4 SOCIAL SCIENTIST been engaged in tackling the problems of historical reconstruction related to ancient India. Sometimes they followed the leadership of European scholars or accepted partnership in their ventures, but very often they criticized and rejected early European foundations. The first generation of nationalist historians in India has been followed by another generation of academic researchers who are neither imperialist nor nationalist in their approach to history but want to be more objective than both. They are conscious of the limitations of previous writers imposed by sources as well as by perspective. Many of them do not reject a nationalist approach but work for its modification, enrichment and further development in positive content. Nevertheless, there are others who disown the national point of view altogether in favour of a humanistic or proletarian commitment. This article attempts to make a survey of recent trends, concentrating on the conceptual problems to the exclusion of technical and organizational problems of research, except when they are directly relevant to the process of conceptualization. Eurocentrism This review may be prefaced by a brief statement about the nature of the Eurocentric approach, since it served as the background and as the point of departure for Indian historians of India. Imperialist or liberal, capitalist or communist, all historians looked at India from the European angle. Even when they shook themselves free from European interests and pressures, their minds were still immersed in European value systems which conditioned their attitude. The emphasis differed from writer to writer. Perhaps labels like imperialist, liberal, utilitarian or evangelist, adopted in certain studies, are not very useful in recognizing the real character of the bias. This type of classification follows largely the expressed ideas of the writers rather than the hidden or half-hidden factors which affected their entire perspective. Broadly speaking, it is perhaps relevant to identify certain major influences at work on the European historians of India. These were: 1 Medieval Christian faith as represented by the Catholic and Protestant churches obsessed with the idea of proselytization. 2 Classical education dominated by the renaissance view of Greek civilization and culture. 3 Interests and policies of the British Raj articulated and jealously guarded by the intelligent bureaucratic machine. 4 Social attitudes generated by the Industrial Revolution and the capitalist regime. 5 Modern scientific spirit surcharged with the desire to observe and understand things as they are. To be fair it must be admitted that the great majority of European historians were not consciously importing extraneous considerations into the study of Indian history. Where they injected propaganda into it, as Vincent Smith or W W Hunter or E J Rapson did, they made no effort to