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In the early nineteenth century, German intellectuals such as Novalis, Schelling, and Friedrich Schlegel, convinced that Germany's cultural origins lay in ancient India, attempted to reconcile these origins with their imagined destiny as saviors of a degenerate Europe, then shifted from 'Indomania' to Indophobia when the attempt foundered. The philosophers Hegel, Schopenhauer, and, later, Nietzsche provided alternate views of the role of India in world history that would be disastrously misappropriated in the twentieth century. Reconstructing Hellenistic and humanist views of the ancient Brahmins and Goths, French-Enlightenment debates over the postdiluvian origins of the arts and sciences, and the Indophilia and protonationalism of Herder, Robert Cowan focuses on turning points in the development of an 'Indo-German' ideal, an ideal less focused on intellectual imperialism than many studies of the 'Aryan Myth' and Orientalism would have us believe. Cowan argues that the study of this ideal continues to offer lessons about cultural difference in the 'post-national' twenty-first century. Of great interest to historians, philosophers, and literary scholars, this cross-cultural study offers a new understanding of the Indo-German story by showing that attempts to establish identity necessarily involve a reconciliation of origins and destinies, of self and other, of individual and collective. Robert Cowan is Assistant Professor of English at Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York.

National characteristics, German --- Intellectuals --- Ideals (Philosophy) --- Public opinion --- History --- Social aspects --- Germany --- India --- Civilization --- Indic influences --- Intellectual life --- Foreign public opinion, German --- Relations --- National characteristics, German - History - 19th century --- Intellectuals - Germany - History - 19th century --- Ideals (Philosophy) - Social aspects - Germany - History - 19th century --- Public opinion - Germany - History - 19th century --- Germany - Civilization - Indic influences --- Germany - Intellectual life - 19th century --- India - Foreign public opinion, German --- Germany - Relations - India --- India - Relations - Germany --- Indic influences. --- Foreign public opinion, German. --- Opinion, Public --- Perception, Public --- Popular opinion --- Public perception --- Public perceptions --- Judgment --- Social psychology --- Attitude (Psychology) --- Focus groups --- Reputation --- Philosophy --- Intelligentsia --- Persons --- Social classes --- Specialists --- German national characteristics --- Bharat --- Bhārata --- Government of India --- Ḣindiston Respublikasi --- Inde --- Indië --- Indien --- Indii︠a︡ --- Indland --- Indo --- Republic of India --- Sāthāranarat ʻIndīa --- Yin-tu --- インド --- هند --- Индия --- Alemania --- Ashkenaz --- BRD --- Bu̇gd Naĭramdakh German Uls --- Bundesrepublik Deutschland --- Deguo --- 德国 --- Deutsches Reich --- Deutschland --- Doitsu --- Doitsu Renpō Kyōwakoku --- Federal Republic of Germany --- Federalʹna Respublika Nimechchyny --- FRN --- Gėrman --- German Uls --- Герман Улс --- Germania --- Germanii︠a︡ --- Germanyah --- Gjermani --- Grossdeutsches Reich --- Jirmānīya --- KhBNGU --- Kholboony Bu̇gd Naĭramdakh German Uls --- Nimechchyna --- Repoblika Federalin'i Alemana --- República de Alemania --- República Federal de Alemania --- Republika Federal Alemmana --- Vācijā --- Veĭmarskai︠a︡ Respublika --- Weimar Republic --- Weimarer Republik --- ХБНГУ --- Германия --- جرمانيا --- ドイツ --- ドイツ連邦共和国 --- ドイツ レンポウ キョウワコク --- Germany (East) --- Germany (Territory under Allied occupation, 1945-1955) --- Germany (Territory under Allied occupation, 1945-1955 : British Zone) --- Germany (Territory under Allied occupation, 1945-1955 : French Zone) --- Germany (Territory under Allied occupation, 1945-1955 : Russian Zone) --- Germany (Territory under Allied occupation, 1945-1955 : U.S. Zone) --- Germany (West) --- Holy Roman Empire --- 18th and 19th Century. --- European Cultural Identity. --- Indo-German Relationship. --- South Asian Origins.