Page 262 - DPOL201_WESTERN_POLITICAL_THOUGHT_ENGLISH

Western Political Thought

Notes

Mill’s plea for gender equality was appreciated by Bankim, who felt that there was no
need to add anything to what was stated in The Subjection, except the fact that Indian
women faced “one hundredth degree more of subjugation” than their European
counterparts.

Self-Assessment
1. Mill advocated universal adult franchise in ............... .
(i) 1859 (ii) 1850 (iii) 1858 (iv) 1860
2. Stuart Mill visualized society as composed of ............... citizens.
(i) Free (ii) Equal and independent
(iii) Virtuous (iv) All of these
3. Mill started writing a book on socialism, which remained incomplete, in ............... .
(i) 1869 (ii) 1870 (iii) 1865 (iv) 1868
4. ‘Samya’ was written by
(i) Bankim (ii) Mill (iii) Macaulay (iv) None of these.
14.4 Summary

• Mill was convinced that a good society was one which consisted of happy people, and
happiness came out of self-reliance, rationality, tolerance, wide-ranging interests and a
compassionate temper. For Mill, “coercion is logically at odds with the creation of such a
character”. Self-development and moral progress were instrumental to such a good life,
leading to “the establishment of the life of the individual as a work of art”. This was only
possible where coercion, in the name of either class or gender, was eliminated, if not
minimized. Mill, the rationalist and the Utilitarian, was also the philosopher of human
liberation, individuality, equality and fulfilment.
• Mill accepted the Industrial Revolution, for it produced a class of energetic and acquisitive
entrepreneurs with the sole aim of the profit motive and the accumulation of money. He
feared mass democracy because of its collective mediocrity, which would destroy higher
civilization. He was fearful of mass conformity and the effect it would have on individual
freedom. He favoured a society based on just meritocracy. He was not appreciative of the
destruction unleashed by the French Revolution, though he was happy at the decimation of
the monarchy and nobility, and at the reduction of the influence and role of the Church. He
assigned an important role to the intellectual elite in shaping and making the attitudes and
beliefs in a society, particularly in times of transition. He also insisted on the need to correlate
political institutions with society.
• Mill distinguished between the public sphere of law and the private sphere of morality, and
the need to guarantee by law basic human freedoms. He also established the relationship
between law and liberty, whereby law as a system maximized liberty, namely self-
development. He clearly saw the need to establish a large ambit of freedom, while emphasizing
some restraints, both as a condition of social life, and for protecting freedom itself. He was
not indifferent to conduct that fell short of accepted standards of private morality. He also
advocated proportional representation as a device to protect the rights of the minorities,
giving them an opportunity to share power. He championed the right to express one’s opinion,
it being immaterial whether one was right or wrong. The important thing was free expression
and articulation of contesting opinions. He refined and developed Voltaire’s defence of free

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