DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68024#0246
238
6. Your memorialists feel they would be failing in their duty to their Sovereign, if they
did not call the attention of Your Excellency's Government to the fact, that there is at this
moment a widespread feeling of dissatisfaction among all classes of Muhammadans in India
with the present state of things. Your memorialists do not wish to be understood that this
dissatisfaction amounts to discontent or disaffection, for, as a matter of fact, the Indian Muha-
madans have, since the assumption of the Government of India by the Crown, cherished a sincere
attachment to Her Britannic Majesty, upon whom they look not only as the lawful Sovereign
of India, but as the Protector of all that is most valued by Islam.
7. No Government, however, your memorialists venture to think, would be justified
in allowing the growth or continuance of a feeling of dissatisfaction among any class of its
subjects; and your memorialists, relying on Your Excellency's desire to acquire information
from all quarters, which may enable Your Excellency to discharge the duties of your high
office, in accordance with the dictates of your conscience, have thought it right to call promi-
nent attention to the existence of such a feeling among the Muhammadans of India.
8. It has been sometimes said that the present impoverished condition of the Indian
Mussulmans and their general decadence are due to their own apathy and neglect to avail
themselves of the educational advantages offered to them by Government. In order to enable
Your Lordship to apprehend Muhammadan ideas on the subject, your memorialists beg to
represent the following circumstances for Your Excellency's consideration.
9. When the British first assumed the sovereignty of the Eastern Provinces of the Mogul
Emperors of Delhi, in spite of many vicissitudes of fortune, the Muhammadans still main-
tained the monopoly of power and wealth in their hands. The treaty of the 12th August
1765, by which Shah Alam, the last of the Moguls, entrusted the collection of the revenue
of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa to the East India Company, made no alteration in the political
condition of the Muhammadans. For a series of years the Mussulmans were scrupulously
maintained in their position. Until the time of Lord Cornwallis, the administration of the
country proceeded on the lines of the Muhammadan sovereigns. In 1793, Lord Cornwallis,
who was especially deputed to India to correct the abuses which had crept into the Company's
Government, owing to the malpractices of its servants, introduced various changes into the
administrative and judicial systems, all of which ultimately affected Mussulman prosperity
to a material extent,
10. The measures introduced by Lord Cornwallis did not, however, make any immediate
or decided alteration in the political condition of the Muhammadans, and in spite of the status
which the Hindu collectors of revenue had acquired under the permanent settlement, and the
new system of judicature, the Muhammadans continued to occupy the front rank among the
Indian communities. The Civil Lists of those days show a proportion of 75 per cent, of
Muhammadans in the service of the State. It was not until Lord William Bentinck's
administration that Mussulman decadence really commenced.
11. Your memorialists do not wish to occupy Your Lordship's attention by dwellling too
long on the past prosperity of their co-religionists under the early English rule; but as the
question of their amelioration is intimately connected with the causes which have led to their
decline and impoverishment, it is necessary to describe as briefly as possible the results of
Lord William Bentinck's policy.
From the first establishment of the Muhammadan power in India up to the year 1837,
Persian was the official language of those Governments, including the British, which had
inherited their power from the last Muhammadan sovereigns of Delhi. The conquest of India
by the Muhammadans had been achieved by men gathered from different races, speaking a
variety of tongues, but the Persian language was considered sufficient for the Government of
India, not only by its Mussulman masters, but also by their successors in power up to the
year 1837.
The contact of the Mussulmans with the Hindus gave birth to the composite language
which is now called Urdu, and which is spoken by the Muhammadans all over India, with the
exception of the deltaic districts of Eastern Bengal. From the Punjab as far down as
Bhagalpur in the Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal, Urdu, more or less pure, is not only the
vernacular of the Muhammadans, but also of the majority of Hindus. In 1837 an order was
promulgated that office business should thenceforward be conducted either in English or in the
provincial dialects. The language of the people of each province and the character in which
it was originally designed to be written, were fixed upon as the most convenient and practicable
substitute for the Persian. The plan succeeded in those provinces where the language was not
Urdu or Hindustani. Hence the Tamil, the Telugu, the Mahratti, the Guzerati, and the
Bengali languages superseded without much difficulty the Persian language and character in
Madras, Bombay, Guzerat, and Bengal. In Behar, the North-Western Provinces, and the
Punjab, where the language of the people had for several centuries been Urdu, and which had
6. Your memorialists feel they would be failing in their duty to their Sovereign, if they
did not call the attention of Your Excellency's Government to the fact, that there is at this
moment a widespread feeling of dissatisfaction among all classes of Muhammadans in India
with the present state of things. Your memorialists do not wish to be understood that this
dissatisfaction amounts to discontent or disaffection, for, as a matter of fact, the Indian Muha-
madans have, since the assumption of the Government of India by the Crown, cherished a sincere
attachment to Her Britannic Majesty, upon whom they look not only as the lawful Sovereign
of India, but as the Protector of all that is most valued by Islam.
