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Scottish Orientalism: From Robertson to James Mill

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Jane Rendall
Jane Rendall
Affiliation:
University of York
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Extract

It is by now accepted that James Mill’s History of British India, which exercised such influence over the British image of India and Indians throughout the nineteenth century, was cast in the mould of‘philosophical history’, the kind of historical writing typical of the Scottish Enlightenment By the 1790s such an approach was faught at Edinburgh by Dugald Stewart, and in Glasgow by John Millar; and their teachings and writings did much to form Mill’s approach, overlaid though it later was by the Benthamite political message. The characteristics of ‘ philosophical history’ can be identified. Writers of the Scottish Enlightenment were concerned to apply to the study of man and society methods of enquiry comparable to those of the natural sciences, and this, for them, involved the formulation of general laws on the basis of observation, and the available evidence about the history, economy, culture, and political institutions of different societies. Certain guidelines were evolved. The starting point was the close interrelationship between all aspects of men's life within society, between the economy, government, culture, and social life of a people. Secondly, a civilisation, by which was implied all these aspects of a society, could be located on an evolutionary scale, a ladder of civilizations running from ‘rudeness’ to ‘refinement’.

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Articles
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The Historical Journal , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , March 1982 , pp. 43 - 69
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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References

1 See Forbes, D., ‘James Mill and India’, Cambridge journal; V (1951), 19–33Google Scholar; Burns, J. H., ‘The light of reason: philosophical history in the two Mills’, in James and John Stuart Mill/Papers of the centenary conference, ed. Robson, J. M. and Laine, M. (Toronto, 1976)Google Scholar; Thomas, W., The Philosophic Radicals. Nine studies in theory and practice, 1817–1841 (Oxford, 1979), pp. 98–119.Google Scholar

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5 All evidence on the university careers of these men has been taken from the MSS matriculation records of Edinburgh University. All other biographical information is from the Dictionary of National Biography unless otherwise indicated.

6 Memoirs of the life of the Right Honourable Sir James Mackintosh, ed. Mackintosh, R. J. (2 vols., London, 1835), 1, 21–30, 37–8.Google Scholar

7 Elphinstone's inclusion here may seem surprising; I have considered him here only as a friend, associate and patron of these Scottish writers on India. Other aspects of his Indian career may of course be followed in: Ballhatchet, K., Social policy and social change in Western India, 1817–30 (London, 1957)Google Scholar; Choksey, R. D., Mountstuart Elphinstone: the Indian years, 1796–1827 (Bombay, 1971).Google Scholar

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20 Murray, ‘Maurice's Modern India’, E. R., v (Jan. 1805), 301; Leyden to Lt. Col. Richardson n.d. (draft?), B. L. Add. MS 26565, fos. 5–6.

21 ‘A Discourse at the opening of the Literary Society of Bombay’, Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay (hereafter T.L.B.S.) (3 vols., London, 1819–23), I, xvi-xviiGoogle Scholar; see also Mackintosh's ‘Queries; to which the answers will be contributions towards a statistical account of Bombay’, T.L.B.S. I, 305–8, and Mackintosh's correspondence with Francis Horner on the subject, in Memoirs and correspondence of Francis Homer, edited by Horner, Leonard (2 vols., London, 1843), I, 291–7, 310–15.Google Scholar

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23 See, in general, Grewal, J. D., Muslim rule in India: The assessments of British historians (Calcutta, 1970), pp. 111—19Google Scholar. For Malcolm's acknowledgement of Mackintosh's influence, see T.L.B.S. 1, 313–15. On Mackintosh's part in the production of Elphinstone's work on Afghanistan (An account of the kingdom of Caubul, and its dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and India; comprising a view of the Afghaun nation, and a history of the Dooraunee monarchy (London, 1815))Google Scholar, see: Elphinstone to Mackintosh 20 Apr. 1811, and Mackintosh to Whishaw, 13 Aug. 1811, B. L. Add. MS 52452; Mackintosh's notes on Elphinstone's manuscript, entries for 9–24 Apr. 1811, B. L. Add. MS 52438; Colebrooke, Sir T. E., Life of the Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone (2 vols., London, 1884), 1, 240–1.Google Scholar

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25 Lt. F. Irvine, ‘On the similitude between the Gypsy and Hindostanee languages, 29 February 1808’, T.L.B.S. 1, 53–66; Elphinstone, Account of Caubul, p. iv. Irvine's correspondence with government may be found in the Minto papers. National Library of Scotland: N. B. Edmonstone to Irvine, 25 Sept. 1812 and 18 Nov. 1813, M503. For Mackintosh's comments on Irvine, see Mackintosh to Whishaw, 13 Aug. 1811, B.L. Add. MS 52452.

