Book Description

Excerpt from A Brief History of the Indian Peoples How Hinduism, while sufficing to organize the Indian communities into a social and religious confederacy, failed to knit them together into a coherent nation. Bengal was destined, by her position, to receive the human overflow from the ancient breeding-grounds of Central Asia. Waves of conquest from the north were as inevitable in early times, as are the tidal waves from the ocean at the present day. But such conquests, although rapid, were never enduring; and although wide-spread, were never complete. The religious and social organization of Hinduism never succumbed. The greatest of India's conquerors, the Mughals, were being crushed by Hindu confederacies before their supremacy had lasted 130 years. So far as can now be estimated, the advance of the British power alone saved the Delhi Empire from dismemberment by the Hindu Marhattas, Rajputs, and Sikhs. The British Rule has endured, because it is wielded in the joint interest of all the Indian races. But while these thoughts have long been present in my mind, I have tried not to obtrude them on my pages. For I hope that this little book will reach the hands of many young people who look on history merely as a record of facts, and not as a compendium of philosophy. The greatest service which an Indian historian can render at present to India, is to state the actual facts in such a way that they will be read. If my story is found to combine truth with simplicity, it will have attained all that I aimed at. If it teaches young Englishmen and young natives of India to think more kindly of each other, I shall esteem myself richly rewarded. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.