OBSERVATIONS ON THE SIKHS
(From the observations of Colonel Polier and Mr. George Forster)

Sir,*

Having gone through the subject of the Powers, which bear the most conspicuous and efficient parts in the Transactions of Hindostan, or who were more immediately brought forward on the Theatre of the last War, I will proceed to lay before you a cursory Description of the Seicks and Afghans, nations who, from the remoteness of their Situations, and, having no European connections, are hitherto but partially known to us.

In my Route overland, I had an opportunity of procuring some sketches of the History of the Seiks, which were reduced into a form, and inserted in that collection of letters containing the relation of my Journey to Jumboo with which you already have been furnished.+

Though the whole Relation, as it now stands, may not closely point at the given object of this analisis, yet as it will prevent the trouble of Reference, and the selection of matter difficult to extract, and also appear more in order, I will with your permission subjoin it in this Place.

"When it is considered that the Worship of the Hindoos is, at this day loaded with endless ceremonies and accompanied with a ridiculous and a puerile Grimace, it will be allowed that the tenets of the System which Nanock framed, are grounded on no unreasonable Basis. The tenor and the grand purport of the Seick Religion pointedly requires an abolition of the Worship of images. Their places of Devotion are plain, and divested of every ornament and figure.

"Instead of the Intermediation of inferior Deities they are ordered to address the Supreme Being, through the medium of Nanock his favorite agent and Deputy. Though a very material difference exists between the religious tenets of the Hindoos and those of the Seicks, yet the groundwork of both exhibit strong features of similarity. The Article indeed of receiving Proselytes, in the Doctrine of the Seicks causes an essential deviation from the Hindoo system. It totally overthrows those wonderful Barriers which were constructed and affixed by Brimha,5 for the arrangement of the different ranks and Professions of his People. When the Nation of the Seicks becomes sufficiently populous and has acquired a competent stability, it is not improbable but an alteration may take place in that tenet.

"They permit the growth of the hair of the head and beard, they generally wear an Iron Bracelet on the left6 hand and the use of Tobacco is proscribed among them. Nanock, it is said first published his Doctrine amongst the Mountains bordering on the Northern Plains of Hindostan, and in that space which lies between Shirhind and Lahor. He was there in a situation of more security than had he dwelt in the open Country, and he had also the advantage of being in the neighbourhood of an opulent and a numerous people. No notice of consequence it would seem had been taken of the Seicks until the reign of Acber, when that active Prince in the course of his subduing the Hindoo Mountaineers, discovered their Haunts and nearly extirpated them.7

"This Emperor, it is recorded, was so hostile to them, and so determined on crushing the existence of their Sect, that he imposed a Price on the head of every Seick.8 From that era to the period of Nadir Shaw's return from his Delhi expedition, but few authenticated facts can be produced of the state; of this People-When the Nadir's army were returning homewards laden with spoil, and from their success and the general dread entertained of them, regardless of regularity and discipline they were, fiercely attacked

"After various struggles with the Mussulmen, the Seicks possessed themselves of Sirhind, Lahor and Moultan, but they were attacked and driven out of a great part of their new acquisitions by the Afghans under their famous Chief Abdullah,+9 who was afterwards more generally known in India and Afghanistan by the name of Ahmed Shaw. This Prince affected great indignation at the Seicks presuming to occupy the Imperial Palace of Lahor, and that the supposed pollution might be wiped away, on his retaking that city, it is said he caused many of the Seicks to be put to death, and ordered that the facing and the steps of the great reservoir of water should be washed with their blood. The Seicks by making some extraordinary and well timed efforts in their turn drove the Afghans out of that part of Hindostan and that they might exhibit an Example of forbearance to their enemies and a restraint of the Power of revenge, the warmest passion in the breast of an Asiatic, and yet that they might not seem insensible of the injury, which had been offered to them, poured the blood of swine in those places which the Afghans had washed with that of theirs'. In a war which the Seicks had with Timur Shaw, the present Afghan Emperor, they lost the Province of Moultan, which, contrary to the general character of the Seicks, for Military ability, was given up with scarcely any resistance.

