Aryans and British India By Thomas R Trautmann
By Thomas R Trautmann
Published 1997
University of California
Press
History / General History
259 pages
ISBN 0520205464
This book traces one of the origins of modern racism. Its analysis of the intellectual history of the 19th century and their innocent creation of a theory which gives the inspiration of modern racism is an excellent piece of scholarship. The profound knowldge of the author on Indology and Indo-European studies made his argument authorative. This book should be read by all history students, instead of only the students in South Asian studies.
"Aryan," a word that today evokes images of racial hatred and atrocity, was first used by Europeans to suggest bonds of kinship, as Thomas Trautmann shows in his far-reaching history of British Orientalism and the ethnology of India.
<span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>
When the historical relationship uniting Sanskrit with the languages of Europe was discovered, it seemed clear that Indians and Britons belonged to the same family. Thus the Indo-European or Aryan idea, based on the principle of linguistic kinship, dominated British ethnological inquiry.
</span>
<span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>
In the nineteenth century, however, an emergent biological "race science" attacked the authority of the Orientalists. The spectacle of a dark-skinned people who were evidently civilized challenged Victorian ideas, and race science responded to the enigma of India by redefining the Aryan concept in narrowly "white" racial terms. </span>
By the end of the nineteenth century, race science and Orientalism reached a deep and lasting consensus in regard to India, which Trautmann calls "the racial theory of Indian civilization," and which he undermines with his powerful analysis of colonial ethnology in India.
His work of reassessing British Orientalism and the Aryan idea will be of great interest to historians, anthropologists, and cultural critics.
<span style='color:blue'>
"Aryans and British India is a seminal work and will be read and reread by serious students of Indian history for many generations."--Stanley Wolpert, author of India
"This is a creative and venturesome rethinking of issues of race, language, and caste in the British colonial understanding of India."--Aram A. Yengoyan, University of California, Davis
</span>
<img src='http://content.cdlib.org/dynaxml/data/v2/ft8779p1v2/figures/ft8779p1v2_cover.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
By Thomas R Trautmann
Published 1997
University of California
Press
History / General History
259 pages
ISBN 0520205464
This book traces one of the origins of modern racism. Its analysis of the intellectual history of the 19th century and their innocent creation of a theory which gives the inspiration of modern racism is an excellent piece of scholarship. The profound knowldge of the author on Indology and Indo-European studies made his argument authorative. This book should be read by all history students, instead of only the students in South Asian studies.
"Aryan," a word that today evokes images of racial hatred and atrocity, was first used by Europeans to suggest bonds of kinship, as Thomas Trautmann shows in his far-reaching history of British Orientalism and the ethnology of India.
<span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>
When the historical relationship uniting Sanskrit with the languages of Europe was discovered, it seemed clear that Indians and Britons belonged to the same family. Thus the Indo-European or Aryan idea, based on the principle of linguistic kinship, dominated British ethnological inquiry.
</span>
<span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>
In the nineteenth century, however, an emergent biological "race science" attacked the authority of the Orientalists. The spectacle of a dark-skinned people who were evidently civilized challenged Victorian ideas, and race science responded to the enigma of India by redefining the Aryan concept in narrowly "white" racial terms. </span>
By the end of the nineteenth century, race science and Orientalism reached a deep and lasting consensus in regard to India, which Trautmann calls "the racial theory of Indian civilization," and which he undermines with his powerful analysis of colonial ethnology in India.
His work of reassessing British Orientalism and the Aryan idea will be of great interest to historians, anthropologists, and cultural critics.
<span style='color:blue'>
"Aryans and British India is a seminal work and will be read and reread by serious students of Indian history for many generations."--Stanley Wolpert, author of India
"This is a creative and venturesome rethinking of issues of race, language, and caste in the British colonial understanding of India."--Aram A. Yengoyan, University of California, Davis
</span>
<img src='http://content.cdlib.org/dynaxml/data/v2/ft8779p1v2/figures/ft8779p1v2_cover.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />