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example, we drink tea or coffee, but how did it Indian climate. From the historical perspective,
become part of our dietary habit and when it first Mill tells the story of the English and later, British
came into use by man. Not only this, we all must acquisition of wide territories in India. He has
have travelled by train, so when did trains start in severely criticised those involved in these con-
India? Such questions take us back to the notion quests. In his book, he has illuminated the
of dates and time, but time is not always precise. harmful effects of commercial monopolies such
Sometimes, we even don’t know about the exact as that of the East India Company. Another
date or time of that particular happening. important feature of his book is that he has not
Why we can’t fix a particular date? painted memorable portraits of Robert Clive,
We can’t fix a particular date because many of Warren Hastings and the other leading players in
the things happen over a stretch of time. We the history of British India, nor of its famous
know that Britishers came to India in 1608 and battles as done by many other historians.
then they started ruling India from 1757, but do Despite the fact that Mill had never been to India,
we know the exact date of the year 1757 on his work had a profound effect on the British
which they started ruling? Similarly, if we move system of governing the country, as did his later
back to the example of tea, do we know the official connection with India. But, his conception
exact date on which Indians started drinking tea? that all Asian societies were at a lower level of
That is why it is not possible to fix date for each civilization than that of Europeans was not
and every event. acceptable to most of the Indian people.
BRITISH RAJ AND INDIAN HISTORY MAPPING INDIA
There was a time when history was seen as an James Rennel, the Father
account of battles and big events. As most of the of Geography in India,
writer were dependent on the rulers, so they was asked by Lord Clive
could write only about their achievements. But, t o p r o d u c e m a p o f
as readership grew and the print market for books Hindustan. James Rennel
expanded, the earning of authors increased. This was an expert in marine
freed them from financial dependence on the survey and hydrography,
patronage of aristocrats and gave them inde- but now he was to con-
pendence to write about common people, the duct land survey and
social and economic structure of the society. produce maps. How was
There were many historians who started writing h e t o g o a b o u t i t ? James Rennell
Fortunately for him, Abul
about British rule in India. In 1817, James Mill, a
Fazl’s Ain-e-Akabari, had just been translated.
Scottish economist and political philosopher,
wrote a massive three volume book – ‘The Prepared in the reign of Akbar, it contained a
History of British India.’ In this, he divided Indian thorough description of the empire and its
history into three periods – Hindu, Muslim and administrative and revenue units known as
British. subahs, sarkars, parganas, chaklas, etc. But, their
boundaries were not precisely demarcated nor
‘The History of British India’ is a monumental
were other prominent geographical features like
work in which James Mill set out to display the
rivers and mountains, graphically represented in a
history, character, religion, literature, arts, and
map of chart. Distances and areas were estimated
laws of India, also explaining the influence of the
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