Aryan Books

Nationalism in the Study of Ancient Indian History

By :- Dilip K. Chakrabarti

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Type: English

Pages: xvi+398

Format: Hard Bound

ISBN-13: 978-81-7305-648-2

Place: New Delhi

Edition: 1st

Size: 15cm x 22cm

Product Year: 2021

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It has long been alleged that the pioneer Indian scholars of ancient Indian history were ‘nationalists’, ‘Hindu revivalists’ and unhappy with the fact that the Muslims invaded and took possession of India. ‘Pernicious’ is also an adjective thrown at them. The present volume examines the evolving research scenario and concludes that these pioneer historians never wilfully distorted any historical evidence and thus their nationalism did not stand in the way of objective historical investigations. The allegations levelled against them by communists roughly since the 1960s were nothing but propaganda ploys to draw attention to themselves as ‘progressives’ and thus capture with governmental support the country-wide institutions in the field of history . The volume shows that the period of communist dominance in this arena is about the darkest period in the history of ancient Indian historical research in the country since the late nineteenth century when Indian scholars began to research ancient India in increasing numbers. Further, the author argues that no commitment to a particular ideology with its obsession with the Aryans and the Sarasvati can be a substitute for rigorous professional research on ancient India with clear assessment of the sources and their chronology.

The volume also contains a detailed discussion on Rabindranath Tagore's and Sister Nivedita's ideas of Indian history.

Preface and Acknowledgements

By the Same Author

     1. Ancient Indian History as an Area of Conflict:
           The Case of the Indian Council of Historical
           Research (ICHR) and Related Issues

I. Historical Research in India in the
Pre-ICHR Phase

II. Historical Research in India in the
Post-ICHR Phase

III. Assessment of the ICHR Situation under the
Communists by Arun Shourie

IV. The ICHR under the BJP Control

V. The Idea that Nationalist Thoughts Pose a
Danger to an Objective Study of Ancient India

               VI. How the ‘Progressives’ Tried to Build an
                      Image for Themselves as Historians against
                      Obscurantist Values

VII. Various Issues Related to Archaeology

VIII. The General Course of Ancient Indian
Historical Studies

     2. The British Initiative in Laying Down the
           Historical Frame of Ancient India: Mountstuart
           Elphinstone, Vincent Arthur Smith and E.J. Rapson

                 I. Some British Authors in the Background:
                      James Mill, H.S. Murray, G.R. Gleig,
                      E. Thornton, R. Sewell, W. Hamilton

I.1. James Mill

I.2. The Scottish Geographer Hugh Murray

I.3. G.R. Gleig, a Soldier who was also a
Priest

I.4. John Marshman of the Serampore
Mission

                          I.5. Edward Thornton, the Author of Some
                                  Indian Gazetteers, and Robert Sewell
                                  of the Indian Civil Service

I.6. W. Hamilton, a Geographical Appraisal
of the Land

II. Ancient India in the Writings of Mountstuart
Elphinstone and Vincent Arthur Smith

II.1. Mountstuart Elphinstone (1779-1859)

II.2. Vincent Arthur Smith (1843-1920)

II.3. E.J. Rapson (1861-1937)

III. Observations

3. Indian Historians of Ancient India from the
Late 19th Century to c. 1950

I. The First Phase, till c. 1910

I.1. Rajendra Lala Mitra (1822-91)

I.2. Bhagavanlal Indraji (1839-88)

I.3. Ramkrishna Gopal Bhandarkar
(1837-1925)

I.4. Ramesh Chandra Dutta (1848-1909)

I.5. Haraprasad Sastri (1853-1931)

II. Observations

III. The Second Phase, c. 1910-1950

III.1. Radhakumud Mukherjee (Mookerji)
(1884-1963)

III.2. Kasi Prasad Jayaswal (1881-1937)

III.3. Ramesh Chandra Majumdar (1884-1980)

               IV. The Concept of Greater India and the
                      Notion of Hindu Colonies in Southeast
                      Asia: R.C. Majumdar

