It is hard enough to make it out on the internet while coming from a privileged background. Just imagine how much harder it would be for someone coming from a not-so-privileged background. In the 5G era of ever-changing content, to be at the top of your game especially when you’re content deals with history is supremely hard. Yet there are a few historians and lovers of history who have made it pretty big on the internet for their credible content informing audiences worldwide about the side of history that’s not much talked about. Among them, one such well-known Indian history influencer on YouTube and Instagram is Keerthika Govindhasamy, popularly known as Keerthi History or keerthihistory. I recently had the opportunity to get to know her better and I am sure by the end of this interaction you’ll be as inspired as I was.
Keerthika Govindhasamy: Early Life & Upbringing
Coming from a humble background, in rural Tamil Nadu, life wasn’t always easy for Keerthika Govindhasamy. Although she is a well-known Indian history YouTuber and influencer on Instagram, it may come as a surprise that she wasn’t always the most studious student in her class. According to her, she may not be very studious but she was still the topper of her class. The reason behind this could be because her learning method was very different and more permanent than the traditional popular learning method adopted by many Indian students which is rote learning.
Rather than memorizing anything and everything presented in front of her, she prefers to understand the basic concept first as it helps her retain the new information for a longer time. Apart from this, she also prefers learning by remembering a text as a story and it was this learning method and love for stories that made her develop a strong affinity towards history.
Being raised in a conservative family like hers, she was denied many freedoms that the male members of her family enjoyed, such as pursuing a higher education degree like post-graduation. But unlike the rest of her family, her parents were a little more progressive and allowed her to go to college for her undergraduate degree. Yet life wasn’t always simple for Keerthika Govindhasamy as her parents wanted her to do a medical degree so that she could have an easy life over one in archaeology.
At that time in her local region, a lot of misconceptions prevailed around archaeology as a subject such as it is related to sex education. Plus the added fact that not many colleges offered it as a subject in Tamil Nadu also played a role in Keerthika Govindhasamy’s family strongly opposing it. But her love for the subject made her pursue a degree in history as it was as close to archaeology as she could get.
Keerthika Govindhasamy: The Influencer
Starting her journey on social media was not something that Keerthika Govindhasamy had initially planned. But after trying out many different career options and trying to see what fits right, somehow social media just clicked with her. She always had a knack for social media and mixed with her interest in history everything just fell in place. And as luck would have it when she started her journey on social media many people were showing interest in Indian history. But at the same time, many false information was also being spread. To ensure that other people also start appreciating her love for the subject more with accurate data, she started her YouTube channel Keerthi History her Instagram page keerthihistory and other social media pages on Facebook and Twitter.
Success didn’t come easy to her but when it did it came in tenfolds. After 7-8 months of consistent posting, one of her videos got viral and soon enough all of her videos started getting a lot of views. And overnight she gained thousands of followers. But regardless of how much success came her way she never let it get to her head as she is a strict believer in staying humble (and I can certainly vouch for it based on our interaction).
Naming Abhi and Niyu and Ranveer Allahbadia (BeerBiceps) as her inspiration she went on to explain how they reignited her spark for her first love, i.e., history. She adds that it was a particular podcast that Ranveer Allahbadia hosted with historian Anica Mann as his guest that truly charmed and motivated her.
As someone with as huge a following as hers, it’s only a matter of time before the dark side of the internet makes an appearance, i.e., hate and negative criticism. Govindhasamy shared how many of these haters have categorised her as a BJP supporter as she spreads knowledge on Indian history and part of it deals with Hinduism. When in reality all she wishes to do with creating her videos is to preserve a part of our culture. Her way to deal with all of them is to: Ignore and keep strutting forward.
A Message to Young Dreamers
As she tries to make her parents proud and provide for them by hustling every day, she imparts a small piece of advice for all the young dreamers out there; according to her, it’s going to be hard and not at all easy at the start, especially if you don’t come from a privileged background. You have got to work hard in the initial stages at the very least. Once you’ve built your brand you can hire more people and can take a small break. Do whatever you feel is right but be consistent and keep working hard and you will get there.