"This instance of such unusual Remissness in them seems to me very inexplicable, unless it was occasioned by their internal dissentions.10

"The Government of the Seicks, if any fixed denomination can be applied to it, may be termed Aristocratical. Their Chiefs are numerous and wholly independent of each other. They eventually act in concert with, and in opposition to their own Body, as in the case of Mhah Singh who has succoured the Rajah of Jumboo against the Seick Chief who invaded that Country.11

"From the observations which I have made of the Seicks they would appear to be a haughty and a high spirited people. Once I travelled in the company of a Seick Horseman for some days, and though I made to him several tenders of my acquaintance, he treated them all with great reserve, and a covered sort of disdain. There was no reason to be particularly offended at his hauteur towards me, for he regarded every other Person in the same manner. His answer, when I asked him very respectfully in whose service he was retained, seemed strikingly characteristic of what I conceive to be the disposition of the Nation. He said, in a tone of voice and with a countenance which glowed with and was keenly animated by the warm Spirit of Liberty and independence, that he disclaimed an earthly Master, and that he was the servant only of his Prophet.

"The Seicks, it is asserted, believe, tho they do not loudly insist on it, that Nanock is an Incarnation of Vishnow,*12 which the Hindoo Prophecies have foretold, is yet to exist and is to be the last one.

"The force of the Seicks may be said to wholly consist in Cavalry, they have in their army some Artillery, but it is so aukwardly managed and so ill attended to, that little benefit is derived from it. A Seick Horseman is armed with a Matchlock and a sabre, both in their kind, excellent. In this matter I speak from a real knowledge, for in the course of my travels, I had twice an opportunity of meeting with their Parties, each of which might consist of 200 men. The Horses were better than any I had ever seen either amongst the Hindoo or Mussulman Troops in the Eastern parts of India. The men were well clothed, chiefly in white Iamahs+, and their arms, together with their accoutrements, which consisted of priming horns and Ammunition Pouches, were in good order. The latter were mostly covered with our scarlet cloth and ornamented with gold lace.

"From the great predilection which the Seicks have for fire arms, and the constant use which they make of them, their mode of attack and defence, is different from that of any other Cavalry in Asia.

"A party from thirty to forty and fifty will advance on a gallop close up to the enemy and previously to the giving their Fire that they may do it with the greater certainty they draw in their Horses, at the performance of which Manoeuvre, the animal is so thoroughly trained, that most of them, on receiving a gentle stroke on the neck, will stop on the full career. Immediately on their pieces being discharged, they retreat about 100 paces, load, and repeat the same mode of annoying the enemy.

"It is not from this peculiarity in their discipline that the Seicks have made themselves formidable.

"This in my opinion is a great defect in their army. and if they persist in a continuance of it to the entire exclusion of Artillery, it may yet be a long space of time, ere they are enabled to drive the Afghans out of Hindostan, or extinguish the remains of the Mogul Government. Both which objects they entertain sanguine hopes of

"The success and Conquests of the Seicks have principally arisen from their unparalelled activity and the endurance of an almost incredible fatigue. These Constitutional Endowments they derive from an invariable Exercise of every species of temperance which gives them powerfull advantages over the debauched and debilitated Mussulman".

"A Body of Seick Troops has been known to make daily marches of 40 miles; and this exertion has not been confined to a single operation, which would not be remarkable, but it has been continued for many days.

"In 1782 the Territories of the Seicks, which towards the limits are often varying, were bounded on the north by the grand chain of mountains, which extend in a curved line across the Head of the Punjab; on the East by the Possessions of the Emperor, and his officers, which take in the Districts of Panipet and Kamal ; on the south-East by the Country of the Jauts, which was conquered by Najjif Khan and still continues annexed to the remains of the Empire, and on the South by Moultan; and the West and North-West by the Indus, and the Districts of Attock, which are now under the Dominions of the Afghans.

"From their being possessed of an ample, and a fertile Territory, and being when not occupied in Military service, much attached to the Business of Agriculture, and well skilled in it, it must be supposed that the revenues of the Seicks are very considerable, tho it would be presumptuous in me to attempt at ascertaining the amount.

"The Subah of Lahor in the Reign of Aurungzebe produced the annual revenue to Government according to Mr. Bernier of 246 Lacks and 95 thousand Rupees; and from the general character of the Seicks for their knowledge in the cultivation of Lands, I should imagine that there had been no decrease in the Reyenue, since the country has been in their possession.

"Their Military Force also must be great, but I am as little enabled to reduce that point to any certainty as to fix the amount of their Revenue.

"A Seick will say that his Country can furnish 4, or 500,000 Horsemen, and to authenticate his story, he tells you, that every person, even in the possession of a trifling property keeps a Horse, Matchlock and Side Arms. In which case, and if we can believe that they can produce when in unity 200,000 Horse, their Force in Cavalry must be greater, than that of any power now existing in Hindostan.

"The Seicks have taken possession of all the country of Zabeta Khan, and have left to him little more than Ghous Gheer his principal town and fort.

