DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.614#0243
202
and repeated by the present Eesident, Mr. Markham.
The number required was 2,000, and afterwards reduced
to the demand of 1,500, and, lastly, to 1,000, but with
no more success. He oifered 250, but furnished none.''1
It was not to be imagined that such acts of contu-
macy, disrespect, and implicit rebellion, should be left
unnoticed. The honour and reputation of the Indian
Government demanded that the Eaja should be called
on ' to explain his extraordinary conduct. "Warren
Hastings regarded these instances of disobedience as
" evidences of a deliberate and systematic conduct, aim-
ing at the total subversion of the authority of the
Company, and the erection of his own independency
on its ruins." " This," he adds, " had been long and
generally imputed to him. It was reported that he
had inherited a vast mass of wealth from his father,
Balwant Singh, which he had secured in the two strong
fortresses of Bidjeygur and Lutteefpoor, and made yearly
additions to it; that he kept up a large military estab-
lishment, both of cavalry, of disciplined and irregular
infantry, and of artillery; that he had the above and
many other fortresses, of strong construction and in good
repair, and constantly well-stored and garrisoned; that
his aumils and tenants were encouraged and habituated
to treat English passengers with inbospitality and with
enmity; that he maintained a correspondence with the
Mahrattas, and other Powers who either were, or might
eventually become, the enemies of our state; and, if the
disaffected Zemindars of Fyzabad and Behar were not
included in the report, which I do not recollect, we have
1 Insurrection in Benares, pp. 6, 7.
and repeated by the present Eesident, Mr. Markham.
The number required was 2,000, and afterwards reduced
to the demand of 1,500, and, lastly, to 1,000, but with
no more success. He oifered 250, but furnished none.''1
It was not to be imagined that such acts of contu-
macy, disrespect, and implicit rebellion, should be left
unnoticed. The honour and reputation of the Indian
Government demanded that the Eaja should be called
on ' to explain his extraordinary conduct. "Warren
Hastings regarded these instances of disobedience as
" evidences of a deliberate and systematic conduct, aim-
ing at the total subversion of the authority of the
Company, and the erection of his own independency
on its ruins." " This," he adds, " had been long and
generally imputed to him. It was reported that he
had inherited a vast mass of wealth from his father,
Balwant Singh, which he had secured in the two strong
fortresses of Bidjeygur and Lutteefpoor, and made yearly
additions to it; that he kept up a large military estab-
lishment, both of cavalry, of disciplined and irregular
infantry, and of artillery; that he had the above and
many other fortresses, of strong construction and in good
repair, and constantly well-stored and garrisoned; that
his aumils and tenants were encouraged and habituated
to treat English passengers with inbospitality and with
enmity; that he maintained a correspondence with the
Mahrattas, and other Powers who either were, or might
eventually become, the enemies of our state; and, if the
disaffected Zemindars of Fyzabad and Behar were not
included in the report, which I do not recollect, we have
1 Insurrection in Benares, pp. 6, 7.