Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/628

* INDIA. 550 INDIA. was sliort-lived; and in l:i!tS, durin;; tlir rci<in of the last of the Tufrldak kings, the Tatar Timur. or Tanii'rlane, sacked IXdlii. ami pro- claimed himself Emperor of India. Two short- lived and unimportant dynasties followed the Tuglilaks, the House of Hmjyid (14U-50), and the House of Lodi ( 14jO-15:iti). To the kinj^s of this dynasty succeeded the (treat Moijuls of the House of Timur ( 152(i-1707 ). ISaber (q.v.), a descendant of Timur, who had for twenty-two years been sovcreipi of Kabul, invaded India "for the fifth time toward the end of the year 152.5, and after defeating Sultan ll>rahim Ludi on the plain of Panipat. April, l.'>2i;, he entered Delhi in triumph, and established himself as Kmix-ror of the Mohammedan dominions in In- dia. He died in ir),'it), and was suei-ceded by his .son, Humayun. Akbar (((.v.), son of Iluniayun, one of the greatest of ilohammeilan monarchs, became Kmpi'ror in 155G. and reigned for nearly fifty years. His son, .Jehangir, ascended the throne in 1605, and his grandson. Shah Jchan (q.v.), at the beginning of 1628. Shah .Tehan is celebrated as the builder of the Taj Mahal at Agra (q.v), one of the most splendid monuments of Oriental architecture. In 1658 Shall .khan was imprisoned by his son, the famous Auniiig- zebe (i|.v.). w)io usurped the Imperial power. This remarkable man raised the Mogul Knipire to the highest pitch of greatness and splendor. The death of Aurungzebe took place in 1707, and the decay of the Kmpire, which had be- gun a few years before, prficeeded rapidly. In 1739 the Persian Nadir .Shah invaded India, sacked Dplhi, and carried away the famous pea- cock throne, as well as a vast amount of treasure. Viceroys of the Groat Mocul foriiicd Iheir prov- inces into independent States; while Hindu and Mohammedan adventurers carved out kingdoms with the sword. Of these the most important were the nizams of the Deccan, the rajahs of Mysore, the peshwas of the Mahrattas. and the Rajput and Sikh princes. The Mahrattas reached the height of their power about the mid- dle of the eighteenth centurv, but in 1761 they sustained a crushing defeat at the hands of the Afghan ruler. Ahmed .Shah (q.v.). in the battle of Panipat. The dismemberment of the Mogul Empire opened a wide field for admission and en- terprise to the nations of Europe. The Venetians, the Genoese, the Portuguese (the first to reach India by way of the Cape of Good Hope in 1498), find the Dutch had by turns traded with India; and in 1602 the English appeared on the scene. See East lN"ni. Comp.wy. In 165."? Madras was erected into a presidency, and in 166S the island of Bombay, which was the dowrj- of Charles II. 's Queen, the Infanta Catha- rine of Portugal, was transferred by the Crown to the East India Company. The year 1680 wit- nessed the foundation of Calcutta. The French East India Company was chartered in 1664. See OaMA (VaSCO UA), AXBUQUEBQL'E, GOA, POM)I- CHERBY, CUAXDER.NAGAR. British Rule (1757 — ). Great jealousy ex- isted between the English and the French. The war for ascendency began in 1745. and did not end until the Peace of Aix-la-Cliapelle in 1748. (See DfPLEix.) The struggle in the Carnatic con- tinued with ardor under the pretext of support- ing the claims of rival native princes to sover- eignty. Clive (q.v.), one of the most famous per- sons in Anglo-Indian history, turned the contest in favor of the English. His memorable defense of Arcot in 1751 broke the spell of French invincibil- ity. Five years afterwards, however, Sirajud- Daula, Xawab or Governor of Bengal, attacked and captured Calcutta. The English prisoners, 146 in number, were contiiied in the small mili- tary prison known as the Itlack Hole, and only 2:! survived till morning. Clive quickly took eunimand of an expedition lifted out at iladras, recovered Calcutta (1757), and, assisted by Ad- miral Watson, prosecuted the war vigorously, till, after a hollow peace and a renewal of hostilities, he thoroughly defeated Siraj-ud-Daula in the battle of Plassy, .June 23, 1757. This victory gave the English the provinces of Ben- gal and Behar, and from this year is dated by the English themselves the foundalion of their Knipire in India. From Mir .Jafar, whom the East India Company appointed to succeed the defeated Xawab, they exacted vast sums of money. The government of an empire by a com- mercial corporation was a strange political ex- ])eriment. Naturally the members hail no thought of administering alfairs for the benefit of their sulijccts. or even of far-reaching improve- ments in their own interest, but were guided throughout by the narrowest and most sordid selfisliness. After the victory of the English at Baxar in 1764, over the united forces of Shuja- ud-Daula, Xawab of Oudh, and the Mogul Emperor (ShahAlam), the latter asked protec- tion of the English. He confirmed the Com- pany in its possessions and granted it the coUec- torate (dhrHni) of Bengal, Behar. and Orissa, on condition of receiving the sum of £300. ((00 as tribute to himself from Bengal, and £600,000 a.s an annual allowance to his Nawab. These enor- mous grants were soon cut down by Clive, and were eventually repudiated by the Company, which also failed to fulfill other engagements which it had entered into with Shah Alam. On the other hand, the cost to the Company of main- taining its authority and standing army pre- vented it from undertaking public works and from developing the resources of the country, ('live purged the Indian Government of oppres- sion, extortion, and corruption: from the work he did during his last visit (1765-67) began .a purer administration of the British Empire in the East. The Regulating Act. pas.sed in 1773. sub- stituted a new council of four at Calcutta in place of the far larger council which had hitherto managed alTairs for the Company. The new body was to assist and check the Governor-General, instituted in the same year. It was also given a limited control of the actions of the Madras and Bombay presidencies, and was thus made the political head of the British possessions. To Warren Hastings (q.v.). the first Governor-Gen- eral (1774-85). the new council was exceedingly hostile. Hastings, on his part, used unscru- pulous means of replenishing the Company's ex- chequer, but by his talent and energy he averted dangers which threatened the British supremacy in India. The powerful Mussulman sovereigns. Hyder (Haidar) Ali. ruler of ^lysore, and the Nizam of the Deccan. assisted by French officers, combined with the Mahrattas against the English. Sir Eyre Coote broke up the confederacy, and defeated Hyder Ali in 1781. Next year the Supreme Court of .Jus- tice, which had always harassed the Governor- General, was deprived of its independent powers,