Hindustan under free lances, 1770-1820 : sketches of military adventure in Hindustan during the period immediately preceding British occupation / by H.G. Keene.

  • Henry George Keene
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Hindustan under free lances, 1770-1820 : sketches of military adventure in Hindustan during the period immediately preceding British occupation / by H.G. Keene. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/294
    about it a vitality, a spring, a verve, a motive force, a steadiness and stability which simply struck terror into the minds and hearts of every Asiatic, high and low; Its qualities were so alien to anything known in Oriental experience, that all India lay under the dread, like that of a nightmare, that the British, if so minded, might attain to universal mastery. Of this masterful ambition and of this persevering temper the signs were everywhere apparent. ( It immediately occurred to every Indian who cut his path to power, or waded through blood to the seat of temporary authority, that his best chance of saving himself from the advancing British was to employ some man or men of the fateful European races^ A man of British nationality would not be suitable, because presumably he could not be trusted to oppose his own people. Moreover, he would not be obtainable, because, if really an able man, he could find employment under his own Government. Thus the men available would be of continental origin. It was thought that even if they were not as effective as the English, they were at all events white men with a good share of the capacity which always distinguishes Europeans. Some were chosen either in reference to credentials or to known antecedents ; others, again, were employed first in some humble capacity and then raised themselves higher by sheer prowess. Several of them won victo- ries or other military advantages for their chiefs. All of them without exception were rewarded with a richness astonishing even to Anglo-Indians. Some of them amassed really immense fortunes in reference to the nature of their work and to the circumstances of their epoch. Indeed, the amounts and sums of wealth would at first sight seem unaccountable when it is remembered that at this time India was agitated from end to end, her social life being shaken to its very foundations. It is, however, to be remembered that, despite all superficial appearances to the contrary, the accumulated wealth of