About the Book
Since its first publication, Vincent Smith’s
standard textbook on Indian history has been periodically revised, most
comprehensively when Percival Spear edited the third edition and led the Times
Literary Supplement to comment:
‘It was high time that Vincent Smith’s standard
textbook ... should be brought up to date, because the original work which went
to the making of it was so solidly done that it had permanent value. Dr Spear
has been given, quite rightly, a very free hand as editor; he has himself largely
re-written the account of the British period. This revision ... has brought
into existence a book which, while recognizably that of Vincent Smith, is fully
abreast both of modern historical scholarship and of modern political ideas.’
In the fourth edition Percival Spear, in a new section entitled ‘Independent
India’, carries on the account from 1947, the closing year of the third
edition, up to the declaration of Emergency in 1975. The new section examines
the historical, political, cultural and economic developments in
post-Independence India and surveys its foreign policy in the Nehru and
post-Nehru eras to present a composite view of contemporary India, the factors
that have moulded it, its problems and achievements.
Preface
The Oxford History of India was first published
in 1919 carrying the Indian story down to 1911. It was entirely the work of the
late Vincent Smith and was at once hailed as a monument of wide learning, of
concise statement, and of forthright opinion. It came to be regarded as an
invaluable compendium of the subject, and its solid merits have been such that
it remains a live work after forty years of rapid change, not only in India
itself but in opinion about its history. Smith’s history has been disparaged as
dull and pilloried as prejudiced, but-there are few persistent readers who have
not found the dullness allied to a regard for accuracy, and most of the
prejudice to be expressions of honest even if sometimes mistaken judgement.
Vincent Smith’s history has lived because it was basically founded on sound
knowledge and shrewd judgement, and because these qualities were compounded
with a vivid personality which made the book ‘alive’ in spite of its
matter-of-fact approach. The fact that a work composed at the end of the
imperial British age and in the spirit of that age is still read in
contemporary independent India is sufficient evidence of its solid worth and
enduring quality.
A second edition appeared in 1923. The book was
revised by the late S.M. Edwardes who added a section
bringing the record to 1921.
Since then an era in Indian history which
seemed likely in 1912 to persist indefinitely has come to an end; not only maps
but thought and a whole climate of opinion have changed; it is therefore
inevitable that there should be considerable changes in any new edition.
Nevertheless it has been found practicable to retain much of Smith’s work in
Parts 1 and H. In the third edition a new chapter on the Indian pre- history
which has come to light since Vincent Smith’s death has been written by Sir R.
Mortimer Wheeler. The remainder of the Ancient Indian period (Books I-HI) has
been revised by Professor A. L. Basham of the London School of Oriental and
African Studies. The medieval or Muslim period (Books IV-VI) has been similarly
revised by Mr. J. B, Harrison of the same School. It is revealing of Smith’s
outlook and characteristic of his work that the revision of the medieval period
should be more extensive than the ancient. For the British period, however,
such methods would not suffice. The change in perspective has been too great;
repair of the garment would have produced a patchwork, not a renovated piece.
The whole part (Books VII-X) has therefore been rewritten by a single hand from
what must be plainly stated to be a different point of view. The whole British
period has been treated as a completed episode. It has been regarded, not as
the story of the r-se and decline of British power in India, but as the story
of the transformation of Indian under the impact of western power, techniques,
and ideas, of which the East India Company was the harbinger and Britain the
creative intermediary.
This fresh treatment of the British period has
involved some problems of adjustment between Parts II and III. If Part III was
to be a history of India in the time of the British rather than a History of
the British in India, more attention had clearly to be paid Indian India at the
outset. This meant that either sections of Part 11 must be omitted or some
repetition incurred in Part III. I have thought the integration of the Mughul and British periods, and the weaving together of the
British and Indian strands so important as to justify some over- lapping in the
periods and some repetition of topics. Only thus can a proper historical
perspective be achieved. These traits will be noticed in passages dealing with
the Marathas, the Afghans in the eighteenth century, the Sikhs, and the closing
scenes of the Mughul empire.
The provision of notes on authorities at the
end of each chapter has been retained throughout the book. Chronological tables
have been similarly retained in Parts I and II, but in Part III synchronistic
chronological tables for each of the four Books VII-X
have been insterted at the end of the Part. The maps
and illustrations have both been completely revised.
The problem of the transliteration of Indian
names and words has been a difficult one. A book hoping to be read by a wide
public should be as clear as possible in its treatment of names and technical
terms, but at the same time there must be some consistency and conformance to
scientific usage. A further difficulty is that many Indian words have become
naturalized in the English language with spellings which are familiar rather
than scientific. Thus we have ‘Meerut’ for ‘Mirat’, ‘hookah’
for ‘huqa’, and ‘thug’ for ‘thag’.
