A history of the Sikhs, from the origin of the nation to the battles of the Sutlej.

170 HISTORY OF THE SIKHS CHAP. VI
1822 spirit of adaptation which distinguishes every new people,
Excel- and to that feeling of a common interest and destiny imlences of planted in him by his great teachers. The Rajpfits and
the Sikhs Pathans are valiant and high-minded warriors: but their
as soldiers.
Character- pride and their courage are personal only, and concern them
istics of as men of ancient family and noble lineage; they will do
Randpts nothing unworthy of their birth, but they are indifferent to
Pathans, the political advancement of their race. The efforts of the
of Mara- Marathas, in emancipating themselves from a foreign yoke,
thas, were neither guided nor strengthened by any distinct hope
or desire. They became free, but knew not how to remain
independent, and they allowed a crafty Brahman 1 to turn
their aimless aspirations to his own profit, and to found a
dynasty of ' Peshwas' on the achievements of unlettered
Siidras. Ambitious soldiers took a further advantage of the
spirit called up by Sivaji, but as it was not sustained by any
pervading religious principle of action, a few generations saw
the race yield to the expiring efforts of Muhammadanism,
and the Marathas owe their present position, as rulers, to
the intervention of European strangers. The genuine
Maratha can scarcely be said to exist, and the two hundred
thousand spearmen of the last century are once more
shepherds and tillers of the ground. Similar remarks apply
and of to the Gurkhas, that other Indian people which has risen to
Gurkhas greatness in latter times by its own innate power, unmingled
with religious hope. They became masters, but no peculiar
1 [The reference is to Nana Farnavis, who became Prime Minister
of the Peshwa in 1775 and who died in 1800, having exercised an
extraordinary influence over Maratha politics during his years of
ascendancy. 'He had consistently been opposed to the political
progress of the English as subversive of Maratha power, and he
objected to the employment of foreign troops under any conditions;
but he was faithful to his political engagements, and his devotion to
the maintenance of the honour of his own nation is attested by the
respect of all his contemporaries. The faithless materials with which
he had to deal at the close of his life threw him into intrigues and
combinations for his own preservation which would otherwise have
been avoided and left him at liberty to continue the able administration he had conducted for twenty-five years' (Meadows Taylor).
On the occasion of his death the English Resident at Poona wrote:
'With him has departed all the wisdom and moderation of the
Mar5tha Government.' See Grant Duff, History of the Mardthds,
ed. 1826, p. 188.-ED.]