Important terms

1. Historians: Scholars who write histories.

2. Ancient: Ancient means the earlier period of history or
old period of history.
3. Medieval: means a middle period which is described as
the period in which the features of the modern time did
not exist.
4. Modern: is the period which is associated with the
growth of all the forces of modernity like science,
technology, reason, democracy, liberty and equality.
5. Colonial period: associated with the domination of the
British, French and Portuguese, where people did not
have equality, freedom and liberty.
6. Colonialisation: refers to the period when the
subjugation of a country by another leads to political,
economic,social and cultural control and people do not
have freedom equality and social justice.
Q1. What is the problem with the periodisation of Indian
history that James Mill offers?

Answer.
● James Mill divided Indian history into three periods –
Hindu, Muslim and British.
 ● This periodisation has its own problem. It is difficult
to refer to any period of history as ‘Hindu’ or
‘Muslim’ because a variety of faiths existed
simultaneously in these periods.
● It is also not justified to characterise an age through
the religion of the rulers of the time. What it suggests
is that the lives and practices of others do not really
matter.
● It is worth mentioning that even rulers in ancient
India did not all share the same faith.

Q2. Why did the British preserve official documents?

Ans. The British preserved documents because of the
following reasons:
1. Any information of proof of any decision can be read
or used from the preserved documents.
2. The preserved documents reveal the progress made by
the country in the past.
3. One can study the notes and reports which were
prepared in the past.
4. Their copies may be made and used in Modern Times.
5. Documents were helpful in understanding social,
economic and history of that time.
Q3. How will the information historians get from old
newspapers be different from that found in police reports?
Ans. The information which the historians get from old
newspapers is different from that found in police reports
because of the following reasons:
1. Police records are true and pragmatic.
2. Information printed in newspapers is affected by the
views and thinking of the correspondents, news editors,
etc.
Q4. By which criteria do we choose a set of dates as
important? Give examples.
Ans. 1. The dates we choose are the dates around which
we composed our story of the past . These dates are not
important on their own. They become important because
we take a particular set of events as important.
2. The importance of date changes with change in our
emphasis.
3. We explain this with an example
Examples:
a) British historians in India emphasised the rule of each
Governor General.
b) These historians begin with the rule of the first
governor general, Warren Hastings and finished with the
last viceroy , Lord Mountbatten.

Q5. Why do we divide history into periods?

Ans . We divide history into periods to capture the
importance of that time. The periods reflect the ideas
about the past and the changes from one period to
another.
Q6. What did James Mill think about the Asian societies?
Ans.
1. Mill thought all Asian societies to be at a lower level of
civilization than European societies.
2. He said that before the British came to India, Hindu
and Muslim despots ruled the country.
3. As per Mill, British rule would be able to civilise India.
For this European manners, arts, institutions and laws
should be introduced. He further said that the British
should conquer all the territories in India to ensure the
enlightening and happiness of the Indian people as India
was not capable of progress without British help.

4. In Mill's idea of history, British rule represented all the

forces of progress and civilization.
5. As per Mill, the period before British rule was one of
darkness.

Q7. What was the problem with the periodisation

of Indian history by the historians?
Ans. The classification of Indian history is borrowed from
the west and many times not applicable.
1. The modern period in the West was associated with
science, reason, democracy and liberty whereas we were
under British rule without any of these features.
2. India lacked growth and progress during this time.
Q8. What is the survey? Why were surveys carried out?
Ans. The process of collecting information about various
aspects of flora, fauna, topography, cropping etc. of a
place is called a survey.
Surveys were carried out by the British to administer
India effectively.
1. Detailed surveys were carried out to judge the revenue
collection and know the quality of soil, topography, flora,
fauna, cropping pattern etc.
2. Census operations were also carried out to get the
information about caste, religion, occupations etc.
3. There were other surveys like botanical, zoological,
archaeological, anthropological, surveys etc.

Q9. Why are most of the records unreliable?

Ans.
1.We get a lot of information from these official records
but these are not through picture.
2. These give the viewpoint of officials and what they
wanted to preserve.
3. They do not always help us to understand the people of
the country.
Q10. Why did the British preserve official documents?
Where did they preserve them? Pg. 5
Ans. Pg. 5…under heading Administration produces
records…. from 1 line till ……last line of 2 paragraph.
st nd

Q11. Why do historians divide the past into different

ages?
Ans.
1. They do so in an attempt to capture the characteristics
of a time, its central features as they appear to them.
2. So the terms through which historians periodise –
that is, demarcate the difference between periods
become important.
 3. They reflect our ideas about the past. They show how
we see the significance of the change from one period
to the next.
Q12. Who was James Mill? Pg. 3
Q13. Why do historians refer to modern history as
'colonial'?
Ans.
1. The modern period was associated with the growth of
all the forces of modernity- science, reason,
democracy, liberty and equality.
2.Under British rule people did not have equality,
freedom or liberty. Nor was the period one of economic
growth and progress. Many historians therefore refer to
this period as ‘Colonial’.

3.The British came to conquer the country and establish

their rule, subjugating local nawabs and rajas. They
established control over the economy and society,
collected revenue to meet all the expenses, bought the
goods they wanted at low prices, produced crops they
needed for export.
4.This led in changes in culture, policies etc. When
subjugation of one country by other leads to these kinds
of political, economic, social and cultural changes, we
refer to the process as Colonisation.