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234 the two, and at least that education does not weaken the hand that wields the sword. Though nominally a minority—a powerful one—among the mass of the population in the Punjab, which in fact is more Mahomedan than Hindu, they are socially and politically of the highest importance, as they constituted the dominant class at the time of the annexation, and still form the great majority of the gentry in the regions of the five rivers. Their military aristocracy supply the Indian army with excellent officers. They gather thickly in the districts round Amritsar, the Mánjha, or middle home of the Sikh nation, the nursery of their most revered Gurus, their most powerful sardars, and Ranjit Singh′s most redoubtable warriors. There a third of their numbers are now found, the rest being scattered in the Sutlej states and throughout the province; large colonies of them, having also recently settled along the new canals taken off from the rivers, running south through the extensive plains