Page:Monier Monier-Williams - Indian Wisdom.djvu/25

 Politically they became supreme, but they were never able to supplant the Hindus, as these had done their predecessors. Moreover, it was the policy of the Muhammadan conquerors to bend, in many points, to the prejudices of their Indian subjects. Hence the Muslims of India became partially Hinduized, and in language, habits, and character took from tlie Hindus more than they imparted1.

Nor has the Hindu-Aryan element lost its ascendancy in India, notwithstanding the accession and admixture of European ingredients. The Portuguese, the Dutch, the Danes, the French have one after the other gained a footing on its shores, and their influence still lingers at isolated points2. Last of all the English have spread themselves over the whole country, and at this moment our political supremacy is everywhere greater than that which once belonged to the Musalmans3. Yet the mass of the population is

1 Hence it happens that the lower orders of Indian Muhammadans observe distinctions of caste almost as strictly as the Hindus. Many of them will eat and drink together, hut not intermarry.

2 In later times there has been a constant immigration of Chinese into India, but only of the male sex. The Portuguese still hold three places in India, viz. Goa, Daman, and the island of Diu on the western const. The Dutch once held Chinsura on the right bank of the Hooghly, ami Negapatam on the coast of Tanjore;1 but about the year 1824 they made both over to us, receiving in return our possessions on the coast of Sumatra. Our cession of the coast of Sumatra was afterwards considered a bluuder, to remedy which the formal transfer of Singapore to the British was effected in 1824 by Sir Stamford Raffles (a treaty being made with the neighbouring Sultan) as an intermediate port for our trade with China. The Danes once possessed Tranquebar and Seramporo, both of which were purchased from them by us in 1844. In 1846 they ceded a small factory to us at Balasore, where the Portuguese also, as well as the Dutch, held possessions in the early periods of European intercourse. The French still retain Pondicherry and Karical on the Coromandel coast, Chandernagore on the right bank of the Hooghly, Mahd on the Malabar coast, and Yanaon near the mouths of the Godavari.

3 Although our annexation of province after province cannot always be justified, yet it maybe truly said that our dominion has been gradually forced upon us. Our first dealings with India were merely commercial. The trading corporation entitled ' Governors and Company of London Merchants trading to the East Indies' was formed in 1600. The first Court of Directors was held on the 23rd September 1600, and the first charter was dated hy Queen Elizaheth on the 3ist of December in that year. The first factory was built at Surat, near the mouth of the Tapty, north of Bombay, in 1613. In 1661 the island of Bombay was ceded to the British by Portugal, as the marriage portion of the Infanta Catharine, on her marriage with Charles II, but its final possession was withheld for four years. It was handed over by Charles to the East India Company in 1669. Another factory was built on the Hooghly above Calcutta in 1636; Madras came into the Company's possession in 1640, and they purchased Calcutta itself in 1698. The battle of Plassy, from which dates the real foundation of the British empire, was fought June 23, 1757-

There are still a large number of native states in India. According to the India Office Report they exceed 460. (Some merely acknowledge our supremacy, like Nepal; but even this frontier country receives our Resident. Others are under a compact to govern well; others pay us tribute, or provide for contingents. Some have power of life and death, and some are obliged to refer capital cases to English courts of justice. Nearly all are allowed to adopt successors on failure of heirs, and their continued existence is thus secured. The Official Report classes them in twelve groups, thus: i. The Indo-Chinese, in two subdivisions, comprising— A. the settled states, Nepal (whose chief minister and virtual ruler is Sir Jung Bahadur), Sikkim (whose king lives at two cities, Tumlung and Chumbi, and who has lately ceded some territory to us), Bhutan (a turbulent hill-district), and A'uch Bahar; B. the hill-tribes, of Chinese character and physiognomy. 2. The aboriginal GTiond and Kole tribes in Cfiota Nagpur, Orissa, the Central Provinces, and the Jaipur (in Orissa) Agency. 3. The states among the Himalayas, from the western frontier of Nepal to Kasmlr, ruled generally by Rajput chiefs. 4. The Afghan and Beluda frontier tribes beyond the Indus. 5. The Silcli states in the Sirliind plain, occupying the classic ground between the Sutlej and the Jumna, and once watered by the Sarasvati. 6. Three Muhammadan states, geographically apart, but having much in common, viz. liamjnir (a district in Rohilkhand, representing the Rohilla state of the days of "Warren Hastings), Bhawafpur (separated from the Pafijab by the Sutlej), and Kliairfiur (or Khyrpur) in Siiid. 7. Ma/wa and Bmidelkhand, the former representing part of the Marathi power, and including the important states of Central India, viz. that of Gwdlior, ruled over by Maharaja Sindia; the district governed by Ildlkar ; the state of Dhar, ruled by the third Marathi family, called Puars; the Muhammadan state of J}ho2*il; and Bundelkhand, including the district of Rewah. 8. The ancient sovereignties of lidjpuUlna, including fifteen Rajput states (such as Odeypur, Jaipur, &c.), two Jat and one Muhammadan (Tonk). 9. The Gujardtl native states, north of Bombay, the principal being that of Baroda. ruled over by the Guikwdr or Guicowdr. \Gui is for gai, ' a cow,' and kwar or cowdr (kuwdr) is possibly a corruption of kumar=kumara, ' a prince ;' but there is a Marathi word Gdyakyd,' a cowherd." He is of the herdsman caste, and descended from a Marathi general.] 10. The Maratlil states south of Bombay, representing the remains of the Marathi power founded by Sivajl. Of these Satdra was annexed in 1848, but Kolapur remains; nineteen others are under our management owing to the minority of the chiefs, ii. The Huhaminadan state of Haidarabad (or Hyderabad), in the Dekhan, ruled over by the Nizam, at present a minor, the government being conducted by Sir Salar Jung and Shams-ul-Umra. 12. The state of Mysore, whose old Raja remembered the siege of Seringapatam. He died in 1868, and was succeeded by a child for whom we are now governing the country. To this must be added the two neighbouring Mulayalam states on the Malabar coast, called Tra/oancore and Cochin, both of which are excellently governed by enlightened Rajas and good ministers. Here is a Muhammadan historian's account of the first settlement of the English in India: 'In the year 1020 (a.d. 1611) the Emperor of Delhy, Jahanglr, the son of king Akbar, granted a spot to the English to build a factory in the city of Surat, in the province of Guzerat, which is the first settlement that people made on the shores of Hindustan. The English Lave a separate king, independent of the king of Portugal, to whom they owe no allegiance ; but, on the contrary, these two nations put each other to death wheresoever they meet. At present, in consequence of the interference of the Emperor Jahanglr, they are at peace with each other, though God only knows how long they will consent to have factories in the same town, and to live in terms of amity and friendship.' (Quoted in Sir George Campbell's Modern India, p. 23.) An excellent account of the rise of the British dominions in India is given by Professor W. D. Whitney in the Second Series of his Oriental and Linguistic Studies, procurable from Messrs. Trttbner & Co.