Siyar al-mutaʾakhkhirin 29.9

29.9

men whose possessions amount to no more than a few thousand yards of ground, or at most to an estate of two or three cosses in circuit, and who being all men of education and honor, pass their lives in enjoying their estates and beautiful seats, and in keeping open tables. It is to such men that the English Government has ventured to compare the Zemindars of Hindostan, and by comparison, to repute them men of honor and sentiment, worthy of being held in esteem and consideration, and deserving to be entrusted with full powers over their Zemindaries or estates; and yet it is these very men of honour and sentiments that ruin the whole country, torment the men of distinction settled of old in their lands, and are waiting only that time and opportunity may put it in their power by some extraordinary event, at once to display the standard of rebellion and dispute, and to raise commotions of consequence. They live quietly now, and astonished at the heavy blows they have felt from the hand of the English, as well as overawed by the superiority acquired everywhere by that nation, they wink at the state of things, and meanwhile, sure of the interest they have obtained, they silently pillage and oppress mankind; whilst the English rulers at the same time seem not to believe their conspiracies, and their malevolence and oppressions, or to have within their breasts some scheme, which to us, ignorant men, is yet a profound secret.