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The one
with the pen is George Forster
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George Forster was a civilian employee of the
East India Company whom Warren Hastings selected for his scholarly
aptitude, to proceed to Punjab for collecting authentic information
and writing about the Sikhs. Forster left Calcutta on May 23,1782
for overland journey to England and passed through the North Eastern
hilly tracts of the Punjab in February, March and April 1783 in
disguise as a Turkish traveller for fear of the Sikhs. He recorded
his impressions in a series of letters, published in two volumes
in London in 1798 under the title of "A Journey from Bengal
to England etc."
Forster has devoted letter XI in Vol. 1, 1808 print (Pages 291340)
exclusively to the Sikhs, though there are occasional references
to the Sikhs in his other letters also vide Vol. I, first print
(pages 128-30, 199, 227-28) and Vol. II (pages 83, 88).
Forster's account of the Sikhs which is authentic, informative and
appreciative was written after his numerous contacts with the Sikhs.
This is the first objective study of the Sikhs of the second half
of the eighteenth century partly based on "large historical
tracts of the Siques" furnished to the author by Colonel Polier
in the service of the East India Company (1757-75). But unlike Polier's,
the overall opinion of Forster about the Sikhs was favourable which
he frankly expressed in the main letter bearing on the Sikhs written
by him from Kashmir in 1783 to Mr. Gregory at Lucknow.
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