JS Mill's Encounter with India

Louis A. Knafla is a professor of history at the University of Calgary,
the co-editor of Law, Society, and the State: Essays in Modern Legal
History, and the author of Lords of the Western Bench.

From 1823 to 1858, John Stuart Mill worked for the East India Company as
an assistant examiner of correspondence for its native states. Scholars
have long wondered about the relationship of the noted political
philosopher and economist to the bureaucrat who engaged in
“white-collar alienated labour.”

The 10 essays in this book originated at a Mill conference held in 1990
at the University of Calgary. An introductory essay by Alan Ryan is
followed by essays by F. Rosen on Eric Stokes and British Utilitarians;
Allison Dube on the “Tree of Utility” in India; Javed Majeed on
Mill’s History of British India; Martin Moir on Mill’s dispatches to
India; Robin Moore on Mill and “Royal India”; Lynn Zastoupil on Mill
and Western culture; Penelope Carson on Mill and the
Anglican-Orientialist controversy; Nancy Cassels on Mill, religion, and
law; Douglas Peers on Mill’s defence of the East India Company; and S.
Ambirajan on Mill and India.

A number of insights emerge from the collection. Mill, who believed in
progress through imperialism, saw the East India Company as a “good
despot” that was concerned with teaching the people of India the art
of self-government. It was the task of the Company, he believed, to
advise and settle the large policy issues. However, the Company lost its
commercial monopoly and was well on the road to its abolition when Mill
resigned in 1858. As other authors here suggest, Mill had an enduring
interest in Orientalism and influenced the society more through his
writings than through his work at the India Office.

This well-edited volume would have benefited from a longer introduction
and the inclusion of an index.