Bengal History Quotes

We proceeded to make way across the mighty Hooghly River, a monstrous offshoot of the Ganges, where we contemplated for a moment, our thoughts seemingly caught in the roaring southward current; there we gazed, toward where the city transitions into mangrove jungle, and somewhere a bit further to the southwest where all the rivers split infinitely like capillaries, where those famous Bengal tigers trod among the sunderbans. Peering in that direction, Bajju gripped the vertical bars just above the horizontal pedestrian railing, breathing slowly and silently, knees locked, still, despite being on arguably the busiest and loudest bridge in the world.

All the bloodsheds in human history have been caused by men, not women.

I am a scientist who studies the human mind, including the sexual differences in mental faculties, and I am telling you, ten female thinkers can teach humanity lessons equivalent to the teachings of a hundred male thinkers of history.

Mr. Piscine Molitor Patel, Indian citizen, is an astounding story of courage and endurance in the face of extraordinarily difficult and tragic circumstances. In the experience of this investigator, his story is unparalleled in the history of shipwrecks. Very few castaways can claim to have survived so long at sea as Mr. Patel, and none in the company of an adult Bengal tiger.

I am no feminist. Even though the term "feminism" is founded upon the basic principle of gender equality, it possesses its own fundamental gender bias, which makes it inclined towards the wellbeing of women, over the wellbeing of the whole society. And if history has shown anything, it is that such fundamental biases in time corrupt even the most glorious ideas and give birth to prejudice, bigotry and differentiation.

Start working on your child’s mind. Start building your child’s character. Raise your child as a human being, instead of raising boys and girls. Raise human beings with the religion of love in their hearts. Raise human beings with the language of compassion on their lips. Raise human beings with the color of joy on their face. Raise human beings with the force of bravery in their nerves. And these brave conscientious souls with the flames of compassion in their hearts shall one day change the course of human history.

the differences between the countries of Europe were much smaller than those between the ‘countries’ of India. ‘Scotland is more like Spain than Bengal is like the Punjab.’ In India the diversities of race, language and religion were far greater. Unlike in Europe, these ‘countries’ were not nations; they did not have a distinct political or social identity. This, Strachey told his Cambridge audience, ‘is the first and most essential thing to learn about India – that there is not, and never was an India, or even any country of India possessing, according to any European ideas, any sort of unity, physical, political, social or religious’. There was no Indian nation or country in the past; nor would there be one in the future.

The British conquered Bengal, the richest province of India, in 1764. The new rulers were interested in little except enriching themselves. They adopted a disastrous economic policy that a few years later led to the outbreak of the Great Bengal Famine. It began in 1769, reached catastrophic levels in 1770, and lasted until 1773. About 10 million Bengalis, a third of the province’s population, died in the calamity.11

India to accept a ceasefire,” he said. But there was nothing about reconciliation with India in the interview. Sulzberger noted that Bhutto “spoke gloomily of India” and implied that “India was behaving like a virtual satellite of Moscow.” He made predictions similar to those Ayub made about the Soviet Union gaining ground in the subcontinent and about India being on the verge of breaking up. “By sponsoring Bangladesh you will see that India will lose West Bengal and Assam,” he declared. “It is preposterous to think that in an association with

But no literature grows in isolation, and looking at the history of Indian writing in English is like looking at a silent movie made up of static postcards of Delhi, or Mumbai, or any other thronged Indian city: the life, the colour, the hubbub of hundreds of eager new writers and high-minded editors, peacocking poets and fiery-eyed pamphleteers, all of that has been bled out of collective memory. In the same year that Dean Mahomet wrote his Travels, the Madras Hircarrah (1794) started up, joining Hicky’s Bengal Gazette (1780) and the India Gazette (1781); the first in a flood of periodicals and journals that would breathlessly, urgently take the news of India running along from one province to another. The

What happens to a highbrow literary culture when its fault lines-along caste, class and gender-are brutally exposed? What happens to the young iconoclasts who dare to speak and write about these issues openly? Is there such a thing as a happy ending for revolutionaries? Or are they doomed to be forever relegated to the footnotes of history? This is the never-before-told true story of the Hungry Generation (or 'the Hungryalists')-a group of barnstorming, anti-establishment poets, writers and artists in Bengal in the 1960s. Braving social boycott, ridicule and arrests, the Hungryalists changed the literary landscape of Bengal (and many South Asian countries) forever. Along the way, they also influenced iconic poets, such as Allen Ginsberg, who struck up a lifelong friendship with the Hungryalists.

