John James Hood Gordon

“ There is much expressed regarding humility and the transitory nature of life, with its vanity, pride, egotism, idolatry, and malpractices:—
"Think not of caste: abase thyself and attain to salvation." "O brother, thy body and prosperity will not go with thee after death." "Man is but as the passing shade of the flying bird." "Wealth, youth, and a flower are guests for four days." "I may fasten a crown, royal hat and umbrella, on my head, I may be called a khan, king, or raja, but without God I am nothing."
"Who dwells in the house of the true one death shall not overcome. ”

“ They have taken part with us in many a "far-flung battle-line" in Asia and Africa, and become the symbol to India of all that is loyal and courageous. Wherever there has been hard fighting to be done, there they have been found in the forefront, maintaining their high reputation for steadfast fidelity, dogged tenacity, and dauntless courage,—the undying heritage of the Sikhs. As they fought for their Gurus and for their Maharaja, so they have fought for Britain. Loyalty is in their blood.
The Punjab—the land of the five rivers, as the name signifies—is the home-land of the Sikhs. ”

“ He appealed to the eternal human instinct of equality, liberty, and brotherhood, broke for ever with caste prejudices, and received into the Khalsa people of all classes who had hitherto been debarred from bearing arms. The Singhs of the Khalsa felt themselves at once elevated to rank and equality with the proud martial Rajputs. Personal pride and vigour were infused into them, and Sikhism knitted them together in the brotherhood of the Sword. Each became great in his own eyes, as forming one of the select Khalsa whom the Guru regarded as his own. ”

“ Though the Khalsa has ceased to be a political power, it has entwined its military, force with a strong chord of loyalty and sympathy for the British Crown. The profession of arms remains within the stream of their national life, and the title "Singh" is still with them what it was in their palmy days, one of military honour and glory and a badge of independence in religious thought. Their religion unquestionably encourages high moral and physical qualities. Whatever fighting they have set themselves to do for us they have done well. ”

“ He is my refuge—without Him I have not other assistance or reliance." "Thou art my friend and companion, my Lord, why should my soul be afraid." "True is the Lord, of a true name; in language His love is infinite. O Nanak, His worshippers are always happy." "Great is the Lord, of a great name, by whom creation is made. ”

“ The Sikh army—the weapon which Ranjit Singh had so well forged—turned against his best friends, the British, who met in it the hardest fighting enemy they had encountered in the East, and whose gallantry and steadiness in action excited the admiration of their opponents just as that of their remote ancestors the Getæ or Indo-Scythic warriors at Arbela, twenty-two centuries before, when fighting under Darius against the Macedonian phalanx, drew forth the praise of the great Alexander. ”

“ They soon rallied, and once more emerged from the wreckage, beginning life again at Amritsar, and restoring their temple and sacred tank. They then showed what a powerful force character is in the formation of a nation—character moulded by religious persecution and the unflinching courage of the true Sikh, instilled by Govind, "who never fears though oft overcome," which engendered vitality under all conditions, the more adverse the better, with a determination to struggle for the triumph of the Khalsa at all costs. ”

“ Bred in a locality which has had to bear the brunt of every invasion, and imbued with the traditions of these long centuries of tumult, the peasantry were as proficient with the sword as with the plough, passing to and from the pursuits of war and peace according to the times. ”

“ Ahmad Shah returned to Kabul, leaving his son Tymur at Lahore as Viceroy of the Punjab. The confusion and tumult arising from these repeated invasions enabled the Sikh associations to acquire fresh strength by preying on both Moghul and Afghan. No other course was now left to them but to conquer or be conquered. It was war to the knife between them and their new and more robust masters, the Afghans. No quarter was given or asked. Time after time was Amritsar captured, but after each defeat Sikh enthusiasm rose with unabated vigour. ”

“ Though the Punjab is not blessed by nature like the rich tropical Gangetic valley, it is fruitful in bold and enterprising men. This is the secret of its great prosperity at the present day. Nowhere in India are the peasantry more flourishing and contented, as it was Lord Lawrence's policy fifty years ago to make them—to become the bulwark of the Indian Empire in the north. ”

