Question

James Mill was a severe critic of the Orientalists. State whether true or false.

• A. True
• B. False

Answer 1

The correct option is A True

Answer: The given statement is true. James Mill was indeed a severe critic of the Orientalists.Orientalists were the people who had scholarly knowledge of the culture and language of Asia.

• One of the many people who attacked the Orientalists was James Mill.
• James Mill declared that British should not put any effort into winning the hearts of natives, British should not teach the natives what the natives respected or wanted.
• James Mill wanted the British to teach what was practical and useful as per their opinion.
• James Mill did not want the natives to be taught sacred literature and poetry but wanted them to be taught technical and scientific advances made by the West.
• The Orientalist vision of learning received heavy criticism from the British officials from the early nineteenth century.
• As per British officials, thoughts of the East were fully unscientific and the knowledge of the East was filled with errors.
• As per British officials the Eastern literature was light-hearted and lacked seriousness.
• Hence the British officials argued that efforts must be made to discourage the study of Sanskrit and Arabic languages and literatures.
• The attacks on the Orientalists became sharper by the 1830s.