HISTORY OF BRITISH RULE.

TheNativePowers:1774 -

Hastings’theory;

and

practice.

Hastings

makes

Bengal

pay.

45 8

Powers, which, if he had not destroyed them, would haveannihilated him.

Beyond the Bengal frontier, a group of Muhammadanviceroys or governors of the old Mughal Empire hadestablished independent States, the most important of whichwas Oudh. Beyond this group of Muhammadan States, theMarathas were practically the masters of Northern India, andheld the nominal Emperor of Delhi as a puppet under theircontrol. The wise policy of Warren Hastings was to allyhimself with the independent Muhammadan States, that is tosay, principally with Oudh, just beyond his own frontier. Ifhe could make these Muhammadan States strong, he hopedthat they would prevent the Marathas from pouring down intoBengal . But these Muhammadan States were themselves soweak that this policy only obtained a partial success. In theend, Warren Hastings found himself compelled to advance theBritish territories farther up the Ganges , and practically tobring the Muhammadan States under his own control.

Hastings, like other British administrators of his time, startedwith a conviction of the expediency of ruling with the aid of theNative Powers, especially with the aid of the puppet Emperor and the Muhammadan princes who had built up dynasties oftheir own out of the wreck of the Mughal Empire . But theadvance of the Hindu military confederacy, i.e. the Marathasfrom Southern India, gradually rendered this policy impossible.Four years after their defeat at Pinipat in 1761, the Marathashad recovered themselves, and were the dominant power alikein Northern and Southern India. The Muhammadan princesand viceroys in Oudh and the North-Western Provinces, whomHastings at first hoped to strengthen as frontier buffersbetween the Company’s possessions and the Marathds, sawthe position as clearly as Hastings did himself. They werewilling to take all they could from the British; but they wereat the same time willing, or compelled, to make terms withthe Marathas. Hastings perceived that the old policy hadceased to be practicable, and that the real struggle forNorthern India now lay between the English and theMarathas; both of them using the Mughal Emperor and hisrevolted viceroys as convenient but untrustworthy allies anddependents.

Warren Hastings had in the first place to make Bengal pay.This he could not do under Clive’s dual system of administra-tion. When he abolished that double system, he cut downthe Bengal Nawab’s allowance to one-half, and so saved