Keay, John;
India Discovered: The Recovery of a Lost Civilization
Collins 1981 / Rupa & Co 1989 [cal coll-st mar08]
ISBN
topics: | british-india | history
The original title makes the objectives clearer - "India Discovered: The Achievement of the British Raj". The blurb goes: Two hundred years ago, India was seen as a place with little history and less culture. Today it is revered for a notable prehistory, a classical age and a cultural tradition unique in both character and continuity. How this extraordinary change in perception came about is the subject of this fascinating book. The book traces the various Englishmen who discovered the culture of India, by discovering temple complexes like Khajuraho or the Mohenjo-Daro civilization. Nonetheless, it is an interesting and well-researched story of how these aspects of Indian culture came to be accepted in Western knowledge owing to the passion and perserverance of these Indophiles.