V. Further Developments till the 1950s

V.1. Dynastic History

VI. South India

VII. Books on Regional Histories

VIII. First Steps in Economic History

IX. Aspects of Ancient Indian Art History

X. Scientific Achievements of Ancient India

XI. Observations

     4. The Concept of the History of People Early in
           the 20th Century: Rabindranath Tagore and
           Sister Nivedita

I. Bharatavarsher Itihas (‘History of
Bharatavarsha’) by Rabindranath Tagore

II. Sister Nivedita

5. Indian Historians of Ancient India from about
1950 to the Present

I. The Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Series
‘The History and Culture of the Indian People’

I.1. The Vedic Age (1951)

I.2. The Age of Imperial Unity (1951)

I.3. The Classical Age (ad 320-750), 1954

I.4. The Age of Imperial Kanauj
(ad 750-1000), 1955

I.5. The Struggle for Empire
(ad 1000-1300), 1957

II. New Developments Since the 1960s

               III. Communists in Control of Ancient Indian
                      Historical Research: The Case of the ICHR
                      and Other Issues

III.1. D.D. Kosambi

III.2. R.S. Sharma

IV. The Notion of Early Mediaeval India

V. Other Variants of Communist Approach to
Ancient India

V.1. Upinder Singh

V.2. Kumkum Roy

VI. India was always a Colony: ‘Scientific’
Archaeologists of the Country

VII. The Politics of the Aryan Hypothesis in India

VIII. The Issue of the Sarasvati

IX. Seeds of Nationalism in Indian Archaeological
and Historical Research since 1975

IX.1. The Beginning of Iron Technology
and Other Aspects of Metallurgy

                         IX.2. The Dismantling of the Diffusionist
                                    Hypotheses – the Frame of Indian
                                    Borderlands and Boundaries

IX.3. The Problem of Agricultural Origins

IX.4. A Nationalist Perspective of Trade
and Trade Routes

IX.5. Regional Histories and the Wider
Sub-Continental Dimensions

                         IX.6. Brahmi Writing in South India and
                                    the Scope of Historical Geographical
                                    Investigations on the Basis of
                                    Inscriptions in Tamil Nadu

IX.7. Ganga Plain Survey

IX.8. Socio-politics of the Past

                X. An Introduction to the Series ‘History of
                      Ancient India’ Sponsored by the
                      Vivekananda International Foundation
                      and Aryan Books International, Delhi

XI. Observations

6. Summary and Conclusions

References

Index

Dilip K. Chakrabarti (1941) is Emeritus Professor of South Asian Archaeology at Cambridge University, and Editor of the eleven-volume series ‘A History of Ancient India’ sponsored by the Vivekananda International Foundation and Aryan Books International. His academic career spans 45 years (1963-2008) in Calcutta (1963-1977), Delhi (1977-1990), Visvabharati (1980-81), Jahangirnagar (1988-1990) and Cambridge (1990-2008) Universities, and also other institutions (Allahabad, Banaras, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Tehran, USA, Paris and Armidale) where he received short-term fellowships and awards. His independent archaeological field-research has encompassed the Kangra valley, the whole of the Chhotanagpur plateau, the entire alluvial belt between Bengal and Panjab, the routes which linked the Ganga plain with the Deccan, the routes which covered the Deccan and the southern peninsula up to Cape Comorin, Rajasthan, and southern Uttarakhand. It is doubtful if anybody after Alexander Cunningham in the 19th century has so far been more familiar with India's archaeological landscape than him. He has authored 31 books (2 in Bengali) and edited 18 more volumes (4 in press), in addition to 200-odd articles and reviews. He was awarded Padma Shri in 2019. He received V.S. Wakankar rashtriya samman of Madhya Pradesh government, Gurudev Ranade award of the Indian Archaeological Society, S.N. Chakrabarti medal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and Senerath Paranavitana award of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. He also received D.Litt. (Honoris causa) of M.J.P. Rohilkhand University, Bareilly.

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