Note 101 — G

Social status and occupation. 12. The Gûjars as a tribe have always been noted for their turbulence and habit of cattle-stealing. Bâbar101 in his Memoirs describes how the commander of the rear guard captured a few Gûjar ruffians who followed the camp, decapitated them and sent their heads to the Emperor. The Gûjars of Pâli and Pâhal became exceedingly audacious while Shîr Shâh was fortifying Delhi, so he marched to the Hills and expelled them so that “not a vestige of their habitations was left.”102 Jahângîr103 remarks that the Gûjars live chiefly on milk and curds and seldom cultivate land; and Bâbar104 says:—“Every time I entered Hindustân the Jâts and Gûjars have regularly poured down in prodigious numbers from the Hills and wilds to carry off oxen and buffaloes. These were the wretches that really inflicted the chief hardships and were guilty of the chief oppression in the country.” They maintained their old reputation in the Mutiny when they perpetrated numerous outrages and seriously impeded the operations of the British Army before Delhi. According to the current wisdom of the country side he is an undesirable neighbour—