26 For Minto's support for orientalists, see Kopf, D., British orientalism and the Bengal renaissance. The dynamics of Indian modernization, 1773–1835 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1969), pp. 105–7, 147–9Google Scholar; Lord Minto in India. Life and letters of Gilbert Elliot, first Earl of Minto, edited by his great niece, the Countess of Minto (London, 1880), pp. 373 ff.Google Scholar

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29 Ibid. 11, 3–4.

30 Aarsleff, H., The study of language in England, 1760–1860 (Princeton, N.J., 1967), p. 86.Google Scholar

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32 Hamilton, ‘Fry's Pantographia’, Monthly Review (hereafter M.R.), 2nd series, XXXII (May 1800), 15.

33 For example, M.R. XXIII (Aug. 1797), 408–14; Asiatic Annual Register (hereafter A.A.R.), 1 (1800), ‘Account of books…’, 209–24; A.A.R. 11 (1801), ‘Account of books… ’, 1–22; E.R. XVI (Aug. 1810). 390–1.

34 Chambers, R. W. and Norman, F., ‘Alexander Hamilton and the beginnings of comparative philology’, in Studies in English philology: A miscellany in honor of Frederick Klaeber, ed. by Malone, K. and Ruud, M. B. (Minneapolis, 1929), p. 461.Google Scholar

35 ‘Wilkins's Sanscrit Grammar’, E.R. XIII (Jan. 1809), 372.

36 ‘Asiatic Researches, Vol. x’, E.R. XVI (Aug. 1810), 309.

37 See Rocher's account of this visit, Alexander Hamilton, pp. 34–63, 122–4; see also the assessments of Chambers and Norman, ‘Alexander Hamilton’, pp. 465–6, and Aarsleff, Study of language, pp. 138–9.

38 Leyden to Richard Heber, 15 June 1802, Cholmondeley, The Heber letters, p. 182.

39 The projects may be found in B. L. Add. MSS 264564–5; see also Reith, Life of …Leyden, p. 269.

40 Leyden, ‘Plan for investigating the languages, literature, antiquities, and history of the Dekkan’, B. L. Add. MS 26564, fo. 19.

41 Leyden, ‘On the languages and literature of the Indo-Chinese nations’, Asiatick Researches: or Transactions of the Society, instituted in Bengal, for enquiring into the history and antiquities, the arts, sciences, and literature of Asia, x (1808), 162, 219.

42 Leyden to Richardson, n.d. B. L. Add. MS 26565, fo. 13.

43 Entries in Mackintosh's MSS Journals, 13 Nov. 1806, B.L. Add. MS 52436, and 16 Nov. 1811, B.L. Add. MS 52440.

44 For the distribution of Mackintosh’s Plan, see the relevant sections of the India Office Records: Bombay Public Proceedings P343/33, fo. 3281, 29 June 1806; Bengal Public Consultations, P6/30, fo. 8380, 7 Aug. 1806; for Madras, Mackintosh to Lord William Bentinck, 29 June 1806, Pw Jb 25, and Bentinck to Mackintosh 29 July 1806, Pw Jb 727, Bentinck papers University of Nottingham. For Elphinstone's work in collecting these vocabularies, see the entries in his MS Journal, India Office Library, Eur. MSS F88 Box 13F (d) for Nov. 1806, fos. 76–90; Elphinstone to Erskine, n.d., Erskine papers, I.O.L., Eur. MSS D29 fos. 13–19; Elphinstone to Mackintosh, 11 May 1811, B.L. Add. MS 52452; Elphinstone to Erskine, 23 Sept. 1816, Colebrooke, Life of Mountstuart Elphinstone, 1, 150, 328–31. Colebrooke's revival of the Plan can be traced in: Bengal Public Proceedings, P7/3, 29 Jan. 1808, Nos. 49, 50, and P7/7, 1 Apr. 1808, No. 34; Colebrooke, H. T., Miscellaneous Essays, with a life of the author by Sir T. E. Colebrooke (3 vols., London, 1873), 1, 228–9. The collected vocabularies still remain in the papers of John Leyden, B.L. Add. MSS 26064–5.Google Scholar

