Modern Writing of Early Indian History

This section addresses the question of the modern writing of early Indian history from James Mill’s history to the themes that are of interest today. Two major schools were initially involved in interpreting the Indian past. One was that of the Orientalists, who were largely scholars of the ancient languages such as Sanskrit and Persian. The other was of philology. They were also interested in Indian religions and Hinduism in particular. Most were admiring of Indian culture, but the degree of reservations varied from scholar to scholar. Those who came from the Utilitarian school of thought were largely critical and described Indian civilization as static and given to a system they called Oriental Despotism. Inevitably this brought in notions of kingdoms and empires in relation to nationalist history, the role of caste in history and the background to concepts that were then current in India such as ahimsa/non-violence, and tolerance.