Later Mughals v1.c6.s16.11

v1.c6.s16.11

After the Khatri and the Jat peasants, the most noticeable components of the Sikh body are the lower caste artisans and men of the outcaste or menial tribes. This fact attracted the notice of the Muhammadan writers, as we see in our account, taken from them, of the disturbances following on the death of Guru Govind. Recent enquiries bear this out. In the census of 1881, nine out of every hundred Sikhs were of the outcaste scavenger and leather-dresser races, and the other thirteen were of the artisan class, one half of these being carpenters. On the other hand, there were only four Brahmans in every thousand. Roughly speaking the Sikhs are made up as to two-thirds of Jat agriculturists and as to one-third of the artisan and menial castes. They form about one-seventh of the total population in the principal seats of their religion and about one-thirteenth of the whole population of the Panjab. It will be seen that in numbers they are not in any preponderance, even in the part of the country which may be looked on as especially their home.