Historiographer Elphinstone took up as a mission of the refutation of Mill’s view, although he regarded Mill’s history as ingenious, original and elaborate. He was conscious of the fact that Mill had subordinated his history to the enunciation of a principle which was essentially European in concept, but the real history of India could also be written by a direct contact with Indian situation and conditions. In other words it is one thing to write the history of a land, which one has never visited, on the basis of a particular ideology, and altogether a different thing to be in that land for over two decades, watch the flow of its life from a discerning eye, weigh in the balance all pros and cons of a society’s culture, and then write its …show more content…
James Mill played a master role in the institution of new land revenue system. He was from 1819 until1830 immediately responsible for drafting the revenue dispatches to India for following liberal land revenue assessment. Utilitarian’s hopes of inaugurating a comparative society, based on individual rights in the soil, depended as much upon the revenue assessment, and the registration of landholdings which accompanied it, as upon the superstructure of judicial cods and establishment.
James mill a Scottish economist and political philosopher. He divided India history into – Hindu, Muslim and British. So the terms through which we periodise is demarcating the difference between periods become important. They reflect our ideas about the past. The show how we see the significance of the change from one period to the next. • The modern period was associated with the forces of modernity like reason, science, liberty, democracy and equality. • The medieval period was associated with a society where modernity did not exist.
It was in 1817 that James Mill in his book A History of British India divided Indian history into the following three parts:
Ø The Hindu period
Ø The Muslim
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After completing his studies and working for a brief period as a personal tutor, he visited London in order to become a journalist. In London, he arrived to close connection with Jeremy Bentham. In collaboration with Bentham, he elaborated the theory of utilitarianism. From 1806 onwards Mill worked on the History of British India. Following its publication he took office (in 1819) as Assistant Examiner of Correspondence in the East India Company and was later promoted to Chief Examiner, a position that gave him a great influence on-the British administration in India and it enabled him to place into practice the principle of utility as he'd enunciated it in his work, History of British India. James Mill was the exponent of the utilitarian image of India. In this regard he held a diametrically opposite stance when compared to the stance of William Jones. While Jones was interested in recognizing and understanding the unique and peculiar aspects of Indian