Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/91

Rh and uncertain; and, to be brief, bath State and society, were completely demoralised. It required a strong hand to restore the prestige of justice and law, and to check the sirdárs, zemindárs, and other hereditary hangers-on in their career of oppression on one hand, and extravagance on the other. The public, the Maráthá people especially, had made up their minds as to the appointment of Sir Dinkar Row. The Government of India, however, nominated Sir Mádav Rao, who was generally understood to be the more liberal-minded statesman of the two. But somehow this appointment did not please the public of Western India. Sir Mádav Row came on the scene as a friend, but the Guicowár subjects instinctively, perhaps unjustly, called out "save us from our friend." The attitude of both Maráthás and Gujarátis was rather ominous, and it no doubt damped the spirit of the ardent administrator, whose career had hitherto been a series of triumphs. To add to the discomforts of his position, the Government of Bombay "looked with a severe eye" upon the intruder from the south, whom Holkar had only recently found to be too "advanced" for his slow-going subjects. But the fiat had gone