Without in Europe, ought to be sharp, short, and decisive. trenching on political ground, our late war with Cabul exhibited a series of efforts long drawn out. The military plan-if there was one, and not two or several-was one purposely calculated to give every facility to the enemy to continually make head against us and prolong the war for a quarter of a century. With thirty thousand good troops thrown in at once into Cabul, Ghuzni, and Candahar, and twenty thousand more holding the lines of communication; with a couple of decisive battles in which the enemy after showing a good fight did not bodily elear away; and a few really punitive expeditions; the campaign would have been over in six months, the enemy brought to a proper sense of things, and while there would have been less expenditure, less sick, wounded, and killed, there would have been even some glory. Of course, the interference of "politicals" in military operations would have to be entirely abjured. We Finally, it would be impossible-not to say both unwise and unworthy-to check the growing civilisation and settlement of the Indian populations in the paths of peace. The old division of the country into Regulation and non-Regulation Provinces served an end beyond that of preparing the latter to be incorporated among the former. It is almost certain that, were another great Native convulsion like the mutiny to occur, the Punjab-now a model Regulation Province-could not become the recruiting ground' to reconquer India. Under non-regulation ways and a Chief Commissioner, the old native instincts were better preserved, understood, and made capable of being immediately utilized. do not believe that the world of human beings even in India was ever intended to be made a dead level plain. However this may be, there will still, among such numerous races, be always not only men found to serve as food for powder and bullets, but a superior class to form a really effective and dashing army. But the inducements to enter the service must be increased. Of late years it has been stated in the House of Commons that even in England only an inferior class of recruits, and that with difficulty, can be procured; while even of those enlisting, a larger proportion desert than before. The same causes that have been in operation in England to produce these untoward results have been even more largely at work in India. Caste prejudices, which used to restrict large populations to a purely military life, have been largely relaxed, and trade and agriculture are more extensively followed. Again; the pay of the common soldier has not been increased during the last quarter of a century in proportion to the increase in the earnings of other labouring classes. This represents a true and actual grievance; for Native soldiers, unlike British soldiers, mostly have families whom they support, and the prices of every requisite of life have increased fully four-fold during the last thirty years. We have treated this subject of recruitment at greater length owing to its supreme importance. It is the final lesson taught us by the late Cabul War. Had that war continued a couple of years longer, we should have simply found ourselves unable to supply the necessary troops. It may be added, before we conclude this part of the subject, that volunteering, to the extent of two or three companies per regiment from regiments left behind in the country, might be encouraged, as it would be found easier to procure recruits to fill up the numbers of such regiments remaining on home service than of those abroad on active service. One by one, thus, we have glanced at the military deductions of the late campaign, from the more efficient organisation of the intelligence department and better rations and warmer clothing for the sepoys, and other similar matters which may be reckoned as almost outside military consideration, but which cannot be omitted in a complete view, to tactics in and after action, and the general strategy of a campaign. These deductions are neither few nor unimportant, but, on the contrary, both numerous and important-so numerous as indeed to cover the entire military field. As such, then, we may unhesitatingly state here at the close, as we began by stating, that the late war was one of the greatest military importance-fruitful in lessons for patient and thorough study;-in short, that British arms have never yet been engaged in Asia in a more peculiar-even if not more hardlycontested-campaign. ART. VIII. THE SIKH RELIGION UNDER BANDA, AND ITS PRESENT CONDITION. G URU GOBIND SINGH'S doctrines and ambition involved him in continual warfare with the Emperor Aurangzeb, but he was unable to contend against that astute and powerful monarch. The Guru, on the destruction and desertion of his forces, launched fiery invective and remonstrance against the Emperor.* Aurangzeb summoned him to his presence, and Gobind set out to obey the order. The emperor died, however, before he could behold the Guru; and the close of his life could not be signalized either by adding the murder of Gobind to his many acts of religious fanaticism, or by conferring on him a free pardon, and thus winning from his Hindu subjects in his old age a cheap reputation for clemency. Bahadur Shah, the successor of Aurangzeb, hearing of the Guru, renewed the order that he should repair to the presence of the Emperor then occupied with State affairs in the Dakhan. The Guru proceeded thither in consequence, and the new emperor, instead of punishing the formidable Sikh teacher, sought to conciliate him by the offer of a military command in that distant province. But the Guru in the midst of his duties never abandoned his religious mission. He is represented+ on one occasion to have, in company with five thousand devoted Sikhs, paid a religious visit to a devotee named Dadu. When the Guru's devotions were finished, and he had received the homage of his new religious acquaintance, the latter, to entertain his guest, told him of one Narain Das, an eccentric Bairagi fakir in the vicinity, who possessed a volume compiled by a disciple of Gorakhnath, which contained all the secrets of thaumaturgy and of the recondite forces of nature