DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15172#0095
CHAP. III.
S1NDIAN RULE.
61
Mr. Elphinstone has remarked, " that the chiefs
" of Sinde appear to be barbarians of the rudest
" stamp, without any of the barbarous virtues,"
and I fear that there is too much truth in the
character, though the Khyrpoor family exhibited
little to show themselves deserving of the stigma;
but the chiefs of this country live entirely for
themselves. They wallow in wealth, while their
people are wretched. Professing an enthusiastic
attachment to the religion of Mahommed, they
have not even a substantial mosque in their
territories; and at Hydrabad, where the town
stands on rock, and indeed every where, they pray
in temples of mud, and seem ignorant of elegance
, or comfort in all that concerns domestic arrange-
ment. The Beloochees are a particularly savage
race of people, but they are brave barbarians. From
childhood they are brought up in arms; and I have
seen some of the sons of chiefs who had not attained
the age of four or five years strutting about with a
shield and a sword of small size, given by the pa-
rents to instil into them, at that early period, the
relish for war. This tribe composes but a small
portion of the Sindian population ; and while they
are execrated by the peaceable classes of the com-
munity for their imperious conduct, they, on the
other hand, hate the princes by whom they are go-
verned. It would be difficult to conceive a more
unpopular rule, with all classes of their subjects,
than that of the Ameers of Sinde : nor is the feel-
ing disguised; many a fervent hope did we hear
expressed, in every part of the country, that we
S1NDIAN RULE.
61
Mr. Elphinstone has remarked, " that the chiefs
" of Sinde appear to be barbarians of the rudest
" stamp, without any of the barbarous virtues,"
and I fear that there is too much truth in the
character, though the Khyrpoor family exhibited
little to show themselves deserving of the stigma;
but the chiefs of this country live entirely for
themselves. They wallow in wealth, while their
people are wretched. Professing an enthusiastic
attachment to the religion of Mahommed, they
have not even a substantial mosque in their
territories; and at Hydrabad, where the town
stands on rock, and indeed every where, they pray
in temples of mud, and seem ignorant of elegance
, or comfort in all that concerns domestic arrange-
ment. The Beloochees are a particularly savage
race of people, but they are brave barbarians. From
childhood they are brought up in arms; and I have
seen some of the sons of chiefs who had not attained
the age of four or five years strutting about with a
shield and a sword of small size, given by the pa-
rents to instil into them, at that early period, the
relish for war. This tribe composes but a small
portion of the Sindian population ; and while they
are execrated by the peaceable classes of the com-
munity for their imperious conduct, they, on the
other hand, hate the princes by whom they are go-
verned. It would be difficult to conceive a more
unpopular rule, with all classes of their subjects,
than that of the Ameers of Sinde : nor is the feel-
ing disguised; many a fervent hope did we hear
expressed, in every part of the country, that we