“ A proclamation was issued by the Lahore Viceroy ordering a general massacre of the long-haired Singhs wherever found. They were hunted like wild beasts, a price being placed on their heads; thousands were put to death, refusing pardon on condition of renouncing their faith and cutting their hair. They were looked on as martyrs to the cause, but, despite all, the Khalsa grew and increased in boldness. Bands of Sikh horsemen were to be seen at dawn riding at full gallop towards Amritsar, running the gantlet of the Mahomedan troops. ”

“ Many of the old orthodox Sikhs lamented his assumption of irresponsible power, which destroyed the theocratic Khalsa policy of preventing any one chief establishing absolute power; and they recalled the days of equality when he lived at Amritsar as one of themselves, though the first among the equals. They viewed with alarm his Court surroundings of men who were not Sikhs, who encouraged him to confine the Jats to the army as not clever enough for statecraft. The Brahmans and Dogra Rajput chiefs looked on them as inferiors, only fit as soldiers to obey their orders. ”

“ From the first when he met the British, although he had Holkar and the Mahrattas as refugees supplicating an alliance, and all Hindostan was in a blaze, he formed a clear conception of English strength and resources, and acquired a great respect for their character. Though a man of immense ambition, he was gifted with a far-sightedness that few Indian rulers have possessed, and one of the main lines of his policy was to keep his word with the British and avoid under all circumstances collision with them. ”

“ In the eyes of the Sikhs, Peshawar was the barometer of the strength of British power. It was the force of old habit in looking to the north, whence storms were wont to roll down on Lahore. "If Peshawar holds firm," said a wise old Sikh sardar, "all is well." He knew from experience what power it required to hold it firm in fair weather: if the British could do so in foul weather, all was safe. Lawrence's trusted lieutenants there, armed with the powerful factor of personal influence, aided the general in striking strong and quick blows at mutiny. ”

“ Some time previous to his death Ranjit Singh had taken into special favour the family of his minister Raja Dhian Singh, a Dogra Rajput, consisting of his son and two brothers, upon all of whom he conferred the title of Raja with princely jagirs or fiefs for their maintenance. Poor, but of good family, they entered the Sikh service as troopers; handsome and well-mannered, they soon attracted notice by their ability, and rapidly rose to high positions, where their influence in public affairs became paramount; but not being Sikhs, they were looked on with great jealousy by the other sardars. ”

“ They seem to have drifted towards this just as the Guruship, which commenced as a democratic institution, became hereditary, thereby firmly establishing the Sikh religion. Political influence and power thus fell into the hands of a military aristocracy—an oligarchy based on republican principles. There were no wide distinctions between class and class. Powerful as was the influence of bold independent action which brought fame and rank, it was an influence which pervaded all, and in which none was too poor to share. ”

“ The Khalsa, the one united power left, became prætorian in character, selling their services to the highest bidder. Army delegates decided in Council the fate of king and country, making and unmaking their rulers and officers. Murder was to settle every claimant, whether as Maharaja or Wuzir. There is not to be found in the annals of any country a more blood-stained record of relentless struggles for power than that of this epoch in Sikh history, when three Maharajas, three Wuzirs, and other aspirants to power in quick succession met violent deaths. ”

“ I bivouacked with the men without food or covering, and our nights are very cold—a burning camp in our front, our brave fellows lying down under a heavy cannonade, which continued during the whole night—mixed with the wild cry of the Sikhs our English hurrah, the tramp of men, and the groans of the dying. ”

“ He was a great man of action and a good ruler for his time, his Government—a mild despotism—being then the only one suited to control the diverse and turbulent elements in the Punjab. Under his strong hand such order and security reigned there as had never been known before. He left to his successor (unfortunately a weak man) a united kingdom, a territory larger than the present Italy, and a well-appointed trained army provided with the best weapons of the day, which the British, a few years later, found the most difficult to overcome that they had ever met in India. ”

“ All his works are in vain." "The Lord is the strength of the weak. He neither comes nor goes. He is always firm." "At the last moment, O Nanak, none but God is any avail." "Fall at the feet of God; in senseless stone God is not; worship not another than God; bow not to the dead."
Although Nanak always spoke humbly of himself and confessed himself unlearned and the lowest of learners, the high position which the Guru occupied naturally led to his deification, and his disciples commenced to Himself. ”

“ She was one of the most artful and ambitious of her sex who ever figured in Sikh history, and became the ladder by which Ranjit Singh ascended to power: a masterful woman, the widow of a sardar—heir to a rival misl—killed while fighting against Maha Singh, she aimed, by bringing about a marriage alliance between her daughter and Ranjit Singh, to secure his support to her claims to the sardarship of the misl to which her husband would have succeeded. ”

