60 



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



Cape in 1497 and soon after established themselves at points 

 on the west coast. To the Portuguese was given the first chance 

 to regenerate India. They forfeited it by their misdeeds. 



The Bahmani kings ruled from Kulburga and in their wars 

 with the rising Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar carried into the 

 Deccan all the fanatical ferocity of Delhi, butchering idolaters, 

 men, women and children, in immense numbers. In 1518 

 this dynasty came to its natural end in scenes of drunkenness, 

 debauchery and murder. It broke up into five fragments, of 

 which the more important were Ahmednagar, Bijapur and 

 Golkonda, the last named becoming Hyderabad, now the chief 

 Mohammedan State in India. 



As we survey India under Hindu rulers till the twelfth century 

 was closing and under Mohammedan sultans and kings till 

 the early years of the sixteenth century, the first idolatrous 

 and the latter fiercely trying to stamp out idolatry, we are 

 struck by the fact that both left India in chaotic misery. Huge 

 armies, constant fighting, depraved luxury, hunted peasantry. 

 It is not that a bright spot or a decent governor cannot be dis- 

 covered here and there. Good is never left without witness. It 

 is that the records as a whole unfold what horrors more or less 

 civilized human nature can infiict when men do not know the 

 character of God. Where there is no love, there is no God. 



The Moguls, 



These conditions, coupled with the increasing influence of 

 Western ideals, prepared the way for the brilliant era of the 

 Mogul emperors. Its sun rose in splendour, with some promise 

 that love might overcome hate, and sank after the brief period 

 of 180 years into the same gory mire from which it emerged. 



As before, fresh vitality came from Central Asia. Babur of 

 Kabul, a fine soldier, claiming both Ghingiz Khan and Timur 

 in his ancestry, invaded India (a.d. 1525), overcame first the 

 resistance of the Mohammedan sultans and then of the Hindu 

 host commanded by the Rajput Rana of Meywar. Babur 's son, 

 Humayun, had a bad time, but his grandson, Akbar (1555--] 605), 

 practically contemporary with our Queen Elizabeth, was a 

 great king and extended the empire from Kabul to Calcutta 

 and as far south as Ahmednagar. 



Akbar revolted from ceaseless slaughter of idolaters. He 

 saw India divided by hatred and set himself to win the Hindus, 

 specially by abolishing the tax on non-Moslems, the badge of 



