Chapter 2 - Historiography : Indian Tradition
1. (A) Choose the correct option from the given options and complete the statement.
(1) …….. was the first Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India.
(a) Alexander Cunningham
(b) William Jones
(c) John Marshall
(d) Friedrich Max Muller
Ans: Option (a) – Alexander Cunningham
(2) ………… translated the Sanskrit text of ‘Hitopadesh’ in German language.
(a) James Mill
(b) Friedrich Max Muller
(c) Mountstuart Elphinstone
(d) Sir John Marshall
Ans: Option (b) – Friedrich Max Muller
(B) Identify and write the wrong pair in the following set.
(1) ‘Who were the Shudras’ – subaltern History
(2) ‘Stri-Purush Tulana’ – Feminist writing
(3) ‘The Indian War of Independence 1857’ – Marxist History
(4) Grant Duff – Colonial History.
Ans: The wrong pair is:
The Indian War of Independence – Marxist History
Explanation: The Indian War of Independence was written by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1857 and is an nationalistic historiography.
2. Explain the following statements with reasons.
(1) Writing of the regional history received a momentum.
Ans:
(i) British historians like Grant Duff had an inclination to condemn Indian culture and history. A similar tendency was witnessed in Colonel Todd’s writings about Rajasthan’s history.
(ii) Colonial British officers and Christian missionaries ridiculed Indian culture and tried to justify British rule.
For example: The five volumes of Cambridge History of India, published during 1922-1937.
(iii) Marathi historians like Nilkantha Janardan Kirtane, Vishwanath Kashinath Rajwade and Vishnu Shastri Chiplunkar criticized, and exposed the prejudiced attitude of the British historians.
(iv) Regional pride promoted nationalistic sentiments ultimately; even V. D. Savarkar chose the Revolt of 1857 as the subject of his book, The Indian War of Independence 1857. Thus to restore the self-esteem of Indian readers, writing of regional history received a momentum.
(2) Bakhar is an important type of historical documents.
Ans:
(i) ‘Bakhar’ is an important type of historical documents of medieval times. It contains eulogies of the heroes and stories of historic events, battles, lives of great men.
(ii) Marathi bakhars are of various types. Sabhasad Bakhar was written by Krishnaji Anant Sabhasad during the reign of Chhatrapati Rajaram Maharaj. It is an important bakhar for getting information about the rule of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
(iii) Bhausahebanchi Bakhar describes the Battle of Panipat. Another Bakhar, entitled Panipatachi Bakhar, is also about the same event. Holkaranchi Bakhar provides information about the Holkars and their contributions to the Maratha rule.
(iv) Bakhars can be divided into various types such as biographies of kings, dynastic history, descriptions of events, history of a sect, autobiographies, regarding grievances, based on mythologies and state administration by a king.
3. Write detailed answers the following questions in detail.
(1) What is Marxist History?
Ans:
(i) The concern for the means of production, modes of production, and the industrial relations were at the centre in the writings of Marxist historians
(ii) Analysing the impact of every social event of significance has remained the basic theme of Marxist historiography.
(iii) Marxist historians of India consisted of the study of transitions within the caste system.
(iv) Some of them are Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi, Comrade Shripad Amrut Dange, Ram Sharan Sharma, and Comrade Sharad Patil.
(v) Comrade Dange wrote a book ‘Primitive Communism to Slavery’ representing Marxist historiography.
(2) What is the contribution of Itihasacharya V.K. Rajwade to historiography ?
Ans:
(i) Rajwade was well known for his writings in Marathi. He was of the firm opinion that we should write our own history.
(ii) He compiled and edited 22 volumes of Marathyanchya Ithihasachi Sadhane. He wrote scholarly prefaces to each of the 22 volumes.
(iii) He stated that history is all inclusive image of past societies. It does not include only the stories of political images, conspiracies and wars for seizing power.
(iv) He also insisted on writing by only using the authentic documentary source.
(v) V.K.Rajwade founded “Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal” in Pune on 7th July 1910 to facilitate historical research.
4. (a) Complete the concept chart.
Ans:
(b) Complete the following concept map.
Ans:
5. Write short notes.
(1) Orientalist historiography.
Ans:
(i) Many European scholars felt curious about civilization and countries of the east.
(ii) Some of these were scholars who felt admiration.and respect for them, were known as ‘Orientalists’.
(iii) The Orientalists studied similarities between Sanskrit and some of the European languages. They focused more on vedic tradition and Sanskrit literature.
(iv) In 1784, Sir William Jones founded Asiatic Society of Kolkata, which opened doors for researching ancient Indian literature and history.
(v) According to another Orientalist, Friedrich Max Muller, Sanskrit was the most ancient of all Indo- European languages.
(vi) Friedrich Max Muller translated the Sanskrit text of Hitopadesh and also edited 50 volumes of “The Sacred Books of the East”.
(vii) Friedrich Max Muller compiled Rigveda and also translated it in German.
(2) Nationalistic historiography.
Ans:
(i) 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 and self esteem of Indian readers. Their writings are known as Nationalistic Historiography
(ii) In Maharashtra nationalistic writings were inspired by Vishnushastri Chiplunkar.
(iii) He criticized the prejudiced history of ancient India written by British officers.
(iv) The nationalistic historians tried to seek the golden era of Indian history
(v) Mahadev Govind Ranade, Ramkrishna Gopal Bhandarkar, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Rajendra lal Mishra, Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, Kashi Prasad Jayswal, Radha Kumud Mukherjee, Bhagwan lal Indraji, Vasudev Vishnu Mirashi and Anant Sadashiv Altekar are some of the renowned scholars among the national historians.
(3) Subaltern history.
Ans:
(i) The seeds of Subaltern history were found in the Marxist historiography.
(ii) Italian historian Antonio Gramsci believed that history should be written starting from the bottom most ranks of people in the society
(iii) The word Subaltern means ‘bottommost ranks’.
(iv) Folklore has been considered as a very important source of writing subaltern History.
(v) Ranjit Guha an Indian historian played a major role in establishing Subaltern history as an important academic school of historiography.
(vi) Previously similar thoughts were expressed by Jyotirao Phule and Babasaheb Ambedkar, even before the onset of Subaltern ideology.
(vii) Through his book, ‘Gulamgiri’, Jyotiba drew attention towards exploitation of women shudras and ati shudras done under the name of religion.
(viii) Babasaheb Ambedkar also stated the significance of Dalit castes in shaping cultural and political aspects of India. Two of his books – ‘Who were the Shudras’ and The Untouchables’ may be cited as examples of history of Subaltern type.