Tempo:
— CHAP. V
.
THE SIKHS AND THE ENGLISH
113
empire about to be reared on their own patient lab- 1957-88. ours.^ Forty years afterwards, the merchant Omichand thT^ampaign played a conspicuous part in the revolution which was against crowned by the battle of Plassey; but the sectarian Banda, Sikh, the worldly votary of Nanak, who used religion "is-iv. as a garb of outward decorum, was outwitted by the ciive and audacious falsehood of Clive; he quailed before the omichand. ^^"•
stern scorn of the English conqueror, and he perished the victim of his own base avarice.- In 1784 the progress of the genuine Sikhs attracted the notice of warren Hastings, and he seems to have thought that the pre- Hastings ^^ sence of a British agent at the court of Delhi might ^'^^^^ help to deter them from molesting the Wazir of Oudh.=^ ?ga[nst*^th? But the Sikhs had learnt to dread others as well as to sikhs. 1734 be a cause of- fear, and shortly afterwards they asked ^i^e 315.^5 the British Resident to enter into a defensive alliance ask English against the Marathas, and to accept the services of aid against thirtv thousand horsemen, who had posted themselves ^^^ MaraThe *''^^ "^^• near' Delhi to watch the motions of Sindhia.-* See Orme, History, ii. 22, &c., and Mill, Wilson's edition, The mission was two years at Delhi during 1715, 1716, 1717, and the genuine patriotism of Mr. Hamilton, the surgeon of the deputation, mainly contributed to procure the cession of thirty-seven villages near Calcutta, and the exemption from duty of goods protected by English passes. 1
ill.
34, &c.
This latter privilege was a turning-point in the history of the English in India, for it gave an impulse to trade, which vastly increased the importance of British subjects, if it added httle [It may be added to the profits of the associated merchants. that a dispute about the issue of those passes brought about an open rupture between the East India Company and Mir Kasim, Nawab of Bengal, in 1763. The latter was utterly defeated at the Battle of Bunar in 1764 and as one of the terms of peace in the following year the year of Clive's return to India the Diwani (fiscal administration) of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa was granted by the Emperor Shah Alam tr the Company, in return for a yearly payment of 26 lakhs, while the Nawab, the successor of Mir Kasim, was deprived of all power and pensioned. Ed.] In the Granth of Guru Gobind there are at least four allusions to Europeans, the last referring specially to an Englishman. First, in the /\.kai Stut, Europeans are enumerated among the tribes inhabiting India; second and third, in the Kalki chapters of the 24 Autars, apparently in praise of the systematic modes of Europeans; and fourth, in the Persian Hikayats, where both a European and an Englishman appear as champions for the hand of a royal damsel, to be vanquished, of course, by the hero of the tale. - That Omichand was a Sikh is given on the authority' of Forster, Travels, i. 337. That he died of a broken heart Is (Mill, India, iii. 192 note, doubted by Professor Wilson.
—
—
ed, 1840.) - Browne, India Tracts, ii 29, 30; and Francklin, Shah Alam. pp. 115, 116. ^ Auber, Rise and Progress oi the British Power in India.
8
.
THE SIKHS AND THE ENGLISH
113
empire about to be reared on their own patient lab- 1957-88. ours.^ Forty years afterwards, the merchant Omichand thT^ampaign played a conspicuous part in the revolution which was against crowned by the battle of Plassey; but the sectarian Banda, Sikh, the worldly votary of Nanak, who used religion "is-iv. as a garb of outward decorum, was outwitted by the ciive and audacious falsehood of Clive; he quailed before the omichand. ^^"•
stern scorn of the English conqueror, and he perished the victim of his own base avarice.- In 1784 the progress of the genuine Sikhs attracted the notice of warren Hastings, and he seems to have thought that the pre- Hastings ^^ sence of a British agent at the court of Delhi might ^'^^^^ help to deter them from molesting the Wazir of Oudh.=^ ?ga[nst*^th? But the Sikhs had learnt to dread others as well as to sikhs. 1734 be a cause of- fear, and shortly afterwards they asked ^i^e 315.^5 the British Resident to enter into a defensive alliance ask English against the Marathas, and to accept the services of aid against thirtv thousand horsemen, who had posted themselves ^^^ MaraThe *''^^ "^^• near' Delhi to watch the motions of Sindhia.-* See Orme, History, ii. 22, &c., and Mill, Wilson's edition, The mission was two years at Delhi during 1715, 1716, 1717, and the genuine patriotism of Mr. Hamilton, the surgeon of the deputation, mainly contributed to procure the cession of thirty-seven villages near Calcutta, and the exemption from duty of goods protected by English passes. 1
ill.
34, &c.
This latter privilege was a turning-point in the history of the English in India, for it gave an impulse to trade, which vastly increased the importance of British subjects, if it added httle [It may be added to the profits of the associated merchants. that a dispute about the issue of those passes brought about an open rupture between the East India Company and Mir Kasim, Nawab of Bengal, in 1763. The latter was utterly defeated at the Battle of Bunar in 1764 and as one of the terms of peace in the following year the year of Clive's return to India the Diwani (fiscal administration) of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa was granted by the Emperor Shah Alam tr the Company, in return for a yearly payment of 26 lakhs, while the Nawab, the successor of Mir Kasim, was deprived of all power and pensioned. Ed.] In the Granth of Guru Gobind there are at least four allusions to Europeans, the last referring specially to an Englishman. First, in the /\.kai Stut, Europeans are enumerated among the tribes inhabiting India; second and third, in the Kalki chapters of the 24 Autars, apparently in praise of the systematic modes of Europeans; and fourth, in the Persian Hikayats, where both a European and an Englishman appear as champions for the hand of a royal damsel, to be vanquished, of course, by the hero of the tale. - That Omichand was a Sikh is given on the authority' of Forster, Travels, i. 337. That he died of a broken heart Is (Mill, India, iii. 192 note, doubted by Professor Wilson.
—
—
ed, 1840.) - Browne, India Tracts, ii 29, 30; and Francklin, Shah Alam. pp. 115, 116. ^ Auber, Rise and Progress oi the British Power in India.
8
©
2026
Lehal.net