J. S. Grewal - The New Cambridge History of India, Volume 2, Part 3 - The Sikhs of The Punjab (1991)

The Sikhs of the Punjab
Revised Edition
In a revised edition of his original book, J. S. Grewal brings the history of

the Sikhs, from its beginnings in the time of Guru Nanak, the founder of
Sikhism, right up to the present day. Against the background of the history
of the Punjab, the volume surveys the changing pattern of human
settlements in the region until the fifteenth century and the emergence of
the Punjabi language as the basis of regional articulation. Subsequent
chapters explore the life and beliefs of Guru Nanak, the development of
his ideas by his successors and the growth of his following. The book
offers a comprehensive statement on one of the largest and most important
communities in India today
j . s. GREWAL is Director of the Institute of Punjab Studies in

Chandigarh. He has written extensively on India, the Punjab, and the
Sikhs. His books on Sikh history include Guru Nanak in History (1969),
Sikh Ideology, Polity and Social Order (1996), Historical Perspectives on
Sikh Identity (1997) and Contesting Interpretations of the Sikh Tradition
(1998).
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

THE NEW CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF INDIA
General editor GORDONJOHNSON

President of Wolfson College, and Director, Centre of South Asian Studies,
University of Cambridge
Associate editors C. A. B A Y L Y
Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History, University of Cambridge,
and Fellow of St Catharine's College
J F. RICHARDS
Professor of History, Duke University
Although the original Cambridge History of India, published between

1922 and 1937, did much to formulate a chronology for Indian history
and describe the administrative structures of government in India, it has
inevitably been overtaken by the mass of new research published over the
past fifty years.
Designed to take full account of recent scholarship and changing
conceptions of South Asia's historical development, The New Cambridge
History of India will be published as a series of short, self-contained
volumes, each dealing with a separate theme and written by a single
person. Within an overall four-part structure, thirty-one complementary
volumes in uniform format will be published. As before, each will
conclude with a substantial bibliographical essay designed to lead non-
specialists further into the literature.
The four parts planned are as follows:
I The Mughals and Their Contemporaries

II Indian states and the Transition to Colonialism
III The Indian Empire and the Beginnings of Modern Society
IV The Evolution of Contemporary South Asia
A list of individual titles in preparation will be found
at the end of the volume.

THE NEW
CAMBRIDGE
HISTORY OF
INDIA
II.3
The Sikhs of the Punjab
Revised Edition
J. S. GREWAL
CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS

t Available in paperback
PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 IRP, United Kingdom
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

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© Cambridge University Press 1990
This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant
collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the
written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 1990
Reprinted 1994,1998
First paperback edition 1998
Typeset in Sabon [CE]

British Library cataloguing in publication data
Grewal J. S.
The Sikhs of the Punjab. - (The New Cambridge History of India: 11:3)
1. India (Republic). Sikhs, history
I. Title
Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data

Grewal, J. S.
The Sikhs of the Punjab/J. S. Grewal.
p. cm. - (The New Cambridge history of India: II.3)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN o 521 26884 2
1. Sikhs-History
2. Punjab (India)-History.
I. Title.
II. Series.
DS436.N47 1987 pt. 2. vol. 3
[DS485.P3]
89-17348
CIP
ISBN o 521 26884 2- hardback
ISBN o 521 63764 3 paperback
Transferred to digital printing 2003

For
Reeta, Aneeta, Harinder, Ravinder
Tara, Sharan, Ranbir and Manek

CONTENTS
List of Maps X
General editor's preface xi

Preface xin
Glossary XV
Introduction 1
i The Turko-Afghan rule 9

2 Foundation of the Sikh Panth 28
3 Evolution of the Sikh Panth (i 539-1606) 42
4 Transformation of the Sikh Panth (1606-1708) 62
5 Rise to political power (1708-1799) 82
6 The Sikh empire (1799-1849) 99
7 Recession and resurgence (1849-1919) 128
8 In the struggle for freedom (1920-1947) 157

9 Towards the 'Punjabi Province' (1947-1966) 181
10 In the new Punjab state (1966-1984) 205
Epilogue 228
Appendices
1 The successors of Guru Nanak 242
2 The descendants of Guru Ram Das 243
3 The Mughal rulers of India 244
4 Chronology of events from 1708 to 1997 245
5 Heads of British administration in the Punjab 258
Bibliographical Essay 259
Index 268