More notable perhaps were the names of those who were not from the Congress. These included two representatives of the world of commerce and one representative of the Sikhs. Three others were lifelong adversaries of the Congress. These were R. K. Shanmukham Chetty, a Madras businessman who possessed one of the best financial minds in India; B. R. Ambedkar, a brilliant legal scholar and an ‘Untouchable’ by caste; and Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, a leading Bengal politician who belonged (at this time) to the Hindu Mahasabha. All three had collaborated with the rulers while the Congress men served time in British jails. But now Nehru and his colleagues wisely put aside these differences. Gandhi had reminded them that ‘freedom comes to India, not to the Congress’, urging the formation of a Cabinet that included the ablest men regardless of party affiliation.6

The bankers and merchants of Bengal who sustained Siraj ud-Daula’s regime had finally turned against him and united with the disaffected parts of his own military; now they sought to bring in the mercenary troops of the East India Company to help depose him. This was something quite new in Indian history: a group of Indian financiers plotting with an international trading corporation to use its own private security force to overthrow a regime they saw threatening the income they earned from trade.60 This was not part of any imperial masterplan. In fact, the EIC men on the ground were ignoring their strict instructions from London, which were only to repulse French attacks and avoid potentially ruinous wars with their Mughal hosts. But seeing opportunities for personal enrichment as well as political and economic gain for the Company, they dressed up the conspiracy in colours that they knew would appeal to their masters and presented the coup as if it were primarily aimed at excluding the French from Bengal for ever.*

Quelle est la première chose que je faisais quand, retour d'une plongée dans la géhenne du Bengla-Desh, je rentrais souffler un peu, dans l'autre Bengale, à Calcutta ? Je fonçais au siège du Times of India pour voir, dans les éditions du journal que j'avais manquées, les cartes indiquant les mouvements de troupe, donc le sens de la bataille que j'avais vécue de l'intérieur et à laquelle j'avais l'impression de n'avoir, du coup, rien compris.(...) Stendhal a raison. le point de vue de Fabrice est un point de vue partiel, en effet. Obtus. Inintelligent. Mais voilà. C'est le seul. Il n'y en a pas d'autre. Il n'y a rien de plus à voir dans la réalité des guerres que cet enfer absurde où l'on se demande en permanence où l'on est, où l'on va, d'où viennent les obus, qui les tire et ce que sont devenues les belles vertus héroïques chantées par la littérature de guerre. Fabrice n'a peut-être rien compris. Mais c'est tout ce qu'il y avait à comprendre. C'est l'essence même de la guerre que de donner ce sentiment d'incompréhensible chaos, d'absurdité, de juxtaposition de points de vue idiots, aveugles, fermés les uns sur les autres. (ch. 43 Le théorème de Stendhal)

This is the fly in the ointment of free-market capitalism. It cannot ensure that profits are gained in a fair way, or distributed in a fair manner. On the contrary, the craving to increase profits and production blinds people to anything that might stand in the way. When growth becomes a supreme good, unrestricted by any other ethical considerations, it can easily lead to catastrophe. Some religions, such as Christianity and Nazism, have killed millions out of burning hatred. Capitalism has killed millions out of cold indifference coupled with greed. The Atlantic slave trade did not stem from racist hatred towards Africans. The individuals who bought the shares, the brokers who sold them, and the managers of the slave-trade companies rarely thought about the Africans. Nor did the owners of the sugar plantations. Many owners lived far from their plantations, and the only information they demanded were neat ledgers of profits and losses. It is important to remember that the Atlantic slave trade was not a single aberration in an otherwise spotless record. The Great Bengal Famine, discussed in the previous chapter, was caused by a similar dynamic – the British East India Company cared more about its profits than about the lives of 10 million Bengalis. VOC’s military campaigns in Indonesia were financed by upstanding Dutch burghers who loved their children, gave to charity, and enjoyed good music and fine art, but had no regard for the suffering of the inhabitants of Java, Sumatra and Malacca. Countless other crimes and misdemeanours accompanied the growth of the modern economy in other parts of the planet.

