Against the Aryan (and Colonial) Version of Indian History: South India's Counter-narratives and Geographies

European colonisation was accompanied by a historiographical production partly nourished by Orientalist knowledge, which presented a hegemonic version of India's past. Emphasis was placed on the supposed greatness of Vedic India because of its Indo-Aryan heritage linked to Indo-European "civilisation". Paradoxically, this is used today in India as Indian Hindu nationalism, the heir to this simplified view of India. But from the 19th century onwards, other historiographical writings and other versions of India's past were written by Indian scholars, challenging the image of an Indian world constructed from the north of the subcontinent. This was particularly true of South Indian authors and political actors who worked on other historical sources.

My contribution aims to show how these historiographies have helped to develop regional versions of Indian history and continue to fuel resistance to efforts to unify India's culture, proposing a different history and a different map of the country. From the end of the 19^th century onwards, they have drawn on ancient sources, such as the rediscovered corpus of Tamil poetry (Sangam literature) dating from the first centuries of our era, and then, in the 20^th century, on regional figures in anti-colonial struggles, popularised by ancient ballads and then films.

These 'counter-narratives' challenging imperial historiographies and Indigenous nationalist writings will be compared with some African historiographies, which aim to better account for national territories' social and cultural diversity.