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ON THE SIKHS.
re-appeared amid the confusion which followed the invasion of Hindustan by Nádir Sháh. Their necessities made them plunderers, and their policy suggested their forming fixed settlements by constructing forts, and compelling the cultivators to pay to them the government revenues. They were occasionally repressed by the energy of the viceroys of Lahore, but the distracted state of public affairs during the repeated incursions of Ahmed Shah of Kabúl was propitious to their growth in numbers and independence, and from this period they continued to gather strength and audacity, until they gradually established themselves in Sirhind and the eastern portion of the Panjáb, between the Ravi and the Setlej. The death of Ahmed Shah, the dissensions among the Afgháns on the one hand, and the total prostration of the sovereignty of Delhi on the other, enabled them to appropriate to themselves the resources of the country, to confirm their authority over the inhabitants, and to complete a kind of national organization.
The Sikh constitution grew naturally out of their political situation. During the period of recovery from the depression to which they had been reduced by the vigour of the Mohammedan officers, they issued from their retreats, for the sake of the plunder on which they depended for subsistence, in bodies of various strength under a leader who, from his personal character or his family influence, could gather a party round him. He was assisted by his relations, or by companions also enjoying consideration among
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