God Save The King, Sonnet (New UK Anthem) God save our gracious King, Long live our noble King! Even if he is a philanderer, God save our righteous King! Send him victorious, happy and glorious, ruler of the free world, even if he is ignominious! Thy choicest gifts in store, on him be pleased to pour, let starving natives starve, so our king may rightly soar. May he defend our laws, and ever give us cause, to be but proud morons, merrying over massacres.

If you were not sleeping in history class you would have heard of the Great Battle of Buxar in 1764. Frankly, it should be renamed the Embarrassing Battle of Buxar. The battle was fought between the British East India Company and the combined armies of three Indian rulers—Mir Qasim, the Nawab of Bengal; Shuja-ud-Daula, the Nawab of Awadh; and the Mughal king, Shah Alam II. The Indian side had forty thousand troops. The British had less than ten thousand. Guess what happened? The British clobbered us. How? Well, the three Indian kings ended up fighting with each other. Each Indian king had cut a side deal with the British and worked against the other. In a day, the British had won the battle and taken control of most of India. I don’t think Indians have learnt much since that day. We remain as divided as ever. Everyone still tries to cut a deal for themselves while the nation goes to hell.

nobody in India will love me for the award about the Punjab and Bengal and there will be roughly 80 million people with a grievance who will begin looking for me. I do not want them to find me . . .

The idea of India is plural and inclusive. The Constitution of India is flexible and accomodative. As it stands, India incorporates a greater variety of religions (whether born in its soil or imported) than any other nation in human history. It has, among things, a Sikh majority state (the Punjab), three Christian majority states (Mizoram, Nagaland and Meghalaya), a Muslim majority state (Jammu and Kashmir), Muslim majority districts in Kerala and West Bengal, and districts dominated by Buddhists in Kashmir and Arunachal. India also has a greater variety of languages and literatures than any other nation, and a federal form of government. If flexibility is promoted more sincerely and accomodation implemented more faithfully, one can yet arrive at a resolution which allows for real autonomy, such that Manipuris and Nagas and Kashmiris have the freedom both to determine the pattern of their lives in their own state, and to seek, if they so wish, opportunities to work and live in the other states of the Union.

If you were not sleeping in history class you would have heard of the Great Battle of Buxar in 1764. Frankly, it should be renamed the Embarrassing Battle of Buxar. The battle was fought between the British East India Company and the combined armies of three Indian rulers—Mir Qasim, the Nawab of Bengal; Shuja-ud-Daula, the Nawab of Awadh; and the Mughal king, Shah Alam II. The Indian side had forty thousand troops. The British had less than ten thousand. Guess what happened? The British clobbered us. How? Well, the three Indian kings ended up fighting with each other. Each Indian king had cut a side deal

By the terms of the Partition Award, Bengal had been divided, with the eastern wing going to Pakistan and the western section staying in India. Calcutta, the province’s premier city, was naturally a bone of contention. The Boundary Commission chose to allot it to India, sparking fears of violence on the eve of Independence.

The VOC was interested in Sri Lanka because of its cinnamon production and strategic location, since control of Sri Lanka implied an improved ability to check navigation between the western Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. In

in history class you would have heard of the Great Battle of Buxar in 1764. Frankly, it should be renamed the Embarrassing Battle of Buxar. The battle was fought between the British East India Company and the combined armies of three Indian rulers—Mir Qasim, the Nawab of Bengal; Shuja-ud-Daula, the Nawab of Awadh; and the Mughal king, Shah Alam II. The Indian side had forty thousand troops. The British had less than ten thousand. Guess what happened? The British clobbered us. How? Well, the three Indian kings ended up fighting with each other. Each Indian king had cut a side deal with the British and worked against the other. In a day, the British had won the battle and taken control of most of India. I don’t think Indians have learnt much since that day. We remain as divided as ever. Everyone still tries to cut a deal for themselves while the nation goes to hell. Anyway,

Initially those at the western end in the Panjab and the Doab tended to look down on those on the eastern frontier in Bihar and Bengal; the latter were mleccha, uncouth in their arya speech and negligent in their sacrificial observance. By mid-first millennium BC it would be the other way round. As the eastern settlements grew into a network of thriving proto-states, many laid claim to exalted pedigrees and, assuming the mantle of Aryanised orthodoxy, would be happy to disparage their Panjabi cousins as vratya or ‘degenerate’.

