1 x PREFACE,
2 BS
3 on the shelf of forgetfulness, as many books of Ctertainment are
4 read and put aside after the curiosity excited by them is over? Or
5 will you elect to treat it like some fiction, or some Tpdian tale,
6 which so many of our young men read for the sake of dgusement,
7 and to pass the time? I sincerely hope and trust that yotsyill not
8 do this, for such is not the object of my work. Let me hoye that
9 you will weigh carefully and calmly the facts narrated tO\you ;
10 that you will exercise due diligence ; and then that, in orde, to
11 draw conclusions, you will appeal to your reason, your conscie>ce
12 and your good taste. Do not think that the Panjab of to-day
13 the Panjdb of forty years back. Do not forget what the condition
14 of your country was forty years ago, or to appreciate heartily the
15 manifold blessings of British rule and the influence of British
16 civilization on your country. It was all very well for Lord Macau-
17 Jay, in his unrivalled essays on Clive and Warren Hastings, to paint
18 in glowing terms the magnificence and grardeur of the Moghal
19 Court and of its ministers and grandees. Truly has he said that
20 “the innumerable retinues and gorgeous decorations which surround-
21 ed the throne of Delhi, dazzled even eyes which were accustomed to
22 the pomp of Versailles. Some of the great Viceroys, who held
23 their posts by virtue of commissions from the Moghal, ruled as many
24 subjects as the king of France or the Emperor of Germany. Jiven
25 the deputies of these deputies might well rank, as to extent of
26 territory and amount of revenue, with the Grand Duke of Tuscany
27 or the Elector of Saxony.” It has been a misfortune to our genera-
28 tion that Lord Macaulay did not write a History of India, for it
29 would have been a work in which he would have taken the most
30 genuine interest. Had the great essayist taken up his pen to
31 write a history of this country, he would not, in all human pro-
32 bability, have omitted to lay before the world the other side of the
33 picture. He would have informed us whence the wealth had come
34 which enabled the Imperial Court to maintain its State, or the Vice-
35 roys of Provinces to decorate their palaces and entertain a count-
36 less host of retainers, and what means were employed in accu-
37 mulating these vast treasures for the Imperial Exchequer. Did it
38 ever reach the royal ear how a poor old woman had passed the night
39 even half a mile from the Imperial palace? Was it ever known
40 whether she was oppressed by the Imperial servants, or by a wealthy
41 lord, or by an official exercising authority ? Did it matter at all if
42 she passed her night in groans and lamentations, in hunger and pri-
43 vation ? Was a lamp lit in her dark, small room to solace her hours
44 of affliction? Did the grand Signor ever care to see what was
45 passing in the cottage of a poor peasant, a short distance from the
46 Imperial city, through the grinding tyranny of those whom he had
47 putin authority ? Exceptions, of course, there are ; and our country
48 coe with pride to names like those of Asoka, Bikramajit and
49 er, brilliant examples of royal enlightenment and munificence,
50 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh Ji eLibrary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com