Struggle between the approaches of colonialism and nationalism to understand the ancient India.

Modern techniques to search about the evidences of ancient history through exploration and excavation were used to serve the needs of the British colonial administration and the began to call the ‘Dark age’ to the history of India. The concept of ‘Dark age’ was given by western scholars over the native people of India to prove their supremacy and to spread the feeling of inferiority among the natives. In this way, they translated the Manusmriti in 1767 for presenting the insular aspects of the Manu who advocated the strict boundary for shudras and focused the women should be confined within the four walls of a house. But after the revolt of 1857, it became necessary for them to understand the Indian sentiments which resulted the establishment of the archaeological survey of India in 1861 and many discoveries in various dimensions was ,manifested prominently through its archaeological evidences.

PIL- Public Interest Litigation

                  with the rise of a sense of awareness among the Indians, they started to corroborate the ancient history which gives an impetus to the beginning of nationalism among the Indians. They praised the early Indians and glorified the wisdom and knowledge of early Indians like Aryabhata who mentioned about the solar and lunar eclipses, correct distance between the sun and the earth, heliocentric theory, heron’s formula, value of pie. The most important fact, the use of ‘shunya’ by Indian mathematician. On account of these references, the prospective to understand the ancient history shifted from colonialism to nationalism which blows the feeling of consciousness of mass struggle against the British colonization.