Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 4.djvu/39

 HOOSEIN. (180) MONG the Rajpoot tribes who have become converts to Mahomedanism, the Pachadas are distinct and remarkable in some respects. They were originally Rajpoots, who emigrated from Jeysulmeer in the reign of Alla-oo-deen Khiljy, that is, during the close of the thirteenth century, or beginning of the fourteenth. The emperor conducted a successful war in western Rajpootana in 1299, and his general, Ein-ool-Moolk, another in 1304-5. It is not improbable, therefore, that this clan were either taken prisoners, and deported to the neighbourhood of Delhi, then much in need of population; or, as the tribe assert, were voluntary emigrants from the desert tracts of Jeysulmeer, who settled where they are at present. Up to the reign of the Emperor Aurungzeeb they continued in the Hindoo faith, ruled over by their chiefs, and were a powerful, semi-independent colony; but, being frequently turbulent and rebellious, they were forcibly converted to Mahomedanism by the emperor. Their subjection to Delhi had, indeed, been little more than nominal at any time. When the tribe came under the authority of the British Government, about 1809, it was virtually independent, and was ruled by one of its own chiefs, with whom a convention was made by Lord Lake; but it was never perfectly reclaimed, and has ever admitted our rule in a sulky, half defiant spirit, resenting the deprivation of its hereditary occupations—rapine, murder, and robbery on a large scale. It is probable that of all our north-western possessions the reclamation of the Hindoo and half converted Mahomedan tribes, like the Bhuttes, Wuttoos, and Pachadas, has been the slowest and least certain. In 1857, their marauding propensities could not be restrained; and, for a short time during the siege of Delhi, indeed, from the outbreak of the mutiny until Delhi was taken, they enjoyed full indulgence of their lawless spirit; but their disorder was quickly subdued, their chieftain,  who had openly rebelled, was apprehended, tried for his life, and hanged at Ferozepoor at the close of that year, and it is credited by the tribe at last, that the British Government is really the strongest—a fact which was apparently doubted before.