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



63 



in Hyderabad, the Maratha chiefs in the West, the Sikhs in 

 the Panjab, fresh invaders from Afghanistan, would doubtless 

 have supplied a few more pages of sanguinary history, but de- 

 liverance was at hand. In 1761 the British had finally driven 

 the French from India, and by their victory at Plassy in 1757 

 were bringing about the emancipation of Bengal from its effete 

 Nawabs. 



The decadence of Mohammedan and the rise of British power 

 in India were parts of wider, irresistible movements. British 

 command of the sea was enabling her to found our present 

 Commonwealth of free nations, while since the repulse of the 

 Turks from Vienna in 1683, of which Aurangzeb was aware, 

 Mohammedan vitality has ebbed with accelerating rapidity in 

 both east and west. Islamic rule has desolated, never benefited, 

 any country it reached. Even Asia Minor, the family home, 

 shows no success. Under British guidance, Mohammedan 

 communities are transformed. 



The Brahmans had a further opportunity to rescue India 

 when they took leadership of the Marathas. Instead, they 

 instituted a complicated system of robbery by violence, and 

 offered no prospect that their rule would bring anything but 

 spoliation and treachery. Sivaji, the founder of Maratha 

 nationality, who died in 1680, had been out for Gods and cows, 

 Brahmans and the Faith." The Brahmans requited his zeal 

 for Hindnism by supplanting his Raj. In the sequel, they failed 

 even to weld the newly- formed Maratha States. Yet under 

 British control, the Brahmans have become adepts in honest 

 administration and in devotion to public duties. 



Brahmans and Mohammedans have become the right and left 

 hands of the British Government in bringing about the present 

 material prosperity of India. The Indian princes have loyally 

 maintained good relations with each other, and have begun to 

 interest themselves in the welfare of India as a whole. When 

 the British began to assume responsibilities, they found India 

 torn, divided, corrupt, without ability to recover. At first 

 these conditions became a temptation to some, but steadily the 

 light from the homeland dissipated the contaminating influences, 

 and eventually the Government Services in India for rectitude, 

 impartiality and devotion stand unrivalled by the public service 

 of any country in the world. They have been rewarded by 

 seeing increasing populations with rising standards of comfort 

 and self-respect, lands and harvests growing in value, important 



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