“ By converting a horde of undisciplined peasants into enthusiastic soldiers animated with religious fervour, by inuring them to warfare, and by his new ordinances moulding them into the distinct community of the Khalsa,—the Commonwealth bonded together to fight until they triumphed,—Govind Singh contributed much to the weakening of the Mahomedan power at a time when the Emperor Aurangzeb, by his bigotry towards Hindus, was paving the way for the disintegration of his Empire. Under his strong hand the Sikhs rose by a feeling of nationality among a people who had none. ”

“ The Sikh army had now been smashed on thoroughly scientific principles: no mistake was possible as to the decisive character of their defeat. Completely routed, they broke away in full flight to the north, pursued by the relentless cavalry, which inflicted further execution on them. A column of 12,000 men was promptly sent across the Jhelum to follow the wreck of the army and gather up all the fruits of victory. Slier Singh sent in to the British camp the English officers he had as prisoners, who had been taken when on duty with the Durbar troops. ”

“ GOVIND SINGH'S ARMED DISCIPLES.
The Early Soldiers of the Khalsa.
addressing them he commenced by praising God as the Omnipotent, Almighty, Invincible, and Merciful, who must be worshipped in truthfulness and sincerity, and that no material resemblance must degrade Him. He could only be beheld by the eye of faith in the general body of the Khalsa. All Sikhs must be united in one chain of brotherhood. "Ye Sikhs are all brothers, all equal; there must be no caste among you, you must all be equal, no man greater than the other. All must eat together and drink from the same cup. ”

“ The hour had come and with it the man, when it became necessary to establish a central authority for the organised unity of the State. The copartnery system had served its purpose while it was the policy to oppose the Mahomedan everywhere in the land, whether Moghul, Persian, or Afghan—the policy of a struggle for life; but the sardars, long accustomed to independent action, ill-brooked the change to Ranjit Singh's policy of a struggle for one-man power, and often in durbar an old chief would address him as "brother" and speak out his mind regarding the new order of Khalsa affairs. ”

“ They had confidence in themselves and in one another; their disparity in numbers only made them act as if every man felt that the result depended on his own single conduct. They were conscious of their instinctive soldiership at close quarters and inspired with unbounded audacity. ”

“ As Nanak woke up the people by reforming their religion, and Govind by stern discipline developed their political independence, so Ranjit Singh, with a wise old head on his young shoulders, seizing the opportunity to found a military monarchy on the fruits of their labours, gave coherence to the Sikh nation. ”

“ During the last decade the Sikh population has become more numerous—by 13 per cent; and as the result of greater numbers of them being now enlisted, there has been an increase of those called Govindi Sikhs who have taken the pahal. They are held to make the best soldiers, the stern religious discipline enjoined by Govind engendering self-command, self-respect, and obligation to duty unto death through the talismanic influence of the Khalsa. ”

“ The dry bones of an oppressed peasantry were stirred into life, and the institution of the Sikh baptismal rite at the hands of a few disciples anywhere—in a place of worship, in the house, or by the roadside—brought about the more full and widespread development of the new faith. In Govind were united the qualities of religious leader, king, warrior, and lawgiver. He was the right man for the needs of the Sikhs of his day. He devoted them to steel, and hence the worship of the Sword. ”

“ Other minor families sprang from them, all attaining to wealth and power. The chief of Patiala took the lead, and his successes over the Pathans and Rajputs brought many Sikhs from over the Sutlej to his banner. Ahmad Shah of Kabul, the conqueror of Delhi, to whom the Punjab was ceded by the Moghuls, made him Governor of Sirhind, with the title of Raja, later on investing his son with the insignia of an independent prince. Often the State was under the influence of women of courage, wisdom, and activity, who fought in person at the head of their troops. ”

“ Of all the many peoples of India none possesses for us greater or more varied historical interest than the Sikhs, a people who four hundred years ago as a reformed religious sect sprang from the ranks of the Jats, a numerous as well as the most important agricultural tribe in the Punjab, descended from the ancient Scythian Getæ. They stand out prominently as men of action, who have preserved inherited racial characteristics foreign to Orientals, and evolved themselves by the strength of their own arms into one of the finest military types to be found anywhere. ”

