2. Historiography : Indian Tradition

• ✓ (a) Alexander Cunningham
• (b) William Jones
• (c) John Marshall
• (d) Friedrich Max Muller

Answer: Alexander Cunningham was the first Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India.

• (a) James Mill
• ✓ (b) Friedrich Max Muller
• (c) Mountstuart Elphinstone
• (d) Sir John Marshall

Answer: Friedrich Max Muller translated the Sanskrit text of ‘Hitopadesh’ in German language.

Wrong pair: (3) ‘The Indian War of Independence 1857’ — Marxist History

• The writings of Indian historians who were trained in the British educational system show an inclination to restore the pride in the ancient glory of India. Their writings are known as Nationalistic Historiography.
• Nationalistic writings, inspired by scholars like Vishnushastri Chiplunkar, criticised the prejudiced history of ancient India written by British officers.
• This nationalistic historiography provided a momentum to the writing of regional histories too.
• As a result, the attention of historians was drawn to the geographic conditions and history of south Indian regions, giving momentum to regional history writing.

• ‘Bakhar’ is an important type of historical document of medieval times.
• It contains eulogies of the heroes and stories of historic events, battles, and lives of great men.
• Bakhars like ‘Sabhasad Bakhar’ give us authentic information about the rule of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, while ‘Bhausahebanchi Bakhar’ and ‘Panipatachi Bakhar’ describe the Battle of Panipat.
• They can be divided into various types such as biographies of kings, dynastic history, descriptions of events, history of a sect, autobiographies, and state administration, making them incredibly useful historical sources.

Marxist historiography is a school of thought that focuses heavily on economic factors in historical events. Its main features are:

• The concern for the means of production, modes of production and the industrial relations were at the centre of the writings of Marxist historians.
• The basic theme of Marxist historiography has remained to analyse the impact of every social event of significance.
• Marxist historians in India studied the transitions within the caste system.
• Notable Indian historians who adopted the Marxist ideological framework include Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi, Comrade Shripad Amrut Dange, Ram Sharan Sharma, and Comrade Sharad Patil. Comrade Dange’s book, ‘Primitive Communism to Slavery’, represents this approach.

Vishwanath Kashinath Rajwade was a prominent Indian historian who strongly believed that Indians should write their own history. His major contributions include:

• He compiled and edited 22 volumes of ‘Marathyanchya Itihasachi Sadhane’, writing very scholarly prefaces to each volume.
• He insisted that history should be written using only authentic documentary sources and heavily criticised the limitations of British writings like those of Grant Duff.
• He stated that history is the all-inclusive image of past societies. It does not include only the stories of political images, conspiracies and wars for seizing power.
• To facilitate proper historical research, he founded the ‘Bharat Itihas Samshodhak Mandal’ in Pune on 7th July 1910.
• He defined human history in terms of Time and Space, arguing that a balanced combination of Time, Space, and Personalities must be present for an event to qualify as a historical event.

Orientalist historiography refers to the historical writings by European scholars who were curious about civilizations and countries of the East, and held admiration and respect for them.

• These scholars, known as ‘Orientalists’, studied the similarities between Sanskrit and some of the European languages, focusing heavily on Vedic tradition and Sanskrit literature.
• Their studies formulated the notion of an ancient language that could be the mother of all Indo-European languages.
• Sir William Jones founded the Asiatic Society in Kolkata in 1784, which opened the doors for research in ancient Indian literature and history.
• A prominent Orientalist, Friedrich Max Muller, translated the Sanskrit text of ‘Hitopadesh’ and ‘Rigveda’ into German and edited 50 volumes of ‘The Sacred Books of the East’.
• However, later scholars like Edward Said have pointed out the imperialistic interests hidden within some orientalist writings.

Nationalistic historiography refers to the historical writings of Indian historians trained in the British educational system who aimed to restore the pride in the ancient glory of India and the self-esteem of Indian readers.

• In Maharashtra, this movement was inspired by Vishnushastri Chiplunkar, who heavily criticised the prejudiced history of ancient India written by British officers.
• These historians attempted to seek out the ‘golden era’ of Indian history, though they were sometimes blamed for ignoring critical analysis.
• Prominent scholars included Mahadev Govind Ranade, Ramkrishna Gopal Bhandarkar, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, V.K. Rajwade, and others.
• This approach provided great momentum to the writing of regional histories and played a significant role in triggering the Indian independence movement, notably influenced by V.D. Savarkar’s book, ‘The Indian War of Independence, 1857’.

Subaltern history is a school of historiography that focuses on writing history from the perspective of the bottommost ranks of society.

• The seeds of this ideology are found in Marxist historiography. The Italian historian Antonio Gramsci played a key role in developing the idea that history should be written starting from the bottommost ranks.
• Folklore has been considered a very important source for writing subaltern histories.
• Ranjit Guha played a major role in establishing it as an important academic school of historiography.
• Long before the term became popular, Indian thinkers like Mahatma Jyotirao Phule (who wrote ‘Gulamgiri’ about the exploitation of shudras, atishudras and women) and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar (who wrote ‘Who Were the Shudras’ and ‘The Untouchables’) laid the foundation for subaltern history in India by unfolding the history of marginalised communities.