Contents: Preface. Acknowledgement. I. Dialogue between civilizations: 1. The crossroads of civilizations. 2. William Jones and the dialogue of civilizations. 3. Contacts between Asia and Europe. 4. Interaction of cultures within Asia. 5. Early cultural and commercial exchanges between east and west. 6. Clash and confrontation. 7. India's seashore of humanity. 8. Orientalism and the western world. II. British Rule in India in the age of William Jones: 9. The prelude to Plassey. 10. Foundation stones of the British empire. 11. Preliminary skirmishes. 12. Clive the conqueror. 13. Shaking the Pagoda Tree. 14. The East India Company. 15. The enigmatic Warren Hastings (1732-1818). 16. Administrator and reformer. 17. Burke and the Indian Constitution. 18. Evaluation of Hastings. 19. Later British Colonial Administrators. III. British attitudes to India: 20. East meets west. 21. Early encounters. 22. Chaos and camaraderie. 23. Alienation. 24. Charles grant and the struggle to save Indian souls. 25. The evolution of Anglo-Indian Mythology. 26. Upholding Indian traditions. 27. Educating Indians. 28. Attitudes to the Indian empire: guilt and atonement. 29. Thomas Babbington Macaulay -- Dialogue or clash of civilizations? 30. The nationalist response. 31. Conflicts and cross-pollination of cultures. IV. Sir William Jones (1746-94): 32. Tribute to Sir William Jones. 33. The long journey from Portsmouth. 34. The England of William Jones. 35. The making of William Jones. 35. The literary and political scene in London. 37. A brush with rebels. 38. The advent of William Jones. 39. A river of ruined capitals. 40. Calcutta in the time of William Jones. 41. Social life in Calcutta. 42. The British Justinian. 43. Poet, historican and philologist. 44. William Jones and the Indian game of chess. 45. Jones discovers Kalidasa. 46. Establishment of Asiatic Society. 47. Farewell to Arcadia. 48. The legacy of Sir William Jones. V. European Indology: 49. Germany and Indology. 50. Russia and Indology. 51. Italian Indology. 52. Sandor Csoma de Koros -- The pilgrim - scholar of Hungary. VI. Oriental scholars and dialogues in civilisation: 53. Warren Hastings -- imperialist and orientalist. 54. Procuring Pundits. 55. Nathaniel Brassey Halhed and the Bengali Grammar. 56. Codifying Hindu Laws. 57. Charles Wilkins and the Bhagavad Gita. 58. Henry Thomas Colebrooke -- the path breaker. 59. Horace Hayman Wilson. 60. James Fergusson. 61. William Carey and the Serampore Mission. 62. Sir Monier Williams and development of Sanskrit studies. 63. Sir Edwin Arnold. 64. Vincent Smith. 65. Aurel Stein -- explore-scholar-translator. Bibliography. Index.

"Dialogue of Civilizations : William Jones and the Orientalists is a sweeping account of the movement that began in 1784 by Warren Hastings -- the then Governor General of India, Sir William Jones, Halhed, Wilkins, Colebrooke, Prinsep, Wilson and others to rediscover the civilization of India. It is no small irony that this movement began in the heyday of a nascent imperialism and under the patronage of the East India Company. The authors describe how this happened, set against the turbulence of the times in India. The work of the early British scholars aroused the curiosity of scholars in Germany where Indology and Sanskrit studies rose to brilliant heights. The vast and comprehensive work of German scholars made Berlin the Benaras of India. Since Germany had no empire in India, German Indology was different in flavour and spirit from British Indology. Simultaneously Russian Indology developed on its own, with a growing sympathy for a nation of great heritage who was under alien rule. Their contribution to Indology in the nineteenth and twentieth century was formidable. Italy and Hungary too had their share of outstanding Indologists and Tibetologists. The author give a comprehensive description of the contribution of these great scholars. The theory of civilization, its clashes, conflicts, and interactions is discussed at some length with erudition and originality.

No other book has brought together all these diverse contributions to Indology and Orientalism with particular relevance to contemporary debates on the dialogue of civilizations." (jacket)