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



to degrading conditions. Not even the Zenana has crushed 

 them. Mumtaz Mahal is but the type of a womanhood which, 

 rich in tales of the bravery, endurance, obedience unto death, 

 of ladies of rank, has produced under the British peace the 

 village life of the masses and is beginning in some towns to 

 overcome caste and creed by co-operation for the common 

 benefit. In this connection mention must be made of the varied 

 and valuable service rendered by the women of India throughout 

 the war both to the Government and to the fighting men without 

 regard to race or religion. This latent power was a revelation. 

 It has already been utilized to undertake the care of Zenanas 

 in famine, to look after children's welfare, and is rapidly taking 

 a share in communal and philanthropic work. If leading 

 men wish to give the franchise to women, it is because their 

 pioneer vision discerns that the rescue of India from licentious 

 temples, debasing misrepresentations of God, self-destroying 

 contempt for other people, will come only by the help of the 

 women of India. Therefore the most high-souled daughters 

 from the English-speaking nations are needed that education 

 may be conveyed through channels which, as some of the safe- 

 guards now existing weaken, will fortify Indian girls by the 

 manifestation of the power of the indwelling Christ to preserve 

 the majesty of womanhood. 



As the invasion of Timur in a.d. 1398 put an end to the Delhi 

 sultanate and that of Babur in 1526 brought in the Mogul 

 emperors, so that of Nadir Shah, the Persian warrior, in 1739 

 shattered the power of the Moguls, chiefly perhaps by carrying 

 of! the accumulated treasure, and left the people bleeding. 



This defenceless state of Hindustan invited attack from both 

 sides. Since A.D. 1737 the Marathas had been threatening from 

 the south. In 1760, under their Peshwa, they moved north in 

 force to assert their supremacy. The Afghans, undex Ahmed 

 Shah Durrani, had like ambitions. The armies in 1761 met at 

 Panipat, the oft-fought battlefield north of Delhi, and there the 

 Marathas received their knock-out blow so far as succession to 

 imperial power was concerned. The Afghans returned to 

 Kabul. 



The year 1761 marks also the passing of India from Moham- 

 medan and Maratha domination to British management. The 

 Mohammedans had destroyed themselves. The Marathas were 

 splitting into separate States. The Eajput resistance was 

 exhausted. Haider Ah and Tippoo in Mysore, the Nizam 



