THE PAST GLORY OF INDIA.

THE GLORY THAT WAS INDIA.

William Hawkins captain of the ship-type Hector landed at Surat in August 1600.             

He marched into the interior of the land of India. 

They all heard the myth and marvel that had already inspired the imagination of the Elizabethan age navigators.  They were  prepared to find rubies as big as pigeon eggs, endless stands of pepper, ginger, indigo, cinnamon, and the trees whose leaves and branches were so enormous; the shade they cast would cover an entire family; magic potions and potent derived from the testicles of elephants to give man an eternal youth. 

While ruling India, The British from the year 1601 onwards, got shiploads of essential commodity items like spices, gum, sugar raw silk, cotton, opium etc on the docks of their river Thames.

The said ships sailed back to Surat, with loads full of British manufacture.  They expanded their area to Madras, Calcutta under the guise of their pet slogan

“Trade, no Territory.”,  in the initial years of their arrival. Gradually they got involved into the affairs of the country.”

In the year 1757 after the Plassey war, gates opened for their march towards North India from Calcutta Eastern side, for the benefit of the merchants of London.

After 1857, the Queen declared herself as the Sole Ruler, and her authority to be exercised in the name of the Crown, by her representatives to govern the vast country of India.

The Crown created a band of 2000 young Officers of the ICS cadre, and 10000 British officers of the Army.  These young men were the breed of impeccable family but less wealthy.  They were good offspring of the churchmen of the villages,  the talented second grade sons of England,  deprived of a decent heritage life in England which was already over-crowded with the sons of VIPs, teachers, professors, and aristocrats who had already captured prestigious posts within the country.

India was therefore a vast system of relief for the second grade aristocrats of English families to engage them in an out door life to prove their worthiness and mettle.  They met with challenge, adventure, in which the 25 year old youth of England found fulfillment of his dream, which the soil of England with its restricted resources was denied to them.

These youth arrived in the docks of Bombay barely at an age of 18 or 19 to rule, to govern the vast country.; to give vent to their whims and imagination, to set in an example of good governance.