Sources and Historiography of Modern India
Modern Indian history is studied through official records, newspapers, travel accounts and personal papers, and is read through four main schools of historians.
Sources
- Archival records: East India Company records, Parliamentary Papers, Census (from 1872 non-synchronous; 1881 first regular census), district Gazetteers, Reports of Commissions.
- Private papers: Letters of Governors-General (Cornwallis, Wellesley, Dalhousie, Curzon), papers of Gandhi, Nehru, Patel and Tilak.
- Newspapers and journals: Kesari, Mahratta, Amrita Bazar Patrika, The Hindu, Young India, Harijan, Bengalee, Hindustani, Navjivan.
- Foreign travellers and officials: accounts from the later Mughal and early colonial period (Bernier and Tavernier belong to the 17th century).
- Autobiographies and writings: Gandhi's An Autobiography (My Experiments with Truth), Nehru's An Autobiography and The Discovery of India, Dadabhai Naoroji's Poverty and Un-British Rule in India, R.C. Dutt's Economic History of India.
- Oral and literary sources: folk songs, Urdu and Bengali poetry, vernacular drama (Nil Darpan, 1860).
- Archaeology and architecture: Company-era buildings, the Red Fort, Writers' Building, railways.
The four schools of historians
| School | Main idea | Names and works |
|---|---|---|
| Colonial (Imperialist) | British rule was a civilising mission; Indians were divided and not ready for self-rule. | James Mill, History of British India (1817); Vincent Smith; John Strachey. |
| Nationalist | British rule drained India; the freedom struggle was a people's movement led by the Congress. | R.C. Dutt, Dadabhai Naoroji, Tara Chand, Bipan Chandra, R.C. Majumdar (a more critical nationalist). |
| Marxist | Look at economic classes; British rule was exploitation and nationalism was led by the bourgeoisie. | R.P. Dutt, India Today (1940); A.R. Desai, Social Background of Indian Nationalism (1948); D.D. Kosambi; Irfan Habib. |
| Cambridge | Nationalism grew out of struggles for power and patronage among Indian elites, not from a mass ideology. | Anil Seal, John Gallagher, Gordon Johnson, Judith Brown. |
| Subaltern | Look at history "from below": peasants, tribals, workers and women, not only elites. | Ranajit Guha, Gyanendra Pandey, Partha Chatterjee, Shahid Amin, David Arnold. |
How historians divide the period
- 1707 to 1757: Decline of the Mughals and rise of regional states and European companies.
- 1757 to 1857: Conquest and consolidation of British rule.
- 1858 to 1905: Crown rule, the early Congress and Moderate nationalism.
- 1905 to 1918: Swadeshi, Extremists, revolutionaries and Home Rule.
- 1919 to 1947: Gandhian mass movements, constitutional reform, Partition and Independence.
Keep practising
Notes are only half the work. Test yourself with questions and discuss doubts with other aspirants.
Prepared for exam revision from standard sources such as NCERT, Bipan Chandra, Spectrum and official records. Historians differ on some dates, figures and interpretations, so check your exam syllabus and a standard textbook. Found a mistake? Tell us.