Summary

Sources of Modern Indian History

Archival Materials consist of public, private and foreign repositories Public Archives include the archives of the Governments of India, archives of state governments, archives of the three Presidencies

of Bengal, Madras and Bombay, and judicial records.

Private Archives Papers and documents of individuals and families of note who played a significant role in the development of modern India.

Foreign Repositories Indian office Records in London, Record Office, Lahore, etc.

Biographies and Memoirs Accounts of travellers, traders, missionaries and civil servants during the 18th and 19th centuries as well as memoirs written by Indian leaders during Independence movement.

Newspapers and Journals Published in India as well as abroad.

Others Oral tradition, creative literature, painting.

Chapter 2

Major Approaches to the History of Modern India

Looking at how histories are written is part of the study of the intellectual history of the period under discussion and can provide a variety of ideas and explanations. The starting point in the history of a society, therefore, has to be a familiarity with its historiography—the study of historical interpretation. This provides recognition of the intellectual context of history, instead of seeing history as just a narration of events. The modern history of India, for the convenience of understanding, can be read broadly under four approaches— the Colonial (or the Imperialist), Nationalist, Marxist, and Subaltern—each with its own distinct characteristics and modes of interpretation. However, there are other approaches— Communalist, Cambridge, Liberal and Neo-liberal, and Feminist interpretations—which have also influenced historical writing on modern India.

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The production of histories of India has become very frequent in recent years and may well call for some explanations… The reason is a two-fold one: changes in the Indian scene requiring a reinterpretation of the facts and changes in the attitudes of historians about the essential elements of Indian history.

—Percival Spear