The last example illustrates a further complication, that of a word undergoing
a change of meaning (ritual strangler to general gangster) as well as a change
of spelling. The methods adopted have been as follows. In Parts I and II words
have been transliterated on accepted Hunterian
principles with the usual diacritical marks. The exceptions are certain
well-known names, such as Akbar and Bengal. In Part III the problem has been
more difficult because of the large number of Indian words naturalized into
English. Here it has been felt that some sacrifice in accuracy would be well
compensated by gain in intelligibility. The Hunterian
system of spelling has been generally followed but diacritical marks have been
usually omitted. Familiar spellings such as Cawnpore and Lucknow
have been retained, but where a word has changed in meaning as well as spelling
in passing into English, as ‘thug’, the correct transliteration has been given.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary has been used as a guide to naturalization of
Indian words into English.
Book X, Chapters 6-9, are
a revised version of chapters contributed to the third edition of P. E.
Roberts’s History of British India.
In preparing Part III I have received much help
from many quarters. But chietly I should like to
thank my wife whose encouragement and sensitive judgement have contributed so
much to the completion of t-he work.
Introduction
The geographical unit. The India of this
book is almost exclusively’ the geographical unit called by that name on the
ordinary maps of the days before partition, bounded on the north, north-west,
and north-east by mountain ranges, and elsewhere by the sea. The extensive,
Burmese territories, although for a time governed as part of the Indian empire,
cannot be described as being part of India. Burma has a separate history,
rarely touching on that of India prior to the nineteenth century. Similarly,
Ceylon, although geologically a fragment detached from the peninsula in
relatively recent times, always has had a distinct political existence,
requiring separate historical treatment, and its affairs will not be discussed
in this work, except incidentally.
Vast extent of area. Formal, technical
descriptions of the geographical and physical features of India may be found in
many easily accessible books, and need not be reproduced here. But certain
geographical facts with a direct bearing on the history require brief comment,
because, as Richard Hakluyt truly observed long ago, ‘geography and chronology
are the sun and the moon, the right eye and the left eye of all history’. The
large extent of the area of India, which may be correctly designated as a
sub-continent, is a material geographical fact. The history of a region so
vast, bounded by a coastline of about 3,400 miles, more or less, and a mountain
barrier on the north some 1,600 miles in length, and inhabited by a population
numbering nearly 400 millions, necessarily must be long and intricate. The
detailed treatment suitable to the story of a small country cannot be applied
in a general history of India. The author of such a book must be content to
sketch his picture in outlines boldly drawn, and to leave out multitudes of
recorded particulars.
Continental and peninsular
regions. Another geographical fact, namely that India comprises both a large
continental, sub-tropical area, and an approximately equal peninsular, tropical
area, has had immense influence upon the history.
Three territorial
compartments. Geographical conditions divided Indian history, until the nineteenth
century, into three well marked territorial compartments, not to mention minor
distinct areas, , such as the Konkan, the Himalayan
region, and others. The three are:
(I) the northern plains forming the basins of
the Indus and Ganges;
(2) the Deccan plateau
lying to the south of the Narbada, and to the north of the Krishna and
Tungabhadra rivers; and (3) the far south, beyond those rivers, comprising the
group of Tamil states. Ordinarily, each of those three geographical
compartments has had a distinct, highly complex story of its own. The points of
contact between the three histories are not very numerous.
Dominance of the north. Usually the
northern plains, the Aryavarta of the Hindu period,
and the Hindustan of more recent times, have been the seat of the principal
empires and the scene of the events most interesting to the outer world. The
wide waterways of the great snow-fed rivers and the fertile level plains are
natural advantages which have inevitably attracted a teeming population from
time immemorial. The open nature of the country, easily accessible to martial
invaders from the north-west, has given frequent occasion for the .formation of
powerful kingdoms ruled by vigorous foreigners. The peninsular, tropical section
of India, isolated from the rest of the world by its position, and in contact
with other countries only by sea-borne commerce, has pursued its own course,
little noticed by and caring little for foreigners. The historian of India is
bound by the nature of things to direct his attention primarily to the north,
and is able to give only a secondary place to the story of the Deccan plateau
and the far south.
No southern power could ever succeed in
mastering the north, but the more ambitious rulers of Aryavarta
or Hindustan often have extended their sway far beyond the dividing-line of the
Narbada. When Dupleix in the eighteenth century dreamed of a Franco-Indian
empire with its base in the peninsula he was bound to fail. The success of the
English was dependent on their acquisition of rich Bengal and their command of
the Gangetic waterway. In a later stage of the
British advance the conquest of the Panjab was
conditioned by the control of the Indus navigation, previously secured by the
rather unscrupulous proceedings of Lords Auckland and Ellenborough.
The rivers of the peninsula do not offer similar facilities for penetration of
the interior.
