Tempo:
—
-
HISTORY OF THE SIKHS
216 1841.
enables to
it
become
the representative body of the
Khalsa.
chap, viii
public affairs. The efficiency of the army as a disciplined force was not much impaired, for a higher feeling possessed the men, and increased alacrity and resolution supplied the place of exact training. They were' sensible of the advantages of systematic union, and they were proud of their armed array as the visible body of Gobind's commonwealth. As a general rule, the troops were obedient to their appointed officers, so far as concerned their ordinary military duties, but the position of a regiment, of a brigade, of a division, or of the whole army, relatively to the executive government of the country, was determined by a committee or assemblage of committees, termed a 'Panch' or
Tanchayat', i.e. a jury or committee of five, composed of men selected from each battalion, or each company, in consideration of their general character as faithful Sikh soldiers, or from their particular influence in their native villages. ^ The system of Panchayats is common throughout India, and every tribe, or section of a tribe, or trade, or calling, readily submits to the decisions of its elders or superiors seated together in consultation. In the Punjab the custom received a further development from the organization necessary to an army; and even in the crude form of representation thus achieved, the Sikh people wepe enabled to interfere with effect, and with some degree of consistency, in the nomination and in the removal of their rulers. But these large assemblies sometimes added military licence to popular tumult, and the corrupt spirit of mercenaries to the barbarous ignorance of ploughmen. Their resolutions were often unstable or unwise, and the representatives of different divisions might take opposite sides from sober conviction or self-willed prejudice, or they might be bribed and cajoled by such able and unscrupulous men as Raja Negotiations with the English about inland trade,
Gulab Singh. The partial repose in the autumn
of
1841
was
taken advantage of to recur to those mercantile objects, of which the British Government never lost sight. The facilities of navigating the Indus and Sutlej had
1841. [1
One is strongly reminded of the organization of the army under Cromwell, with its regimental
Parliamentary 'elders', &c.
Ed.]
See Mr. Clerk's letter of the 14th March 1841, for Fakir Aziz-ud-din's admission, that even then the army was united and ruled by its panchayats. With reference to the Panchayats of India, it may be observed that Hallam shows, chiefly from -
Palgrave, that English juries likewise were originally as much Middle Ages, Notes to arbitrators as investigators of facts.
Chap. VTII.)
-
HISTORY OF THE SIKHS
216 1841.
enables to
it
become
the representative body of the
Khalsa.
chap, viii
public affairs. The efficiency of the army as a disciplined force was not much impaired, for a higher feeling possessed the men, and increased alacrity and resolution supplied the place of exact training. They were' sensible of the advantages of systematic union, and they were proud of their armed array as the visible body of Gobind's commonwealth. As a general rule, the troops were obedient to their appointed officers, so far as concerned their ordinary military duties, but the position of a regiment, of a brigade, of a division, or of the whole army, relatively to the executive government of the country, was determined by a committee or assemblage of committees, termed a 'Panch' or
Tanchayat', i.e. a jury or committee of five, composed of men selected from each battalion, or each company, in consideration of their general character as faithful Sikh soldiers, or from their particular influence in their native villages. ^ The system of Panchayats is common throughout India, and every tribe, or section of a tribe, or trade, or calling, readily submits to the decisions of its elders or superiors seated together in consultation. In the Punjab the custom received a further development from the organization necessary to an army; and even in the crude form of representation thus achieved, the Sikh people wepe enabled to interfere with effect, and with some degree of consistency, in the nomination and in the removal of their rulers. But these large assemblies sometimes added military licence to popular tumult, and the corrupt spirit of mercenaries to the barbarous ignorance of ploughmen. Their resolutions were often unstable or unwise, and the representatives of different divisions might take opposite sides from sober conviction or self-willed prejudice, or they might be bribed and cajoled by such able and unscrupulous men as Raja Negotiations with the English about inland trade,
Gulab Singh. The partial repose in the autumn
of
1841
was
taken advantage of to recur to those mercantile objects, of which the British Government never lost sight. The facilities of navigating the Indus and Sutlej had
1841. [1
One is strongly reminded of the organization of the army under Cromwell, with its regimental
Parliamentary 'elders', &c.
Ed.]
See Mr. Clerk's letter of the 14th March 1841, for Fakir Aziz-ud-din's admission, that even then the army was united and ruled by its panchayats. With reference to the Panchayats of India, it may be observed that Hallam shows, chiefly from -
Palgrave, that English juries likewise were originally as much Middle Ages, Notes to arbitrators as investigators of facts.
Chap. VTII.)
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