1 222 A Short History of the Sikhs.
2 tion Keports referred to above, together with the
3 biographies of Lord Lawrence and the Marquis of
4 Dalhousie.1
5 Let us now glance for a few moments at the
6 effects of the annexation of the Punjab on the
7 Sikhs themselves. On the overthrow of the Khalsa
8 as a political power, Sikhism was for a time under
9 a cloud, and would-be converts hesitated to enrol
10 themselves amongst those who had taken up arms
11 against the British Government. But this did not
12 last long. It was soon discovered that the followers
13 of the Sikh faith had nothing to fear at the hands of
14 their new masters, and that the latter, so far from
15 bearing them ill-will, recognized the valour they had
16 displayed in their final struggle for supremacy, and
17 were ready, not only to regard them as friends, but to
18 welcome them as soldiers in the ranks of their own
19 army. In a short time confidence was fully restored,
20 and was followed by an immediate revival in the
21 prestige of the Khalsa.
22 At the time of the annexation practically every
23 Sikh was a soldier; and when the general disarma-
24 ment of the province took place, though many turned
25 to peaceful pursuits, the pick of them enrolled them-
26 selves either in the newly-formed regiments or in the
27 military police. It was a fortunate circumstance for
28 1 Lord Dalhousie left India in 1856. In 1858 the Delhi territory
29 on the right bank of the Jumna was transferred to the North-West
30 Province (now the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh), and the
31 following year the Punjab was made a Lieutenant-Governorship,
32 Sir John Lawrence being the first to hold the office of Lieutenant-
33 Governor. In 1901 the North- West Frontier Province was formed,
34 consisting of Hazara and the territory west of the Indus, excluding
35 Dera Ghazi Khan, the trans-Indus portion of the Isakhel, and the
36 Baluchistan frontier.