BN Jog, a contemporary RSS author argues that even after the 1937 elections, though often mentioned as proof that the Muslim electorate was largely 'secular' because of the poor results for the Muslim league, had already disproven the Congress claim: most Muslim votes had gone to other Muslim-dominated parties, chiefly the Unionist party of Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan in Panjab and the Krishak Praja party of Fazlul Haq in Bengal. Even the supposedly defeated Muslim League had won 108 of the 492 Muslim-reserved seats in 1937, against 26 for Congress. So, Jog concludes, the Muslim vote was largely motivated by sectional interests rather than by commitment to the national struggle.

[T]he demonization of Mahmud [of Ghazni] and the portrayal of his raid on Somnath as an assault on Indian religion by Muslim invaders dates only from the early 1840s. In 1842 the British East Indian Company suffered the annihilation of an entire army of some 16,000 in the First Afghan War (1839-42). Seeking to regain face among their Hindu subjects after this humiliating defeat, the British contrived a bit of self-serving fiction, namely that Mahmud, after sacking the temple of Somnath, carried off a pair of the temple's gates on his way back to Afghanistan. By 'discovering' these fictitious gates in Mahmud's former capital of Ghazni, and by 'restoring' them to their rightful owners in India, British officials hoped to be admired for heroically rectifying what they construed as a heinous wrong that had caused centuries of distress among India's Hindus. Though intended to win the latters' gratitude while distracting all Indians from Britain's catastrophic defeat just being the Khyber, this bit of colonial mischief has stoked Hindus' ill-feeling toward Muslims ever since. From this point on, Mahmud's 1025 sacking of Somnath acquired a distinct notoriety, especially in the early twentieth century when nationalist leaders drew on history to identify clear-cut heroes and villains for the purpose of mobilizing political mass movements. By contrast, Rajendra Chola's raid on Bengal remained largely forgotten outside the Chola country.

Famine in Bengal added to already growing resentment of British rule.

Interestingly, the lion plays an important role in the Mahavamsa, a Pali epic, that is the foundation myth of the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka. According to the Mahavamsa, the Sinhalese people are the descendants of Prince Vijaya and his followers who sailed down to Sri Lanka in the sixth century BC from what is now Orissa and West Bengal. The story tells us that Prince Vijaya was the son of a lion and a human princess, which is why the majority population of Sri Lanka call themselves the Sinhala—or the lion people—and the country’s national flag features a stylized lion holding a sword. Equally significant is the fact that the Tamil rebels of northern Sri Lanka chose to call themselves the ‘Tigers’. The ancient rivalry between the two big cats remains embedded in cultural memory even as the animals themselves face extinction. Excerpt From: Sanjeev Sanyal. “Land of the Seven Rivers A Brief History of India's Geography”. Apple Books.

Hitler's holocaust took over 6 million lives, hence he is rightly deemed a monster, but the british empire uprooted 15 million people from their homes, massacred millions and starved four million people to death. What about that?

Yes, England's history is indeed rich in relief efforts and good deeds towards other peoples. We are reminded in a flash of the time England in 1704 got stuck in Gibraltar under the pretense of wanting to bring help to Spain. It gave its Spanish supporters on the boat at the first opportunity and stayed on Gibraltar and has since sat there to control the Mediterranean for itself and its interests. We remember how it has "helped" the Indians by siphoning off and plundering their land. One of the black spots in its history is Lord Clive's conquest of Calcutta from the Indians. He got the neighbor of Bengal's minister to betray the neighbor. Afterwards the minister himself became nabob in return for paying Clive £260,000 sterling. It cannot then surprise anyone that Lord Clive brought with him immense riches when he returned to England. Here he was honored for his exploits, being appointed baron. And England later prevented any freedom movement in India by systematically pitting Mohammedans and Hindus against each other. Some scattered attempts at freedom were held down by the most brutal terror we know. We remember another black mark, namely the time in 1919 when General Dyer fired with automatic weapons at a peaceful unarmed assembly of Indians who had gathered in a private square in the city of Amritsar. 500 were killed and 1,500 wounded, many of them women and children. Truly a great cultural nation!

