History of the Panjab from the remotest antiquity to the present time

Latif, Syad Muhammad · 1891 · Public domain (published pre-1930) · archive.org ↗

2x | PREFACE.

3on the shelf of forgetfulness, as many books of entertainment are

4read and put aside after the curiosity excited by them is over’? Or

5will you elect to treat it like some fiction, or some Jndian tale,

6which so many of our young men read for the sake of amusement,

7and to pass the time ? I sincerely hope and trust that you will not

8do this, for such is not the object of my work. Let me hope that

9you will weigh carefully and calmly the facts narrated to you;

10that you will exercise due diligence ; and then that, in order to

11draw conclusions, you will appeal to your reason, your conscience

12and your good taste. Do not think that the Panjab of to-day is

13the Panjdb of forty years back. Do not forget what the condition

14of your country was forty years ago, or to appreciate heartily the

15manifold blessings of Lritish rule and the influence of British

16civilization on your country. It was all very well for Lord Macau-

17lay, in his unrivalled essays on Clive and Warren Hastings, to paint

18in glowing terms the magnificence and grardeur of the Moghal

19Court and of its ministers and grandees. Truly has he said that

20‘ the innumerable retinues and gorgeous decorations which surround-

21ed the throne of Delhi, dazzled even eyes which were accustomed to

22the pomp of Versailles. Some of the great Viceroys, who held

23their posts by virtue of commissions from the Moghal, ruled as many

24subjects as the king of France or the Emperor of Germany. Even

25the deputies of these deputies might well rank, as to extent of

26territory and amount of revenue, with the Grand Duke of Tuscany

27or the Elector of Saxony.” It has been a misfortune to our genera-

28tion that Lord Macaulay did not write a History of India, for it

29would have been a work in which he would have taken the most

30genuine interest. Had the great essayist taken up his pen to

31write a history of this country, he woul not, in all human pro-

32bability, have omitted to lay before the world the other side of the

33picture. He would have informed us whence the wealth had come

34which enabled the Imperial Court to maintain its State, or the Vice-

35roys of Provinces to decorate their palaces and entertain a count-

36less host of retainers, and what means were employed in, accu-

37} mulating these vast treasures for the Imperial Exchequer, Did it

38ever reach the royal ear how a poor old woman had passed the night

39even half a mile from the Imperial palace ? Was it ever known

40whether she was oppressed by ae Imperial servants, or by a wealthy

41Jord, or by an official exercising authority ? Did it matter at all if

42she passed her night in groans and lamentations, in hunger and pri-

43vation ? Wasa lamp lit in her dark, small room to solace her hours

44lof affliction? Did the grand Signor ever care to see what was

45loans in the cottage of a poor peasant, a short distance from the

46mperial city, through the grinding tyranny of those whom he had

47putin authority ? Exceptions, of course, there are ; and our country

48can point with pride to names like those of Asoka, Bikramajit and

49Akber, brilliant examples of ‘royal enlightenment end munificence,