Page:The Sikhs (Gordon).djvu/277

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UNDER THE BRITISH CROWN.
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lage at Delhi in January 1903, when representatives of all races and castes were gathered together to hear King Edward VII. proclaimed Emperor of United India. At the suggestion of the venerable Raja of Nabha, a devout and devoted adherent of the Khalsa, the Sikhs decided to hold a memorial service to mark their peculiar sense of the deep significance of the Durbar by a solemn act of worship at the shrine of the martyr Guru Tegh Bahadur, who, they said, 228 years before foretold in the hour of his death the coming of the British Empire under which they enjoy religious freedom and personal prosperous liberty. It was a spontaneous act of loyalty managed all among themselves. As the birthday of Guru Govind Singh, the son of the martyr, occurred on the 6th January, it was decided to mark the day signally. The story of the martyr's death and prophecy was retold, and how this was the time and place to repledge their loyalty to the British, who