THE CLOUDS GATHER

Few among the rulers of India succumbed to the illusion that British rule was popular. It was, indeed, greatly liked by many of the peasants and of the poorer people, to whom peace and equity were more important than prestige or theoretical ideas of independence, but it was distrusted by many in the middle class of traders and landlords, and detested by what was probably a majority among the highly educated and professional elite. Sporadic uprisings in various places had given warning of the extent of discontent that lay below the surface; the more prudent reckoned with the probability that one day there would be a general explosion. But when the general explosion did occur it came in a strange combination of the unexpected with the inevitable.

During the crucial years of the 1850s the reins were in the capable hands of the Earl (from 1849 Marquess) of Dalhousie. This highly gifted man arrived in India at the age of thirty-five and devoted himself with almost fanatical intensity to the improvement of the country of which he regarded himself the chief servant. Many of the measures which he carried through, such as the plan for the development of the railways and the introduction of the electric cable, were of great and permanent service to the country.