MAPS
1 The land of the Five Rivers 2

2 Akbar's empire 43
3 The Mughal empire (1740s) 86
4 The Punjab under Sikh rule 102
5 British India (twentieth century) 129
6 The British Punjab (twentieth century) 148
7 Contemporary India 190
8 The Punjab (1956-1966): linguistic zones 192
9 Contemporary Punjab 206

GENERAL EDITOR'S PREFACE
The New Cambridge History of India covers the period from the
beginning of the sixteenth century. In some respects it marks a radical
change in the style of Cambridge Histories, but in others the editors
feel that they are working firmly within an established academic
tradition.
During the summer of 1896, F.W. Maitland and Lord Acton
between them evolved the idea for a comprehensive modern history.
By the end of the year the Syndics of the University Press had
committed themselves to the Cambridge Modern History, and Lord
Acton had been put in charge of it. It was hoped that publication would
begin in 1899 and be completed by 1904, but the first volume in fact
came out in 1902 and the last in 1910, with additional volumes of tables
and maps in 1911 and 1912.
The History was a great success, and it was followed by a whole
series of distinctive Cambridge Histories covering English Literature,
the Ancient World, India, British Foreign Policy, Economic History,
Medieval History, the British Empire, Africa, China and Latin
America; and even now other new series are being prepared. Indeed,
the various Histories have given the Press notable strength in the
publication of general reference books in the arts and social sciences.
What has made the Cambridge Histories so distinctive is that they
have never been simply dictionaries or encyclopaedias. The Histories
have, in H.A.L. Fisher's words, always been 'written by an army of
specialists concentrating the latest results of special study'. Yet as
Acton agreed with the Syndics in 1896, they have not been mere
compilations of existing material but original works. Undoubtedly
many of the Histories are uneven in quality, some have become out of
date very rapidly, but their virtue has been that they have consistently
done more than simply record an existing state of knowledge: they
have tended to focus interest on research and they have provided a
massive stimulus to further work. This has made their publication
doubly worthwhile and has distinguished them intellectually from
XI

GENERAL EDITOR S PREFACE
other sorts of reference book. The Editors of the New Cambridge

History of India have acknowledged this in their work.
The original Cambridge History of India was published between
1922 and 1937. It was planned in six volumes, but of these, Volume 2
dealing with the period between the first century A.D. and the Muslim
invasion of India never appeared. Some of the material is still of value,
but in many respects it is now out of date. The last fifty years have seen
a great deal of new research on India, and a striking feature of recent
work has been to cast doubt on the validity of the quite arbitrary
chronological and categorical way in which Indian history has been
conventionally divided.
The Editors decided that it would not be academically desirable to
prepare a new History of India using the traditional format. The
selective nature of research on Indian history over the last half-century
would doom such a project from the start and the whole of Indian
history could not be covered in an even or comprehensive manner.
They concluded that the best scheme would be to have a History
divided into four overlapping chronological volumes, each containing
about eight short books on individual themes or subjects. Although in
extent the work will therefore be equivalent to a dozen massive tomes
of the traditional sort, in form the New Cambridge History of India
will appear as a shelf full of separate but complementary parts.
Accordingly, the main divisions are between I The Mughals and their
Contemporaries, II Indian States and the Transition to Colonialism, III
The Indian Empire and the Beginnings of Modern Society, and IV The
Evolution of Contemporary South Asia.
Just as the books within these volumes are complementary so too do
they intersect with each other, both thematically and chronologically.
As the books appear they are intended to give a view of the subject as it
now stands and to act as a stimulus to further research. We do not
expect the New Cambridge History of India to be the last word on the
subject but an essential voice in the continuing discourse about it.
Xll

