Emperor of India

“ The conquest of India is complete, and there is not a valuable office in the whole country which is not held by an Englishman. The native and hereditary princes of provinces, separately larger and more populous than Great Britain itself, are divested of all but the shadow of power, and receive stipends from the East India Company. The Emperor of Delhi, the Nabobs of Bengal and the Carnatic, the Rajahs of Tanjore and Benares, and the Princes of the house of Tippoo, and other princes, receive, indeed, an annual support of over a million sterling ”

“ The unhappy Prince who now received the name of Emperor, and who, after a life of misery and disaster, ended his days a pensioner of English merchants, never possessed a sufficient degree of power to consider himself for one moment as master of the throne." J. Mill, History of British India, book 3, chapter 4 (volume 2) . "The words 'wonderful,' 'strange,' are often applied to great historical events, and there is no event to which they have been applied more freely than to our [the English] conquest of India. ... ”

“ The ambassador found the government of the Indian king strong and well organized, established in a magnificent fortified city, worthy to be the capital of a great kingdom. The royal camp at the capital was estimated to contain 400,000 souls, and an efficient standing army numbering 600,000 infantry, 30,000 cavalry, 9,000 elephants, and a multitude of chariots, was maintained at the king's expense. ”

“ To them India is a British possession, teeming with millions of dark-skinned subjects, and for ever attracting some slight attention because of oft-recurring frontier wars. They know little of the early struggles, of the days when British, Dutch, and French strove for supremacy, and of the endless fighting and sacrifice by which our country finally gained the proud title of conqueror of India, and won for its ruler the title of Emperor of this huge country across the seas. ”

“ The conception of an Indian Empire, extending from sea to sea, and embracing almost the whole of India and Afghanistan, was formed and carried into effect by Chandragupta and his minister in the brief space of twenty-four years. History can show few greater political achievements. Not only was the empire formed, but it was so thoroughly organized that the sovereign's commands emanating from Pâtaliputra were obeyed without demur on the banks of the Indus and the shores of the Arabian sea. ”

“ No pen can describe what India suffered during the next century and a quarter, with a Mogul emperor at Delhi, constantly fighting with the Mohammedan chieftains who resisted his authority.
The long but often broken line of wretched despots need not be enumerated here: a few landmarks of great names—Baber, Akbar, Jehanghire, 61Shahjehan, Aurungzebe, Nadir Shah—will furnish all that is needful for our present purpose. ”

“ Treaties or engagements concerning defence and security between heads of two States and binding on their successors could not be treated as personal contracts. The British Crown is an impersonal institution and there was little justification for the capital which was sought to be made of the personal loyalty of the Rulers to the King Emperor. It is clear that the term 'Crown', for purposes of determining the locus of paramountcy meant only the Crown as the Sovereign of India. ”

“ All persons concerned are addressed, whether officials or the general public. In my last edition I expressed surprise that no mention is made of the foreign missions, but I now perceivetbe reason for the omission to be that the emperor, who was addressing only his own subjects, confined himself to recounting the principal measures which he had taken for propagating Dhaṁma, or the Law of Piety, throughout his dominions. ”

“ His father's ambition for him was that he should be a great conqueror, that he should lead his troops against the neighbouring kings and overcome them, and in time make for himself a wide-stretching empire. India was in those days, as in many later ones, split up into little kingdoms, divided from each other by no natural boundary, overlooked by no sovereign power, and always at war. And the king, as fathers are, was full of dreams that this son of his should subdue all India to himself, and be the glory of his dynasty, and the founder of a great race. ”

“ The loyalty that stimulates the feudatory Princes and brings them into closer union with the Empire of India, permeates their States, and is shared by their nobles and subjects—but it does more than that: it sets an example to the whole of India. It counteracts in a large measure the efforts of those who would seek to stir up discontent, and it emphasizes in the most unmistakable manner the advantages of an Empire founded on the confidence of the many tribes, castes, and religions of India as a whole. ”

“ It is for such objects that the servants of the Queen rule in India; and Providence will ever sustain the rulers who govern for the people's good.
'I am here only for a time. The able and earnest officers who surround me will, at no distant period, return to their English homes; but the Power which we represent will endure for ages. Hourly is this great Empire brought nearer and nearer to the throne of our Queen. The steam-vessel and the railroad enable England, year by year, to enfold India in a closer embrace. ”

“ The sovereignty of the crown is everywhere unchallenged. Conversely, the duties and the services of the state are implicitly recognized, and, as a rule, faithfully discharged. It is this happy blend of authority with free will, of sentiment with self-interest, of duties with rights, that distinguishes the Indian Empire under the British crown from any other dominion of which we read in history. ”

“ There are few among the nobility of India who command any real respect either from the educated section of their countrymen in general, or even from their own subjects and dependents. Of course there are noble exceptions to this statement. And yet it is true that a large number of ruling chiefs are mere figureheads in their states. Their policy is either dictated or guided or controlled by the British Resident or the British Political Agent through his creatures or through persons, who, though not quite his creatures, are afraid of his displeasure. ”

“ At the beginning of the last century there were among the great founders of our Indian Empire many who had the most intimate knowledge of the people, and had been most successful in dealing with them, who conceived that our part was so to train and educate the people of India that they would eventually be able to rule themselves. ”

