CRASSH

According to a deeply rooted and long-lasting historiographical representation 19th century British and German indological traditions profoundly differed from each other. Whereas in Great-Britain the study of the Indian culture and languages developed on the background of colonial ambitions, in Germany the interest in these subjects was dictated by a strictly romantic, non-utilitarian fascination for India as the cradle of civilization and the only possible source for the regeneration of the West. This view was propagated by the Germans themselves as of the first decades of the 19th century. The writer Heinrich Heine, for instance, was convinced that the Germans were to exploit the intellectual treasures of India which the British and the French neglected in favour of commercial goods.

Still a closer examination shows that things were not so simple. There have always been close connections between German Indologists and their British counterparts. For this reason, it makes more sense to study the interrelations between German and British Indology than to compare both traditions. Throughout much of the 19th century, German Indologists remained dependant on the British to have access to manuscript sources and it was part of most Sanskrit students’ education to make a study trip to London or Oxford. As the decades went by, more and more Indological chairs were created in German universities, German libraries acquired collections of Indian manuscripts and books on India, and German Indology gained an international reputation of excellence. In the end German Indologists were too numerous to find a position in Germany. More and more of them emigrated to England where they were employed either as librarians or as University Professors. There was a dense network of German Indologists in England and Scotland and Max Müller, the famous Professor at Oxford, was instrumental in them being employed by the British government. Many of them even worked for the British in India where they ran educational institutions or were in charge of the collection of manuscripts.

In reconstructing the involvement of German scholars in British Indology, this paper will address the following questions: how was the network of German Indologists organized? To what extent did German Indologists contribute to modify the perception of India in Great-Britain? Is it possible to strictly distinguish between science and ideology, theoretical work and practical aims? Did German Indologists themselves change their views on and their approach of India during their stay in Great-Britain or in British India, and, if so, how was their work perceived by their colleagues in Germany?