Changes in rivers. The foregoing
general observations indicate broadly the ways in which the geographical position
and configuration of India have affected the course of her history. But the
subject will bear a little more elaboration and the discussion of certain less
conspicuous illustrations of the bearing of geography upon history. Let us
consider for a moment the changes in the great rivers of India, which, when
seen in full flood, suggest thoughts of the ocean rather than of inland
streams. Unless one has battled in an open ferry-boat with one of those mighty
masses of surging water in the height of the rains, it is difficult to realize
their demoniac power. They cut and carve the soft alluvial plains at their
will, reeking of nothing. Old beds of the Sutlej can be traced across a space
eighty-five miles wide. The Indus, the Ganges, the Kosi,
the Brahmaputra, and scores of other rivers behave,
each according to its ability, in the same way, despising all barriers, natural
or artificial. Who can tell where the Indus flowed in the days of Alexander the
Great? Yet books, professedly learned, are not afraid to trace his course
minutely through the Panjab and Sind by the help of
some modern map, and to offer pretended identifications of sites upon the banks
of rivers which certainly were somewhere else twenty-two centuries ago. We know
that they must have been somewhere else, but where they were no man can tell. So with the Vedic rivers, several of which bear the ancient names.
The rivers of the Rishis were not the rivers of
today. The descriptions prove that in the old, old days their character often
differed completely from what it now is, and experience teaches that their
courses must have been widely divergent. Commentators in their arm-chairs with
the latest edition of the Indian Atlas opened out before them are not always
willing to be bothered with such inconvenient facts. Even since the early
Muslim invasions the changes in the rivers have been enormous, and the
contemporary histories of the foreign conquerors cannot be understood unless
the reality and extent of those changes be borne constantly in mind. One large
river-system, based on the extinct Hakra or Wahindah river, which once flowed
down from the mountains through Bahawalpur, has wholly disappeared, the final
stages having been deferred until the eighteenth century. Scores of mounds,
silent witnesses to the existence of numberless forgotten and often nameless
towns, bear testimony to the desolation wrought when the waters of life desert
their channels. A large and fascinating volume might be devoted to the study
and description of the freaks of Indian rivers.
Position of cities. In connexion with
that topic another point may be mentioned. The founders of the more important
old cities almost invariably built, if possible, on the bank of a river, and
not only that, but between two rivers in the triangle above the confluence.
Dozens of examples might be cited, but one must suffice. The ancient imperial
capital, Pataliputra, represented by the modem Patna,
occupied such a secure position between the guarding waters of the Son and the
Ganges. The existing city, twelve miles or so below the confluence, has lost
the strategical advantages of its predecessor.
Historians who forget the position of Pataliputra in
relation to the rivers go hopelessly wrong in their comments on the texts of
the ancient Indian and foreign authors.
Changes of the land. Changes in the
coast-line and the level of the land have greatly modified the course of
history, and must be remembered by the historian who desires to avoid ludicrous
blunders. The story of the voyage of Nearchos, for
instance, cannot be properly appreciated by any student who fails to compare
the descriptions recorded by the Greeks with the surveys of modem geographers.
When the changes in the coast-line are understood, statements of the old
authors which looked erroneous at first sight are found to be correct. The
utter destruction of the once wealthy commercial cities of Korkai
and Kayal on the Tinnevelly
coast, now miles from the sea and buried under; sand dunes, ceases to be a
mystery when we know, as we do, that the coast level has risen. In other
localities, some not very distant from the places named, the converse has
happened, and the sea has advanced, or, in other words the land has sunk. The
careful investigator of ancient history needs to be continually on his guard
against the insidious deceptions of the modem map. Many learned professors,
German and, others, have tumbled headlong into the pit. The subject being a
hobby of mine I must not ride the steed too far.