PREFACE
Writing his History of the Sikhs in the 1960s Khushwant Singh looked
upon J. D. Cunningham as his predecessor whose work, written over a
century earlier, had become a classic. Khushwant Singh himself has
written with 'power and passion' under 'masterly restraint'. That the
present volume takes into account the research on Sikh history during
the past two decades may be regarded as its major claim upon the
reader's attention. It touches upon religious, social, political,
economic, cultural and demographic developments over the entire
span of Sikh history.
Within the broad context of Indian history, Sikh history falls into
four well-marked periods: from its beginning with the mission of Guru
Nanak to the death of Guru Gobind Singh in 1708; from the rise of
Banda Bahadur to the annexation of the Punjab by the British in 1849;
the near century of colonial rule up to 1947; and the four decades of
Independence. During the past century historians of the Sikhs have
concentrated on the first two periods. Interest in the colonial period
goes back only to the 1960s. The movement for a Punjabi-speaking
state and the crisis culminating in the Operation Bluestar in June 1984
have induced many a writer to take interest in the history of the Sikhs
in independent India. This broad pattern of historiography is reflected
in the treatment of Sikh history in the present volume: generalizations
yield more and more place to factual though analytical narrative as we
pass from one period to another in an attempt to identify change.
For an invitation to pursue a subject which had been my major
occupation for two decades, I am thankful to the Syndics of the
Cambridge University Press; I am equally thankful to the editors of
The New Cambridge History of India for leaving me all the freedom I
needed to write this volume.
I am indebted to many scholars and institutions for help, but I would
like to mention specifically Professor Indu Banga and Professor W. H.
McLeod among the scholars, and the Nehru Memorial Museum and
Library, New Delhi, the Indian Council of Historical Research, New
Delhi, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, and the Indian Institute
xiii

PREFACE
of Advanced Study, Shimla, among the institutions. Dr Veena Sach-

deva, Dr Radha Sharma and Dr Harish Sharma have helped me the
most from amongst my colleagues and research students. I am thankful
to Jaswant Singh and T. K. Majumdar for secretarial help, and to O. P.
Sarna for cartographic assistance. N. K. Maini has helped me in
checking the proofs and in preparing the index.
My wife, Harjinder, gave me all the care and affection I needed for
completing this study through the 1980s.
P.S.
Since the publication of this book in 1990, the publishers have found
its sales satisfactory enough to bring out a paperback edition. The
author has taken the opportunity to bring its Epilogue up to 1997, to
add to its Chronology events from 1849 onwards, to replace its maps
for better cartographic representation, to update the Bibliographical
Essay, and to make necessary 'corrections' in the text, footnotes and
the Index.
xiv

GLOSSARY
'adalati a touring justice under Sikh rule,

akali a staunch follower of Guru Gobind Singh; in
the early nineteenth century equated with the
Nihang; in the twentieth century, initially a
volunteer to take over Sikh temples and after-
wards a member of the Shiromani Akali Dal.
akhand-pafh 'unbroken reading'; an uninterrupted reading
of the entire Adi Granth performed by a team
of readers.
akhdra arena; a temple or monastery of the Udasls.
a'Id mdlik a 'superior owner', entitled to a certain share in
the produce from land; also called ta'alluqddr
or bisweddr.
'amil a revenue collector; interchangeable with
kdrddr as the administrator of a ta'alluqa under
Sikh rule,
ardas the Sikh prayer.
arddsid literally, one who offers ardds; a person
employed by Sikh rulers and jdgirddrs for this
purpose.
auliya plural of wall, a favourite or friend of God;
saints.
avtdr 'descent'; incarnation of a deity, usually
Vishnu.
bairdgl a renunciant, usually a Vaishnavite.
bandh to stop work as a mark of protest; a method of
agitation; a strike.
bdrii speech; the utterances of the Gurus and bhaktas
recorded in the Adi Granth; the amplified
form gurbdni or bhagat-bani is commonly
used.
bar the upland between two river valleys in the
Punjab plains.
xv

