History is written by Victors, Indian History Distortion by British

The Asiatic Society of Bengal

                Were we the Indians, misguided, unruly, backward minded, uncivilized people before the great Western powers came to rule us? Or were we the most advanced Civilization in the world when the Westerners were still in their Mesolithic and Chalcolithic stages of Evolution? As we all know history is written by Victors. Therefore it is always very difficult to summarize the actual facts from the perspective of written history, generally sponsored by the Victors. We also know that truth can never be submerged infinitely, it rises up very loudly in its own time. History of India was written in many accounts by hundreds of Indians and foreigners over a period of time. Some were the work of rational studies but most were propaganda sponsored by the Ruling class. Indian History, therefore, is not immune to the humane effort of distortions. 

                The greatness of  Ashoka was made available as historical accounts to us through his numerous rock edicts and inscriptions spread all over his empire. Through these edicts he himself confessed about his cruelities during his earlier days. But such rulers are very rare who documented their own cruel deeds. Most of the rulers tried to hide their wrong doings and hypocrisy by sponsoring history writing where they are portrayed as great rulers of great wisdom and foresight. But as discussed earlier, their all efforts fail when the right time comes. 

               Although educated Indians retained their traditional history in the form of handwritten epics, Puranas, and semi-Biographical works, modern research in the history of ancient India began only in the second half of eighteenth century to serve the needs of the British colonial administration. The British East India company found it very difficult to rule when it took over Bihar and Bengal  in 1765. Therefore, in 1776, The Manu Smriti, which was considered authoritative, was translated into English as A Code of Gentoo Laws. Pandits were associtated with British Judges to administer Hindu civil Laws and Maulavis to administer that of Muslims. 

             The establishment of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784 by the British civil servant Sir William Jones culminated the initiation of efforts to understand ancient Indian laws and customs. During the first half of the Nineteenth century Indological studies were introduced in many Euoropean counties such as Germany, France, Russia and UK.

             The greatest impetus to Indological studies was given by the German born scholar F. Max Mueller, who was largely based in England. After the revolt of 1857, the British realized the greater need to understand the social system of India. Similarly, the Christian Missionaries sought to uncover the vulnerabilities in the Hindu religion to win converts and strengthen the British empire. To meet these needs, ancient scriptures were translated on a massive scale under the editorship of Max Mueller. Altogether fifty volumes, some in several parts, were published under the Sacred Books of the East series. Although, a few Chinese and Iranian texts were included, ancient Indian texts were predominant.

              In the preface of these volumes and books based on them, the western scholars generalised that the ancient Indians lacked a sense of history, especially of the element of the time and chronology. They concluded that Indians were accustomed to despotic rule, and also natives were too much engrossed with spiritualism. They don't bother about their present life, rather they are more worried about the after life.

             In short, British interpretation of Indian History served to denigrate the Indian character and achievements, and justify colonial rule. These generalisations made by the colonialist scholars were mostly false or grossly exaggerated, but served as good propaganda material for the perpetuation of despotic British rule.