BOOKS.
CAPTAIN CUNNINGHAM'S HISTORY OP THE SIKHS.. THE facts connected with the lives and characters of the apostles of the Sikhs, from their founder Nanuk, who flourished in the early part of the sixteenth century, to the assassination of Govind Singh in 1708, are well known from the compilation based upon Mr. Prinsep's book, j' or they may be readily learned from other sources. The history of the Sikhs as a nation, or rather a religious sect, struggling into independ- ence during the anarchy that pervaded the empire of the Great Mogul throughout the larger part of the last century, till Runjeet Singh emerged from obscurity, is equally accessible. The story of the politic Maharajah is to be found in every form ; and the newspaper accounts of the late battles must be fresh in the minds of all. No means exist of making the subject new, or interesting, treated- as a history, except what may arise from the writer's mind. Captain Cunningham has a personal knowledge of the Sikhs, and possesses a peculiar literary style of composition which gives an air to his history, though it is not of the best kind. Gibbon ie our author's exemplar; but his allusive mode of composition re- quires the master's logical perception and comprehensive grasp, to avoid obscurity, and is peculiarly unfitted for Eastern narrative, where the strangeness both of places and persons, confusing enough when men- tioned directly, become puzzling when only indicated. The great literary merit of the History is the perception of a leading principle in Sikh story. The idea may be exaggerated or strained, and we think it is ; but it pro- duces unity and purpose, and furnishes a clue to much that otherwise looks obscure.
This principle is religious feeling or faith. In a preliminary survey Captain Cunningham reviews the Mahometan and the Hindoo systems both of Bah and Brahma. He shows how in their origin they were each a pure theism, modified by the personal and national character of the founders, and by that of the times when and the people to whom they were promulgated. He then exhibits the corruptions that were engrafted on them, especially on Hindooism, by the longings of the mass for some tangible conception of the Deity, anthropomorphous or fantastical, and the pride or interests of the priesthood. He indicates how scepticism grew up among the more intellectual and reflective, how some of the more ardent became reformers. Of this class was Nanuk ; who seized the great theistical truth at the bottom of the three systems, but stripped it of the idolatry, exclusiveness, or persecuting spirit, that had grown to be predominant in each.
" Nannk adopted the philosophical system of his countrymen, and regarded bliss as the dwelling of the soul with God after its punitory transmigrations should have ceased. Life, he says, is as the shadow of the passing bird ; but the seal of man is as the potter's wheel, ever circling on its pivot. He makes the same uses of the current language or notions of the time on other subjects, and thus says, he who remains bright amid darkness (Unjun), unmoved amid deceit (Maya), that is perfect amid temptation, should attain happiness. But it would be idle to suppose that he speculated upon being, or upon the material world, after the manner of Plato or Vyasa; and it would be unreasonable to condemn him be- cause he preferred the doctrine of a succession of habiliments, and the possible purification of the most sinful soul, to the resurrection of the same body, and the pains of everlasting Ere. Nanuk also referred to the Arabian Prophet, and to the Hindoo incarnations, not as impostors and the diffusers of evil, but as having truly been sent by God to instruct mankind; and he lamented that sin should nevertheless prevail. He asserted no special divinity; although he may possibly have considered himself, as he came to be considered by others, the successor of these inspired teachers of his belief, sent to reclaim fallen mortals of all creeds and countries within the limits of his knowledge. He rendered his mission ap- plicable to all times and places ; yet he declared himself to be but the slave, the humble messenger of the Almighty, making use of universal truth as his sole in- strument. He did not claim for his writings, replete as they were with wisdom and devotion, the merit of a direct transcription of the words of God; nor did he say that his own preaching required or would be sanctioned by miracles. Fight with no weapon,' said he, save the word of God ; a holy teacher hath no means save the purity of his doctrine: He taught that asceticism or abandonment of the world was unnecessary, the pious hermit and the devout householder being equal in the eyes of the Almighty; but he did not, like his contemporary Vul- labh, express any invidious preference for married teachers, although his own example showed that he considered every one should fulfil the functions of his nature. In treating the two prominent external observances of Hindoos and Ma- hometans, veneration for the cow and abhorrence of the hog, he was equally wise and conciliatory ; yielding perhaps something to the prejudices of his education' as
well as to the gentleness of his disposition. The rights of strangers,' said he, are the one the ox and the other the swine; but " Peers" and " Gooroos" will praise those who partake not of that which bath enjoyed life.'"
