Hindu nationalism is the product of modern historiography, introduced in India by the British, which interprets history as the story of a people identified with a nation. Precolonial historical accounts were stories of gods and kings, rather than peoples or nations. In an early 19th-century Puranic history, myth and history are indistinguishable, with Muslim and Hindu dynasties regarded equally as the product of divine will. Under British influence, Indian history became the story of the Hindu nation and the period of Muslim rule was interpreted as a medieval dark age.