45 Crawfurd, John, History of the Indian Archipelago: containing an account of the manners, arts, languages, religions, institutions, and commerce of its inhabitants (3 vols., Edinburgh, 1820), 11, 8–9, 94–6.Google Scholar

46 Kennedy, Researches into…the principal languages, p. iv.

47 Ibid. pp. 270, 274.

48 See Kennedy's references to Bopp, Ibid. pp. 21, 243.

49 Hamilton, ‘Sanscrit and Greek-Sanscrit poetry’, E.R. XXXIII (May 1820), 431 42; also, on Hamilton's assistance to Bopp, Rocher, Alexander Hamilton, pp. 112–18.

50 Mackintosh, ‘Stewart's Introduction to the Encyclopaedia’, E.R. XXXVI (Oct. 1821), 264.

51 Mackintosh to A. W. Schlegel, 21 Aug. 1821, Sachsische Landesbibliothek Dresden, Mscr Dresdenensis ego XIX, Bd 15, Nr 5.

52 Wilhelm von Humboldt, ‘An essay on the best means of ascertaining the affinities of oriental languages, contained in a letter to Sir Alexander Johnston’, read 14 June 1828, Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 11, 213–21; Schlegel, A. W., Réflexions sur l’etude des langues asiatiques adressées à Sir James Mackintosh (Bonn, 1832)Google Scholar, passim, but especially pp. 4ff. For a discussion of this work, see Schwab, R., La renaissance orientale (Paris, 1950), p. 97.Google Scholar

53 Aarsleff, Study of language, pp. 176–9. See also, for the central role of philology in the European understanding of Asiatic societies, Said, Orientalism, esp. pp. 98–9, 135–6; Burrow, J. W., ‘The uses of philology in Victorian England’, in Ideas and institutions of Victorian Britain: Essays in honour of George Kitson Clark, ed. Robson, R. (London, 1967).Google Scholar

54 Hamilton, A.A.R. III (1801), ‘Account of books…’, pp. 33–4.

55 ‘Asiatic Researches, vol. ix’, E.R. xv (July 1809), 176–7.

56 , Colebrooke, Life of Elphinstone, 1, 349.Google Scholar

57 Hardy, P., ‘Introduction’, to William Erskine, History of India under Baber and Humayun (Reprinted, 2 vols., Karachi, 1974), 1, viii.Google Scholar

58 Kennedy, ‘An essay on Persian literature’, read 30 Sept. 1817, T.L.B.S. II, 65.

59 Mill, James, The history of British India (6 vols., London, 1820 edn), I, 2–3.Google Scholar

60 Robertson, Historical disquisition, Appendix, passim.

61 Mill, ‘Wilks’s Historical sketches’, Eclectic Review, VI (Aug. 1810), 702.

62 History of British India, I, 143.

63 Hamilton, A.A.R. IV (1802), Account of books…’, 23–32; ‘Asiatic Researches, vol. VI’, E.R. I (Oct. 1802), 30–7.

64 A.A.R. IV (1802), ‘Account of books…’, 29.

65 ‘Buchanan's Travels in the Mysore’, E.R. XIII (Oct. 1808), 82–100.

66 ‘Asiatic Researches, vol. VIII’, E.R. XII (Apr. 1808), 41–3.

67 Entry in Erskine's diary, 5–12 Mar. 1811, B.L. Add. MS 39945.

68 See his articles:‘Account of the cave-temple of Elephanta…’, read 2 Nov. 1813, T.L.B.S. 1,298–350; ‘On the sacred books and religion of the Parsis’, read 27 Apr. 1819, T.L.B.S. II,295–341; ‘Observations on the remains of the Bouddhists in India’, read 31 July 1821, T.L.B.S. III,494–537.

69 Kennedy, ‘Remarks on the sixth and seventh chapters of Mill's History of British India, respecting the religion and manners of the Hindus’, read 29 Feb. 1820, T.L.B.S. III, 157.

