HOW, WHEN AND WHERE

 

CLASS- VIII    OUR PASTS -III

 

01.    HOW, WHEN AND WHERE

·       In 1817, James Mill, a Scottish economist and political philosopher, published a massive three-volume work, A History of British India . In this he divided Indian history into three periods – Hindu, Muslim and British. This periodisation came to be widely accepted.

·       Mill considered:

ü  Asians lower than Europeans

ü  Hindu and Muslim period: Religious intolerance, caste taboos and superstitious practices

ü  British period: Civilized India with art, institutions and laws

ü  Explained to conquer all territories to spread enlightenment and happiness

ü  British rule represented all the forces of progress and civilization

ü  The period before British rule was one of darkness

·       Moving away from British classification, historians have usually divided Indian history into ‘ancient’, ‘medieval’ and ‘modern’.

·       When the subjugation of one country by another leads to these kinds of political, economic, social and cultural changes, we refer to the process as colonisation.

·       One important source is the official records of the British administration. The British believed that the act of writing was important. Every instruction, plan, policy decision, agreement, investigation had to be clearly written up.

 

British: How do we know?

·       Sources is official record of British Administration.

·       Had culture of memos, notings and reports.

·       The British also felt that all important documents and letters needed to be carefully preserved. So they set up record rooms attached to all administrative institutions. The village tahsildar’s office, the collectorate, the commissioner’s office, the provincial secretariats, the lawcourts – all had their record rooms.

·       Specialised institutions like archives and museums were also established to preserve important records. Letters and memos that moved from one branch of the administration to another in the early years of the nineteenth century can still be read in the archives.

·       In the early years of the nineteenth century these documents were carefully copied out and beautifully written by calligraphists – that is, by those who specialised in the art of beautiful writing.

·       By the middle of the nineteenth century, with the spread of printing, multiple copies of these records were printed as proceedings of each government department.

 

Surveys become important:

·       The practice of surveying also became common under the colonial administration. The British believed that a country had to be properly known before it could be effectively administered.

·       By the early nineteenth century detailed surveys were being carried out to map the entire country. In the villages, revenue surveys were conducted. The effort was to know the topography, the soil quality, the flora, the fauna, the local histories, and the cropping pattern – all the facts seen as necessary to know about to administer the region.

·       From the end of the nineteenth century, Census operations were held every ten years. These prepared detailed records of the number of people in all the provinces of India, noting information on castes, religions and occupation.

·       There were many other surveys – botanical surveys, zoological surveys, archaeological surveys, anthropological surveys, forest surveys.

 

 

What people thought about? (Atrocities of Britishers):

·       When we begin to search for these other sources we find them in plenty, though they are more difficult to get than official records. We have diaries of people, accounts of pilgrims and travelers, autobiographies of important personalities, and popular booklets that were sold in the local bazaars.

·       As printing spread, newspapers were published and issues were debated in public. Leaders and reformers wrote to spread their ideas, poets and novelists wrote to express their feelings.

WORD GLOSSARY:

Historian: One who writes about the events of the past, i.e. how things were and how they changed.

Debate: Discussion on an important topic of public interest.

Periodisation: Ponding any event into periods.

Ancient: Very old.

Medieval: It refers to the period in which features of modern society did not exist.

Colonosation: Colonisation is a process in which one country subjugates another and thus brings political, economic, social and cultural changes.

Subjugation: Gaining control over a country.

Calligrapher: one who is specialized in the art of beautiful writing.

Survey: The act of examining and recording the measurements, features etc. of an area of land to prepare a map of plan for it.

Archives: A place where historical documents or records of a government, an organization, etc. are stored.

1773: Warren Hastings became the first Governor- General of India.

1782: First map produced by James Rennel.

1817: James Mill published a massive three-volume work, A History of British India.

1920: The National Archives of India came up.

……...the end………