Later Mughals v1.c4.s6: His Humour
Later Mughals v1.c4.s6
- Language
- English
His Humour
v1.c4.s6.1
As a writer, Mr. Irvine was a vigorous controversialist. His article on *Canal Rates vs. Land Revenue* makes a trenchant attack on Mr. A. O. Hume's proposal to exclude the profits due to canal irrigation when fixing the assessment of land revenue and to fix the former on purely commercial principles.
v1.c4.s6.2
∗ Mr. Irvine wrote to me on 23rd Feb. 1902 : "I can see that you are working on what I believe to be the correct lines for making any profitable advance in the knowledge of Indian History—that is, a recourse to original documents and their exact critical elucidation." [J. Sarkar.]
v1.c4.s6.3
He had also a happy vein of humour which appears now and then in his writings, but oftener in his letters. Thus to his remark in the above article that "such a haphazard application of his great doctrine (of the greatest happiness of the greatest number) might well make old Jeremy Bentham shudder in his grave," he adds the foot-note "That is, if he ever got there. We believe his body was embalmed and kept in a glass case!"
v1.c4.s6.4
In his *Army of the Indian Moghuls*, p. 110, after asserting that the strange word *janjal* is a corruption of the known word *jazail*, and tracing the supposed steps of this corruption, he adds 'Q. E. D.'!
v1.c4.s6.5
Again, he urged me to settle our difference as to the date of Shah Alam's confinement on the ground "If doctors disagree, what will laymen think of it?" In some other letters he wrote :—
v1.c4.s6.6
"I suppose man has still enough of the brute in him to have remained a fighting animal,—and the 'drum and trumpet school' [of historians] seem just as popular as ever. . . . The losing side [e.g., Dara Shukoh's] always get scant justice in histories." (13th Aug. 1905).
v1.c4.s6.7
"So far the Berlin Librarian has taken no notice of my communication [asking to be put in relations with a photographer there.] But I suppose one must have patience and wait the pleasure of these Great Men!" (10th Oct. 1905.)
v1.c4.s6.8
"I have seen no mention of Bhimsen, [the Hindu author of a most valuable Persian history of Aurangzib's reign], or his sons. Historians are rarely mentioned [in other histories]; — not much hope for us!"