SIR ANDREW WINGATE, K.C.I.E., ON INDIA. 



59 



had given orders " that they shall not be allowed to accumulate 

 hoards and property." This was the working principle of 

 revenue officials during many generations, so that the rapacity 

 of Mohammedans and Hindus alike reduced both production and 

 population. 



The power of the Delhi sultans reached its height under 

 Mohammed bin Tughlak, who began by causing the evacuation 

 of Delhi and replacing it by what was constructed to be an impreg- 

 nable fortress, Dowlatabad (a.d. 1326). His atrocities led to 

 Bengal and Kashmir asserting independence, and to the founding 

 of the Mohammedan Bahmani and the Hindu Vijayanagur 

 kingdoms in the Deccan. Among the acts of this despot, it 

 is interesting to note that he sought spiritual sanction for his 

 authority from the Kaliph, whom he decided to be the Circassian 

 Mameluke Sultan of Egypt. This indicates that even in these 

 early days India did not look to Arabia. Nor is it altogether 

 strange that Indian Moslems now look to Constantinople, when 

 it is remembered that every Friday in the mosque they listen 

 to the official prayer. From the first step of the Khutba God 

 is praised ; from the second, Mohammed ; from the third, the 

 Koran and religion ; and from the fourth, the reigning Sultan of 

 Turkey. Thus Mohammedans grow up from boyhood in the 

 persuasion that Constantinople is their political centre, and that 

 their allegiance to the Kaliphate is intact. 



It was under these uncompromising sultans that large numbers 

 of Hindus, who now form the bulk of the existing Mohammedan 

 population in North India, and many of whom still retain 

 evident traces of their origin, were converted to escape the tax 

 and the massacre. The treatment of the Armenians recently 

 by the Turks is merely a fair sample of Mohammedan intolerance. 

 These Delhi sultans were almost without exception not only 

 fiendishly cruel, but obscene and bestial beyond description. 

 Yet they encouraged learning, and built impressive mosques and 

 tombs — a combination of kultur, frightfulness and disgusting 

 vice. Judgment came as a bolt from the blue. 



In 1398 Timur (Tamerlane) made his terrible raid from 

 Samarkhand into India, smashed the power of Delhi, and left 

 chaos behind him. From this date, besides Bengal, Malwa 

 and Gujarat became independent Mohammedan kingdoms. 

 For the capital of Gujarat, Ahmed Shah built Ahmedabad, 

 renowned for its carved woodwork. It was this kingdom which 

 came in contact with the Portuguese, who had rounded the 



