The Nizam: His History and Relations with the British Government

The Nizam is “the greatest Mahommedan power in India.” Yet any information of this power is not only fragmentary, but is scattered through works many of which are questionable for accuracy in various respects, if not utterly unreliable from the prejudiced channel of communication. Mount Stuart Elphinstone’s India, and Grant Duff’s History of the Mahrattas, are about the most liberal, certainly the very best authorities; but these largely repeat, or represent accurately, what had previously been published, with, of course, not a little additional information. It were well now to inquire, as Sir Henry Russell did in his evidence before a Select Committee of the House of Commons on the 19th April, 1832,—“In what character, and for what purpose, do we appear in India? ”Sir Henry himself gives the reply “If we are to act as mere philanthropiste, and to consider only how we cart best improve the moral and political condition of the Indian population, we may govern them as we would govern one another, and the sooner we can make them wise enough and strong enough to expel us from the country, the greater will have been our success. If we go as subjects of England, for the extension of English power and the improvement of English interests, a different course must be pursued.