White Fragility Sonnet (A Record of White Crimes Against Humanity) Whiteness has done more harm to the world than good, Till you look past your whiteness, you cannot be human. Orange 'n musky trash of white privilege diss diversity, What else would you expect from colonial descendants! Every generation has its fraudsters like Edison, Every generation has trashy maniacs like Columbus. Every generation has war-merchants like Kissinger, Every generation has its churchillian doofus. White people tortured the Africans, White people booted Native Americans; White people massacred the Vietnamese, White people lynched and looted the Indians. White people caused genocide after genocide, Yet you still boast about white superiority. You proclaim that people of color are inferior, While white society is the epitome of savagery. If devil had a color, it would be white - Yet I say, color is nonsense, we're all equal. I am human enough to give you place beside me, All I expect is that, a human behaves human. After all the heartaches inflicted by white people, A 100 generations worth apology won't be sufficient. Yet I am human enough to declare, we are all equal; All I ask is that, humans finally behave human. They say, I'm spreading hate against the whites; To which I say, human making is my mission. There is no hope for humanitarian uplift, Unless you renounce all fragile intoleration. If you wanna learn about tolerance, ask a person of color, How do you even tolerate the sight of white people, when the wrongs done to you by whites are unparalleled in history! You'll realize, there's no mythical secret to integration, For ages we've known no other life but of inclusivity. Middle East, India and Far East, have been the melting pot of integration, before the whites even knew what integration is. Yet you say white people are superior - so be it; Cowards always take refuge in fairytales, to justify their fragility and prejudice. If you wanna be a decent human being, Never draw moral parameters from the west. No matter whether you're born of east or west, Remember, you are human first, then all else. To recognize diversity is science, To celebrate diversity is humanity. To recognize privilege is common sense, To abandon privilege builds human society.

In 1943 Bengal suffered one of the world’s worst famines: some 3 million people died due to British wartime requisitioning policies, diverting resources away from Bengal’s crisis and laying bare the hollowness of Britain’s claim to be running an efficient and benevolent empire. As commentators on all sides of the political divide suggested, events in Southeast Asia suggested Britain’s political and moral weaknesses.

East India Company created an army that conquered Bengal and ruled the subcontinent for over a century in order to protect its interests in the Indian textile trade. Exxon shaped American foreign policy and environmental regulation for decades. Today, Facebook’s algorithms determine what we see and know, shaping the very discourse that citizens engage in. This suggests that, at the very least, businesses should be cautious before seeking to craft society’s values—their actions are magnified beyond what any individual could ever hope to achieve. I would go further. Businesses should stay out of the politics game entirely. They do not have access to some essential wisdom about what the common good is. They should instead

And there’s a chance they could be dangerous, like the tribe on North Sentinel Island.” Dante and Milana obviously understood what Charlie meant. North Sentinel Island was located in the Bay of Bengal, between India and Myanmar. It was a notoriously hard island to dock a ship at, and therefore the small indigenous tribe that lived there had little contact with humans throughout its history. They were known for being extremely hostile to outsiders—and so the rest of the world had let them be.

The Fights 1962: US vs Russia in General / China vs Formosa over possession / India vs China over border territory / India vs Pakistan over possession Kashmir – Religious / India vs Portugal over possession Goa / India vs Nagas over Independence / Egypt vs Israel over possession of territory and Religion / E. Germany vs W. Germany sovereignty / Cuba vs USA – Ideas / N. Korea vs So. Korea – Sovereignty / Indonesia vs Holland – Territory / France vs Algeria – Territory / Negroes vs whites – US / Katanga vs Leopoldville / Russian Stalinists vs Russian Kruschevists / Peru APRA vs Peru Military / Argentine Military versus Argentine Bourgeois / Navajo Peyotists vs Navajo Tribal Council – Tribal / W. Irian? / Kurds vs Iraq / Negro vs Whites – So. Africa – Race / US Senegal vs Red Mali – Territory / Ghana vs Togo – Territory / Ruanda Watusi vs Ruanda Bahutu – Tribe power / Kenya Kadu vs Kenya Kana – Tribe power / Somali vs Aethopia, Kenya, French Somali / Tibet Lamas vs Chinese Tibetan secularists / India vs E. Pak – Assam Bengal over Border & Tripura / Algeria vs Morocco over Sahara.

