Page:The Maharaja of Cashmere.djvu/27

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medan conquerors soon took up their permanent abode in India, and their sons and sons' sons became children of the soil. Thus in a few generations they became merged in the general population, and, though much religious rancour prevailed at one time between them and their Hindu fellow-countrymen, they gradually got reconciled to each other and began to live on terms of amity and friendship. What was foreign agency at the commencement thus imperceptibly received a native mould, and was transformed into the general indigenous administrative machinery of the country. Most parts of India still continued to be governed by the Hindus, with central power in some notable instances in the hands of the Moslem Emperors of Delhi, or, when these were not strong enough, in the hands of powerful governors or refractory rulers of siibahs or provinces ; but it used to be an established order of things that Hindus often held the highest posts under Mahomedan kings and vice versa. With the English