70 , Kennedy, Researches into the nature and affinity of ancient and Hindu mythology (London, 1831), pp. 159–64.Google Scholar

71 James Mackintosh, ‘Western Asia’, E.R. xxv (Oct. 1815), 413.

72 Mill, History of British India, II, 138–9.

73 John Crawfurd, ‘Of the Eastern peninsula of India’, E.R. XXII (Jan. 1814), 344. I have identified both this article, and that on the ‘History and languages of the Indian islands’, E.R. XXIII (April 1814), 151–89, as being by Crawfurd, on the basis of internal evidence, and a comparison with Crawfurd's History of the Indian archipelago. The articles show every sign of Crawfurd's familiarity with certain languages, his commitment to free trade, and his characteristic brand of ‘philosophical history’.

74 Leyden, ‘On the languages and literature of the Indo-Chinese nations’, Asiatick Researches, x, 219.

75 ‘Asiatic Researches, vol. VII’, E.R. IX (Oct. 1806), 301–2.

76 ‘Observations on the remains of the Bouddhists…’, T.L.B.S. III, 496.

77 Entry in Erskine's diary, 1 Jan. 1816, B.L. Add. MS 39945.

78 Memoirs of Zehir-ed-din Muhammed Baber Emperor of Hindustan, written by himself in the Jaghatai Turki, and translated partly by the late John Leyden Esq. M.D., partly by William Erskine Esq. with notes and a geographical and historical introduction (London, 1826), pp. xvi, xliv.

79 , Crawfurd, History of the Indian Archipelago, I, 8, 13; II, 296.Google Scholar

80 Ibid. I, 17–30.

81 Mill, History of British India, II, 424–60.

82 See, for example; Kennedy, ‘Remarks on the state of Persia from the battle of Arbela in A.C. 331 to the rise of Ardashir Babegar in A.D. 226’, read 31 Aug. 1819, T.L.B.S. III, 21, 32–3, 49; Erskine, Memoirs of Baber, pp. xlv-xlvi; Elphinstone, Account …of Caubul, p. 511. The clearest contrast between the corporate institutions of Europe, and the personal nobilities of Asia is to be found in Erskine, History of India under the two first sovereigns of the house of Taimur, Baber and Humayun (2 vols., London, 1854), II, 552–5.Google Scholar

83 Rocher, Alexander Hamilton, pp. 7–8; Hamilton, ‘Wilks's History of Mysor’, E.R. XVIII (Aug. 1811), 355.

84 Memoirs of Baber, pp. xlv-xlviii.

85 Account …of Caubul, pp. 173–4.

86 ‘Western Asia’, E.R. xxv (Oct. 1815), 432.

87 History of the Indian Archipelago, III, II.

88 Ibid., III, 4–47.x

89 ‘Buchanan's Travels in the Mysore’, E.R. XIII (Oct. 1808), 92.

90 ‘M. Anquetil, Oupnekhat’ E.R. I (Jan. 1803), 413.

91 Mackintosh (ed.), Memoirs of Sir James Mackintosh, 1, 280–1, 305, 393.

92 Erskine, ‘Account of the cave-temple of Elephanta…’, T.L.B.S. I, 204 ff.

93 Hamilton, ‘Moor's Hindu Pantheon’, E.R. XVII (Feb. 1811), 328–30.

94 Researches into…ancient and Hindu mythology, pp. 190–4.

95 Ibid. pp. 1–23.

96 T.L.B.S. III, 124.

97 Researches into… ancient and Hindu mythology, p. 191.

98 See Philips, C. H., ‘James Mill, Mountstuart Elphinstone, and the history of India’, in Historians of India, Pakistan, and Ceylon, ed. Philips, C. H. (London, 1961).Google Scholar

99 Erskine, History of India, I, viii.

100 , Hardy, ‘Introduction’, to Erskine, History of India (1974 edn), 1, ix.Google Scholar

101 Jeffrey, ‘Memoirs of the Emperor Baber’, E.R., XLVI (June, 1827), 39–44.

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103 For example, Alexander Fraser, Tytler, Considerations on the present political state of India; embracing observations on the character of the natives, on the civil and criminal courts, the administration of justice, the state of land-tenure, the condition of the peasantry, and the internal policy of our Eastern dominions; intended chiefly as a manual of instruction in their duties, for the younger servants of the Company (2 vols., London, 1815).Google Scholar