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ON THE SIKHS.
143
The last-understanding by the term 'wicked' the followers of Mohammed-is the part of his mission which he most laboured to fulfil, and which was the whole spirit of his reform. Hatred of the Mohammedans is evidently the ruling principle of all Guru Govind's institutions. His injunctions were, "It is right to slay a Mohammedan wherever you meet him. If you meet a Hindu, beat him, and plunder him, and divide his property among you. Employ your constant effort to destroy the countries ruled by Mohammedans; if they oppose yon, defeat and slay them." The necessity, inseparable from this state of perpetual hostility, of filling his coffers and recruiting his bands, compelled him to have recourse to indiscriminate plunder, and to admit of the proselytism of Mohammedans; but deadly enmity to the latter is the ruling element of his system. To this he has sacrificed the benevolent spirit of the teaching of Nának, and the sacredness of the distinction of caste. As far, however, as is allowable by the institutions of Nának or Govind, the Sikhs observe the domestic usages of the Hindu tribes or castes from which they separated; and, in consequence, those tribes, particularly the Játs or Gújars * in the Panjáb or on the Jamná, do not refuse to eat or intermarry with those of the same races who have become converts to the Sikh religion. The Mohammedan converts are not permitted the
[H. M. Elliot, Supplement to the Glossary of Indian terms. Agra: 1845, pp. 345 ff. and 411 f.]
*
