CRITIQUE OF WEST IN INDIA

[Frank Conlon]

Friends:

This direction of discussion is moving away from the original question, 
but I am obliged to make one small amendment to Allen Thrasher's post.

While it is true that there are no substantial physical barriers once 
past the Khyber Pass and Sulaiman range etc., leaving aside spurs of 
other ranges and rivers, there were other constraints upon the movement 
of military in the pre-20th century (at least pre mid-19th C) epoch.  
Movement of conventional armies was constrained by availability of water 
and fodder.  While light cavalry might presumably travel swiftly in 
inhospitable country, the substantial military column with camp followers 
etc. was limited.  I would reckon that it was not just a matter of habit 
that two major battles in the 16th century occurred at Panipat.

Of course, Allen would be correct in pointing out that Panipat is not a 
day's ride from the foot of the Khyber...

With respect to Lars Fosse's original query, my own research on a 
mid-19th century Maharashtrian religious figure, Vishnbawa Brahmachari, 
has dredged up evidence that in the 1850s he was already invoking the 
"scientific wonders of the Vedic past" and the notion that the material 
superiority of the West was consistent with the spiritual superiority of 
India, which was particularly bothersome since once upon a time everyone 
spoke Sanskrit and was a follower of Vedic dharm.  But, if Lars Fosse is 
seeking a subtle and sophisticated set of arguments on these points, I am 
afraid that neither Vishnubawa nor I can oblige.

Frank F. Conlon
Dept. of History
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
Co-editor of H-ASIA