Contents
|
List of Illustrations |
x |
|
List of Abbreviations |
xiv |
|
Part I: Ancient and Hindu India |
|
|
Introduction |
1 |
Book I: |
Ancient India |
|
1. |
Prehistoric India: the elements of the
population |
22 |
2. |
Literature and civilization of the Vedic and
Epic periods; the Puranas; caste |
44 |
3. |
The pre-Maurya
states; the rise of Jainism and Buddhism; the invasion of Alexander the
Great; India in the fourth century B.C. |
71 |
BOOK II: |
Hindu India from the Beginning of the Maurya Dynasty in 322 B.C. to the Seventh Century A.C. |
|
1. |
Chandragupta Maurya,
the first historical Emperor of India, and his institutions; Bindusara |
95 |
2. |
Asoka Maurya and
his institutions; diffusion of Buddhism; end of the Maurya
dynasty; the successors of the Mauryas |
117 |
3. |
The Indo-Greek and other foreign dynasties of
north-western India; the Kushans or Indo-Scythians
; Greek influence; foreign commerce; beginning of Chola
history |
143 |
4. |
The Gupta period; a golden age; literature,
art, and science; Hindu renaissance; the Huns; King Harsha;
the Chalukyas; disorder in northern India |
164 |
5. |
Indian Influence in South-east Asia |
185 |
Book III: |
The Medieval Hindu Kingdoms from the Death of
Harsha in A.D. 647 to the Muslim Conquest |
|
1. |
The transitional period; Rajputs;
the Himaiayan kingdoms and their relations with
Tibet and China |
190 |
2. |
The northern and western kingdoms of the plains |
197 |
3. |
The Kingdoms of the Peninsula |
213 |
|
Part
II: India In The Muslim Period |
|
Book IV: |
The Muslim Powers of Northern India |
|
1. |
The rise of the Muslim power in India and the
Sultanate of Delhi, A.D. 1175-1290 |
232 |
2. |
The Sultanate of Delhi continued; A.D. 1290
to 1340; the Khilji and Tughluq
dynasties |
244 |
3. |
The decline and fall of the Sultanate of
Delhi, A.D. 1340-1526; the Tughluq dynasty
concluded; Timur; the Sayyids;
the Lodi dynasty; Islam in Indian life |
253 |
4. |
The Muslim kingdoms of Bengal, Malwa, Gujarat, and Kashmir |
271 |
Book V: |
The Southern Powers |
|
1. |
The Bahmani dynasty
of the Deccan, 1347-1526 |
281 |
2. |
The five Sultanates of the Deccan, and Khandesh, from 1474 to the seventeenth century |
292 |
3. |
The Hindu empire of Vijayanagar,
from A.D. 1336 to 1646 |
303 |
Book VI: |
The Mughul Empire |
|
1. |
The beginnings of the Mughul
empire; Babur, Humayun, and the Sur dynasty, A.D.
1526-56 |
320 |
2. |
The early European voyages to and settlements
in India; the East India Company from 1600 to 1708 |
327 |
3. |
Akbar, 1555-1605 |
337 |
4. |
Jahangir |
363 |
5. |
Shahjahan and the War of
Succession; climax of the Mughul empire |
376 |
6. |
Aurangzeb Alamgir
(1658-1707) |
404 |
7. |
The later Mugnuls;
decline of the empire; the Sikhs and Marathas |
430 |
|
Part
III: India In The British Period |
|
|
Introduction |
446 |
Book VII: |
The Rise of the British Dominion, 1740-18 |
|
1. |
English and French |
455 |
2. |
The British in Bengal |
465 |
3. |
Afghans, Mughuls,
and Marathas |
481 |
4. |
The Maratha Polity |
492 |
5. |
The Age of Hastings |
501 |
6. |
The Company and the State |
518 |
7. |
Cornwallis |
529 |
8. |
The South, 1780-1801 |
539 |
9. |
Shore and Wellesley |
548 |
10. |
Interlude: Barlow and Minto |
558 |
11. |
Lord Hastings and Hegemony |
564 |
Book VIII: |
Completion and Consolidation, 1818-58 |
|
1. |
General: Hastings to Dalhousie |
574 |
2. |
The Political Thread: Hastings to Hardinge, 1818-48 |
583 |
3. |
Foreign Policy, 1818-48: Burma and the
north-west |
595 |
4. |
Sind and the Panjab |
607 |
5. |
Government and People: Organization of Power |
621 |
6. |
The People and the Government: The Village,
the Land, and Trade |
633 |
7. |
Social Policy and Cultural Contacts |
645 |
8. |
Dalhousie |
654 |
9. |
The Mutiny |
663 |
Book IX: |
Imperial India, 1858-1905 |
|
1. |
Calming and Reorganization |
673 |
2. |
The Political Thread: Elgin to Elgin |
683 |
3. |
Foreign and Frontier Policy, 1862-98 |
693 |
4. |
Economic Policy and Development, 1858-1939 |
705 |
5. |
The New India: Western influences |
717 |
6. |
The New India: the Indian response |
729 |
7. |
The States |
740 |
8. |
Lord Curzon |
750 |
Book X: |
National India, 1905-47 |
|
1. |
The Political and Personal Thread, 1905-47 |
762 |
2. |
Edwardian India |
771 |
3. |
The First World War and the Montford Reforms, 1914-21 |
779 |
4. |
The Montford Era |
790 |
5. |
The Genesis of Pakistan |
799 |
6. |
The 1935 Act and after |
809 |
7. |
India and the War, 1939-45 |
820 |
8. |
Independence and Partition |
829 |
9. |
Economic and Cultural Development |
834 |
Book XI: |
Independent India, 1947-15 |
|
|
Introduction |
842 |
|
Nehru’s India |
847 |
|
Crisis and Consolidation |
847 |
|
Planning end Hope |
854 |
|
Difficulty and Perplexity |
865 |
|
Post-Nehru India |
870 |
|
Interlude and Crisis |
870 |
|
Realignment |
873 |
|
Crisis, Confidence and Perplexity |
875 |
|
Chronological Tables |
879 |
|
Index |
895 |
|
Supplementary (Book Xl) |
943 |
About the Book
Since its first publication, Vincent Smith’s
standard textbook on Indian history has been periodically revised, most
comprehensively when Percival Spear edited the third edition and led the Times
Literary Supplement to comment:
‘It was high time that Vincent Smith’s standard
textbook ... should be brought up to date, because the original work which went
to the making of it was so solidly done that it had permanent value. Dr Spear
has been given, quite rightly, a very free hand as editor; he has himself largely
re-written the account of the British period. This revision ... has brought
into existence a book which, while recognizably that of Vincent Smith, is fully
abreast both of modern historical scholarship and of modern political ideas.’
