Orientalists
Also called: Indologists · Topic: Europeans in India and the Rise of Company Rule · NCERT: Class 8, Ch 4 "The Colonial Era in India"
Meaning
Orientalists were European scholars who studied the languages, texts and cultures of Asia, especially of India. Today such scholars of India are called "Indologists". They learnt Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic, and translated old Indian texts into European languages. In the 1830s debate on education, some Orientalists argued that Indians should be taught in Indian languages. They lost to the Anglicists led by Thomas Macaulay, who wanted English education. Their work helped spread Indian thought in Europe.
Example
William Jones founded the Asiatic Society in Calcutta in 1784. Charles Wilkins published the first English translation of the Bhagavad Gita in 1785. The German philosopher Hegel later called the spread of Sanskrit texts in Europe the "discovery of a new continent".
Don't confuse with
- Anglicists: they wanted Western subjects taught in English, as Macaulay argued in his Minute of 1835. Orientalists favoured learning in Indian languages.
Related concepts
- Calcutta Madrasa 1781
- Sanskrit College Benaras 1791
- Charter Act 1813
- Hindu College 1817
- Orientalist-Anglicist controversy
- Macaulay's Minute on Indian Education
- William Bentinck
- Downward filtration theory
- Wood's Despatch 1854