Number of words: 355 Though the mentality of the Moslem masses and the new growing middle class was shaped essentially by events, Sir Mohamad Iqbal played an important part in influencing the latter and especially the younger generation. The masses were hardly affected by him. Iqbal had begun by writing powerful nationalist poems in Urdu … Read more

Number of words: 1,066 The real impact of the west came to India in the nineteenth century through technical changes and their dynamic consequences. In the realm of ideas also there was shock and change, a widening of the horizon which had so long been confined within a narrow shell. The first reaction, limited to … Read more

Number of words: 79 The Chettys of Madras have also been leaders in business, and banking especially, from ancient times. The word ‘Chetty’ is derived from the Sanskrit ‘Shreshthi,’ the leader of a merchant guild. The common appellation ‘Seth’ is also derived from ‘Shreshthi.’ The Madras Chettys have not only played an important part in … Read more

Number of words: 256 The Revolt of 1857-58 was essentially a feudal rising, though there were some nationalistic elements in it. Yet, at the same time, it was due to the abstention or active help of the princes and other feudal chiefs that the British succeeded in crushing it. Those who had joined the Revolt … Read more

Number of words: 296 How did these states come into existence? Some are quite new, created by the British; others were the vice-royalties of the Mughal Emperor, and their rulers were permitted to continue as feudatory chiefs by the British; yet others, notably the Maratha chiefs, were defeated by British armies and then made into … Read more

Number of words: 181 Big landowners were created by the British after their own English pattern, chiefly because it was far easier to deal with a few individuals than with a vast peasantry. The objective was to collect as much money in the shape of revenue, and as speedily, as possible. If an owner failed … Read more

Number of words: 730 The East India Company had received permission from the Mughal Emperor to start a factory at Surat early in the seventeenth century. Some years later they purchased a patch of land in the south and founded Madras. In 1662 the island of Bombay was presented to Charles II of England by … Read more

Number of words: 199 The feudal landlords and their kind who came from England to rule over India had the landlord’s view of the world. To them India was a vast estate belonging to the East India Company, and the landlord was the best and the natural representative of his estate and his tenants. That … Read more

Number of words: 1,271 It seems clear that India became a prey to foreign conquest because of the inadequacy of her own people and because the British represented a higher and advancing social order. The contrast between the leaders on both sides is marked; the Indians, for all their ability, functioned in a narrow, limited … Read more

Number of words: 313 If the Marathas (and much more so the other Indian powers) were amateurish and adventurist in their methods, the British in India were thoroughly professional. Many of the British leaders were adventurous enough but they’ were in no way adventurist in the policy for which they all worked in their separate … Read more