भारत में अंग्रेजी राज (पण्डित सुन्दरलाल - ब्रिटिश औपनिवेशिक लूट व षड्यन्त्रों का प्रामाणिक इतिहास)

मीर जाफ़र १३७
लिया होता, तो इस समय मेरे हाथों में वास्तविक सत्ता होती, मेरा नाम
इज्ज़त से लिया जाता और मेरा मुल्क बच गया होता ! किन्तु अब,—अपने
महल की खिड़की से बाहर नज़र डालते ही मुझे लाल वरदी वाले अंगरेज़
सिपाही दिखाई दे रहे हैं, जो मेरे ही बाग़ी रिश्तेदार के झंडे के नीचे जमा
हैं ! जो व्यवहार मैंने स्वयं सिराजुद्दौला के साथ किया, क्या मैं मीर क़ासिम
से उससे अधिक दया की आशा कर सकता हूं?' इत्यादि । निस्सन्देह अपने
स्वामी और रिश्तेदार के साथ मीर जाफ़र ने जो व्यवहार किया था उसकी
याद इस समय मीर जाफ़र की आँखों के सामने से फिर गई होगी x x x ।"*
*"Well, indeed, on that eventful morning, might the thoughts of the
old man have carried him back to a period little more than three years distant,
when, on the field of Plassy, he too, in secret compact with these same
English, had betrayed his kinsman and master to obtain the seat which
another kinsman was now by similar means wresting from him. What to
him had been the power thus basely and dishonourably obtained? All the
agonies of the preceding fifty-eight years of his life paled before those which
he had suffered during the three years he had ruled as Nawab in the usurped
palace of Sirajuddowlah. He could not but contrast his position threatened
by the men to whom he had sold his cuuntry, with that which he would have
occupied if, at Plassy, he had been loyal to the boy relative who had, in the
most ouching terms, implored him to defend his turban. With the prestige
of having been the main factor in the destruction of the insolent foreigners
who had since dictated to him, and who now threatened to dethrone him, he
would have wielded a real power; his name would have been honoured; his
country would have been secure. But now : -a glance from the window of his
palace showed him the red-coated English soldiers rallying round the standard
of his kinsman in revolt `against himself. Would Mir Kasim show him more
mercy than he had shown to Sirajuddolah? The recollection of the fate to
which he had abandoned his kinsman and master must have passed through
his mind . . ."—The Decisive Battles of India, by Colonel Malleson,
pp. 131, 132.