Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c36.s6.1

v3.c36.s6.1

Major Polier designates the Sikh political system "an aristocratical republic. It is properly the snake with many heads. Every zamindar [i.e., yeoman farmer] who, from the Attock to Hansi Hisar, and to the gates of Delhi, lets his beard grow, cries wah guru, eats pork, wears an iron bracelet, drinks bhang, abominates the smoking of tobacco, and can command from ten followers on horseback to upwards,—sets up immediately for a Sikh sardar ; and, as far as is in his power, aggrandises himself at the expense of his weaker neighbours, . . . Hindu or Musalman, and even among his own fraternity."