1 DEATH OF DOST MUHAMMAD KHAN, 585
2 To the Muhammadan chiefs also, the assurance was given—
3 That the paramount power desires their governments to be perpetuated, and that
4 any succession to them which may be legitimate according to Mahomedan law and consis-
5 tent with the claims of primogeniture will be upheld.
6 The Governor-General announced the future policy of the British Govern-
7 ment towards the Independent States of India in the following words:—
8 Notwithstanding the greater purity and enlightenment of our administration, its higher
9 tone, its sure promise of future benefit to the people as compared with any Native Govern-
10 ment, I still think we have before us a higher and more pressing duty than that of exten-
11 ding our direct rule ; and that our first care should be to strengthen that rule within its
12 present limits, and to secure for our general supremacy the contented acquiescence and
13 respect of all who are subjected to it. Our supremacy will never be heartily accepted
14 and respected so long as we leave ourselves open to doubts which are now felt, and which our
15 uncertain policy has justified, as to our ultimate intention towards Native States. . . .
16 The safety of our rule is increased, not diminished, by the maintenance of native chiefs well
17 affected to us.
18 Setting aside the well-known services rendered by Sindhia, and subsequently by the
19 Maharajas of Rew4, Charkari and others, over the wide tract of Central India, where our
20 authority is most broken upon by Native States, I venture to say that there is no one
21 who remembers the condition of Upper India in 1857 and 1858, and who is not thankful,
22 that in the centre of the large and compact province of Rohilkand there remained the
23 solitary little state of Rampur, still administered by its Muhammadan prince; and that, on
24 the borders of the Panjab and of the districts above Delhi the chief of Patialé and his
25 kinsmen still retained their hereditary aythority unimpaired,
26 In the time of which I speak, these patches of Native Government served as
27 breakwaters to the storm which would otherwise have swept over us in one great wave.
28 And in quiet times they have their uses, Restless nen, who will accept no profession but
29 arms, crafty intriguers bred in native courts, and others who would chafe at our stricter
30 and more formal rule, live there contentedly ; and should the day come when India shall
31 be threatened by an external enemy, or when the interests of Ungland elsewhere may
32 require that her astern Empire shall incur more than ordinary risk, one of our best main-
33 stays will be found in these Native States. But to make them so we must treat their
34 chiefs and influential families with consideration and generosity, teaching that, in spite of
35 all suspicions to the contrary, their independence is safe, that we are not waiting for
36 plausible opportunities to convert their country into British territory, and convincing
37 them that they have nothing to gain by helping to displace us in favour of any few rulers
38 from within or from without.
39 True it is that the British Government has faithfully observed the just and
40 wise policy enunciated by Lord Canning, and the chiefs of India have proved
41 well worthy of the confidence reposed in their loyalty to the Crown.
42 In 1860-61, the Panjéb suffered from the dire effects of a famine which
43 spread desolation throughout the country. A Relief Committee was orga-
44 nized by the Panjdb Government, of which Mr., afterwards Sir Donald,
45 McLeod, the Financial Commissioner, was nominated President. For some
46 months, in 1861, the average number of persons fed daily ranged between
47 90,000 and 116,000. The distress was intensely felt in the neighbourhood of
48 Delhi, the city that was the focus of the great rebellion a few years before.
49 The authorities showed the deepest sympathy for the hungry multitudes who
50 clamoured for bread, and the distress was greatly alleviated. The number of
51 persons relieyed is estimated at half a million, and the expenditure by
52 Government at about three-quarters of a million sterling. The help render-
53 ed at that critical period to the starving population of Delhi was a true
54 exhibition of Christian love, to return good for evil, for we all know what had
55 been done in that city a few years before. ;
56 On the 9th of June 1862, Amir Dost Muhammad Khan, of Kébul, closed
57 his eventful life at Herat, and was succeeded by his son Sher Ali Khan,
58 who had been appointed heir-apparent during the lifetime of his father.
59 On the the 28th of November 1862, the grand mosque at Delhi, which
60 Policy of the Govern-
61 ment towards Indepen-
62 dent States,
63 _ Famine in the Pan-
64 Jab, 1860-61,
65 Relief operations,
66 True exhibition of
67 Christian love.
68 Death of Amir Dost
69 Muhammad Khan, of
70 Kabul, 1862,
71 The grand mosque at
72 had been closed as a place of worship since the capture of the city in 1857, Pelbi restored, 1852,
73 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh Ji eLibrary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com