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MODERN HYDERABAD.
147

shorn of such privileges as their own Law Courts and prisons. The small jagirdars are, it seems to me, the white elephant of the Hyderabad State at the present time, for they retard general progress and, in most cases, take no interest in the education of their ryots.

And I am not at all sure that an excessive regard for privileges conferred in by-gone ages is good for the masses. In fact I noticed in the districts an inertia that I have not found anywhere in British India. In vain I looked for modern Hindu temples. The ruins of old ones I found, but I saw few, if any, Hindu temples that have been built during the time of the Nizams. Even in religion the Hindus appear to be apathetic under Mahomedan rule. Mosques I saw everywhere, but when I asked : — "Where do the Hindus worship?" I was shown ruined temples on hills outside cities, or I was told : — "The Hindus go to the Godavari — their sacred river — to say their prayers."

Perhaps it is good for the Hindus to be hustled. I do not know. Bombs are unpleasant. I cannot imagine a Nizam riding alone to meet a Wat Tyler, like Richard the Second of England; yet without such