GLOSSARY
bemukh 'without face'; one who has turned away from

the Guru.
bhdl 'brother'; a Sikh formally connected with relig-
ious affairs; an epithet of respect,
bhanddr store; a storehouse; a place for the preparation
and distribution of food in religious insti-
tutions.
bhanddrl one who looks after a bhanddr.
bhdt a popular bard who also kept genealogies of
important families.
conclusion of the reading of the Adi Granth,
bhog
followed generally by singing of hymns and
always by an ardds.
a measure of land generally considered equal
bigha to 20 biswds or 2. kandls; also one-half of a
ghumdon; the actual size varied from region to
region
bima insurance.
birdddr a local representative of the Nirankari
Guru.
bisweddr 'the holder of a twentieth part'; a person
entitled to a certain share in the produce from
land; also called a'ld mdlik or td'alluqddr\
chandl-pdt.h a ceremony observed by the Namdharis in
which Guru Gobind Singh's composition on
the Goddess Chandi was recited over a fire
kept burning; also called horn.
chaudharl the hereditary headman of a group of villages
for collecting revenues on behalf of the
government,
chela a disciple.
daftar-i-mu'alld the exalted office; a term used for the central
secretariat of Maharaja Ranjit Singh,
dal khdlsd a term used for the combined forces of the Sikhs
during the eighteenth century,
dam a small coin, equal to one-fortieth of a silver
rupee in the Mughal times; equated in due
course with paisa.
xvi

GLOSSARY
deodhi entrance hall; royal residence; the royal court,

deodblddr the keeper of the royal residence in the time of
Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
derd camp; encampment; a unit in the army of
Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his successors; the
place of a religious personage,
dhadi a minstrel; among the Sikhs, a musician who
used to sing in praise of the Sikh Gurus and
recount the heroic deeds of the Sikhs,
dhara a factional group.
dhartna the appropriate moral and religious obligations
attached to any particular section in Hindu
society; duty, moral obligation; a righteous
cause,
dharm-yudh war in the cause of religion; a righteous war.
dlwdn the keeper of a treasury; the head of the finance
department; an honorofic given to Hindu
nobles by Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his
successors.
doab an area lying between two rivers,
far man a royal order.
faujddr one who keeps troops; a military officer under
the Mughals whose duty in peace time was to
maintain law and order and to assist civil
authorities; the office survived into the early
nineteenth century in the Punjab,
ghadar 'revolt'; revolution.
ghurcbarha literally a horse-rider; a traditional horseman in
the kingdom of Lahore.
ghorcharhd-i-khds a special cavalry raised by Maharaja Ranjit
Singh to act as royal body-guards,
gidnl one who possesses knowledge (gidn); among
the Sikhs, a person well-versed in the
scriptures.
granthi a professional reader of the Granth; the func-
tionary in charge of a gurdwdra.
gurbdnl 'the utterance of the Guru',
gurdwdra 'the door of the Guru'; a Sikh temple, generally
also the centre of social activity.
xvn

GLOSSARY
gurmatd a decision arrived at by a congregation of Sikhs,

generally in the presence of the Granth Sahib.
gurmukhl a script adopted by the first successor of Guru
Nanak for recording his compositions and used
subsequently by the Sikhs for writing Punjabi.
gursikh a true Sikh of the Guru.
guru preceptor; religious teacher; an epithet used for
the founder of Sikhism and each of his nine
successors, and also for the Granth Sahib and
the Panth.
harmandir 'the temple of God'; the central Sikh shrine in
Amritsar commonly known as the Golden
Temple.
haumai self-centredness.
havan offering an oblation with fire.
boll an important spring festival observed by
sprinkling coloured powder or water on one
another.
hukmndma 'a written order'; used generally for the letters
of the Sikh Gurus to their followers.
hundi a bill of exchange.
ijdra an arrangement in which a certain source of
income was placed in the charge of a person on
the condition of his paying a certain stipulated
sum to the state.
jagir an assignment of land revenue in lieu of salary.
jdglrdar the holder of a.jdgir;zn assignee.
jathd a group, a band; used particularly for Akali
volunteers during their agitations.
jatheddr the leader of a jathd; a leader-organizer of the
Shiromani Akali Dal.
jhlwar a water-carrier by caste.
jihdd 'endeavour'; a crusade; a holy war.
from yogi, or one who practises yoga; a person
belonging to any of the twelve orders of the
followers of Gorakhnath.
julahd a weaver by caste.
kacbchl unripe; spurious; false.
kaldl a brewer or distiller by caste.
xvin

