That was his stated observation about interviewing.
The contradiction is that Kipling did not merely submit to an interview; he actively conducted one. Early in his career he sought out the celebrated American author Mark Twain and interviewed him. By taking on the role of interviewer, Kipling personally performed the very act he had denounced as an assault on another person's privacy. …
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