and Firozpur — are the most populous in the Punjab. For administrative purposes, the district is the political, fiscal and judicial unit, while several districts, ordinarily three in number, are grouped to form the more important administrative area known as a Division. The four Punjab divisions of Ambála, Jálandhar, Amritsar, and Lahore are those which include all the Sikh districts above given, and there is no reason to believe that there has been any large migration of Sikhs to or from other districts since the days of Ranjít Singh. It may be that the presence of a great native court temporarily attracted to Lahore and Amritsar an exceptional number of Sikhs from a distance; while the absolute peace and security now enjoyed may have encouraged colonists to settle in localities and among a Muhammadan population where they would not have ventured fifty years ago to show their face. But, on the other hand, the Sikh population is mostly agricultural, and has little inclination to leave its hereditary holdings except for temporary service in the army. Thus it is that the distribution of the Sikh population will be found to be much the same at present as under Mahárájá Ranjít Singh. What the total number of the Sikh population was in his day, and what proportion it bore to the general population of the whole Punjab, it is impossible to say, for no accurate statistics are available before the census of 1855. Other enumerations were made in 1868, 1881, and 1891, the figures of the latest not being yet available for purposes of com-
