1. How When and Where
Q1. State whether true or false:
(a) James Mill divided Indian history into three periods – Hindu, Muslim, Christian.
(b) Official documents help us understand what the people of the country think.
(c) The British thought surveys were important for effective administration.
Answer:
(a) False
(b) False
(c) True
Q2. What is the problem with the periodisation of Indian history that James Mill offers?
Answer: James Mill divided Indian History into three periods are as follow;
(i) Hindu (ii) Islam (iii) British
But There were following problems in this periodisation:
(i) No era can be divided into time zones only according to the religion of the rulers of that time.
(ii) They wanted to show that before British rule, India was divided in the name of caste religion/system.
(iii) While the rulers of ancient age had no religion.
Q3. Why did the British preserve official documents?
Answer: The British preserved the official documents by making them museums and archives.
Q4. How will the information historians get from old newspapers be different from that found in police reports?
Answer: The information used in the old newspapers was true and correct, while the police report was false. Under British rule, the police used to file false reports at the behest of the British, which could not be believed. Whereas newspaper information was based on true reports. Newspapers used to write events independently.