The British in particular asked only a certain subset of native informants from Bengal "what their religion was" and got a very particular answer, giving rise to the West’s perception of a singular religious Indian tradition known as Hinduism. If the British had not centered their investments in Calcutta, they may have asked a different group of Indians what their religion was and received a different answer, thus changing the popular conception of Hinduism altogether. In other words, Hinduism is as much defined by the non-native "Other" as it is by the so-called native.

محسوس کرو ( Bodh ) شاعر: جبانندا داس روشنی اندھیرے میں جاتا ہے - سر کے اندر خواب نہیں، کوئی بھی کام نہیں کرتا! ایک خواب نہیں - امن نہیں - محبت نہیں، دل کے درمیان دل کا احساس! میں اس سے بچ نہیں سکتا اس نے اپنا ہاتھ ہاتھ میں رکھ دیا. سب کچھ چھوٹی ہے، طالاب بنتا ہے، تمام خیالات - نماز کے ہر وقت یہ خالی لگتا ہے، صفر لگ رہا ہے! ایک سادہ آدمی کی طرح چل سکتا ہے! اندھیرے میں کون اس روشنی کو روک سکتا ہے سادہ لوگوں! ان کی زبانیں بولیں کون کہہ سکتا ہے کوئی ضمانت نہیں کون جان سکتا ہے جسمانی ذائقہ کون سمجھنا چاہتی ہے زندگی کی جڑیں کون سب لوگ دوبارہ ہو گا تمام لوگوں کی طرح بیجوں کو بونا ذائقہ کہاں ہے فصلوں کی نظر سے، جسم مٹی کے بوسے، جسم پانی کی بو بو ہے، روشنی کے منتظر ایک کسان کی طرح، زندگی ایک کسان کی طرح ہے دنیا کے بعد راہب کون سا ہے؟ ایک خواب نہیں، امن نہیں، کوئی بھی کام نہیں کرتا سر کے اندر! راستے پر ہوسکتے ہیں - کراسنگ کیبل کو نظر انداز کرنا چاہتے ہیں کھوپڑی کی طرح میں جاننا چاہتا ہوں، سر رہنا چاہتا ہوں گھومنے کی طرح لیکن وہ سر کے گرد ہے! لیکن وہ آنکھوں کے ارد گرد ہے! لیکن وہ سینے کے گرد ہے! میں چلتا ہوں، وہ ساتھ آتا ہے! میں روکتا ہوں وہ رک جاتا ہے تمام لوگوں کے درمیان بیٹھا میرا اپنا پیسہ میں اکیلے رہنے کے لئے مختلف ہوں؟ میری آنکھیں صرف ایک پہیلی ہیں؟ میرے راستے پر صرف رکاوٹوں؟ جو لوگ اس دنیا میں پیدا ہوئے ہیں بچے کی طرح بچے کو جنم دو کئی بار جو کاٹ گئے ہیں یا آج بچے کو جنم دینا پڑے گا جن میں سے یا جو دنیا میں ہے وہ بستر پر آ رہے ہیں پیدائش دینا - پیدائش دینا ان کا دل سر کی طرح ہے میرا دل نہیں ہے ان کے دماغ میرا دماغ پسند نہیں ہے؟ وہ واحد کیوں ہے؟ ابھی تک میں اکیلے ہوں میں نے نہیں دیکھا کہ آیا کسان کے قیام؟ پانی میں پانی نہ ڈالو؟ ہم میدان میں کتنے بار ہیں؟ گوشت کی طرح کتنے دریا ہیں؟ تبدیل طالاب کی طالاب جسم کی خوشبو ہے جسم پر پکڑ لیا گیا یہ سب ذائقہ ہے مجھے یہ سب مل گیا جیسے ہوا ہوا مفت ہے زندگی، زندگی ستارے کے نیچے سو رہی دماغ ہے ایک دن؛ یہ سب ممکن ہے میں ایک دن آزاد مردہ جانتا ہوں. میں انہیں چھوڑتا ہوں مجھے لڑکی سے محبت ہے، نظر انداز کر کے، میں نے لڑکی کو آدمی میں دیکھا ہے، لڑکی سے نفرت اس نے مجھے پیار کیا قریب آیا، میں نے اسے نظر انداز کیا، نفرت چلی گئی ہے - جب بار بار کال کیا محبت کیبلز؛ ابھی تک اس کا پیچھا ایک دن تھا. میں اس کی غفلت کی زبان ہوں میں اس کے نفرت سے نفرت کرتا ہوں نظر انداز اس ستارہ ستارے غلطی جس طرح سے میرا پیار بار بار رکاوٹ ہے میں اسے بھول گیا ابھی تک یہ محبت - مٹی اور مٹی -. سر کے اندر ایک خواب نہیں - پیار نہیں - کوئی بھی کام محسوس کرتا ہے کرو میں سب معبودوں کو چھوڑتا ہوں میں اپنی روح میں آیا، میں اپنے دل میں یہ کہتا ہوں؛ وہ اکیلے پانی کی چراغ کی طرح بات کیوں کرتا تھا؟ کیا اس کی تھکاوٹ نہیں ہے؟ کیا اس کی سلامتی کا وقت ہے؟ کسی بھی وقت سونے نہیں؟ آہستہ آہستہ ذائقہ آپ کیا نہیں لیں گے؟ خوشی نہیں ملے گی لوگوں کے چہرے کو دیکھنے کے لئے کچھ وقت! کوئی بھی آدمی کا چہرہ دیکھتا ہے! بچوں کے چہرے کو دیکھنے کے لئے کچھ وقت! یہ محسوس - صرف یہ ذائقہ وہ گہری ہے! زمین کی راہ چھوڑ، آسمان میں ستارے کی راہ وہ نہیں چاہتا حلف بنو کیا وہ آدمی کا سامنا کرے گا کیا وہ ایک آدمی کا سامنا کرے گا؟ کیا وہ بچوں کے چہرے دیکھیں گے؟ سیاہ محرم، کان میں بہرے ہے، جس میں گوشت میں اضافہ ہوا ہے کھو ککڑی - سڑے ہوئے پولٹری کے سڑنا میں، جو لوگ دل میں بڑھے ہیں یہ سب ہے.