"This weak Chief in every thing the reverse of his Father, thought to obtain the protection of the Seicks, by becoming one of their Sect. He has been grievously disappointed, for when I was in that neighbourhood his Fort was beseiged by the Seicks, and he had been obliged to call in a Body of Mercenaries to his assistance. The name which he had assumed in consequence of his Conversion was Nemez Sing,13 the first

"The Seicks do not seem to be at all rigorous in their requisitions from Mussulmen Proselytes, who, if they abstain from eating Beef Flesh, which is held in as much Abhorrence by the Seicks as by the Hindoos, they are indulged in every other article.

"The Nation of the Seicks may be said to have wholly sprung from Hindoo Converts, not but many Mussulmen have been admitted amongst them, yet they constitute a small portion of the whole People and are immediately distinguished from the Hindoo Seicks, as well in the difference of Manner, as in the dissimilarity of Features.

"The Word Seick is I apprehend a Corruption of Sing,14 which signifies in the Hindoo Language a Lion, and which Title is given to every Seick, in the same Manner as the Khan is taken by the Afghans and Patans. This supposition I have been the farther induced to make from having observed, that by many of the Mussulmen, and likewise amongst themselves, they are denominated Seicks and Sings indiscriminately".

In this Account, which may I be allowed to say has a reasonable claim to authenticity you will see that the Seicks are a very respectable People, and when united in a common Cause must be powerful and formidable.

They generally in their predatory Excursions into the Countries of the neighbouring Hindoo Rajahs act as may be correspondent with their respective views, and are often seen engaged in opposite alliances, and in Hostilities with each other. But when incited by any grand national Concern, their Chiefs became confederated, and their Armies are combined.

The Seick Forces were wholly united, during the War which they carried on against the Afghans, whom they ultimately drove out of the Punjab, and have maintained, firm possession of it since that period.

In the beginning of the Year 1783 a considerable Body of Seicks came thro the Territories of Zabita Khan who as I have before noticed is become a Dependant on them, and approached the Ganges, where it forms the Western limit of Rohil Cund, with the design of crossing the River and invading the Possessions of the Vizier. At that time I happened to be travelling through Rohil Cund, and was a Witness of the disorder and general Terror which prevailed amongst the Inhabitants, many of whom, quitting the open Towns and Villages retired into Forts and Places inaccessible to Cavalry.

The Seicks perceiving the difficulty and danger of passing a River in the face of an Enemy, for the Vizier's Troops had been drawn together and stationed on the Eastern Bank of the Ganges to oppose their crossing, retired into their own Country. This fact has been adduced to show that the Seicks did command an undisturbed Passage to the

The rapid progress which Scindia has lately made in the Northern Quarter of India, and the ascendancy which he has thereby gained in the Government of Delhi and Agra, must soon place him in the Situation of becoming an avowed opponent of the Seicks, and in the course of events will throw him between that Nation and the Vizier, to whom, from the reason before stated in the sketch of Scindia this Chief will become a more secure Barrier, than that which has hitherto existed.

Little more remains to be said of the Seicks, than when they shall find themselves checked in their views by the power of Scindia on the East side of their Dominions (if he continues in prosecuting the object which has now engaged him) that they will, it maybe concluded, turn their attention towards the Afghans, their declared Enemies, who still hold valuable and extensive Possessions in Hindostan.

The Afghans are the indigenous Possessors of that Tract of Country which extends from the Indus to the Confines of the Province of Chorason in Persia, and stretches in a Southern Direction from the Mountains of Tartary to the Sea Coast. Nadir Shaw in his March into Hindostan was detained a considerable time (it is said a Year) in reducing the famous Fortress of Kundahar, and in forcing a passage through Afghanistan. Nor had he accomplished this Service, so effectually, without the Assistance of a large Body of Afghans, who were brought over to espouse his Cause, at the Instance of one of their principal Chiefs, then known by the Name of Abdallah or Ahmed Khan and afterwards in consequence of the Empire which he founded, distinguished by the Title of Ahmed Shaw.

Immediately on the event of the death of Nadir, which happened in 1748, this Afghan officer withdrawing his Forces from the Persian Army returned into his own Country, and supported by a veteran Army and a strong family Influence, he became enabled to proclaim himself Master of all the Afghan Territories. After having fully established his Authority, he penetrated into India, and there making important conquests and meeting with various Success, as has been mentioned in the Sketch on the Seicks, Ahmed Shaw returned into his own Dominions, and died about fourteen Years ago,15 at the new City of Kundahar, which he himself built, and had designed to be the Capital of his Country.

