Fall of the Moghul Empire of Hindustan , livre ebook

Pub One Info - George Keene Henry

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

132 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

pubOne.info present you this new edition. Two editions of this book having been absorbed, it has been thought that the time was come for its reproduction in a form more adapted to the use of students. Opportunity has been taken to introduce considerable additions and emendations.

Informations

Publié par	Pub One Info
Date de parution	06 novembre 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9782819932512
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0100€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

PREFACE.
Two editions of this book having been absorbed, ithas been thought that the time was come for its reproduction in aform more adapted to the use of students. Opportunity has beentaken to introduce considerable additions and emendations.
The rise and meridian of the Moghul Empire have beenrelated in Elphinstone's “ History of India: the Hindu andMahometan Period; ” and a Special Study of the subject will Also befound in the “ Sketch of the History of Hindustan” published by thepresent writer in 1885. Neither of those works, however, undertakesto give a detailed account of the great Anarchy that marked theconclusion of the eighteenth century, the dark time that camebefore the dawn of British power in the land of the Moghul. Nor isthere is any other complete English book on the Subject.
The present work is, therefore, to be regarded as amonograph on the condition of the capital and neighbouringterritories, from the murder of Alamgir II. in 1759 to theoccupation of Dehli by Lake in 1803. Some introductory chapters areprefixed, with the view of showing how these events were prepared;and an account of the campaign of 1760-1 has been added, because itdoes not seem to have been hitherto related on a scale proportionedto its importance. That short but desperate struggle is interestingas the last episode of medi¾val war, when battles could be decidedby the action of mounted men in armour. It is also the sine qua nonof British Empire in India. Had the Mahrattas not been conqueredthen, it is exceedingly doubtful if the British power in the BengalPresidency would ever have extended beyond Benares.
The author would wish to conclude this briefexplanation by reproducing the remarks which concluded the Prefaceto his second edition.
“There were two dangers, ” it was there observed;“the first, that of giving too much importance to the period; thesecond, that of attempting to illustrate it by stories — such asthose of Clive and Hastings — which had been told by writers withwhom competition was out of the question. Brevity, therefore, isstudied; and what may seem baldness will be found to be aconciseness, on which much pains have been bestowed. ”
“The narrative, ” it was added, “is one of confusionand transition; and chiefly interesting in so far as it throwslight on the circumstances which preceded and caused the accessionof the East India Company to paramount power in India. ” The authorhas only to add an expression of his hope that, in conjunction withMr. S. Owen's book, what he has here written may help to removedoubts as to the benefits derived by the people of India from theRevolution under consideration.
Finally, mention should be made of Mr. Elphinstone'sposthumous work, “The Rise of British Power in the East. ” Thatwork does not, indeed, clash with the present book; for it did notenter into the scope of the distinguished author to give the nativeside of the story, or to study it from the point of view herepresented. For the military and political aims and operations ofthe early British officers in Madras and Bengal, however,Elphinstone will be found a valuable guide. His narrative bears toour subject a relation similar to that of the “Roman de Rou” to thehistory of the Carling Empire of Northern France.
OXFORD, 1887.
PART I.
CHAPTER I.
Preliminary Observations on Hindustan and the Cityof Dehli.
THE country to which the term Hindustan is strictlyand properly applied may be roughly described as a rhomboid,bounded on the north-west by the rivers Indus and Satlej, on thesouth-west by the Indian Ocean, on the south-east by the Narbaddaand the Son, and on the north-east by the Himalaya Mountains andthe river Ghagra. In the times of the emperors, it comprised theprovinces of Sirhind (or Lahore), Rajputana, Gujrat, Malwa, Audh(including Rohilkand, strictly Rohelkhand, the country of theRohelas, or “Rohillas” of the Histories), Agra, Allahabad, andDehli: and the political division was into subahs, or divisions,sarkars or districts; dasturs, or sub-divisions; and parganahs, orfiscal unions.
The Deccan, Panjab (Punjab), and Kabul, which alsoformed parts of the Empire in its widest extension at the end ofthe seventeenth century, are omitted, as far as possible, fromnotice, because they did not at the time of our narration form partof the territories of the Empire of Hindustan, though included inthe territory ruled by the earlier and greater Emperors.
Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa also formed, at one time,an integral portion of the Empire, but fell away without playing animportant part in the history we are considering, excepting for avery brief period. The division into Provinces will be understoodby reference to the map. Most of these had assumed a practicalindependence during the first quarter of the eighteenth century,though acknowledging a weak feudatory subordination to the Crown ofDehli.
The highest point in the plains of Hindustan isprobably the plateau on which stands the town of Ajmir, about 230miles south of Dehli. It is situated on the eastern slope of theAravalli Mountains, a range of primitive granite, of which Abu, thechief peak, is estimated to be near 5, 000 feet above the level ofthe sea; the plateau of Ajmir itself is some 3, 000 feet lower.
The country at large is, probably, the upheavedbasin of an exhausted sea which once rendered the highlands of theDeccan an island like a larger Ceylon. The general quality of thesoil is accordingly sandy and light, though not unproductive;yielding, perhaps, on an average about one thousand lbs. av. ofwheat to the acre. The cereals are grown in the winter, which is atleast as cold as in the corresponding parts of Africa. Snow neverfalls, but thin ice is often formed during the night. During thespring heavy dews fall, and strong winds set in from the west.These gradually become heated by the increasing radiation of theearth, as the sun becomes more vertical and the days longer.
Towards the end of May the monsoon blows up from theIndian Ocean and from the Bay of Bengal, when a rainfall averagingabout twenty inches takes place and lasts during the ensuingquarter. This usually ceases about the end of September, when theweather is at its most sickly point. Constant exhalations ofmalaria take place till the return of the cold weather.
After the winter, cacurbitaceous crops are grown,followed by sowings of rice, sugar, and cotton. About the beginningof the rainy season the millets and other coarse grains are put in,and the harvesting takes place in October. The winter crops arereaped in March and April. Thus the agriculturists are never out ofemploy, unless it be during the extreme heats of May and June, whenthe soil becomes almost as hard from heat as the earth in Englandbecomes in the opposite extreme of frost.
Of the hot season Mr. Elphinstone gives thefollowing strong but just description: — “The sun is scorching,even the wind is hot, the land is brown and parched, the dust fliesin whirlwinds, all brooks become dry, small rivers scarcely keep upa stream, and the largest are reduced to comparative narrowchannels in the midst of vast sandy beds. ” It should, however, beadded, that towards the end of this terrible season some relief isafforded to the river supply by the melting of the snow upon thehigher Himalayas, which sends down some water into the almostexhausted stream-beds. But even so, the occasional prolongation ofthe dry weather leads to universal scarcity which amounts to faminefor the mass of the population, which affects all classes, andwhich is sure to be followed by pestilence. Lastly, the malarianoticed above as following the monsoon gives rise to specialdisorders which become endemic in favouring localities, and travelthence to all parts of the country, borne upon the winds orpropagated by pilgrimages and other forms of human intercourse.Such are the awful expedients by which Nature checks the redundancyof a non-emigrating population with simple wants. Hence theconstruction of drainage and irrigation-works has not merely adirect result in causing temporary prosperity, but an indirectresult in a large increase of the responsibilities of the rulingpower. Between 1848 and 1854 the population of the part ofHindustan now called the North-West Provinces, where all the abovedescribed physical features prevail, increased from a ratio of 280to the square mile till it reached a ratio of 350. In thesubsequent sixteen years there was a further increase. The latestrate appears to be from 378 to 468, and the rate of increase isbelieved to be about equal to that of the British Islands.
There were at the time of which we are to treat fewfield-labourers on daily wages, the Metayer system being everywhereprevalent where the soil was not actually owned by joint-stockassociations of peasant proprietors, usually of the same tribe.
The wants of the cultivators were provided for by aclass of hereditary brokers, who were often also chandlers, andadvanced stock, seed, and money upon the security of the unreapedcrops.
These, with a number of artisans and handicraftsmen,formed the chief population of the towns; some of the money-dealerswere very rich, and 36 per cent. per annum was not perhaps anextreme rate of interest. There were no silver or gold mines,external commerce hardly existed, and the money-price ofcommodities was low.
The literary and polite language of Hindustan,called Urdu or Rekhta, was, and still is, so far common to thewhole country, that it everywhere consists of a mixture of the sameelements, though in varying proportions; and follows the samegrammatical rules, though with different accents and idioms. Theconstituent parts are the Arabised Persian, and the Prakrit (incombination with a ruder basis, possibly of local origin), known asHindi. Speaking loosely, the Persian speech has contributed nounssubstantive of civilization, and adjectives of compliment or ofscience; while the verbs and ordinary vocables and particlespertaining t