Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/382

 344 Readings in European History dominion had been in a hopeless state of decay, leading to all the horrors of internecine war, and some of the native prin- cipalities had gladly turned for safety to the shelter of Eng- lish protection and supremacy. But the great mass of the people had been brought under our rule by conquest or for- cible annexation. With ruling dynasties thus set aside, reduced, or crushed, with great races humiliated, and bitterness and misery spread broadcast by the loss of power and place and property, it would be an outrage on common sense to doubt that we had created a host of enemies. . . . The benefits of civilized rule, of the Pax Britannica, were felt only skin deep, and the old fierce instincts, the outcome of centuries of strife and oppression, were still in the ascendant. The memory of in- juries was still keen and vivid, the newer cases helping to recall the old ones to mind, and to reopen sores that might otherwise have been getting healed ; so that, briefly, the mood and temper which prevailed were those of a conquered people who had wrongs and humiliations to remember, and were chafing at having to endure the sway of aliens in' race and creed. There existed, in fact, under the best circum- stances, a mass of constant disaffection, and whole hosts of malcontents. Of these the most powerful and dangerous were the Mussulmans. The entire Mohammedan population were as a body rebels at heart, and resented the Christian supremacy, if only on religious grounds and from fanatical pride ; and the Moguls of the Upper Provinces had in addition a natural longing to revive their old predominance and restore their old empire. Next may be mentioned the Mahrattas, a warlike and unscrupulous Hindu race, who, though now split up into rival states, had been most powerful as a confederacy, and felt that but for the British they would have been the mas- ters of India. Another extensive body of malcontents consisted of those who were actual sufferers from British conquests or annexa- tion or from the action of British land policy.