Major Sections
The Hindu Phenomenon

THE CIVILIZATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Clearly, so dramatic a development as the disarming of a people used to carrying and wielding weapons could not but have had major consequences. Clearly this issue deserves to be studied at length. In the present context, I would wish to underscore the point that the British move affected Muslims more adversely than Hindus for the simple reason that Muslims were more dependent on the use of the sword than Hindus who had successfully maintained their primacy in business even during Mughal rule4 and had been much quicker to take advantage of the opportunities Western education offered them for entry into professions such as law and government employment.

I am convinced that a significant and fundamental shift took place in the power balance between Hindus and Muslims as a result of the consolidation of the Raj and the disarming of the populace which began in 1818 and was completed in 1858, and that this shift was not reversed by the pro-Muslim change in the official attitude, starting from the 1870s, and the policy of divide and rule, though it led to partition in 1947. Indeed, it could not be reversed.

 

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About The Civilizational Perspective
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Notes & References