The Challenges of Colonial Historiography to the Study of African and Indian History up to the Second Half of the 20th Century

Abstract

Colonial historiography has been an ineffective tool in the study colonialism both in African and Indian history. It is a major flaw in the thinking of the Eurocentric writers about the development process of the history of the societies of Africa and India. This development has formed the subject-matter and focus of the paper. The paper’s findings show that contrary to the western basis of history which denigrated the African and Indian past, the development and expression of African and Indian historiography as an ideological wing of nationalist struggle laid a crucial foundation for the reconstruction of their past. The most significant change in the historiography during the second half of the 20th century is the use of discourse and locally grounded narratives to question older paradigms of historical understanding of African and Indian historiography.The paper has advanced the argument that historical consciousness was a factor in Indian and African societies in the pre-colonial period and the tools for its expression grew and expanded only with the different epochs of European activities on the continent, as well as the events of the post-colonial period. This paper used the historical research method, the multidisciplinary approach, intellectual perspectives of history, and secondary sources to achieve the objectives of its focal point. It concludes that African historians must continue to be rigorous in establishing independent views in their writing of the African past.