GLOSSARY
kaliyuga the fourth and last of the cosmic ages; the age of
degeneracy.
kampii-i-mu'alld the exalted camp: a term used for the standing
army of Maharaja Ranjit Singh,
kanpdtd 'split-ear'; a follower of Gorakhnath who wears
rings in pierced ears.
kdrddr an agent; an official; generally used for the
administrator at the ta'alluqa (or pargana) level
under Sikh rule.
karhd-prasad sacramental food dispensed in gurdwdras.
kdrkhdna a work house, a manufactory; generally main-
tained by rulers and members of the ruling
class.
kesh in Sikh literature, refers to uncut hair,
khdlisa lands from which revenues were collected
directly by the state in contrast to land alien-
ated in jdgir, dharmarth, in'dm or any other
kind of alienation.
khalsa the Sikh brotherhood instituted by Guru
Gobind Singh; used for an individual as well as
for the collective body.
khande-ki-pauhl the ceremony introduced by Guru Gobind
Singh, in which a double-edged sword was used
for preparing the water known as amrit to be
drunk by the person baptized,
khdnqah a hospice; the establishment of a Sufi Shaikh,
khatri from Kshatriya; an important caste in the
Punjab.
khutba a sermon, address; pronouncement made in
Friday mosques regarding the ruler of the day.
klkar babul, a hardy and thorny tree in the Punjab,
kirpdn a sword.
klrtan the singing of hymns from the sacred scriptures
of the Sikhs; hence klrtan darbdr for an elabor-
ate performance.
kotwal the official in charge of a fort; used generally
for the city official meant to keep law and
order,
landd a script used by shopkeepers in the Punjab.
xix

GLOSSARY
langar the kitchen attached to a gurdwdra from which

food is served to all regardless of caste or creed;
a community meal.
Idvdn stanzas composed by Guru Ram Das for the
solemnization of marriage,
madad-i-ma ash literally, aid for subsistence; most commonly
used in the Mughal times for land revenue
alienated in favour of a religious personage or
institution.
madrassa a place where teaching is imparted; generally of
high learning.
mahal a revenue sub-division usually corresponding
with pargana; also applied to a source of
revenue.
mahzar an attestation signed by a number of persons,
maktab a place where books are taught; generally used
for a school.
manmukh self-oriented; one who follows his own impul-
ses rather than the guidance of the Guru,
mansab literally office, position of rank; indicating
under the Mughals the status, obligations and
remuneration of its holder in the official
hierarchy.
mansabddr the holder of a rank in the system evolved by
the Mughal emperor Akbar and his successors;
hence, the mansabddrl system,
mar hi a small structure raised over a spot of
cremation.
masand a representative appointed by the Guru to look
after the affairs of a local congregation of Sikhs,
or a number of such congregations,
mastdna an intoxicated person; used for a Namdhari
who was so deeply affected by the singing of
hymns that he behaved like an intoxicated
person, shouting and moving in frenzy. It was
because of such mastdnas that the Namdharis
were given the label kiikd (from kuk or shout)
by others,
math a monastery; a religious establishment.
xx

GLOSSARY
matrds religious writings of the Udasls.

mazdr a mausoleum; the tomb of a Sufi Shaikh,
mind a derogatory epithet used for Prithi Chand, the
elder brother of Guru Arjan, and also for his
successors and their followers,
misl a combination of Sikh leaders in the eighteenth
century for the purpose of defence and for the
occupation of territories.
morchd an embrasure; an entrenchment for besieging a
fort; used metaphorically by the Akalis for
their non-violent agitations,
mufti an expounder of the law in Islam,
muhtasib the superintendent of police, who examined
weights, measures and provisions, and preven-
ted drinking and gambling,
munsif from insdf (justice), one who gives justice, a
judicial officer; a judge; an arbitrator,
muqaddam the headman of a village or a part thereof,
nadar from the Persian nazr, 'sight'; grace,
ndl a barber by caste.
nawdb plural of ndib, a vicegerent; a title used gen-
erally for provincial governors under the
Mughals; used also for some rulers who suc-
ceeded them.
nazim an administrator; the governor of a province,
nindak detractor; used for the opponents of the Gurus,
nizdmat the office of ndzim (governor) under the
Mughals; the territory under a ndzim; also used
for lower officials and smaller units of admin-
istration in later times.
panchayat a local assembly of the representatives of a caste
or brotherhood; used for the representatives of
the soldiers in the army of Lahore in the 1840s;
panch for an individual member,
parchar propagation of ideas, particularly of one's faith,
pargana the first administrative unit in a province under
the Mughals; remained in use in the Punjab till
the mid nineteenth century and became syno-
nymous with ta'alluqa.
xxi

