Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 7.djvu/213

HIS HIGHNESS THE MAHARAJAH HOLKAR. who had opposed her. Toolsee Bye, in 1817, desired the protection of the British for herself and the young Holkar. The army, on the contrary, saw their own destruction inevitable, under any alliance with the British; and on the arrival of Sir Thomas Hislop's force in the neighbourhood of Indore, it was attacked on the 21st December, 1817, by Holkar's forces, who were totally defeated at Mehidpoor, with the loss of all their guns, and it was then discovered that Toolsee Bye had been put to death the night before. The battle was followed by the treaty of Mundissoor, negotiated by Sir John Malcolm, which defined the territories of the state, which were to be defended against all external and internal enemies. By the death of Jeswunt Rao, and the subsequent events and arrangements, the predatory power of the Holkar state was extinguished, and Northern India delivered from one of the most terrible scourges from which it had ever suffered, and which, but for British interference, must eventually have desolated the whole country. Out of the wrecks of Holkar's and other native armies, the Pindharees arose; but in two short campaigns they were completely broken, and resolved into the general classes from which they had risen.

Since the Mahratta and Pindharee wars closed, there has been nothing to interrupt the prosperity of the state. The mutiny and rebellion had little effect upon it, and the mutinous troops having at once marched to join the main body of the rebel army, Holkar was spared the los and the vexation which attended his brother potentate Sindia. Holkar's state ought to be very prosperous, but the chief's mind is perhaps too active and restless to ensure quiet prosperity. He would have a railway, which is partly completed, cotton mills, and all sorts of English improvements; but at present he is in trouble about his revenue assessments, and is too hard and grasping in regard to his subjects the landholders and cultivators. He would fain do everything himself, take up projects and abandon them, and start others with a like result. In short in everything but his faith to the British Government he seems to be hard to manage; but he has complete freedom from interference in the affairs of his state, and is solely responsible to his subjects for them. The investigation into rent-free lands has been a hard one, and has incited discontent and distrust, which it will be difficult for him to overcome. Personally Tukajee Rao Holkar is a most courteous prince, alike to his subjects as to the English around him; and were he as steady in his administrative capacity as his fine talents should make him, there would not be a more popular, or a more practically useful native prince in India, and this lie may yet become by experience. He is much interested in education, and in his college at Indore instruction in English as well as in native languages is soundly imparted.