Indian Proto-History and Colonial Writings

Contents: Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Beginning of Indology. 3. Periodisation and proto-history. 4. Proto-historic cultures of India. 5. William Jones. 6. Max-Muller. 7. John Marshall. 8. Mortimer Wheeler. 9. Orientalism and India. Bibliography.

Every historian is not only the product of his age but he also bears a unique personality of his own. The book aims to explore and examine the opinions of four eminent European scholars of colonial period on Proto-historic period of India. The book tries to understand not only the role of historical evidence behind different views of these scholars but it also throws valuable light on the role of other considerations like circumstance of their birth, their family background, their education, nature of employment, nationality, religion, dominant ideologies of time etc. These considerations, as the analysis in the book shows, played an equally important part in the formation of ideas of European scholars. (jacket)