Solution-Class 10-History-Chapter-2-Historiography: Indian Tradition-Maharashtra Board

Alexander Cunningham was the first Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India.

Friedrich Max Muller translated the Sanskrit text of ‘Hitopadesh’ in German language.

Wrong Pair : ‘The Indian War of Independence 1857’ - Marxist History

Note: The book, ‘The Indian War of Independence, 1857’, written by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

• The writings of Indian historians who were trained in the British educational system showed an inclination to restore the self-esteem of Indians. They started writing Nationalistic historiography.
• Historians from the different regions of India criticised the prejudiced history of India written by the British officers.
• Their attention was drawn towards geographic conditions and history of different regions of India.
• The nationalistic historiography helped in triggering the independence movement.
• It provided a momentum to the writing of regional histories for e.g. Nationalistic writings in Maharashtra were inspired by Vishnu Shastri Chiplunkar. He criticized the prejudiced history of ancient India written by British officers.

Hence, writing of the regional history received momentum.

• Bakhars are important source of history like coins, inscriptions, texts, copper plates and travelogues.
• Bakhars contain eulogies of the heroes, historic events, stories of lives of great men and description of battles. It portrays a picture of prevalent society, religions and economic life.
• Bakhars are of various types which contain biographies of kings, dynastic history, description of events, sects, autobiographies, mythologies, administration of kings, etc.
• These descriptions are helpful for writing historiography.

Well-known Marathi Bakhars are :

• Sabhasad Bakhar’ was written by Krishnaji Anant Sabhasad, it is an mportant bakhar for getting information about the rule of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
• ‘Bhausahebanchi Bakhar’ , ‘Panipatachi Bakhar’ describes the Battle of Panipat.
• ‘Holkaranchi Kaiphiyat’ provides information about the Holkars

Hence, Bakhars are important type of historical document.

Historiography which is based on ideas of Karl Marx is known as Marxist Historiography.

• In the post-independence era, new trends emerged in writing Indian historiography. Marxist historiography is prominent among them.
• In Marxist Historiography, more importance was given to class struggles.
• It reflects concerns for means and modes of production as well as the industrial relations. These became centre of writings of the Marxist historians.
• How every social event affects the life of people was analysed and it became the theme of Marxist historians.
• Marxist historians studied the transitions that took place in the caste system.
• Notable Indian historians who adopted Marxist ideologies were Damodar Kosambi, Comrade Shripad Dange, Sharad Patil and Ram Sharan Sharma.
• Their writings reflected Marxist ideology. Comrade Dange was the founder member of the Indian Communist Party.

• K. Rajwade is well-known for his writings in Marathi on subjects like history, linguistics, etymology and grammar. His contributions are as follows :
• He compiled and edited 22 volumes of Marathyanchya Itihasachi Sadhane.
• He stated that history is the all-inclusive image of the past societies.
• K. Rajwade was of the view that history does not include only the stories of political images, conspiracies and wars for seizing power.
• He was of the firm opinion that we should write our own history and insisted that history should be written only using the authentic sources.
• He was of the opinion that description of any human event in historiography should have balanced combination of three factors namely -Time, Space and Personalities.

1-Tarikh-i-Phiruz    2- Emperor Babur    3-Rajtarangini    4-Krishnoji Anant Sabhasad

• In the later part of the eighteenth century many European scholars felt curious to know about civilizations and countries of the East
• These scholars who studied the India Civilization had respect and admiration for it. They were known as ‘Orientalists’.
• They studied similarities between Sanskrit and some of the European languages, focusing more on Vedic traditions and Sanskrit literature. It resulted in the notion that an ancient language could be the mother of all Indo-European languages.

Notable Orientalist scholars are Fredric Max Muller and William Jones.

• English education started in India in the nineteenth century. The Indian historians who were trained in English education system realized the glory of their past.
• They showed an inclination to restore the pride in the ancient glory of India and the self esteem of the Indian readers. They laid the foundation of Nationalistic writing. Nationalistic writings in Maharashtra were inspired by ‘Vishnushastri Chiplunkar’.
• Nationalistic historians opposed the prejudiced history written by the British officers Mahadev Govind Ranade, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Ramesh Chandra Majumdar are renowned Nationalistic historians.
• Nationalistic historiography inspired freedom struggle against the Britishers and gave momentum to write about regional history. While glorifying the past, at times they are blamed for ignoring to critically analyse the truth.

History of deprived classes or communities who were deprived of all rights is known as subaltem history.

• The seeds of subaltern history can be traced in the Marxist history. Italian historian Antonio Gramsci has special importance in writing the subaltem history. He presented the idea that history should be written starting from the bottommost ranks of people in the society.
• Ranjit Guha, an Indian historian, has given prominence to subaltern history and played a major role in establishing it as an important academic school of historiography.
• Similar thoughts were expressed by Mahatma Phule and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar which can be found in their writings.