Discuss the main features of the nationalist historiography of india. how is it different form the colonial historiography?
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The Colonial Interpretation
The colonial historiography of India was based on the pre-conceptions and debates about the orient in the then European society. This resulted in the creation of the ‘stereotype’ of the Indian society which was the ‘other’ to the European society.
The second point to be noted is that, as the colonial belief went, that, ‘knowledge is power’, the history of India was being shaped in a way, so as to help in legitimising the European control over the sub-continent.
The two sub-schools under this system are:
Orientalist School of Historiography: This school tried to link the history of India to the history of Europe. This was done, by the study of languages(as the European and the Indian languages both belong to the strata of Indo-European languages with the same origin). They also tried to link the biblical texts of India like the Dharmashastras to those present in Europe, again indicating similar origin of both these civilisations.
This school also studied the social structures like the caste system in India. This was important not only from the point of intellectual curiosity but it was of administrative importance as well, as this knowledge was helpful in furthering colonial rule in India.
This school to a large extent, considered India as an exotic civilisation bereft of all material considerations and a civilisation which focussed on aspects like spiritualism and other similar meta-physical concepts. This can be interpreted as ‘in part a reflection of an escape from 19th century European industrialisation and the changes which this industrialisation brought, which were somehow difficult to comprehend.’
Utilitarian School of Historiography: This school also believed in the ‘exocity’ of Indian society, but it used those facts to state that the Indian society lacked rationality and individualism and hence the European civilisation was needed to make the ‘stagnant’ Indian society ‘progressive’. This was a departure from the oriental school’s non-interventionist policies. This school of historiography is responsible for the three staged periodisation of the Indian history into, the Hindu civilisation, the Muslim civilisation and the British period.
This school created the concepts of ‘oriental despotism’ , which again was used to legitimise the colonial conquest of the sub-continent.It should be noted that this change in historical thinking also coincided with a change in the colonial policies. By this time the colonial conquest of India was nearly complete, and the need of the hour was to reconstruct the economic structure of the colony, so as to be a source of raw material and an importer of the finished British goods. Thus, the change from a non-interventionist to an interventionist ruler, required certain kinds of interpretation of the history of India, which was provided by the utilitarian historians.
The Nationalist Interpretation
This school of historians emerged towards the end of the 19th century. This was used for the anti-colonial movement for independence. In this school, history was used for two purposes, firstly, to establish the identity of Indians and secondly by establishing the superiority of the past over the present.
For the first purpose, the Aryan theory of race and other similar concepts came handy, whereas for the second purpose, the concept of the ‘golden era of the Hindu civilisation’ was created. This was done because the remoteness in history of the ‘golden age’ was directly proportional to its utility in imaginative reconstructions and inversely proportional to factual scrutiny.
The basic thing to be noted is that, the colonial nationalists to a large extent used the same methods of historiography as the imperialists but they interpreted these ‘facts’ differently so as to suit their socio-political needs. Though they did reject some of the imperial concepts like ‘oriental despotism’ etcetera but to a large extent they agreed on the historical facts with the imperialists.
This school was also responsible for the rise of religious nationalism based on the classification of the Hindu and Muslim civilisations. It has been argued that this was the period where the concept of separate countries for hindu’s and muslims was conceptualised.
The colonial historiography of India was based on the pre-conceptions and debates about the orient in the then European society. This resulted in the creation of the ‘stereotype’ of the Indian society which was the ‘other’ to the European society.
The second point to be noted is that, as the colonial belief went, that, ‘knowledge is power’, the history of India was being shaped in a way, so as to help in legitimising the European control over the sub-continent.
The two sub-schools under this system are:
Orientalist School of Historiography: This school tried to link the history of India to the history of Europe. This was done, by the study of languages(as the European and the Indian languages both belong to the strata of Indo-European languages with the same origin). They also tried to link the biblical texts of India like the Dharmashastras to those present in Europe, again indicating similar origin of both these civilisations.
This school also studied the social structures like the caste system in India. This was important not only from the point of intellectual curiosity but it was of administrative importance as well, as this knowledge was helpful in furthering colonial rule in India.
This school to a large extent, considered India as an exotic civilisation bereft of all material considerations and a civilisation which focussed on aspects like spiritualism and other similar meta-physical concepts. This can be interpreted as ‘in part a reflection of an escape from 19th century European industrialisation and the changes which this industrialisation brought, which were somehow difficult to comprehend.’
Utilitarian School of Historiography: This school also believed in the ‘exocity’ of Indian society, but it used those facts to state that the Indian society lacked rationality and individualism and hence the European civilisation was needed to make the ‘stagnant’ Indian society ‘progressive’. This was a departure from the oriental school’s non-interventionist policies. This school of historiography is responsible for the three staged periodisation of the Indian history into, the Hindu civilisation, the Muslim civilisation and the British period.
This school created the concepts of ‘oriental despotism’ , which again was used to legitimise the colonial conquest of the sub-continent.It should be noted that this change in historical thinking also coincided with a change in the colonial policies. By this time the colonial conquest of India was nearly complete, and the need of the hour was to reconstruct the economic structure of the colony, so as to be a source of raw material and an importer of the finished British goods. Thus, the change from a non-interventionist to an interventionist ruler, required certain kinds of interpretation of the history of India, which was provided by the utilitarian historians.
The Nationalist Interpretation
This school of historians emerged towards the end of the 19th century. This was used for the anti-colonial movement for independence. In this school, history was used for two purposes, firstly, to establish the identity of Indians and secondly by establishing the superiority of the past over the present.
For the first purpose, the Aryan theory of race and other similar concepts came handy, whereas for the second purpose, the concept of the ‘golden era of the Hindu civilisation’ was created. This was done because the remoteness in history of the ‘golden age’ was directly proportional to its utility in imaginative reconstructions and inversely proportional to factual scrutiny.
The basic thing to be noted is that, the colonial nationalists to a large extent used the same methods of historiography as the imperialists but they interpreted these ‘facts’ differently so as to suit their socio-political needs. Though they did reject some of the imperial concepts like ‘oriental despotism’ etcetera but to a large extent they agreed on the historical facts with the imperialists.
This school was also responsible for the rise of religious nationalism based on the classification of the Hindu and Muslim civilisations. It has been argued that this was the period where the concept of separate countries for hindu’s and muslims was conceptualised.
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Answer:
- 1. the writings of indian historians which are directed towards restoring the pride and glory of india are called nationalistic histographers
- 2. these were the writers who were trained under the british educational system and felt the need to restore the pride of every indian
- 3. nationalistic writings on india were inspired by vishnu shastri chiplunkar
- 4. mahadev govind ranade, v. d. savarkar, are some of the renowned scholars among the nationalistic historians
hope it helps u mate
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