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HISTORY CHAPTER I
CLASS 8

1. What is the problem with the periodisation of Indian history that James Mill
offers?
A. In his massive three volume work known as ‘A history of British India’ James
Mill divided the Indian history into Hindu, Muslim and British. He laid emphasis
on the upliftment of society which was introduced by the Britishers in India.
According to him there was religious intolerance, caste taboos, superstitious
beliefs, darkness etc. However this division was problematic for many reasons. A
variety of faiths existed apart from Hinduism and Islam. Even the rulers of ancient
India did not share the same faith.
Q2. Why did the British preserve the official documents?
A. The Britishers were of the view that written documents should be maintained.
Every instruction, plan and agreement was written properly and clearly in order to
study and debate on it. Such documents could also be used for future reference.
Q3. How will the information historians get from newspapers be different from
that found in police reports?
A. In order to write history we have to go through various sources of history such
as autobiographies, newspapers, magazines, police reports, etc. The difference we
find in police reports and newspapers is that police reports describe about the
administration setup during that time but with the biasness of perception of the
officer. Whereas the newspapers describe about the real happenings of that time.
Here also one finds the perception of the writer against the administration which
could be both positive and negative.