What were the issues associated with the classification mentioned by James Mill?

James Mill was a Scottish economist and political philosopher. He wrote three volumes of the book called ‘A History of British India’. In this book, he wrote about the division of the Indian History into Hindu, Muslim and British. The main purpose was to know about the different characteristics and features of Indian History separately. Indian History has been divided to set a boundary between different characteristics of the society that existed and to give importance to each one of them. It helps us to know about the importance of the changes that happen in Indian History.

The issues associated with the classification mentioned by James Mill were as follows:

• He supported his idea of the division with a view that ‘all Asian societies were at a lower level of civilisation than Europe’. He thought that Hindu and Muslim rulers ruled India before the British came to India. Social life was dominated by Religious intolerance, caste taboos and superstitious practices. It was important to introduce European manners, arts, institutions and laws in India by the British as only they could civilize Indians. He only supported the idea of British rule in India and gave more emphasis to it, rather than focussing on the various aspects of Indian society.

• He also advocated the idea that for educating Indian people and for their happiness, Britishers should conquer all the territories as Indians cannot advance without British help. It means British rule became the symbol of progress and civilisation and the period before this was the dark one. This notion was not completely accepted today.

• Moreover, James Mill didn’t focus that before British rule variety of faiths existed; isn’t it inappropriate to characterise an age only through the religion of the rulers of the time. All this suggests that the lives of the common people didn’t matter and only the Britishers were the sole responsible for the development that happened in India.