“ The existence of the monarchy and the character of three successive sovereigns, and their real personal interest in its people, are among the causes why India has been, and especially why the Native States have been, as a rule, so loyal in this time of danger, when the support of the whole Empire was so much needed. ”

“ It was well that the future King of England, should make himself acquainted with the great Empire that he was one day to rule. But whether this royal visit will result in any real benefit to India to correspond with the enormous expense it has involved, is a question which I 150 hear a good deal discussed among Englishmen. In some ways it cannot fail to do good. It has presented to the people of India an impersonation of sovereignty, a visible representative of that mighty power, the British Empire. ”

“ While they are determined not much longer to lie prostrate beneath England’s feet, they would gladly stand by her side, arm in arm with her, firmly united for great ends of mutual welfare and mutual strength. An Anglo-Indian Empire is one of the splendid possibilities of the future, binding Britain and her colonies and her great Asiatic possession together into a powerful world-spanning federation of free peoples. Something like this is the dream of India’s greatest leaders, as it is also the dream of not a few of Britain’s most far-seeing minds. ”

“ To whatever party he may belong, every Englishman in England, who studies Indian affairs and the relation of India to the rest of our Empire, feels that our rule should be so conducted as to prepare India for ultimate self-government and a place in the future councils of a British confederation among the other units of the Empire. ”

“ Well will it be if the imperial government, in future ages, is served so faithfully, skilfully, and energetically in India as the Company’s government, during the last half-century, has been served by the Malcolms, Metcalfes, Munros, Birds, Thomasons, Elphinstones, Montgomerys, Outrams, Lawrences, and Colvins—most of them civilians, whose apprenticeship to Indian statesmanship began almost from boyhood. ”

“ We must content ourselves with a very brief analysis of the character and results of the British dominion.
What, then, has the establishment of British power meant in India? Until the British power was established, India had in all her long history never known political unity. She had seen nothing but an almost uninterrupted succession of wars, an endless series of conquests and evanescent dominions. ”

“ The Muslim rulers of India had no anxiety for, and were in no way concerned with, the prosperity of the labouring classes of Persia or Afghanistan. If any one sought their patronage, he had to come to and settle in India. So their government was an Indian government and not a foreign government.
History does not record a single instance of India being ruled from without, by a people of purely non-Indian blood and in the interests of another country and another people, before the British. [9] India was always an empire by herself. She was never a part of another empire, much less a dependency. ”

“ Gentlemen, let us descend a little from the generalities into details and see how the policy of the past has worked not only to our detriment, but to the positive weakening of the British rule itself. Let us see what small share we have in the larger life of the Empire. I have already said that we have no share in laying down the policy upon which India is ruled. Have we any share even in the different Services of the country? Are we allowed to serve our own land and the Empire to the best of our capacity and ability? ”

“ We pass on to the next great landmark in the story of British rule in India. This was the governor-generalship of the Earl of Dalhousie, who ruled India between 1848 and 1856. Though he added to the empire more territory than any other British ruler in India, before or since, he did it all for the good of India as well as for the greatness of Britain. Believing that rulers exist only for the good of the governed, he made it his great aim to do away with abuses, to redress wrongs, to deal even-handed justice all round, and to promote the happiness of the people under his care. ”

“ Thus it will be seen that the chief factor in our dealings with feudatory India is the sense of loyalty of the ruling Chiefs to the Crown of England. As is the Raja, so is the Raiyat, the people of Native States follow the lead of their rulers; and it is no exaggeration to state that there is more loyalty of the real kind in these States than in many parts of British India. It is a healthy sign of the times that spontaneous expressions of this loyalty are evoked when danger to the Empire is rumoured. It is not many years ago since Russia loomed largely on the frontiers of India. ”

“ I feel courage in the thought that you have taken the Presidency of the Indian Empire, and that if there be royal blood within my veins it will roll with renewed vigor through every fibre of my frame, that with stimulated energies I may carry out your counsel; and if I know what honor, and friendship, and gratitude require at my hands, you shall be in Italy at the same time you are in India, or else- where. ”

“ These questions, which have divided the minds of millions of men, which have caused rivers of blood to flow, nowadays sound idle and even absurd to our readers, who hear Hindu religion spoken of as mere mythology, and India as some far-off planet; but, at the time of which we are now speaking, the Indian Empire was the centre of the civilised world and master of the known world. ”

“ The history of this War shows that you can rely upon the loyalty of the Indian people to the British Empire—if you ever before doubted it! If you want to use that loyalty, you must take advantage of that love of country which is a religion in India, and you must give them that bigger opportunity of controlling their own destinies, not merely by Councils which cannot act, but by control, by growing control, of the Executive itself. Then in your next War—if we ever have War—in your next crisis, through times of peace, you will have a contented India, an India equipped to help. ”

“ But the most cheering symptom of future good government in India is the increased disposition of British rulers to associate natives of character and ability with themselves in high offices of administration. ”

“ It is a most remarkable fact, that while other countries have the whole face of society changed by conquest and subjection to rulers from foreign lands, India—though swept over by successive hordes of invaders, though plundered and divided among contending despots, though transferred from hand to hand, as each dynasty was crushed by one more powerful than itself—has, to a great extent, remained unchanged. India now is, in its habits, feelings, and pursuits, very much what it was three thousand years ago. ”