By STEPHEN NEILL F.B.A.
India and Political Change
1706-86
1. THE INDIAN REVOLUTIONS
At the time of Aurungzlb's death, he was still a
dictator, though not universally accepted, with authority over a vast empire,
with a million square miles [1 sq km] and a population of about 170 million
people. Only a Chinese emperor could be in any way compared with his authority.
The Mughul dynasty was not as powerful as it seemed, but it was still very
powerful. It was true that Aurungzlb did not nominate an unquestioned heir; but
this had happened in the past and it was unthinkable that, among the dissenting
princes, one would prove to be irresistibly superior to the others and would
take an empty seat. (Actually this did not happen, and apparently no one was
worthy of succession.) There seemed to be no valid reason to doubt that Mughul's
empire would have a long and prosperous future ahead of it. Europeans by
contrast were a minor factor in this situation. Only the Portuguese, in some
small territories, had made themselves the owners of the Indian subcontinent
and the empire where they had settled. Others - the French, the British, the
Danes, the Dutch - relied on the favor of the Indian powers, obtained from them
the use of certain lands and paid fairly the rent their payment was a standard
of living.
The idea of European domination on a large scale
appealed only to a small number of observers. Nothing happened as expected. By
1807 Mughul's rule was no more than a shadow of a shadow, the Mughul emperor
receiving a pension depending on British profits and the British support for
such authority as it was still in his power to exercise it. The British had
made themselves kings in much of the country, with only one major enemy, the
Sikh power, who still had to conquer. They were on their way to achieving their
greatest achievement - that unity of the whole continent that had escaped the
ambitions of the Mauryas and the Mughuls alike. There is very little in history
that can be accurately predicted, and much more happens in the opposite way
than expected. As Mughul's power declined, India stepped back from a state of
normalcy: of several opposing forces, none of which was strong enough to hold
its own. By the middle of the eighteenth century there were five episodes of
power in India. One of these may have appeared as a great power, but, as is
often the case, competition and the desire for prominence make this impossible;
Divided India became the victim of a single power that was powerful enough to
deal with each other in exchange, either in military prowess or with high
diplomacy to lower the status quo of the people who depended on them.
The English had arrived. It would have been possible for
the European powers, if they had fallen into the trap of fighting their
European conflicts on Indian soil, had each reduced the power of the others so
that none of them could have been the strongest contender for a great empire. .
In fact, it was seen for many years that if the European empire were to emerge
superiorly, the empire would probably be France rather than Britain. As history
progressed, it was a combination of better support from home, greater ability
to train Indian soldiers in war, superior military ability and a great piece of
fortune that ultimately rewarded the British and not the French. . Few had
foreseen this. Europeans came to trade; most of them would be satisfied with
favorable trading conditions, and with a degree of calm otherwise trade would
be impossible. The Indians at that time, often since then, had taken very
little of both the power behind the invalidity of the English in India and the
persistence of the English in advancing the realization of their goals. By
looking back it is possible to see some avoidance of British progress in India;
it was unclear at the time. When things happen, few realize their value; when
the result was achieved, he surprised almost everyone.
There are many exciting, exciting events in the history
of India in the eighteenth century. But perhaps, in view of the context of the
wider history, those events that certainly changed the whole state of India and
state may seem to have significance throughout human history. This was the
first example of a direct conflict during a long period of two civilizations
with completely different origins and developments, and as such may be regarded
as a special significance in the age-old and strenuous effort of humanity to
produce one. the earth. For three thousand years, 4000-1000 BC, civilization,
as distinct from tradition, was deeply rooted in the area of the great rivers
Nile, the Euphrates and the Tigris. This was followed by a major external
explosion of civilization and the human race. With the great migration west of
the Aryans, Greek and Roman civilization sprang up, eventually establishing an
Eastern and Western empire, which lasted for a thousand years. The foundation
and inspiration of these kingdoms was Christianity. At the same time eastward
migration laid the foundation for Chinese culture and Chinese empire, as well
as its extended influence over Japan and Korea. The teachings of Confucius were
an extremely long-lasting cement that united centuries-old stable communities
of Confucius. Some of the Aryans migrated to the southeast, and by AD 1000 they
were united, with a number of other races, in what we know as Indian
civilization. Here the strongest influence was Hinduism which is one of their
many and varied forms.
