The British wanted to establish colonial historiography in an attempt to establish their rule. One of the ways they did this was by denying and degrading the already present histories of India on the grounds that it did not conform to their already existing European view of how history should be.  Then there were also British historians such as James Mill, who in his book History of British India claimed that the “backwardness can be remedied through appropriate legislation, which could be used by the British to change the stagnant nature of Indian society that had prevented its progress.”( Thapar 2002, p. 6). Irrespective of the fact that James Mill had not even visited India, his book became a trendsetter which influenced the westerners in their notion of India. There were also other theories such as Oriental Despotism and the Marxist notion of the Asiatic mode of production which portrayed India as having a single despotic ruler and also the lack of individual property. The British also thought of India a Hindu and Sanskrit civilization and thus did not consider other religions in terms of constructing Indian civilization. The British had also started to give colonial education to Bengali literati and were taught Indian history from the standpoint of the British. All this was done to create a loyal but submissive section of people.

This portrayal of history provoked a serious reaction from the Indians who in turn reacted with the formation of a nationalistic approach to history and historiography. One of the reasons for this was to restore national pride and they also used this to spread anti-imperialist notions in an attempt for political integration. While James Mill’s book was ‘ the hegemonic textbook of Indian history’, “ for the first nationalist historians of India it represented precisely what they had to fight against”(  Chatterjee 1994, p. 31). The first war of independence in 1857 also played a very important role as the nationalist history also brought forth the idea of a ‘glorified past’, in an attempt to unify the nation against the British. Due to the fact that the British mainly recognized the Hindu religion when taking India into account and barely even consider other religions, the nationalist history did not only have to deal with imperial misinterpretation in historiography, but also with communal bias in history. Even the Bengali literati who were educated by the colonials had rejected the history of India that was written by the British historians.

One of the ways in which Indian history was portrayed was when “A dichotomy in values was maintained, Indian values being described as 'spiritual' and European values as 'materialistic', with little attempt to juxtapose these values with the reality of Indian society” ( Thapar 2002, p. 5). There is a clear fault on this from the British side, but the entire blame cannot be placed upon them that is because “ The first three books of narrative prose in Bengali commissioned by the Fort William College in Calcutta for use by young officials of the company learning the local vernacular were books of history.”( Chatterjee 1994, p. 5) and one of those books was Rajabali by Mrityunjay Vidyalankar. His book contains an account of the Rajas or the kings that had occupied the throne of Bengal and Delhi.  According to Mrityunjay, all the rulers on earth were chosen by divine will and they will remain in that position as long as they acquire and retain the powers of dharma. As his book was being studied by British officials, their perception of India as being ‘ spiritual’ can be well founded. This could also have influenced many other historians to accommodate this view in their histories. Mitryunjay was writing down an account which at that time was in circulation among the Bahman literati. So we can say that his book Rajabali, is “ a good example of the historical memory of elite Bengali society as exemplified in contemporary scholarship” ( Chatterjee 1994, p.5). Through this example, we can see the complex relationship between the nationalist historiography and the histories that were produced by the British historians.

As previously mentioned, the nationalists were using their ‘glorious past’ as a means of forming a national movement against the British. Due to some of the theories of the western perspective of India such as James Mill’s book History of British India, the notion of India as a backward, stagnant and unchaotic nation emerged which, as previously discussed, was widely used as a foundation for the perception of India by the west. This was not true as according to the nationalist historian Tarinicharan, “ although Europeans today treat Indians with contempt because of their degraded condition, Indians were not always like this, because even Europeans admit that the arts and sciences of ancient India were of the highest standard.” ( Chatterjee 1994, p. 29). All of these discoveries were of 19^th-century Orientalists and thus this was very important for the construction of the nationalist history. There was another reason why the ‘glorious past’ was important. James Mill had periodized India as Hindu, Muslim, and British, in relation to Ancient, Medieval and Modern. The Medieval age was also the Dark Ages for the Europeans. Even though Indians were against the periodization, they had accepted that the concept of ancient India. Thus “ancient India had to become the classical source of Indian modernity, while the ‘Muslim period’ would become the night of medieval darkness. Contributing to that description would be all the prejudices of the European Enlightenment about Islam” ( Chatterjee 1994, p. 34) thus if the nationalist want to accept ancient India as glorious, they would have to accept the Muslim invasion as the main cause for the decline of their glorious past which could lead to the clash of different communities.

There were some problems with the nationalist approach as it mostly focused on the glorified events and cultures of the Indian past but failed to recognize and also ignored the contributions of all people in the nationalist movement. This is because the educated Bengali literati now considered themselves as no different from the European bourgeois or the ‘middle class’. Thus they tried to act as a mediator between the elite class and the poor and the oppressed class.   This is where the subaltern studies approach is important. This approach was important as it showed light in the lower sections of the society such as tribes, oppressed women and peasants that have been neglected in the history of a society. Thus he focused more on the common people instead of conforming to the imperialist approach or the nationalist approach, both of them who could be considered as prejudiced elites because the protagonist of a national history should be the people and not gods and kings.

Thus the 19^th century can be regarded as a very important period in which was very important in nationalist historiography writing as it was at this time when the British made distorted interpretations of history and it was the nationalist goal to refute them all these combined with the revolt of 1857 played a very important role in the construction of nationalist historiography.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:-

Chatterjee, Partha. 1994. Subaltern Studies. New Delhi: Oxford University Press

Thapar, Romila. 2002. The Penguin History of Early India. New Delhi: Penguin Books