Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 3.djvu/161

 NAORUNG. (148)

AORUNG is an inhabitant of Phuppoond, in the Meerut district, and belongs to the Goojur tribe, Avho form a large proportion of the population of the upper North-Western Provinces of India, and claim Rajpoot origin on the male side. Their importance may be estimated from their having given their name to provinces so widely apart as Guzerat, or Goojerat, in Western India, and the district of the same name in the Punjab; and they are probably an aboriginal race. The upper portion of the Saharunpoor district was also, in the last century, called Goojerat. The Goojurs Avere formerly renowned for their martial habits and character. They have now chiefly adopted agriculture as a pursuit; but are stated to be very indifferent cultivators, and their love for lawless practices, though restrained from being displayed on a large scale, shows itself in a propensity for thieving. In the Meerut district they are especially fond of cattle lifting, and are regarded as the pests of the territory. When the mutiny broke out on the 10th May, 1857, the opportunity for indulgence of their hereditary lawless spirit was not omitted by the Goojurs of the neighbourhood. They had probably been in previous communication with the mutineers; for they rose at once in bands, collected together, and plundered, not only the cantonment bazaars and European houses; but the peaceable inhabitants of the villages where they had dwelt. As the insurrection spread, they were joined by other marauders of their own tribe, aided by Jats from the lawless districts of Sindia's dominions south of the Chumbul, who, crossing that river, attacked British villages indiscriminately, plundering and burning them, and murdering any persons who resisted. On this occasion chiefs and head men of the Goojurs, some of whom held local authority, were appealed to by the European local civil authorities; but they showed no disposition to restrain their people, and in many instances even headed them; nor was it until after the capture of Delhi that order was in any degree restored. Semi military tribes of India, like the Goojurs, though avowedly following peaceful avocations, are perhaps the most difficult of entire reclamation. They resist the