http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mblackhole.html
One hesitates to raise the issue at this time, but…
That John Zephaniah Holwell should have taken a liberal view on Hinduism is not all that surprising, seeing that Nawab Sirai-ud-daulah and his band of merry men were Moslems.
Well, true, but my point was the irony that the man who helped give the Brits legitimacy in kicking out the Mughals also began the road to legitimacy for the Hindi to kick out the Brits. Sowing the seeds of their own destruction, in a very roundabout and debatable way.
And a liberal view of Hinduism didn’t necessarily follow from being abused by Muslims; certainly, many of the Brits that spent time in India didn’t particularly care for either side, and the abuses both sides suffered from the Brits led to them working somewhat together in the Sepoy Munity.