John Stuart Mill and India

Beginning as a junior clerk in 1823, John Stuart Mill spent thirty-five years as a colonial administrator in India House, the London headquarters of the East India Company, which dominated the Indian subcontinent. In his Autobiography, Mill paid scant attention to his long imperial career, and following his lead, later commentators have concluded that Indian administration was insignificant for Mill’s intellectual development. Rejecting the long-accepted interpretation, this book suggests that important parallels exist between Mill’s development as a thinker and his neglected India House career.