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Class 8 History Chapter1 Part1 Notes

This document discusses key concepts in studying history, including the importance of dates, periods of history, and how historians choose to categorize eras. It provides examples of how British historians divided Indian history based on the rule of each Governor-General. The document questions whether historians can uncritically accept frameworks like describing the "modern" period in India based on Western characterizations. It also notes that James Mill proposed dividing Indian history into Hindu, Muslim and British periods, which came to be widely accepted but had colonial assumptions.

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1K views3 pages

Class 8 History Chapter1 Part1 Notes

This document discusses key concepts in studying history, including the importance of dates, periods of history, and how historians choose to categorize eras. It provides examples of how British historians divided Indian history based on the rule of each Governor-General. The document questions whether historians can uncritically accept frameworks like describing the "modern" period in India based on Western characterizations. It also notes that James Mill proposed dividing Indian history into Hindu, Muslim and British periods, which came to be widely accepted but had colonial assumptions.

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India Tech with Astitva
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ST.

JOHN’S SCHOOL
GREATER NOIDA WEST
SUBJECT: SOCIAL SCIENCE
HISTORY CHAPTER 1:- How, When and Where?
PART 1
CLASS VIII
History is about changes that occur over time. It is about finding out how things
were in the past and how things have changed. As soon as we compare the past
with the present we refer to time, we talk of “before” and “after”. Dates are
important, as they note when certain events happened. This is very important
because history is recorded chronologically. It helps to know that one event
happened before another event so that one can examine.

How important are dates:

1. History is synonymous with dates.


2. We compare the past with present.
3. We continue to associate history with a string of dates.
4. We study dates to find out the sequence of events and significance of events.
Which Dates:
In the histories written by British historians in India, the rule of each Governor
General was important. These histories began with the rule of the first Governor-
General, Warren Hastings, and ended with the last Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten.

First Governor-General, Warren Hastings,

By what criteria do we choose a set of dates as important? The dates we select,


the dates around which we compose our story of the past, are not important on
their own. They become vital because we focus on a particular set of events as
important. If our focus of study changes, if we begin to look at new issues, a new
set of dates will appear significant.
1. Selection of date depends on the story of past.
2. Focusing on a particular set of events is important.
3. By studying the dates reasons and consequences of events are understood in
better way.

How do we Periodise:
Moving away from British classification, historians have usually divided
Indian history into ‘ancient’, ‘medieval’ and ‘modern’. This division too has
its problems. It is a periodisation that is borrowed from the West-
1. Where the modern period was associated with the growth of all the
forces of modernity – science, reason, democracy, liberty and equality.
2. Medieval was a term used to describe a society where these features of
modern society did not exist.
Can we uncritically accept this characterization of the modern period to
describe the period of our study?
In 1817, James Mill, a Scottish economist and political philosopher,
published a massive three-volume work, A History of British India .
In this he divided Indian history into three periods – Hindu, Muslim and
British. This periodisation came to be widely accepted.
1. According to Mill, Only British rules, culture and laws could make Indians
civilized.
2. There are significant sources to study the periods of events and by studying
different historical evidences a string of time periods can be formed.

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