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2 THE ANCIENT AND MODERN SIKIS. 629
3 sardar’s sons who had been the companions of their father in his mysterious
4 flight from the Panjab, and they have been permitted to reside in Delhi.
5 ‘All honour to the Queen-Empress whose mercy and forbearance, of which we
6 see no parallel in the history of the nations, saved the reputed son of
7 Ranjit Singh, the staunch ally of the British, from ruin, and restored to him
8 his status quo. This country has never shown any concern for the affairs
9 of the reputed son of the deceased Mahardjd; but none the less it expects
10 him to be loyal to a sway under which he, in common with themselves,
11 enjoys the privileges of a free subject, and looks on his return to more
12 prudent counsels, and the renewal of his loyalty, with as unmixed a satis-
13 faction as it regards the royal clemency extended to him by their Lady
14 Sovereign with a sense of the profoundest gratitude.
15 The extension of the Vaccination Act to the municipal towns of Amritsar,
16 Simla and Ambdld, and to the cantonment of Kassauli, and the general
17 results achieved by the Vaccination Department.during the past few years,
18 constitute altogether a gratifying record of good work and progress. The
19 practice of inoculation for small-pox is gradually dying out, and inoculators,
20 as a class, are either taking to vaccination, or giving up their old calling.
21 Arm-to-arm vaccination with human lymph proved unpopular with the
22 people. Close superintendence of the operations being impossible, petty
23 acts of oppression and high-handedness on the part of the vaccinators
24 became the cause of complaints, But the introduction of animal lymph has
25 been attended with great success, and already a large number of persons have
26 been: vaccinated from the calf. As remarked by Dr. Stephen, the Sanitary
27 ‘Commissioner of the Panjab, in his report on the vaccination operations of the
28 ‘province, the employment of a special agency in conducting the operations
29 has been attended with favourable results, Thus the employment of a
30 high caste Brahmin in the Kangra District contributed much to the success
31 and popularity of the scheme among the Hindu population there, while the
32 appointment of a Mahomedan of position to conduct the operations can-
33 not fail to be equally acceptable among the Mahomedan populace. bai. =
34 It has been shown in the previous chapters that the mission of Nanak
35 was to bring peace to the world ; but the state of affairs in the country in
36 the time of the tenth martial Guru, Govind Singh, had the effect of con-
37 verting areligion of peace into a religion of the sword. The votaries of the
38 Guru turned their rosaries and ploughs into implements of war, and the
39 ‘keeping of steel in some shape by every male adult was made a sacred
40 _ obligation. The wearing of the long hair and beard was enforced, and an
41 initiation into the Péhal of the Guru, or the “ baptism of the sword,” as it
42 is called, made the votaries Singhs, or “ lions” of the race. The pages of
43 ‘history shine with the heroic deeds of this martial race, and the examples of
44 self-devotion, patriotism and forbearance under the severest trials, displayed
45 by the leaders of their community, are excelled by none ‘in the annals of the
46 nations. The race of men who prided themselves on these deeds, and who
47 paved the way for the future greatness of the Sikhs as a nation, having
48 played their part honourably and well, disappeared. The theocracy of Singhs
49 which had roused the slumbering spirit of the subdued Hindu nations of the
50 Panjab, converting rude herdsmen and yeomen into successful soldiers and
51 warriors, merged into feudal States, each aspiring to power. How all these
52 States, or misls, developed themselves into one strong monarchy, guided by
53 the genius of Ranjit Singh, has been fully described in the foregoing pages.
54 Before their monarchy collapsed, the Sikhs fought hard for their hearths
55 and homes, but they had finally to submit to the great Power with which,
56 under the influence of unwise counsels, they had themselves invited war.
57 Vaccination in the
58 Panjab,
59 The early Sikhs.
60 The Sikh confedera-
61 cies or mists.
62 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh J i eLibrary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com