India, its administration & progress / Sir John Strachey.

  • John Strachey
Date:
1903
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: India, its administration & progress / Sir John Strachey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    529/552 page 499
    of Oudh, the well-known Maharaja Man Singh, a man of rare sagacity, whose intellect, position, wealth, and influence made him the most important personage in his province. Referring to this subject of holding competitive examinations for the Civil Service in India, “ I am afraid,” I said, “ that for a long time to come there would be no candidates from this part of India; it is only in Bengal that young men could be found who would have any chance of success in such an examination as that required. The result would be that you would some day have a Bengali as your chief District officer.” I shall not forget the scorn with which he drew himself up and replied to me, “ And does any one think that we, the men of this country, would stand that ? Do you suppose that you could govern us with Bengalis ? Never ! ” This book was almost ready for the press 1 when the reports reached England of some remarkable speeches made by Sir Syad Ahmad Khan at two great meetings of Mohammedans in Northern India. I referred in a previous chapter to Sir Syad Ahmad Khan, and to the work to which his life was devoted.2 I mention these speeches because they illustrate the practical importance of the fact on which I have repeatedly insisted, with which I began this book, and with which I wish to end it, that the most essential of all things to be learnt about India is that it is a continent filled with the most diverse elements, that it is the strong hand of England alone which maintains peace among them, and that, if our vigilance were relaxed, anarchy and bloodshed would spread themselves over the land. No Englishman could speak with higher authority than Sir Syad Ahmad Khan, and there was no one, Englishman or Native, 1 First Edition, 1888. 2 Chapter XVI.
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