In the fourth edition Percival Spear, in a new section entitled ‘Independent
India’, carries on the account from 1947, the closing year of the third
edition, up to the declaration of Emergency in 1975. The new section examines
the historical, political, cultural and economic developments in
post-Independence India and surveys its foreign policy in the Nehru and
post-Nehru eras to present a composite view of contemporary India, the factors
that have moulded it, its problems and achievements.
Preface
The Oxford History of India was first published
in 1919 carrying the Indian story down to 1911. It was entirely the work of the
late Vincent Smith and was at once hailed as a monument of wide learning, of
concise statement, and of forthright opinion. It came to be regarded as an
invaluable compendium of the subject, and its solid merits have been such that
it remains a live work after forty years of rapid change, not only in India
itself but in opinion about its history. Smith’s history has been disparaged as
dull and pilloried as prejudiced, but-there are few persistent readers who have
not found the dullness allied to a regard for accuracy, and most of the
prejudice to be expressions of honest even if sometimes mistaken judgement.
Vincent Smith’s history has lived because it was basically founded on sound
knowledge and shrewd judgement, and because these qualities were compounded
with a vivid personality which made the book ‘alive’ in spite of its
matter-of-fact approach. The fact that a work composed at the end of the
imperial British age and in the spirit of that age is still read in
contemporary independent India is sufficient evidence of its solid worth and
enduring quality.
A second edition appeared in 1923. The book was
revised by the late S.M. Edwardes who added a section
bringing the record to 1921.
Since then an era in Indian history which
seemed likely in 1912 to persist indefinitely has come to an end; not only maps
but thought and a whole climate of opinion have changed; it is therefore
inevitable that there should be considerable changes in any new edition.
Nevertheless it has been found practicable to retain much of Smith’s work in
Parts 1 and H. In the third edition a new chapter on the Indian pre- history
which has come to light since Vincent Smith’s death has been written by Sir R.
Mortimer Wheeler. The remainder of the Ancient Indian period (Books I-HI) has
been revised by Professor A. L. Basham of the London School of Oriental and
African Studies. The medieval or Muslim period (Books IV-VI) has been similarly
revised by Mr. J. B, Harrison of the same School. It is revealing of Smith’s
outlook and characteristic of his work that the revision of the medieval period
should be more extensive than the ancient. For the British period, however,
such methods would not suffice. The change in perspective has been too great;
repair of the garment would have produced a patchwork, not a renovated piece.
The whole part (Books VII-X) has therefore been rewritten by a single hand from
what must be plainly stated to be a different point of view. The whole British
period has been treated as a completed episode. It has been regarded, not as
the story of the r-se and decline of British power in India, but as the story
of the transformation of Indian under the impact of western power, techniques,
and ideas, of which the East India Company was the harbinger and Britain the
creative intermediary.
This fresh treatment of the British period has
involved some problems of adjustment between Parts II and III. If Part III was
to be a history of India in the time of the British rather than a History of
the British in India, more attention had clearly to be paid Indian India at the
outset. This meant that either sections of Part 11 must be omitted or some
repetition incurred in Part III. I have thought the integration of the Mughul and British periods, and the weaving together of the
British and Indian strands so important as to justify some over- lapping in the
periods and some repetition of topics. Only thus can a proper historical
perspective be achieved. These traits will be noticed in passages dealing with
the Marathas, the Afghans in the eighteenth century, the Sikhs, and the closing
scenes of the Mughul empire.
The provision of notes on authorities at the
end of each chapter has been retained throughout the book. Chronological tables
have been similarly retained in Parts I and II, but in Part III synchronistic
chronological tables for each of the four Books VII-X
have been insterted at the end of the Part. The maps
and illustrations have both been completely revised.
The problem of the transliteration of Indian
names and words has been a difficult one. A book hoping to be read by a wide
public should be as clear as possible in its treatment of names and technical
terms, but at the same time there must be some consistency and conformance to
scientific usage. A further difficulty is that many Indian words have become
naturalized in the English language with spellings which are familiar rather
than scientific. Thus we have ‘Meerut’ for ‘Mirat’, ‘hookah’
for ‘huqa’, and ‘thug’ for ‘thag’.
