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

CHAP. IX WAR WITH THE ENGLISH

275

stan, until within two or three months of the first battles, 1845-6.
and even then the rude and illiterate yeomen considered
that they were about to enter upon a war purely defensive,
although one in every way congenial to their feelings of
youthful pride and national jealousy.
From the moment the Sikh army became predominant Theapprein the state, the English authorities had been persuaded hensions of
that the machinery of government would be broken up,
that bands of plunderers would everywhere arise, and that
the duty of a civilized people to society generally, and of
a governing power to its own subjects, would all combine
to bring on a collision; and thus measures which seemed
sufficient were adopted for strengthening the frontier posts,
and for having a force at hand which might prevent
aggression, or which would at least exact retribution and
vindicate the supremacy of the English name.1 These'were The fears of
the fair and moderate objects of the British Government; the Sikhs.
but the Sikhs took a different view of the relative conditions of the two states; they feared the ambition of their
great and growing neighbour, they did not understand why
they should be dreaded when intestine commotions had
reduced their comparative inferiority still lower; or why
inefficiency of rule should be construed into hostility of
purpose; defensive measures took in their eyes the form
of aggressive preparations, and they came to the conclusion
that their country was to be invaded. Nor does this conviction of the weaker and less intelligent power appear to
be strange or unreasonable, although erroneous-for it is
always to be borne in mind that India is far behind Europe
in civilization, and that political morality or moderation is
as little appreciated in the East in these days as it was in
Christendom in the Middle Ages. Hindustan, moreover,
from Kabul to the valley of Assam and the island of Ceylon,
is regarded as one country, and dominion in it is associated
in the minds of the people with the predominance of one
monarch or of one race. The supremacy of Vikramajit and
Chandra Gupta, of the Turkomans and Mughals, is familiar
1 Cf. Minute by the Governor-General, of the 16th June 1845, and
the Governor-General to the Secret Committee, 1st October 1845.
(Parliamentary Paper, 1846.)
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