Ahmed Shaw was succeeded by his eldest Son Timur, who has chosen Cabul as his place of Residence, and has made, I think two Expeditions into India, where on the Issue of an obstinate Contention with the Seicks, this Prince retained the Possession of the little Kingdom of Kachmire, the Town Districts of Attock, together with the Province of Moultan, including in it the Territories of Scinde.

The Surdar of Attock, an Hindostan Mussulman, is a Tributary of Timur Shaw, and is assessed the annual Sum of 50,000 Rupees, which is collected, or not, as the Motions of the Shaw's Army may be directed; and the Territory of Scind, laying to the Southward of Attock, were, while I was in the neighbourhood of that Country, in a Manner dismembered from the Afghan Empire, no Revenue having been remitted to Cabul for two years or any Measure adopted to reduce it to obedience.

The Chief of Moultan confiding in his local advantages, and presuming on the indolent Administration of the present Shaw who now evinces no Mark of an enterprizing disposition, and whose time is chiefly passed in the Haram, has assumed a great degree of Independence, and shows only such observance to the orders sent from Cabul as may be correspondent with his own Conveniency. This Province, which, in the grand division of the Mogul Empire includes also Scind produced in the reign of Aurung-Zebe, according to Mr. Bernier, a Revenue of 118 Lacs of Rupees, which at this day is diminished to more than half of that Amount.

In this outline you will perceive that the Afghan Dominion in India is not founded on either a flourishing or a firm Basis, and that under the Aluspices of Timur Shaw, there is little reason to expect that it will be extended or that from it he will derive any considerable Influence in the Affairs of Hindostan.

It has been often rumoured at the Court of Delhi, and the Report has also prevailed in our parts of India, that Timur is determinately bent on crossing the Indus with a large Army for the purpose of securely establishing the present Mogul Family on the, Throne, and investing it with the Powers, of which it has been so long deprived. But this is an idle tale calculated merely to raise the Spirits of a drooping Court, or to amuse the News Mongers of the Bezar-and so distant from the truth that, instead of being in a Condition to undertake Foreign Expeditions, this Prince seems afraid of quitting his Capital and seldom even leaves his Palace.*

Thus Sir, to the utmost of my abilities, and with a scrupulous adherence to the Spirit of the Facts which have presented themselves, and which I have carefully avoided

From the reasons which I have been induced to point out, it is shown that Madajee Scindia who is drawn to us by the attraction of self interest, may, with a provident attention become a powerful and a valuable Ally, particularly for the purpose of influencing the Poonah Councils in their Operations against Tippoo Sultan, or checking the Behar Rajah in any hostile views on our Bengal Possessions yet this Tenure is now held on the Life and Fortunes of one Man for Scindia has no heir to his Dominions, and were he now to die, they are not so firmly consolidated nor have they been so long in his Possession, as to ensure their devolving on any nominated Successor. The Existence of States in Hindostan must ever rest on precarious and unsubstantial Grounds, having no fixed Principle for their Support, or established Ordinances for the Security of the People, and where the Rulers of them are subject to be cut off on every occasion, when the Passions of Ambition or Revenge can with the hope of success be gratified.

When you consider, Sir, the grand Revolutions which have taken place in that quarter of the World, even within no wide Compass of time, and deserve the depressed reverse of Fortune which the Mogul Empire has undergone, you must testify a wonder mingled with an Awe, and as a Man you must feel a humiliating Mortification.

In the Year 1707 when Aurung-Zebe died, it may be said without any violation of the truth, that Hindostan,* whether for its Military Resource, its Wealth or Magnitude, was the most distinguished Empire in the World; and at that period, it is to be noted that the English were known, only on the Sea Coasts of that Country and occupied, under many restrictions, merely the Profession of Merchants.

Permit me for a Moment to direct your attention to the view, which at this day is exhibited at Delhi, where you will see the heir of the Grandson of Aurung-Zebe, from the decline of the fortunes of his House, reduced to such urgent distress, as to solicit in the Country, so lately under the dominion of his Ancestors, a Maintenance from an English Subject.

Pardon this Digression which I have been led into by the desire of holding up to you so lively an Image of the Instability and rapid Declension of this Eastern Empire, and I

will now wholly close this Analysis, with expressing an unfeigned wish, that the Measures which have been adopted for the Regulation of our Government in India, may be successful and permanent, and that the Effects arising from wise and Vigorous Councils may be amply experienced.

I remain
Sir
With the greatest respect
Your most obliged Servant

Charlotte StreetPortland Place
9th June 1785.

(Signed) GEORGE FORSTER