The people to whom Nanuk preached were simple hasbandmen and mountaineers, uncorrupted by the superstition, the selfishness, or the in- difference of the wealthy cities and plains of Hindostan. By a fortu- nate coincidence, his successors for nearly two centuries were well adapted to carry on his religious views, or to engraft upon them a national and militant spirit. With the rise of Runjeet Singh the power and independ- ent spirit of the chiefs was broken or corrupted ; and Captain Cunning- ham holds that they remained corrupt after his death, though late events scarcely allow that to be asserted of all. But the mass of the nation are sound. They may not learnedly know the principles of their founder or the nature and abuses of the systems he came to overthrow, but they have a faith in their own religion and in themselves. " The systems of Boodha, of Brumha, and of 3Iabomet, are extensively dif- fused in the Eastern world, and they intimately affect the daily conduct of millions of men. But, for the most part, these creeds no longer inspire their votaries with enthusiasm: the faith of the people is no longer a living principle, but a social custom,—a rooted, an almost instinctive deference to what has been the practice of centuries. The Tibetan, who unhesitatingly believes the Deity to dwell incarnate in the world, and who grossly. thinks he perpetuates a prayer by the motion of a wheel, and the Hindoo, who piously considers his partial gods to delight in forms of stone or clay, would indeed still resist the uncongenial in- novations of strangers: but the spirit which erected temples to Shakya the Seer, _* A History of the Sikhs, from the Origin of the Nation to the Battles of the &diet. By Joseph Davey Cunningham, Lieutenant of Engineers, and Captain in the -fumy of India. With a Map. Published by Murray. t Spectator, 1846; page 494 from the torrid to the frigid zone, or which raised the Brahmins high above all other Indian races, and which led them to triumph in .poetry and philosophy, is no longer to be found in its ancient simplicity and vigour. The Boodhist and the severer of the Veda is indeed each satisfied with his own chance of a happy immortality; but he is indifferent about the general reception of truth, and while he will not himself be despotically interferred with h he cares not what may be the fate of others, or what becomes of those who differ from him. Even the Mahometan, whose imagination most not be assisted by any visible similitude, is prone to invest the dead with the powers of intercessors, and to make pilgrim- ' ages to the graves of departed mortals; and we should now look in vain for any
general expression of that feeling which animated the simple Arabian disciple,: or the hardy Toorkmun convert, to plant thrones across the fairest portion of the .
ancient hemisphere. It is true that, in the Mahometan world, there are still many zealous individuals, and many mountain and pastoral tribes, who will take up arms, as well as become passive martyrs, for their faith ; and few will deny that Turk, and Persian, and Puthan, would more readily unite for conscience sake under the banner of Mahomet, than Russian, and Swede, and Spaniard, are ever likely to march under one common Labarum: The Ilussulman feels proudly secure of his path to salvation: he will resent the exhortations of those whom he pities or contemns as wanderers; and, unlike the Hindoo and the Boodhist, he is still actively desirous of acquiring merit by adding to the number of true be- lievers. But Boodhist, and Brahminist, and Mahometan, have each an instructed body of ministers, and each confides in as authoritative ritual or in a revealed law. Their reason and their hopes are both satisfied; and hence the difficulty of: converting them to the Christian faith by the methods of the civilized moderns. Our missionaries, earnest and devoted men, must be content with the cold argu- ments of science and criticism: they must not rouse the feelings, or appeal to the imagination; they cannot promise aught which their bearers were not sure of before; they cannot go into the desert to fast, nor retire to the mountain-tops to pray; they cannot declare the fulfilment of any fondly cherished hope of the, people; nor in announcing a great principle, can they point to the success of the sword and the visible favour of the Divinity. No austerity of sanctitude con- vinces the multitude; and the Pundit and the Media can each oppose dialectics to dialectics, morality to morality, and revelation to revelation. Our zealous preachers may create sects among ourselves, half Quietist and half Epicurean; they may persevere in their laudable resolution of bringing up the orphans of heathen parents, and they may gain some converts among intelligent inquirers as well as among the ignorant and the indigent; but it seems hopeless that they should ever Christianize the Indian and Mahometan world.
" The observers of the ancient creeds quietly pursue the even tenour of their way, self-satisfied and almost indifferent about others ; but the Sikhs are con- yens to a new religion, the seal of the double dispensation of Brumha and Idaho- met: their enthusiasm is still fresh, and their faith is still an active and a living principle. They are persuaded that God himself is present with them; • that He supports them in all their endeavours ; and that sooner or later He will confound their enemies, for His own glory. This feeling of the Sikh people deserves the attention of the English, both as a civilized nation and as a paramountgovern- ment. Those who have heard a follower of Goroo Govind declaim ou the des-' tines of his race, his eye wild with enthusiasm and every muscle quivering with excitement, can understand that spirit which impelled the naked Arab against the mail clad troops of Rome and Persia, and which led our own chivalrous and believing forefathers through Europe to Cattle for the cross on the shores of Asia- The Sikhs do not form a numerous sect, yet their strength is not to be estimated by tens of thousands, but by the unity and energy of religious fervour and warlike temperament. They will dare much, and they will endure much, for the mystic Khalsa' or commonwealth; they are not discouraged by defeat; and they ar- dently look forward to the day when Indians and Arabs, and Persians and Turks, shall all acknowledge the double mission of Nanuk and Govind Singh."
