PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER HISTORICAL SERIES No. XXVIII THE MAKING OF BRITISH INDIA Published by the University of Manchester at THE UNIVERSITY PRESS (H. M. McKECHNIE, Secretary) 12, LIME GROVE, OXFORD ROAD, MANCHESTER LONGMANS, GREEN & CO. LONDON: 39, Paternoster Row NEW YORK: 443-449 Fourth Avenue and Thirtieth Street THE MAKING OF BRITISH INDIA 1756-1858 DESCRIBED IN A SERIES OF DISPATCHES, TREATIES, STATUTES, AND OTHER DOCUMENTS, SELECTED AND 35463 M8 PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER No. CIII HENRY MOTSE STEPHENS All rights Reserved. PREFACE No part of the achievement of the British race is more deserving of study than the process by which, in the course of a single century, the Indian Empire was established, and its system of government developed. Yet this story is curiously little studied, either in Britain or in India. Indian social usages, and even Indian names, are bewildering to the Englishman; while it is natural that the Indian student should find a difficulty in understanding and in justly appreciating the motives by which British statesmen in India have been actuated. The only way in which these difficulties can be satisfactorily overcome is that the student should be enabled to realise how Indian conditions and the problems of Indian government appeared at each stage to the men who had to deal with them: thus alone can a fair judgment on the character and value of their work be attained. There is no lack of material for such a judgment. The greatest difficulty, indeed, is presented, not by any deficiency, but by the extraordinary voluminousness, of the available material. Having to report upon and explain all their actions to the Directors at home, and often to defend their policy against attacks, all the Anglo-Indian statesmen from Clive downwards have left behind them immense masses 512256 |