“ This act has been observed by the faithful Govindi Sikhs through the many years; but little remains now, as the railway contractor some years ago appeared on the scene and carried away the mass of old Sirhind as ballast on which to lay the iron track—the iron made sacred by the martial Guru, and which every true Singh was commanded to wear always in some shape, either as a sword, a small hatchet, or as a bangle. ”

“ Though driven back by superior numbers to take shelter in the ravines and folds of the ground, they leapt forward again and again at the call of their regimental leaders, till they gained a footing by shouldering one another up to the embrasures, capturing and spiking the guns in their front. The Sikhs fought stubbornly and desperately hand to hand, till at last the assailants, swarming through the breaches, mounted the ramparts with cheers of victory and took the whole line of intrenchments ”

“ As sons of the soil, the goal of their home ambition is land—more land and oxen to work it. Sikh wives are as free and independent as the men, and during the absence of the husbands remain at home in charge of affairs. On the annexation of the Punjab they were the first to appreciate the advantages of being subjects of the British Crown. When it became known that the English, who had conquered the Sikhs, were ruled by a Queen who was now their sovereign, they went in strongly for woman's rights and became a terror to tyrannical husbands. ”

“ King and political head of the Punjab, as well as chief of the Khalsa, he aimed at reconciling the varied divisions of race and creed among his subjects by employing all in his service. He kept up, however, the theory of the Khalsa, attributing every success to the favour of the Guru in the name of the Lord. "God the helper—Ranjit Singh," was his sign-manual. The Sikhs retained special privileges as the ruling race, the heart and soul of the military nation—the favoured of the State. ”

“ The shattered remnant of the Sikh army retired and halted near Lahore, ready to lay down their arms. Within the short period of sixty days from the time when the Sikhs crossed the Sutlej so confident of victory, the British force, far inferior in numbers of men and guns, but superior in everything which makes for success, had defeated the flower of the great Khalsa in four well-fought-out pitched battles and wrested from them in action 220 guns, while only 14,000 of that derelict army now remained in the field. ”

“ The British horse artillery and cavalry vigorously assailed them in flank, and sweeping along their rear routed their cavalry, while they were attacked in front by the field-guns supporting the infantry, which, charging with the bayonet, drove them from position after position with great slaughter, and captured 17 guns. The Sikhs fought fiercely and retired sullenly in good order, seizing every opportunity to turn on their foes. Night only saved them from worse disaster. They retreated in the darkness to their main camp and Ferozeshah, ten miles off, which was strongly intrenched. ”

“ Recently in the columns of a Punjab newspaper he has expressed his conviction that the political object which led the Sikhs to adopt a military life—viz., the establishment of a perfectly peaceful Government and the maintenance of a rule of justice and religious toleration—has been completely realised under the benign reign of the British Government, and that the Sikhs, fully regarding that Government as a god-send, have accordingly placed themselves entirely at its service. ”

“ A happy consequence of our wars with the Sikhs was that we learned their great value as soldiers when mutual respect was won by valour in the field. After the first war some Sikh regiments were raised for our service, and after the annexation Sikhs were freely enlisted in the Frontier Force, and also in some regiments of the Bengal army, where they were not, however, welcomed by the Brahman fraternity, who resented intrusion on their own preserves as tending to break up their solidarity. ”

“ In a will case lately before the Punjab law courts, the decision was that the Sikhs at the present time are regarded only as a sect of Hindus; but the local Sikh organ, 'The Khalsa,'—its policy being to maintain the original reformed religion and worship of the Sikh Church,—protested that Sikhism differs widely from Hinduism in fundamental doctrine; that Sikhs do not consider themselves Hindus, and do not respect the Hindu pantheon or observe their religious rites; that Nanak, though born in a Hindu family, was not a Hindu, but established an independent religious sect of his own ”

“ War with the British was to be the remedy. Anti-British feeling ever since the death of the wise Ranjit Singh was the prevailing weapon used in political intrigues. The fire which had been so long played with now became master. The idea of the Maharani in her spirit of revenge was after that of Iago, "Whether Briton killed Sikh, or Sikh killed Briton, or each do kill one another, either way makes my gain." She feared the Sikhs far more than the British. If victorious, the Khalsa would be engaged in plundering India, and she would gain the credit ”