Page:Gazetteer of the province of Oudh ... (IA cu31924024153987).pdf/52

 INTRODUCTION.

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of Fatehpur, who might historically be included in an account of Oudh, were only quelled after a doubtful battle and the death of their raja, while the Raja of Gonda actually defeated the Nawab'a lieutenant and made his own terms, by which he retained his ancestral state as a separate fief, paying only a moderate tribute. It is to this period that we owe two of the most spirited of the national ballads, the sword songs of A rdru Khichar and Datt Singh Bisen. The first two Nawabs, Saadat Khan and Safdar Jang, were men of statesmanlike ability ; they were harassed besides by imperial cares, and exposed to constant attacks from It is, the Kohillas on one side and the Mahrattas on the other. the advantage of contherefore, no wonder that they appreciated not only employed ciliating their hardly-won subjects, and they ministers (one of whom, Newal Ede !K%ath, justified his appointment by throwing back the Rohillas from Pyzabad with a bravery uncommon in his caste) but were contented to collect their revenues on the basis of the old pargana divisions through the old pargana chiefs. The prosperity which the country enjoyed under their rule is attested by the bridges, wells, and forts which were then constructed, and justifies the conclusion that happiness is best secured by the presence of a strong central government, which preserves while it keeps in subjection all the elements of native society. "Whether that so-* ciety would naturally develop such a central power from within but it is nearly certain that its rise itself it is difiicult to say would be through seas of blood and years of anarchy. With the defeat of Buxar this state of things came to an end, and the last chapter of the history commences with the British alliance, British resident, and British protection from the consequences of bad government, to end in the direct assumption by the British of the rule of the province as the only remedy for the intolerable evils, which were chiefly the result of their Own unavoidable interference with its affairs. The first end of the policy of the Lucknow kings a policy which they would never hgtve dared, or having dared would most certainly have been expelled were it not for the strength of foreign bayonets-^ was the complete annihilation of the power of the rajas and the .realization of the gross rents direct from the cultivators. In this policy they never even nearly succeeded. In single instances

Hindus as the highest of their



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over the country the result was gained, and there is hardly a perhaps not one in the whole province, which was not at ^one time or another held by Government officials dealing directly iwith the tenauts while its chief was in flight ; but, on the other all

raj,