The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c14.s3.4

c14.s3.4

But, and here lies the chief difficulty in regard to every branch of Hindu thought including even psychology, logic and metaphysics, the machinery of "sociological criticism" is hardly applicable because of the paucity of "external evidences" with which to bear out, interpret or militate against, the "internal". In regard to the ancient and mediaeval works of political theory in the West modern scholarship has almost successfully decided as to which portions of which texts are descriptive-historical and which are normative, utopian or idealistic. This has been possible owing to the wealth of archeology. The evidences of literature have been systematically checked and appraised by reference to actual facts. "Pious wishes" of theorists have thus been disentangled from photographic accounts of institutions.