7. No Government, however, your memorialists venture to think, would be justified
in allowing the growth or continuance of a feeling of dissatisfaction among any class of its
subjects; and your memorialists, relying on Your Excellency's desire to acquire information
from all quarters, which may enable Your Excellency to discharge the duties of your high
office, in accordance with the dictates of your conscience, have thought it right to call promi-
nent attention to the existence of such a feeling among the Muhammadans of India.
8. It has been sometimes said that the present impoverished condition of the Indian
Mussulmans and their general decadence are due to their own apathy and neglect to avail
themselves of the educational advantages offered to them by Government. In order to enable
Your Lordship to apprehend Muhammadan ideas on the subject, your memorialists beg to
represent the following circumstances for Your Excellency's consideration.
9. When the British first assumed the sovereignty of the Eastern Provinces of the Mogul
Emperors of Delhi, in spite of many vicissitudes of fortune, the Muhammadans still main-
tained the monopoly of power and wealth in their hands. The treaty of the 12th August
1765, by which Shah Alam, the last of the Moguls, entrusted the collection of the revenue
of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa to the East India Company, made no alteration in the political
condition of the Muhammadans. For a series of years the Mussulmans were scrupulously
maintained in their position. Until the time of Lord Cornwallis, the administration of the
country proceeded on the lines of the Muhammadan sovereigns. In 1793, Lord Cornwallis,
who was especially deputed to India to correct the abuses which had crept into the Company's
Government, owing to the malpractices of its servants, introduced various changes into the
administrative and judicial systems, all of which ultimately affected Mussulman prosperity
to a material extent,
10. The measures introduced by Lord Cornwallis did not, however, make any immediate
or decided alteration in the political condition of the Muhammadans, and in spite of the status
which the Hindu collectors of revenue had acquired under the permanent settlement, and the
new system of judicature, the Muhammadans continued to occupy the front rank among the
Indian communities. The Civil Lists of those days show a proportion of 75 per cent, of
Muhammadans in the service of the State. It was not until Lord William Bentinck's
administration that Mussulman decadence really commenced.
11. Your memorialists do not wish to occupy Your Lordship's attention by dwellling too
long on the past prosperity of their co-religionists under the early English rule; but as the
question of their amelioration is intimately connected with the causes which have led to their
decline and impoverishment, it is necessary to describe as briefly as possible the results of
Lord William Bentinck's policy.
From the first establishment of the Muhammadan power in India up to the year 1837,
Persian was the official language of those Governments, including the British, which had
inherited their power from the last Muhammadan sovereigns of Delhi. The conquest of India
by the Muhammadans had been achieved by men gathered from different races, speaking a
variety of tongues, but the Persian language was considered sufficient for the Government of
India, not only by its Mussulman masters, but also by their successors in power up to the
year 1837.
The contact of the Mussulmans with the Hindus gave birth to the composite language
which is now called Urdu, and which is spoken by the Muhammadans all over India, with the
exception of the deltaic districts of Eastern Bengal. From the Punjab as far down as
Bhagalpur in the Lieutenant-Governorship of Bengal, Urdu, more or less pure, is not only the
vernacular of the Muhammadans, but also of the majority of Hindus. In 1837 an order was
promulgated that office business should thenceforward be conducted either in English or in the
provincial dialects. The language of the people of each province and the character in which
it was originally designed to be written, were fixed upon as the most convenient and practicable
substitute for the Persian. The plan succeeded in those provinces where the language was not
Urdu or Hindustani. Hence the Tamil, the Telugu, the Mahratti, the Guzerati, and the
Bengali languages superseded without much difficulty the Persian language and character in
Madras, Bombay, Guzerat, and Bengal. In Behar, the North-Western Provinces, and the
Punjab, where the language of the people had for several centuries been Urdu, and which had