William Wilson Hunter

The Indian Musalmans William Wilson Hunter

A GREAT public calamity has given most mournful emphasis to these pages. Five days before the first copies reached Calcutta, a Musalman assassin struck down the Chief-Justice of Bengal under the portico of his own Court. I put forth this Second Edition in the hope that it may produce a reaction equally apart from the popular alarm which has followed that crime, and from the popular apathy which had for years preceded it. To know the real truth about our position in India seems to me to be the sole safeguard against chronic torpor on the one hand, and sudden panics on the other. A critic, whose article proves that he knows India well, and whose eloquent appreciation has given me much encouragement, speaks of the work as a 'demi- official' one. I cannot let the revised sheets go home without guarding against the misconception to which such a statement might give rise. Government granted me free access to its Archives on a subject in which it was known I had long taken a deep interest, and with regard to which it seemed well that the whole facts should be placed before the public. But it made no attempt to influence my views, nor is it in any way responsible for my conclusions. All that this book does is to collect the documents hitherto isolated in the various Departments of the Government of India, and out of these scattered links to put together a trustworthy historical narrative.