Asian scholars initially accepted orientalist scholarship before later rejecting it

Evidence

There were objections too, increasingly, from the objects of study—not just to the name but to a great deal more. These objections did not come until a comparatively late stage. The attitude of the orientals (if I may be excused for using the this term for the moment) to the orientalist was at first either respectful or indifferent: indifferent where they either didn’t know about them or didn’t care about them or regarded them as engaged in pursuits totally irrelevant to their own interests. In time, scholars in the “Orient” became increasing respectful and sometimes even appreciative. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 2071

Categorization

  • XREF: Chronology of colonized acceptance-then-rejection of orientalist frames complements Said’s account of the same trajectory; useful because it is written from inside the orientalist institution itself.