GLOSSARY
pd(hshdla an elementary school, especially for simple

arithmetic and book-keeping,
pafwdn the village accountant,
paurl stanza in a vdr.
pothi volume, tome.
qdningo a hereditary keeper of the revenue records at the
pargana or the taa.llu.qa level,
qdzl the judicial officer who administered Islamic
law; the office survived into the early nine-
teenth century in the Punjab,
rabdbl one who plays on the rabdb, a kind of violin
with three strings.
rdgi a singer, particularly of the verses in the Sikh
scriptures.
ra'is a socially eminent and affluent person,
rdkhl literally 'protection'; a transitional arrangement
signifying essentially the Sikh chief's claim to a
part of the produce from land in return for
protection afforded against all other claimants,
rdm-llld the folk drama on the life of Rama as the
incarnation of Vishnu,
rehat the code of conduct for the Khalsa.
rebatia 'one who conforms to rehat'; used actually for a
category of low-caste Sikhs,
sddh a person devoted to religious pursuits; a mendi-
cant; a recluse.
sddh-sangat an association of sddhs or pious persons; used
for a Sikh congregation.
sangat assembly, religious congregation; a congre-
gation of Sikhs; the collective body of Sikhs at
one place.
sanyasi a renunciant, generally a Shaivite.
saropd literally 'head and foot'; a robe of honour; a
token of honour,
sarovar a pool, a tank.
sarrdf a money-changer; a jeweller,
sail voluntary burning of a widow on her husband's
funeral pyre.
xxn

GLOSSARY
sat-sangat true association or assembly; used for a Sikh

congregation.
savayya a poetical stanza in a particular metre with a
particular rhyme scheme,
sehajdhdri a Sikh who is not baptized as a Khalsa and does
not observe the Khalsa code of discipline; a
non-Khalsa Sikh.
shahldi jathd a band of martyrs in non-violent agitation;
the first band was organized in connection
with the Rikabganj Gurdwara agitation in
1920.
sbarddh rite commemorating deceased forbears,
sharVat the Islamic law.
shiqddr a person appointed by the king under Afghan
rule to look after the civil and military admin-
istration of a territory,
shivdld a temple dedicated to Shiva,
shudar the Punjabi form of shudra.
shuddhl 'purification'; a ceremony conducted by the
Arya Samaj to induct or restore to Hindu
society those outside its bounds,
silsilah a line, a chain; a Sufi order,
sltald the goddess of small pox.
smddh a memorial raised on a place of cremation,
generally for persons prominent in one sphere
or another.
suba a province or the primary division of an empire;
used also for the representative of Baba Ram
Singh as an abbreviated form of siibeddr or
governor.
sufis the mystics of Islam.
sutak the period of 'impurity' for a woman after she
has given birth to a child; supposed to be eleven
days for a Brahman, thirteen for a Khatri,
seventeen for a Vaish and thirty days for a
shudar.
ta'alluqa synonymous with pargana under the Sikh rule
(see pargana).
xxin

