Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 4.6
Travels in the Mogul Empire (Constable) 4.6
- Language
- English
4.6.1
The facts I have mentioned are sufficient to account for the rapid decline of the Asiatic states. It is owing to this miserable system of government that most towns in Hindoustan are made up of earth, mud, and other wretched materials ; that there is no city or town which, if it be not already ruined and deserted, does not bear evident marks of approaching decay. Without confining our remarks to so distant a kingdom, we may judge of the effects of despotic power unrelentingly exercised, by the present condition of Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Palestine, the once wonderful plains of Antioch, and so many other regions anciently well cultivated, fertile, and populous, but now desolate, and in many parts marshy, pestiferous, and unfit for human habitation. Egypt also exhibits a sad picture of an enslaved country. More than one-tenth part of that incomparable territory has been lost within the last eighty years, because no one will be at the expense of repairing the irrigation channels, and confining the Nile within its banks. The low lands are thus violently inundated, and covered with sand, which cannot be removed without much labour and expense. Can it excite wonder, that under these circumstances, the arts do not flourish here as they would do under a better government, or as they flourish in our happier France?
4.6.2
No artist can be expected to give his mind to his calling in the midst of a people who are either wretchedly poor, or who, if rich, assume an appearance of poverty, and who regard not the beauty and excellence, but the cheapness of an article: a people whose grandees pay for a work of art considerably under its value, and according to their own caprice, and who do not hesitate to punish an importunate artist, or tradesman, with the korrah, that long and terrible whip hanging at every Omrah's gate. Is it not enough also to damp the ardour of any artist, when he feels that he can never hope to attain to any distinction; that he shall not be permitted to purchase either office or land for the benefit of himself and family; that he must at no time make it appear he is the owner of the most trifling sum; and that he may never venture to indulge in good fare, or to dress in fine apparel, lest he should create a suspicion of his possessing money? The arts in the Indies would long ago have lost their beauty and delicacy, if the Monarch and principal Omrahs did not keep in their pay a number of artists who work in their houses, teach the children, and are stimulated to exertion by the hope of reward and the fear of the korrah. The protection afforded by powerful patrons to rich merchants and tradesmen who pay the workmen rather higher wages, tends also to preserve the arts.
4.6.3
I say rather higher wages, for it should not be inferred from the goodness of the manufactures, that the workman is held in esteem, or arrives at a state of independence. Nothing but sheer necessity or blows from a cudgel keeps him employed ; he never can become rich, and he feels it no trifling matter if he have the means of satisfying the cravings of hunger, and of covering his body with the coarsest raiment. If money be gained, it does not in any measure go into his pocket, but only serves to increase the wealth of the merchant who, in his turn, is not a little perplexed how to guard against some act of outrage and extortion on the part of his superiors. A profound and universal ignorance is the natural consequence of such a state of society as I have endeavoured to describe. Is it possible to establish in Hindoustan academies and colleges properly endowed ? Where shall we seek for founders ? or, should they be found, where are the scholars? Where the individuals whose property is sufficient to support their children at college ? or, if such individuals exist, who would venture to display so clear a proof of wealth ? Lastly, if any persons should be tempted to commit this great imprudence, yet where are the benefices, the employments, the offices of trust and dignity, that require ability and science and are calculated to excite the emulation and the hopes of the young student ?
4.6.4
Nor can the commerce of a country so governed be conducted with the activity and success that we witness in Europe; few are the men who will voluntarily endure labour and anxiety, and incur danger, for another person's benefit, — for a governor who may appropriate to his own use the profit of any speculation. Let that profit be ever so great, the man by whom it has been made must still wear the garb of indigence, and fare no better, in regard to eating and drinking, than his poorer neighbours. In cases, indeed, where the merchant is protected by a military man of rank, he may be induced to embark in commercial enterprises ; but still he must be the slave of his patron, who will exact whatever terms he pleases as the price of his protection.
4.6.5
The Great Mogol cannot select for his service, princes, noblemen and gentlemen of opulent and ancient families; nor the sons of his citizens, merchants and manufacturers; men of education, possessing a high sense of propriety, affectionately attached to their Sovereign, ready to support, by acts of valour, the reputation of their family, and, as the occasion may arise, able and willing to maintain themselves, either at court or in the army, by means of their own patrimony; animated by the hope of better times, and satisfied with the approbation and smile of their Sovereign. Instead of men of this description, he is surrounded by slaves, ignorant and brutal; by parasites raised from the dregs of society; strangers to loyalty and patriotism; full of insufferable pride, and destitute of courage, of honour, and of decency. The country is ruined by the necessity of defraying the enormous charges required to maintain the splendour of a numerous court, and to pay a large army maintained for the purpose of keeping the people in subjection. No adequate idea can be conveyed of the sufferings of that people. The cudgel and the whip compel them to incessant labour for the benefit of others; and driven to despair by every kind of cruel treatment, their revolt or their flight is only prevented by the presence of a military force.
4.6.6
The misery of this ill-fated country is increased by the practice which prevails too much at all times, but especially on the breaking out of an important war, of selling the different governments for immense sums in hard cash. Hence it naturally becomes the principal object of the individual thus appointed Governor, to obtain repayment of the purchase-money, which he borrowed as he could at a ruinous rate of interest. Indeed whether the government of a province has or has not been bought, the Governor, as well as the timariot and the farmer of the revenue, must find the means of making valuable presents, every year, to a Visir, a Eunuch, a lady of the Seraglio, and to any other person whose influence at court he considers indispensable. The Governor must also enforce the payment of the regular tribute to the King; and although he was originally a wretched slave, involved in debt, and without the smallest patrimony, he yet becomes a great and opulent lord. Thus do ruin and desolation overspread the land. The provincial governors, as before observed, are so many petty tyrants, possessing a boundless authority; and as there is no one to whom the oppressed subject may appeal, he cannot hope for redress, let his injuries be ever so grievous or ever so frequently repeated.
4.6.7
It is true that the Great Mogol sends a Vakea-Nevis to the various provinces; that is, persons whose business it is to communicate every event that takes place; but there is generally a disgraceful collusion between these officers and the governor, so that their presence seldom restrains the tyranny exercised over the unhappy people. Governments also are not so often and so openly sold in Hindoustan as in Turkey. I say 'so openly,' because the costly presents, made occasionally by the governors, are nearly equivalent to purchase-money. The same persons, too, generally remain longer in their respective governments than in Turkey, and the people are gradually less oppressed by governors of some standing than when, indigent and greedy, they first take possession of their province. The tyranny of these men is also somewhat mitigated by the apprehension that the people, if used with excessive cruelty, may abandon the country, and seek an asylum in the territory of some Raja, as indeed happens very often. In Persia likewise are governments neither so frequently nor so publicly sold as in Turkey ; for it is not uncommon for the children of governors to succeed their fathers. The consequence of this better state of things is seen in the superior condition of the people, as compared to those of Turkey. The Persians also are more polite, and there are even instances of their devoting themselves to study.