This fakir was represented to the Guru as an inveterate practical joker. On one occasion he had put Dadu on his bed, and, finding him asleep overturned him and laughed consumedly at the performance. On *See the "Sri Zafarnamah," a work written by Gobind Singh, now found in hybrid Persian in the Gurumukhi character, and addressed to Aurangzeb. In the "Pant Parkash," a Sikh work compiled by Ratan Singh to glorify the Sikh religion and clear it of the aspersions cast upon it by one Buta Shah. The work was presented to General Ochterlony. Sirdar Attar + + Singh, C. I. E., Chief of Bhadaur, has The wondrous volume bore the name "Sidh Anúnia." Compare the account of the magical books of Sir Michael Scott in the "Lay of the Last Minstrel," Govind's arrival in the neighbourhood, the fakir called himself the Guru Pir, thus defying the pretensions of the Sikh apostle. Gobind felt an invincible desire to see the man with the object of converting him to his religious and political faith. A visit to Narain Das was determined on. The Guru went with some of his followers, but found the fakir absent. The visitors, however, resolved to make themselves at home. Gobind sat on the fakir's bed, and his attendant Sikhs killed Narain Das's goats, and began to regale themselves with the plundered repast. The fakir, like Socrates of old, is said to have had his special attendant spirit, whom he ordered to smite and unseat the Guru from his bed. The Guru continued to retain his seat notwithstanding the utmost exertions of the spirit. Banda then directed the spirit's operations against the Guru's followers who had appropriated the goats, but by the favour of the Guru the spirit was equally impotent against the Sikhs. Banda, on finding himself thus thwarted, believed the Guru must possess supernatural power superior to his own, and set out to pay him his homage. The Guru enquired his name, his sect, and the name of his spiritual guide. The fakir replied, "I am your slave (banda). I am a disciple (Sikh) of yours, and you are my religious teacher (Guru). Pardon the past: I am now submissive to your sovereign orders." The Guru, pleased with the fakir, at once received him into his faith, and gave him the name of Banda in memory of the interview. But either the Guru was sadly in need of adherents, or he enforced short novitiate on his converts, for few and short were his religious injunctions to Banda, and great was the subsequent trust reposed in the hastily converted and eccentric devotee. The Guru merely told him that the process of becoming a Sikh was difficult, that it was necessary to unreservedly offer up soul, body and wealth to the Guru, have no thought of self, leave one's own family and cleave to the religious teacher, and become even as an insect in its chrysalis state, which, though it changes its appearance, preserves its identity. The rule of the Sikh faith was delicate as a fine hair or the edge of the sword; and the Guru's orders should be executed even at the risk of life itself. Banda accepted these conditions of faith, and enquired how he could serve his new master. The Guru's sons had previously been cruelly executed at Sirhind by the Musalmans; the memory of his dead children, the hopes of his family and his faith, was ever present to the Guru's mind; and he at once imposed on his new disciple the task of slaying the slayers of his sons, razing to the ground the hated stronghold of Sirhind, and devastating with fire and sword the Musalman territories in the Punjab. In parti cular was Banda charged by the Guru to put the Wazir of Sirhind to death. On his capture, spikes were to be driven into the ground, on which he was to be dragged by bullocks in presence of the army; and after his death his body was to be insulted and burned, to hinder its resurrection and its participation in the joys of paradise. Other minor injunctions were given regarding the conduct of the Sikhs in battle, injunctions which now find no place in civilized warfare, but which were as earnestly enjoined by the priests of the chosen people of God,* as by the benighted Sikh apostle of the Punjab, and which would again stain the annals of the human race and retard civilization, if priests and religious teachers were not kept in proper subordination to civil authority. The Guru sent with Banda's army five chosen Sikhs, Nauj Singh, Kan Singh, Daya Singh, Rán Singh and Báj Singh, men earnest in faith, powerful in sinew, and inured to war in many a desperate conflict. The Guru bestowed five arrows on Banda to protect him in extremity; he gave him letters to the faithful and sturdy Sikhs of the Mánjha; and he promised him worldly prosperity and spiritual perfection. Banda wanted funds for his expedition, and these were fortunately obtained on the arrival of some grain merchants who contributed a tenth part of the sale proceeds of their corn, a contribution which, whether free or voluntary, afforded a handsome subsidy to the new army. On receiving this assistance, Banda had ostensibly no doubt of the spiritual excellence of the Guru and the superiority of his faith. The military standards were reared on high, and the puritan army set out, reciting the praises of God, recounting the heroic acts of Chandi, the goddess of war and courage, and vowing deathless vengeance on the Musalman murderers of the sons of the Guru. He Why the Guru himself did not accompany Banda is not explained by the Sikh historians; but he probably had received warning from the Emperor that he must not again entangle himself in political broils; and he thought a Sikh army under another less suspected leader might have less to contend with at the outset of a great military struggle. Banda advanced in great state. received in his progress the homage of religious visitors, and bestowed on them milk and sons, as such articles of material or religious necessity were required. He caused those who approached him to repeat the religious precepts of the Guru; and he rewarded all services performed for him with princely munificence. Many were the fights and conflicts in which Banda and his Sikhs were successful. Bagarwanda, Kaithal, Seharkanda, Karátpur, *See Deuteronomy, Chaps. XX and XXI. |