Indian Proto-History And Colonial Writings

In history, epistemologically speaking, past and present are closely related to each other. If one wants to understand the past, evidence has to be searched from what is available in the present, similarly questions about present cannot be answered without delving deep in the past. The works of historians bear the imprint of their age, which led Croce to remark that "all history is contemporary history".

Under the influence of enlightenment philosophy and positivist thought, Leopold Von Ranke (1795-1886), father of professional history writing, maintained that objective of history should be strictly to show "as it really happened". History has further been described as "science no more and no less" by none other than J. B. Bury, Professor of history at Cambridge in the beginning of 20th century. The purpose behind the emphasis on scientific nature of history was to develop such objective historical methods and techniques of research so that the accurate knowledge of the past could be discerned from the critical examination of available sources.

But history is a distinct kind of science as it deals with the unique individual events of the past, so this science should not be equated with physical or chemical sciences. The main unit of study in historical analysis is human action therefore some kind of unconscious subjectivity would always be there in historical works as they are based on perspective of a historian who is not only the product of his age but also bears a distinct personality. A historian after careful collection and verification of historical evidences, interprets them and then with the help of his imagination writes it down, which finally comes to us in the form of history.

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