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Book No. – 51 (History)
Book Name – Indian Historiography
What’s Inside the Chapter? (After Subscription)
1. Introduction
2. Influential works of history in colonial India
3. Some other historiographic developments
4. Colonial ideology in historiography
5. Impact of historical writings in colonial India
6. John Stuart Mill
6.1. Early life and career
6.2. Public life and writing
6.3. The later years
6.4. Influence and significance
6.5. Positivism and social theory in Comte, Mill, and Marx
6.6. Sources and Methods
6.7. Influence of Mill’s History
7. Elphinstone
8. Vincent Smith
8.1. Sympathetic Treatment of Ancient Indian Civilisation
8.2. Pragmatic View and the Subjective Element
8.3. Imperial Strain
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Colonial/ Imperialist Approach to Indian History and Historiography: James Mill, Elphinstone, and Vincent Smith
Chapter – 8
Introduction
The term ‘colonial historiography’ refers to two meanings:
- (a) Histories of colonised countries during their period of colonial rule.
- (b) Ideas and approaches associated with historians who had a colonialist ideology.
- In British India, colonial historiography originally referred to the first meaning, but since independence, the second meaning has gained prominence.
- Many of the prominent historians during colonial rule were British colonial officials.
- The term colonial history was initially used to refer to the subject rather than the ideology behind it.
- Today, the ideology behind colonial history is the subject of criticism, and hence the term ‘colonial historiography’has a pejorative sense.
- Colonial history and the colonial approach as an ideology are interconnected:
- The theme of empire building in British works led to a set of ideas justifying British rule in India.
Justifications for British rule included:
- A critical attitude towards Indian society and culture, sometimes bordering on contempt.
- A laudatory attitude towards British soldiers and administrators.
- Praises for the benefits of Pax Britannica (British peace) in India.
- The ideological nature of colonial historiography was not initially recognised, as historians believed in the ‘objectivity of the historian’, influenced by Leopold von Ranke and the positivist school of history.
- The ideological dimension of colonial historiography became evident only through post-independence critique of earlier historiography.
- As late as 1961, C.H. Philips did not address the ideological issue in his survey of historiography, The Historians of India, Pakistan and Ceylon.