Colonialism, Civilization, and Progress

Abstract

John Stuart Mill’s intellectual success is underscored by the fact that his writings were widely studied during his lifetime and they remain of great interest to the lay public and scholars in a variety of academic disciplines. Yet despite the considerable attention paid to Mill, his professional career remains among the least explored and most misunderstood aspects of his life. Now that the Mill Project at the University of Toronto has completed the publication of his Collected Works,particularly the volumes Writings on India and Public and Parliamentary Speeches, information on his professional career is widely available for the first time. Scholars now have a wealth of information for comparing and analyzing Mill’s actions as a colonial administrator and member of Parliament with his well-known theories on political economy, ethics and social philosophy. Careful study of Mill’s professional life is likely to provide us with great insights into his practical beliefs on a whole range of related topics. This chapter does not focus on the details of his employment at the India House or his term as a Member of Parliament. Instead, it concentrates on an important, revealing, and neglected topic—Mill’s colonialism—and shows how it is inextricably intertwined with his belief in human growth.