Grist to the Mill!

A few days ago, in discussion with a visitor to the Alliance University, the topic of training for Cross Cultural Management came up. The visitor a man from the corporate world said that many of these training sessions are a hoax because the trainer has rarely if at all travelled to the countries he/she talks about and the end result is that when the trainee really travels overseas they find themselves shortchanged and wanting to strangle the trainer!
Following this, I said, that we are probably the only nation in the world whose history has been written by foreigners and in that context we as a nation have been shortchanged.Our discussion was short and a little vague, but this is what was in my mind........................
John Mills produced his magnum opus 'The History of British India', in 1801, which propelled him to stardom, post a very ordinary career. Mills made his name by severely attacking Indian's in general and talking about their general lack of culture and 'backwardness'.

This is what Mills had to say, on the subject:

A duly qualified man can obtain more knowledge of India in one year in his closet in England than he could obtain during the course of the longest life, by the use of his eyes and ears in India.

If you are wondering what a 'closet' is, Mills, is talking about his toilet in England. The further question is why did Mills, make this statement? Was it to cover up the fact that he did not visit, India, once, or the fact that he knew no Indian language, unlike say the German 'Max Mueller'. The greater tragedy is that, the tome he produced was embraced by the British East India Company and used as a training manual for their India postings, causing their officers to set foot in India with a jaundiced eye.

Mills, for some reason, concludes that Indian history began in 4000 BC, so everything pertaining to Indian history has to be accommodated in this time frame. If archeo-astronomical data seems to indicate, that the Ramayana dates to 7000 BC, Mills will not accept it and it is labelled a 'myth' because it does not fit his straight jacketed model of India and Indians. The myth story, has perpetuated to our times because Mills, said, in 1801, that Indian's are a backward lot and the British were here to civilize Indian's.

A nation's self esteem comes from its history and achievement and it is interesting to see that Mills had not a single nice thing to say about India? Was he the head of a 'propaganda' machine working for the East India Company? If so, he did a great job, but if he was masquerading as a historian, his tome should have been consigned to the waste paper basket a couple of centuries ago, beacuse as far as I'm concerned you should have been there and done that, before talking!