Indology, Indomania, and Orientalism

Investigating the growth of Indology (the study of East Indian texts, literature, and culture) and the diffusion of this knowledge about ancient India within nineteenth-century Germany, this work contextualizes approaches to contact by historically grounding them in a contemporary history of German culture, education, and science. It answers the historical anomaly of why Germany had more nineteenth-century experts in the academic discipline of Indology than all other European powers combined. German interest in ancient India developed because it was useful for widely varying German projects, including Romanticism and nationalism. German Indologists made successful arguments about the cultural and intellectual relevance of ancient India for modern Germany, leaving an ambiguous legacy including a deeper appreciation of South Asian culture as well as scholarly justifications for the warlike image of a Swastika-bearing Aryan master race.

Douglas T. McGetchin is Assistant Professor of History at Florida Atlantic University.