IT is often said that the West`s academic interest in the East, its culture and languages was not driven by curiosity but the real motive behind the oriental studies was colonial designs and imperialistic agenda.

According to this premise, often coming in handy from a post-colonial point of view, the oriental learning was aimed at understanding the colonised people and their culture in a better way so that the grip on them could be tightened. Some researchers of Urdu, too, such as Nazeer Azad and Ateeg Siddiqi, while commenting on European orientalists` deep interest in Urdu grammar and dictionaries, wrote that orientalism`s motives included territorial and economic expansion as well as spread of Christianity through missionaries.

But this theory has found its critics, too, and some of our scholars feel that it would not be fair to categorise all academic and research works of the Europeans as the`colonial planning`. For instance, Shanul Haq Haqqee, while commenting on S.W.

Fallon`s A New Hindustani-English Dictionary (1879), wrote that some of the academic works by orientalists were the results of a genuine scholarly approach and love of knowledge. Haqqee`s view may be justified in some cases, but it is interesting to note that many of the European scholars carrying out research and academic work on subcontinent`s languages, literatures and religions during the British Raj were on friendly terms with the high officials of British India government, often successfully acquiring moral, administrative and financial support for their literary and research works.

Warren Hastings (1732-1818), the first governor-general of Bengal, often dubbed as the real ruler of Bengal under the East India Company, played a pivotal role in rallying the essential support for the cause of orientalism and his motive was, naturally, strengthening the British dominance. As S. N. Mukherjee has mentioned in his Sir William Jones: A Study in Eighteenth Century British Attitudesto India (Cambridge, 1968), Hastings encouraged the pioneers in the field of Indology and fought for them in the Supreme Council.

Hastings used to have long discussions with the orientalists and experts in Indology. This all-powerful man had a policy of enticing locals to assert the British sovereignty.

Mukherjee wrote: `His [Hastings`] idea was to rule the conquered in their own way. ... He founded the Calcutta Madressah [seminary] and provided money for it to soften the prejudices which he said were excited by the rapid growth of the British dominion. Thus he wanted to reconcile British rule with the Indian institutions. This meant further investigation into the manners and customs of the country and more studies in the literature and the law of the Indians`. It is, therefore, often said that no study of Indology could be called complete without mentioning Hastings and his support.

One of the scholars playing a key role in implementing Hasting`s policy through oriental studies was, among others, William Jones. Jones was not the first British orien-talist and several scholars had begun earlier their work on oriental studies under the influence of Warren Hastings, for instance, Nathaniel B. Halhed, Charles Wilkins, Francis Gladwin and Jonathan Duncan had joined East India Company. They all came to India and published several works related to India`s languages, religions and culture.

It was, however, William Jones` idea of founding an academic body to further the cause of research on Indology that truly made Hastings` dream come true. Founded in 1784 at Calcutta and initially named Asiatick Society, it was renamed The Asiatic Society of Bengal. In addition to having its own library of old manuscripts and museum, it launched a research journal named Asiatick Researches, which was later on changed to The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. During the next 10 years, William Jones produced a large number of works, sometimes using the penname Younus Oxfordi, or the Jones of Oxford. His own works and the society`s publications on the oriental and Indian studies left indelible marks on the subject. His effortsinvoked such a great wave of interest in Indology and the related disciplines among the European scholars that some English scholars suggested that in Britain a similar body should be established, which later on resulted in the establishment of The Royal Asiatic Society, London.

Jones is also credited with the pioneering work on comparative linguistics as he was among the firsts to have pointed out the similarities between some eastern and western languages, paving the way for the notion of a proto-Indo-European language that might have been the common ancestor of some languages of both Asia and Europe. William Jones knew several languages and also worked as a judge.

It is believed that William Jones, born in 1746 in London, made excessive demands on his physical and mental abilities and succumbed to the burden. He died on April 27, 1794, aged 48, in Calcutta and was buried there.

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