The following pages contain facts that have been collected from Government Records and from personal observations by the writer; and options, mostly of the intelligent portion of the agricultural population of the N.W.P. and Oudh, one of whom the writer considers himself. What the English public know of India is from official sources. This information is rarely correct. The officers of Government depend for information mostly on their native subordinates, chiefly their favorites, who occupy that position not on account of their merit, but simply because they know how to keep their merit, but simply because they know how to keep their masters, razi (pleased and satisfied). This they do, of course, by flattery and by always doing the thing their masters wishes to be done. The general tendency of Anglo-Indian officers is to show, that everything is going on as satisfactorily as possible, which is far from the truth, at least at the present time. In spite of all that is said to the contrary, there is a great deal of misery and greater discontent among almost all classes of the population, especially among the rural population; and as a loyal subject, I have thought it my duty to try to make the real state of India known to the English public. I shall consider my labors amply rapid, if this little book induces unofficial enquiry, however partial, into the state of things in this country.
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