The last example illustrates a further complication, that of a word undergoing
a change of meaning (ritual strangler to general gangster) as well as a change
of spelling. The methods adopted have been as follows. In Parts I and II words
have been transliterated on accepted Hunterian
principles with the usual diacritical marks. The exceptions are certain
well-known names, such as Akbar and Bengal. In Part III the problem has been
more difficult because of the large number of Indian words naturalized into
English. Here it has been felt that some sacrifice in accuracy would be well
compensated by gain in intelligibility. The Hunterian
system of spelling has been generally followed but diacritical marks have been
usually omitted. Familiar spellings such as Cawnpore and Lucknow
have been retained, but where a word has changed in meaning as well as spelling
in passing into English, as ‘thug’, the correct transliteration has been given.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary has been used as a guide to naturalization of
Indian words into English.
Book X, Chapters 6-9, are
a revised version of chapters contributed to the third edition of P. E.
Roberts’s History of British India.
In preparing Part III I have received much help
from many quarters. But chietly I should like to
thank my wife whose encouragement and sensitive judgement have contributed so
much to the completion of t-he work.
Introduction
The geographical unit. The India of this
book is almost exclusively’ the geographical unit called by that name on the
ordinary maps of the days before partition, bounded on the north, north-west,
and north-east by mountain ranges, and elsewhere by the sea. The extensive,
Burmese territories, although for a time governed as part of the Indian empire,
cannot be described as being part of India. Burma has a separate history,
rarely touching on that of India prior to the nineteenth century. Similarly,
Ceylon, although geologically a fragment detached from the peninsula in
relatively recent times, always has had a distinct political existence,
requiring separate historical treatment, and its affairs will not be discussed
in this work, except incidentally.
Vast extent of area. Formal, technical
descriptions of the geographical and physical features of India may be found in
many easily accessible books, and need not be reproduced here. But certain
geographical facts with a direct bearing on the history require brief comment,
because, as Richard Hakluyt truly observed long ago, ‘geography and chronology
are the sun and the moon, the right eye and the left eye of all history’. The
large extent of the area of India, which may be correctly designated as a
sub-continent, is a material geographical fact. The history of a region so
vast, bounded by a coastline of about 3,400 miles, more or less, and a mountain
barrier on the north some 1,600 miles in length, and inhabited by a population
numbering nearly 400 millions, necessarily must be long and intricate. The
detailed treatment suitable to the story of a small country cannot be applied
in a general history of India. The author of such a book must be content to
sketch his picture in outlines boldly drawn, and to leave out multitudes of
recorded particulars.
Continental and peninsular
regions. Another geographical fact, namely that India comprises both a large
continental, sub-tropical area, and an approximately equal peninsular, tropical
area, has had immense influence upon the history.
Three territorial
compartments. Geographical conditions divided Indian history, until the nineteenth
century, into three well marked territorial compartments, not to mention minor
distinct areas, , such as the Konkan, the Himalayan
region, and others. The three are:
(I) the northern plains forming the basins of
the Indus and Ganges;
(2) the Deccan plateau
lying to the south of the Narbada, and to the north of the Krishna and
Tungabhadra rivers; and (3) the far south, beyond those rivers, comprising the
group of Tamil states. Ordinarily, each of those three geographical
compartments has had a distinct, highly complex story of its own. The points of
contact between the three histories are not very numerous.
Dominance of the north. Usually the
northern plains, the Aryavarta of the Hindu period,
and the Hindustan of more recent times, have been the seat of the principal
empires and the scene of the events most interesting to the outer world. The
wide waterways of the great snow-fed rivers and the fertile level plains are
natural advantages which have inevitably attracted a teeming population from
time immemorial. The open nature of the country, easily accessible to martial
invaders from the north-west, has given frequent occasion for the .formation of
powerful kingdoms ruled by vigorous foreigners. The peninsular, tropical section
of India, isolated from the rest of the world by its position, and in contact
with other countries only by sea-borne commerce, has pursued its own course,
little noticed by and caring little for foreigners. The historian of India is
bound by the nature of things to direct his attention primarily to the north,
and is able to give only a secondary place to the story of the Deccan plateau
and the far south.
No southern power could ever succeed in
mastering the north, but the more ambitious rulers of Aryavarta
or Hindustan often have extended their sway far beyond the dividing-line of the
Narbada. When Dupleix in the eighteenth century dreamed of a Franco-Indian
empire with its base in the peninsula he was bound to fail. The success of the
English was dependent on their acquisition of rich Bengal and their command of
the Gangetic waterway. In a later stage of the
British advance the conquest of the Panjab was
conditioned by the control of the Indus navigation, previously secured by the
rather unscrupulous proceedings of Lords Auckland and Ellenborough.
The rivers of the peninsula do not offer similar facilities for penetration of
the interior.
