Page:Ranjit Singh (Griffin).djvu/208

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202
RANJÍT SINGH

said that the Sikhs, taking them all round, in peace and in war, in the demoralising quiet of cantonment life or in the fierce delights of a campaign, are the finest military material in India, yet the Punjábi Muhammadan is not far behind. In battle his wild enthusiasm is perhaps more irresistible, and his bravery and love of fighting are equally great. But his steadiness in the face of inaction, reverse, or defeat is not equal to that of the Sikh, nor is he so content to serve on garrison duty, in peaceful times, far from his native. land. He is not so universally useful as the Sikh; so unemotional, so ready to take the good and the evil of military service with an equal mind. But he is a splendid fighter, and the Tiwánas, Siáls, and Múltánis gained much distinction both in 1849 and 1857 fighting on the side of the English.

The Mahárájá first attacked and subdued those tribes which were in the near neighbourhood of Lahore. First came the Kharrals, who held some 40 villages about Shaikhopura and Jhang, a turbulent and thievish race, ever impatient of control. More fanatical than other Muhammadan tribes, they submitted with the greatest reluctance to Hindu rule, and it was as much as Diwán Sáwan Mall and the Sikhs could do to restrain them, for whenever an organized force was sent against them they retreated into the marshes and thick jungles, where it was impossible to follow them. The Mahárájá annexed their country in 1803, and then turned to their neighbours, the Siáls, who inhabited the tract about