70 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
the manufactured goods of the country are undersold by the English.. a dismal decay has consequently taken place in the circumstances of the native merchants. “Regarding the decay of Dacca the same authority says, “Its trade is reduced to the sixtieth part of what it was, and all its splendid buildings,… the factories and the Churches of the French, Dutch and Portuguese Nations are all into ruin, and overgrown with jungle.”
To ameliorate their misery, natives petitioned Parliament saying, “that every encouragement is held out to the exportation from England to India of the growth and produce of foreign, as well as English industry, while many thousands of the natives of India, who, a short time ago, derived a livelihood from the growth of cotton and the manufacture of cotton goods, are without bread, in consequence of the facilities afforded to the produce of America, and the manufacturing industry of England.” But the appeal was made in vain and the interests of England always remained in the forefront in the eyes of those that were called upon to rule the destinies of India.
Though, as Bishop Heber rightly says that the officers of the Company avoid “all gloomy pictures” of the misery of the people, there are others who, marked by independence of opinions, are quite as explicit as they are emphatic on this point.
The Court of Directors wrote on May 7th, 1766 :
“We have the sense of the deplorable state…….from the corruption and rapacity of our servants, and the universal depravity of manners throughout the settlement……. Think the vast fortunes acquired by a scene of the most tyrannic and oppressive conduct that ever was known in any age or country.”
Clive, though criminal himself, was conscious of the oppression for, he wrote to George Dudley on September 8th, 1766 :
“But retrospection into actions which have been buried in oblivion for so many years; which if inquired into, may produce discoveries which cannot bear the light……..but may bring disgrace upon the nation, and at the same time blast the reputation of great and good families.”
Sir Thomas Munro was so indignant at the misrule of the Company that he said, “It would be more desirable that we should be expelled from the country altogether, than that the result of our