Changes in rivers. The foregoing
general observations indicate broadly the ways in which the geographical position
and configuration of India have affected the course of her history. But the
subject will bear a little more elaboration and the discussion of certain less
conspicuous illustrations of the bearing of geography upon history. Let us
consider for a moment the changes in the great rivers of India, which, when
seen in full flood, suggest thoughts of the ocean rather than of inland
streams. Unless one has battled in an open ferry-boat with one of those mighty
masses of surging water in the height of the rains, it is difficult to realize
their demoniac power. They cut and carve the soft alluvial plains at their
will, reeking of nothing. Old beds of the Sutlej can be traced across a space
eighty-five miles wide. The Indus, the Ganges, the Kosi,
the Brahmaputra, and scores of other rivers behave,
each according to its ability, in the same way, despising all barriers, natural
or artificial. Who can tell where the Indus flowed in the days of Alexander the
Great? Yet books, professedly learned, are not afraid to trace his course
minutely through the Panjab and Sind by the help of
some modern map, and to offer pretended identifications of sites upon the banks
of rivers which certainly were somewhere else twenty-two centuries ago. We know
that they must have been somewhere else, but where they were no man can tell. So with the Vedic rivers, several of which bear the ancient names.
The rivers of the Rishis were not the rivers of
today. The descriptions prove that in the old, old days their character often
differed completely from what it now is, and experience teaches that their
courses must have been widely divergent. Commentators in their arm-chairs with
the latest edition of the Indian Atlas opened out before them are not always
willing to be bothered with such inconvenient facts. Even since the early
Muslim invasions the changes in the rivers have been enormous, and the
contemporary histories of the foreign conquerors cannot be understood unless
the reality and extent of those changes be borne constantly in mind. One large
river-system, based on the extinct Hakra or Wahindah river, which once flowed
down from the mountains through Bahawalpur, has wholly disappeared, the final
stages having been deferred until the eighteenth century. Scores of mounds,
silent witnesses to the existence of numberless forgotten and often nameless
towns, bear testimony to the desolation wrought when the waters of life desert
their channels. A large and fascinating volume might be devoted to the study
and description of the freaks of Indian rivers.
Position of cities. In connexion with
that topic another point may be mentioned. The founders of the more important
old cities almost invariably built, if possible, on the bank of a river, and
not only that, but between two rivers in the triangle above the confluence.
Dozens of examples might be cited, but one must suffice. The ancient imperial
capital, Pataliputra, represented by the modem Patna,
occupied such a secure position between the guarding waters of the Son and the
Ganges. The existing city, twelve miles or so below the confluence, has lost
the strategical advantages of its predecessor.
Historians who forget the position of Pataliputra in
relation to the rivers go hopelessly wrong in their comments on the texts of
the ancient Indian and foreign authors.
Changes of the land. Changes in the
coast-line and the level of the land have greatly modified the course of
history, and must be remembered by the historian who desires to avoid ludicrous
blunders. The story of the voyage of Nearchos, for
instance, cannot be properly appreciated by any student who fails to compare
the descriptions recorded by the Greeks with the surveys of modem geographers.
When the changes in the coast-line are understood, statements of the old
authors which looked erroneous at first sight are found to be correct. The
utter destruction of the once wealthy commercial cities of Korkai
and Kayal on the Tinnevelly
coast, now miles from the sea and buried under; sand dunes, ceases to be a
mystery when we know, as we do, that the coast level has risen. In other
localities, some not very distant from the places named, the converse has
happened, and the sea has advanced, or, in other words the land has sunk. The
careful investigator of ancient history needs to be continually on his guard
against the insidious deceptions of the modem map. Many learned professors,
German and, others, have tumbled headlong into the pit. The subject being a
hobby of mine I must not ride the steed too far.
