address to Your
Lordship emanates from the idea that you go on your way home to your
native country with a high and favourable opinion of the Mahomedans of
India, true and loyal subjects to Her Majesty the Queen-Empress, whose
number exceeds six crores, and who are rapidly growing. During the
Mutiny of 1857 the Chieftains and soldiers of our nation spared
neither money nor arms in the reduction and submission of the rebels.
Your Lordship is also aware what loyalty was displayed by the
Mahomedans of India during the Afghan and Egyptian wars, waged against
their own co-religionists, and the cheerfulness shown by them in
following your Lordship in all your victories. Frontier services, such
as the Kabul Embassy and the Delimitation Commission, rendered by the
officers of our creed are also well known to you. We are therefore
sanguine that Your Lordship's own observation will enable all the
members of the Ruling race in India to form an opinion of the
relations that exist between us and the British Crown. The Mahomedans
of India and the Punjab are proud of being the devoted subjects of the
Queen-Empress. In so acting we perform our religious duties, for our
sacred religion enjoins upon us faithfulness and obedience towards our
Ruling monarch, and teaches us to regard the Christians as our own
brethren. The regard and esteem which we should have, therefore, for
a Christian Government, as that of our kind mother the Queen-Empress,
needs no demonstration. Although, for certain reasons which we need
not detail here, our nation has been deficient in education, and we
have been left much behind in obtaining civil employment, we hope that
your long experience of our service will prove a good testimonial in
favour of the warlike spirit, military genius, and loyalty of
our nation, and if the circle of civil employment has become too
straitened for us, the military line will be generously opened to us.
We do not want to encroach upon Your Lordship's valuable time any
further. We therefore finish our address, offering our heartfelt
thanks to your Lordship for all those kindnesses you have been wont to
show during your time towards India and Indians in general, and the
Punjab and Punjabis in particular, and take leave of Your Lordship
with the following prayer: 'May God bless thee wherever thou mayest
be, and may thy generosities continue to prevail upon us for a long
time.' While actuated by these feelings, we are not the less aware
t