ABSTRACT
In Europe, Germany stands alone in having a special relationship with its immigrants from India, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, which derives from its deep historical engagement with Sanskrit texts and within a non-colonial framework. From the late 18th century onwards, with the discovery of Sanskrit’s kinship with European languages, Germany embarked on an effervescent romance with ancient Indian literature, religion, culture and philosophy, embodied in the field of Indology. Although not named as such, it concentrated mostly on Hindu India. The search for Utopia in India’s past was soon enough complicated by other, less adoring views. The image of India seems to have been split into two halves in the German imagination: a glorified past and a degenerate present which besought European dominance. As Anil Bhatti notes: ‘Whether evaluated positively or negatively, India was a past figure: dream of origins, cradle of civilization, childhood of mankind, etc. The present was a faint reflection, even a degenerated stage of the former glory’ (quoted in Esleben et al. 2008: 1).