Contents
|
List of Illustrations |
x |
|
List of Abbreviations |
xiv |
|
Part I: Ancient and Hindu India |
|
|
Introduction |
1 |
Book I: |
Ancient India |
|
1. |
Prehistoric India: the elements of the
population |
22 |
2. |
Literature and civilization of the Vedic and
Epic periods; the Puranas; caste |
44 |
3. |
The pre-Maurya
states; the rise of Jainism and Buddhism; the invasion of Alexander the
Great; India in the fourth century B.C. |
71 |
BOOK II: |
Hindu India from the Beginning of the Maurya Dynasty in 322 B.C. to the Seventh Century A.C. |
|
1. |
Chandragupta Maurya,
the first historical Emperor of India, and his institutions; Bindusara |
95 |
2. |
Asoka Maurya and
his institutions; diffusion of Buddhism; end of the Maurya
dynasty; the successors of the Mauryas |
117 |
3. |
The Indo-Greek and other foreign dynasties of
north-western India; the Kushans or Indo-Scythians
; Greek influence; foreign commerce; beginning of Chola
history |
143 |
4. |
The Gupta period; a golden age; literature,
art, and science; Hindu renaissance; the Huns; King Harsha;
the Chalukyas; disorder in northern India |
164 |
5. |
Indian Influence in South-east Asia |
185 |
Book III: |
The Medieval Hindu Kingdoms from the Death of
Harsha in A.D. 647 to the Muslim Conquest |
|
1. |
The transitional period; Rajputs;
the Himaiayan kingdoms and their relations with
Tibet and China |
190 |
2. |
The northern and western kingdoms of the plains |
197 |
3. |
The Kingdoms of the Peninsula |
213 |
|
Part
II: India In The Muslim Period |
|
Book IV: |
The Muslim Powers of Northern India |
|
1. |
The rise of the Muslim power in India and the
Sultanate of Delhi, A.D. 1175-1290 |
232 |
2. |
The Sultanate of Delhi continued; A.D. 1290
to 1340; the Khilji and Tughluq
dynasties |
244 |
3. |
The decline and fall of the Sultanate of
Delhi, A.D. 1340-1526; the Tughluq dynasty
concluded; Timur; the Sayyids;
the Lodi dynasty; Islam in Indian life |
253 |
4. |
The Muslim kingdoms of Bengal, Malwa, Gujarat, and Kashmir |
271 |
Book V: |
The Southern Powers |
|
1. |
The Bahmani dynasty
of the Deccan, 1347-1526 |
281 |
2. |
The five Sultanates of the Deccan, and Khandesh, from 1474 to the seventeenth century |
292 |
3. |
The Hindu empire of Vijayanagar,
from A.D. 1336 to 1646 |
303 |
Book VI: |
The Mughul Empire |
|
1. |
The beginnings of the Mughul
empire; Babur, Humayun, and the Sur dynasty, A.D.
1526-56 |
320 |
2. |
The early European voyages to and settlements
in India; the East India Company from 1600 to 1708 |
327 |
3. |
Akbar, 1555-1605 |
337 |
4. |
Jahangir |
363 |
5. |
Shahjahan and the War of
Succession; climax of the Mughul empire |
376 |
6. |
Aurangzeb Alamgir
(1658-1707) |
404 |
7. |
The later Mugnuls;
decline of the empire; the Sikhs and Marathas |
430 |
|
Part
III: India In The British Period |
|
|
Introduction |
446 |
Book VII: |
The Rise of the British Dominion, 1740-18 |
|
1. |
English and French |
455 |
2. |
The British in Bengal |
465 |
3. |
Afghans, Mughuls,
and Marathas |
481 |
4. |
The Maratha Polity |
492 |
5. |
The Age of Hastings |
501 |
6. |
The Company and the State |
518 |
7. |
Cornwallis |
529 |
8. |
The South, 1780-1801 |
539 |
9. |
Shore and Wellesley |
548 |
10. |
Interlude: Barlow and Minto |
558 |
11. |
Lord Hastings and Hegemony |
564 |
Book VIII: |
Completion and Consolidation, 1818-58 |
|
1. |
General: Hastings to Dalhousie |
574 |
2. |
The Political Thread: Hastings to Hardinge, 1818-48 |
583 |
3. |
Foreign Policy, 1818-48: Burma and the
north-west |
595 |
4. |
Sind and the Panjab |
607 |
5. |
Government and People: Organization of Power |
621 |
6. |
The People and the Government: The Village,
the Land, and Trade |
633 |
7. |
Social Policy and Cultural Contacts |
645 |
8. |
Dalhousie |
654 |
9. |
The Mutiny |
663 |
Book IX: |
Imperial India, 1858-1905 |
|
1. |
Calming and Reorganization |
673 |
2. |
The Political Thread: Elgin to Elgin |
683 |
3. |
Foreign and Frontier Policy, 1862-98 |
693 |
4. |
Economic Policy and Development, 1858-1939 |
705 |
5. |
The New India: Western influences |
717 |
6. |
The New India: the Indian response |
729 |
7. |
The States |
740 |
8. |
Lord Curzon |
750 |
Book X: |
National India, 1905-47 |
|
1. |
The Political and Personal Thread, 1905-47 |
762 |
2. |
Edwardian India |
771 |
3. |
The First World War and the Montford Reforms, 1914-21 |
779 |
4. |
The Montford Era |
790 |
5. |
The Genesis of Pakistan |
799 |
6. |
The 1935 Act and after |
809 |
7. |
India and the War, 1939-45 |
820 |
8. |
Independence and Partition |
829 |
9. |
Economic and Cultural Development |
834 |
Book XI: |
Independent India, 1947-15 |
|
|
Introduction |
842 |
|
Nehru’s India |
847 |
|
Crisis and Consolidation |
847 |
|
Planning end Hope |
854 |
|
Difficulty and Perplexity |
865 |
|
Post-Nehru India |
870 |
|
Interlude and Crisis |
870 |
|
Realignment |
873 |
|
Crisis, Confidence and Perplexity |
875 |
|
Chronological Tables |
879 |
|
Index |
895 |
|
Supplementary (Book Xl) |
943 |