Tempo:
CHAP. VI
THE SIKH ARMY
163
In the year 1822 the French Generals, Ventura and 1822. AUard, reached Lahore by way of Persia and Afgha- -nT^sikh nistan, and, after some little hesitation, they were army, employed and treated with distinction.'^ It has been usual to attribute the superiority of the Sikh army to the labours of these two officers, and of their subsequent coadjutors, the Generals Court and Avitabile; but, in Arrival of truth, the Sikh owes his excellence as a soldier to his ^^"'^'^ own hardihood of character, to that spirit of adaptation Lahore 1822 which distinguishes every new people, and to that ^^^^^ feeling of a common interest and destiny implanted lences of in him by his great teachers. The Rajputs and Pathans the sikhs are valiant and high-minded warriors: but their pride as soldiers, and their courage are personal only, and concern them characteras men of ancient family and noble lineage; they will istics of do nothing unworthy of their birth, but they are ^^^"^^ ^"f Pathans,
indifferent to the political advancement of their race. Marathas, The efforts of the Marathas, in emancipating themselves from a foreign yoke, were neither guided nor Thej'strengthened by any distinct hope or desire. became free, but knew not how to remain independent, and they allowed a crafty Brahman - to turn their not notice the circumstance of a grievous famine having occurred shortly before his visit, which drove thousands of the people to the plains of India, and he forgets that the valley had been under the sway of Afghan adventurers for many years, the severity of whose rule is noticed by Forster (Travels, ii. 26, &c.). The ancestors of the numerous families of Kashmiri Brahmans, now settled in Delhi, Lucknow, Scc, were likewise refugees from Afghan oppression; and it is curious that the consolidation of Ran jit Singh's power should have induced several of these families to repair to the Punjab, and even to return to their original country. This, notwithstanding the Hinduism of the Sikh faith, is still somewhat in favour of Sikh rule.
Murray, Ranjit Singh, p. 131, &c. [The reference is to Nana Farnavis, who became Prime Minister of the Peshwa in 1775 and who died in 1800, having exercised an extraordinary influence over Maratha politics during his years of ascendancy. 'He had consistently been opposed to the political progress of the English as subversive of Maratha power, and he objected to the employment of foreign troops under any conditions; but he was faithful to his political engagements, and his devotion to the maintenance of the honour of his own nation is attested by the respect of all his contemporaries. The faithless materials with which he had to deal at the close of his life threw him into intrigues and combinations for his own preservation which would otherwise have been avoided and left him at liberty to continue the able administration he had conducted for twenty-five years' 1
-
(Meadows Taylor). On the occasion of his death the English Resident at Poona wrote: 'With him has departed all the wiMom and moderation of the Maratha Government.' See Grant Duff, History of the Marathas, ed. 1826, p. 188.—Ed.]
of
THE SIKH ARMY
163
In the year 1822 the French Generals, Ventura and 1822. AUard, reached Lahore by way of Persia and Afgha- -nT^sikh nistan, and, after some little hesitation, they were army, employed and treated with distinction.'^ It has been usual to attribute the superiority of the Sikh army to the labours of these two officers, and of their subsequent coadjutors, the Generals Court and Avitabile; but, in Arrival of truth, the Sikh owes his excellence as a soldier to his ^^"'^'^ own hardihood of character, to that spirit of adaptation Lahore 1822 which distinguishes every new people, and to that ^^^^^ feeling of a common interest and destiny implanted lences of in him by his great teachers. The Rajputs and Pathans the sikhs are valiant and high-minded warriors: but their pride as soldiers, and their courage are personal only, and concern them characteras men of ancient family and noble lineage; they will istics of do nothing unworthy of their birth, but they are ^^^"^^ ^"f Pathans,
indifferent to the political advancement of their race. Marathas, The efforts of the Marathas, in emancipating themselves from a foreign yoke, were neither guided nor Thej'strengthened by any distinct hope or desire. became free, but knew not how to remain independent, and they allowed a crafty Brahman - to turn their not notice the circumstance of a grievous famine having occurred shortly before his visit, which drove thousands of the people to the plains of India, and he forgets that the valley had been under the sway of Afghan adventurers for many years, the severity of whose rule is noticed by Forster (Travels, ii. 26, &c.). The ancestors of the numerous families of Kashmiri Brahmans, now settled in Delhi, Lucknow, Scc, were likewise refugees from Afghan oppression; and it is curious that the consolidation of Ran jit Singh's power should have induced several of these families to repair to the Punjab, and even to return to their original country. This, notwithstanding the Hinduism of the Sikh faith, is still somewhat in favour of Sikh rule.
Murray, Ranjit Singh, p. 131, &c. [The reference is to Nana Farnavis, who became Prime Minister of the Peshwa in 1775 and who died in 1800, having exercised an extraordinary influence over Maratha politics during his years of ascendancy. 'He had consistently been opposed to the political progress of the English as subversive of Maratha power, and he objected to the employment of foreign troops under any conditions; but he was faithful to his political engagements, and his devotion to the maintenance of the honour of his own nation is attested by the respect of all his contemporaries. The faithless materials with which he had to deal at the close of his life threw him into intrigues and combinations for his own preservation which would otherwise have been avoided and left him at liberty to continue the able administration he had conducted for twenty-five years' 1
-
(Meadows Taylor). On the occasion of his death the English Resident at Poona wrote: 'With him has departed all the wiMom and moderation of the Maratha Government.' See Grant Duff, History of the Marathas, ed. 1826, p. 188.—Ed.]
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