1 Administration of Ranjit Singh. 109
2 Sikhs themselves were mainly confined, as they are
3 to-day, to the regions around Lahore, Amritsar, and
4 Jalandhar. As the ruling race, the Sikhs were better
5 treated and enjoyed greater privileges than their
6 Hindu or Muhammadan fellow-subjects: their lands
7 were more lightly assessed, and they were given a
8 readier access to lucrative posts, particularly in the
9 army, the most highly favoured and the best paid
10 service in the State. They regarded Hindus and
11 Muhammadans alike as the enemies of their faith
12 and the legitimate objects of their oppression. They
13 valued them as payers of revenue, and allowed them
14 just sufficient prosperity to enable them to satisfy the
15 demands of the State.
16 But though the rank and file of these two less
17 favoured communities were in many parts reduced
18 to abject poverty, there were men belonging to both
19 who held offices- of high importance at the court of
20 Ranjit Singh. This was the result of necessity
21 rather than choice. The Jats — and nearly all Sikhs
22 were Jats — made fine soldiers but poor civil ser-
23 vants ; and no one understood their limitations
24 better than the Maharaja. In the army there
25 was no rank which a Jat could not hold with
26 distinction, but he lacked the intellectual qualities
27 essential to success in the field of diplomacy or civil
28 administration. Ranjit Singh is said to have been
29 unusually fortunate in the officers who controlled the
30 various branches of his government ; but if he was
31 well served, it was because he had the sagacity to
32 select the right men for his service. If the right
33 man happened to be a Sikh, so much the better ; but