Hinduism had stopped its expansion into Southeast Asia;
the internal expansion continued, as many simple people from remote and
mountainous regions were brought within the strong acceptance of the Hindu
system. Throughout the centuries of development, Europe knew very little about
China, and China knew very little about Europe. There was a lot of trade
between India and China but little trade in culture. Europe had always known something
about India, but it is not obscure, and the knowledge of India about Europe was
small and very interesting. Mankind seemed to be not so much different from the
competing systems of civilization but between the different patterns of
civilization, which they almost did not know. The Islamic civilization of the
Middle East, the last civilization that developed in the world, worked to
promote diversity, rather than to improve communication and harmony. When the
ships of Vasco da Gama anchored off the coast of India in 1498, the period
ended; the barrier between nations is broken. It is important not to
underestimate the service provided by the Portuguese and other Europeans in the
interaction between the period between 1498 and the end of the eighteenth century.
The science of Indology had long been well-founded and truly well-founded.
Europeans were beginning to take an active interest in India, as evidenced by
the rapid sale of Indian textbooks in several languages.
The first steps had been taken to explain Indian
religions and philosophies in Western thought. Some Indians, a few, favored
Western lands; if one could see more of them he had seen the benefits of being
familiar with the European language. The exchange of information in the
religious community had begun, although it could not be said that significant
progress had been made. However, by the time Britain conquered India, some
Europeans had begun a thorough study of Indian religions. Some Indians were
becoming more and more aware of Christianity, even though it had not yet come
as a threat to their inherited religious heritage. So the three principles
would now face off on their own, each with its own religious foundation and its
own undeniable power. The Muslim empire was established by the unwavering
principle of Muslim supremacy. Even a follower of one of the ‘book’ religions
had no hope of any kind of equality; the best thing he could wish for was to be
accepted as one of the lowest tolerant people. The constant feature of all
forms of Hinduism was the basic principle of classification - that some people
by birth are inferior to others and can never be anything else.
Christian tradition, though often violated in practice,
is based on the firm conviction that all persons are equal in God's sight.
Conflict between these different systems was inevitable; it was very likely
that the conflict could sometimes lead to violent conflicts. While Britain was
taking the lead in the Indian subcontinent, the people of England were passing
through an impressive series of political and social emergencies. George III
had tried to apply the advice given to him by his mother - 'George, to be king'
- but found himself against a force he could not control. England had reached
the point of ensuring that in all English affairs Parliament was superior; the
day of uncontested and unconditional rule was about to end. In India, Muslims
and Hindus had lived for centuries under complete and personal domination. This
could no longer be the case. England had fought and lost the war over the issue
of 'no tax without representation'. How the people of India would be
constitutionally represented was a question that had to be left for the future;
but the wisest British officials from the beginning knew that it had to be
dealt with sooner or later. English law was gradually built on the principle of
equality of all men before the law; it would not allow any difference, and
could not accept the idea that the murder of Brahman was somehow more cruel
than the murder of a farmer. Wise men like Warren Hastings made it clear that,
as far as possible, Indians should be governed according to their own
traditions and the laws they themselves had developed and accepted. But there were
limits to this system. There was a high law that all human laws were to be
considered under.
The Methodist revival was flooding England, and it made
Walpole's sarcastic policy that everyone had his own value no longer considered
acceptable; the integrity of Indian civil servants is universally accepted as
an example. All of this was happening in the second half of the eighteenth
century; they could not be without effect on the British influence in India,
and in time on the Indian understanding of the state of government and society.
Even if no Christian missionary had ever arrived in India, some influence on
the Christian way of life in Britain would be felt in India. It so happened that
many of the leading figures in the British rule in India were also confident
and devoted Christians. (This is a point that has been overlooked by many
secular historians, both British and Indian.) It was only on these rare
occasions that these men were touched by a new zeal for evangelism; they
represent the majority of the rational, emotional, and morally responsible
English society of which Dr. Samuel Johnson was their full representative. For
the most part, they were determined not to allow their Christian beliefs to
directly interfere with their formal activities, and they carefully observed
the religious inclinations of those with whom they had to contend. But they
were aware of the existence of a higher power, and that the person in authority
was accountable to the higher authority even to the one given to the king in
Parliament.
In the eighteenth century the method of Christian evangelism in India was strengthened by the first participation of Protestants, first of all Germans, on the Christian way to India. By the end of this century, the Germans had joined the English missionaries, and later the Americans. Roman Catholic missions naturally remained. Christian machinery was still relatively small, and it was limited to small areas of the country, as the Indians had not yet felt threatened by their established methods of operation. This was something that would change over time. But already by the end of the eighteenth century Indian Christianity had become a part of world Christianity, and the Indian Christians were so much a part of Indian life that the fate of the Christian churches in India could not be separated from the end of India. completely. This Indian suggestion of Christendom, as well as the Christian faith in India, is the subject of this book.
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