For much of the 18th century, the East India Company was forced to ship boatloads of silver to China rather than manufactured goods, resulting in a deficit in trade and a strain on the economy. The East India Company, which had its own naval and military force, was also in debt from wars being fought to control trade in India. To stop this debt from increasing, the East India Company, which still had a monopoly on trade in the region, began smuggling opium into Guangzhou (opium had been illegal in China since 1729). By 1793, the East India Company had created a monopoly on the purchase of opium in Bengal, India, thereby cutting out the Bengali merchants from the trade. The opium produced in Bengal was then sold in Calcutta

Sirhind (or Lahore), Rajputana, Gujrat, Malwa, Audh (including Rohilkand, strictly Rohelkhand, the country of the Rohelas, or "Rohillas" of the Histories), Agra, Allahabad, and Dehli: and the political division was into subahs, or divisions, sarkars or districts; dasturs, or sub-divisions; and parganahs, or fiscal unions. The Deccan, Panjab (Punjab), and Kabul, which also formed parts of the Empire in its widest extension at the end of the seventeenth century, are omitted, as far as possible, from notice, because they did not at the time of our narration form part of the territories of the Empire of Hindustan, though included in the territory ruled by the earlier and greater Emperors. Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa also formed, at one time, an integral portion of the Empire, but fell away without playing an important part in the history we are considering, excepting for a very brief period. The division into Provinces will be understood by reference to the map. Most of these had assumed a practical independence during the first quarter of the eighteenth century, though acknowledging a weak feudatory subordination to the Crown of Dehli. The highest point in the plains of Hindustan is probably the plateau on which stands the town of Ajmir, about 230 miles south of Dehli. It is situated on the eastern slope of the Aravalli Mountains, a range of primitive granite, of which Abu, the chief peak, is estimated to be near 5,000 feet above the level of the sea; the plateau of Ajmir itself is some 3,000 feet lower. The country at large is, probably, the upheaved basin of an exhausted sea which once rendered the highlands of the Deccan an island like a larger Ceylon. The general quality of the soil is accordingly sandy and light, though not unproductive; yielding, perhaps, on an average about one thousand lbs. av. of wheat to the acre. The cereals are grown in the winter, which is at least as cold as in the corresponding parts of Africa. Snow never falls, but thin ice is often formed during the night. During the spring heavy dews fall, and strong winds set in from the west. These gradually become heated by the increasing radiation of the earth, as the sun becomes more vertical and the days longer. Towards the end of May the monsoon