It is this feeling which induced the army to cross the Sutlej, misled by the British preparations, which they naturally construed into demonstra- tions, and deceived by the representations of their own chiefs, who wished the destruction of the troops that overawed themselves, and trusted to the British arms to affect that object. It was this feeling, far.more than French training, that enabled the Sikhs to resist the Anglo-Indian army with such firmness as almost to obtain a victory, when they were worse than left to themselves, being, Captain Cunningham asserts, designedly betrayed by their generals in all the great actions, unless Aliwal may be considered an exception. It is worthy of note, too, that the fanatical faith of the Sikhs should have resorted to the same system of self-rale as did the religious army of the English Commonwealth.
Before the middle of 1841 the more violent proceedings of the Lahore troops had ceased, but the relation of the army to the state had become wholly altered: it was no longer the willing instrument of an arbitrary and genial government, but it looked upon itself, and was regarded by others, as the representative body of the Sikh people, as the KhaLsa ' itself assembled by tribes or centuries to take its part in public affairs. The efficiency of the army as a disciplined force was not much impaired, for a higher feeling possessed the men, and increased alacrity and resolution supplied the place of exact training. They were sensible of the advantages of systematic union, and they were proud of their armed array as the visible body of Govind's commonwealth. As a general rule, the troops were obe- dient to their appointed officers, so far as concerned their ordinary military duties; but the position of a regiment, of a brigade, of a division, or of the whole army, relatively to the executive government of the country, was determined by a com- mittee or assemblage of committees termed a Punch' or Punchayet,' i.e. a jury or committee of five, composed of men selected from each battalion or each company, in consideration of their general character as faithful Sikh soldiers, or from their particular influence in their native villages. The system of Pnnchayets is common throughout India ; and every tribe or section of a tribe, or trade, or calling, readily submits to the decisions of its elders or superiors seated together in consultation. In the Punjaub the custom received a further development from the organization necessary to an army; and even in the crude form of representa- tion thus achieved, the Sikh people were enabled to interfere with effect, and with some degree of consistency, in the nomination and in the removal of their rulers. But these large assemblies sometimes added military licence to popular tumult, and the corrupt spirit of mercenaries to the barbarous ignorance of ploughmen. Their resolutions were often unstable or unwise; and the representative of different divisions might take opposite sides from sober conviction or self-willed prejudice, or they might be bribed and cajoled by such able and unscrupulous men as Rajah Golab Singh."
At the same time it should be observed, that however mischievous such a system must of necessity become in time, it does not appear that it had reached its worst stage in the Sikh army. Rival chiefs had introduced the Roman practice of donations, but the soldiery seems to have earnestly desired the national honour, and to have remained uncorrupted by the acts of those who were endeavouring to corrupt them.
Considered as the development of a leading principle in a history, Cap- tain Cunningham's History of the Sikhs is a striking work ; especially in the earlier parts, where religious history properly predominates over the narrative of civil and military events. Whether the author may not exaggerate the connexion of Nanuk's doctrine with the Mahometan and Hindoo faiths, and still more whether he may not attribute a power and importance to the Sikh religion which it does not possess, are open to question : we believe him to have fallen a little into both these errors. Considered as a narrative of affairs, the history is best in a political point of view. The author seems designedly to omit personal anecdotes and characteristics, which, when properly introduced, rather enliven than lower the dignity of history ; and his narrative of events wants the clear- ness and largeness of his model, Gibbon ; without which, the ambitious style is liable, as we have said, to become indistinct. In politics, where the exposition of a motive of action is as much at issue as actions themselves, Captain Cunningham is more successful. He exhibits a view of the policy which has, especially of late years, governed our connexion with the Sikhs, with a strong leaning on his own part in their favour. That the Indian Government was shifting and uncertain, and had no other role of conduct than its own immediate advantage, is probable ; but we can scarcely take our author's representation of the battles of the Sutlej as accurate ; for, strictly construed, it would amount to this—that the British army with difficulty vanquished inferior forces, designedly exposed to de- feat by their leaders, when they were led at all.
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