The Indian Perspective

Reply to the PhilOfHi list by Nanda Chandran, 17 February 1998

In answer to Nikholai's question, I think I can give some kind of an idea on the Indian (Bharathiya) perspective towards World History. Basically the philosophy of all the six orthodox schools of Indian philosophy and the other assorted hetrodox schools, like Bouddha or Jaina, transcend space and time and that was the reason, since the ancient days, recording of history was not given much importance. Even before Aristotle, who warned Alexander not to get too close to the Barbarians whom he conquered, the Brahmanas of India, defined the foreigners with the term “Bah, Bah”—not us, not us, which also seems to be the origin of the word, Barbarian.

In the current day most of the history that are taught in Indian schools are basically of European authorship. But for some time now, a feeling has arisen that much of the European interpretation is inaccurate, biased and were not designed with the interests of the nation or the people in mind. So a lot of work towards reintepreting Sanskrit, Pali and Tamizh scripts is being carried out. So for the current, the Indian interest is more towards setting the Indian history straight, rather than think about others!