GLOSSARY
ta' alluqdar a person entitled to a share in the produce from

land; also called a'Id mdlik or bisweddr.
tabligb propagation of Islam,
tarkhdn a carpenter by caste.
tat-khdlsd the staunch Khalsa; used for the Khalsa of Guru
Gobind Singh who opposed Banda Bahadur
and his followers in the early eighteenth
century, and also for the Singh reformers of the
early twentieth century.
ta ziya the annual mourning of the death of Hasan and
Husain, the sons of the Caliph Ali, observed by
the Shi'as by taking out the representations of
their shrines in a procession,
thakurdwdra a temple dedicated to Vishnu or one of His
incarnations.
thdnaddr the commandant of a garrison or a fort,
uddsi a renunciant belonging to an order tracing its
origin to Guru Nanak through his son Sri
Chand and not through Guru Angad and his
successors.
'ulama the plural of ldlim, a person who possesses
knowledge; used generally for the learned in
Islamic theology and law.
vaish the Punjabi form of Vaishya, one of the four
castes of the varrya order.
var a literary genre, generally used for heroic
poetry; Guru Nanak used it for his religious
compositions; the most famous vdrs in Sikh
literature were composed by Bhai Gurdas in the
early seventeenth century in praise of the Sikh
Gurus and their teachings,
varna literally, colour; used for the ideal norm of the
four-caste social order.
wall singular of auliyd; used for a Sufi who has
attained to the highest spiritual state of subsis-
tence in God.
wazifa a stipend.
wazlr the first or the prime minister, next in power
and importance to the king.
xxiv

GLOSSARY
zabt a method of assessment per unit area, based on

measurement; applied commonly to perishable
and superior crops under Sikh rule.
zakdt charity for fellow Muslims institutionalized as a
tax collected by the state.
zamlnddr literally the holder of land; applied alike to the
intermediary who collected revenue on behalf
of the state and to a vassal chief as well as to a
peasant proprietor.
zimrrii the non-Muslims who paid poll-tax (jizya) to a
Muslim ruler to ensure protection of their life
and property.
xxv

INTRODUCTION
For every twenty Sikhs in the Punjab there are no more than four in the
rest of India and not more than one in the rest of the world; among
those who live outside, there are not many who do not have their roots
in the Punjab.
The literal meaning of the Persian term panj-db is 'five-waters'. It
was meant to signify the land of five rivers. But it was not meant to be
taken literally. When it became current in the reign of Akbar in the late
sixteenth century, it was synonymous with the province of Lahore
and, therefore, actually smaller than the area lying between the rivers
Indus and Satlej. The British Punjab, however, embraced the entire
plain between the Jamuna and the Indus. This region had a geo-
graphical entity of its own. Its southern boundary was marked by a
desert in historical times. The Himalayas stood in its north even before
the Punjab plains emerged as a geological entity.
As a geographical region, the Punjab was probably wetter in
prehistoric times, but there has been little climatic change during the
Christian era. The rains of July and August mark the end of the
extreme heat of May and June, and the return of the spring in March
and April marks the end of the extreme cold of December and January.
The most temperate weeks come in February-March and October-
November. The rivers have changed course from time to time. The
river Sarswati, which either fell directly into the Arabian Sea or joined
the Indus during the second millennium before Christ, is now marked
by the stream called Ghaggar and its dry bed. This was a major change.
Minor changes in the courses of the rivers of the Punjab are also
known to have taken place even during the past five hundred years.
Consequently, the inter-fluvial area between any two rivers (dodb) has
not remained the same. The names given to the dodbs by Akbar have
found general acceptance: the Bist Jalandhar Doab between the Beas
and the Satlej, the Bari Doab between the Beas and the Ravi, the
Rachna Doab between the Ravi and the Chenab, the Chaj Doab

THE SIKHS OF THE PUNJAB
JTHE PUNJAB REGION
Map i The land of the Five Rivers

between the Chenab and the Jhelum and the Sindh Sagar Doab
between the Jhelum and the Indus.
In the third millennium before Christ the Punjab formed a part of
the civilization called the Indus Culture when its cities and towns were
located close to the rivers, particularly in their lower courses. The city
of Harappa which flourished as a major urban centre for about 500
years was situated then on the left bank of the river Ravi, about a
hundred miles lower than Lahore at present. The site of the prehistoric
Ropar is still very close to the river Satlej. The villages which supported
the towns and cities were also in or close to river valleys, and not in the
upland (bar) between the rivers.
Though the cities and large towns of the Indus Culture began to
decline in the second millennium before Christ, the broad pattern of

INTRODUCTION
human settlements persisted till about iooo B.C. Thereafter, a slow but
sure movement up the river valleys, and into the lower Himalayas, was
made possible largely by the use of iron implements. Heavier rainfall
among the mountain ranges then became an asset. The new cities like
Taxila, Sialkot and Jalandhar as well as Lahore were among other
things an index of this northward movement. A large number of
villages grew up in the upperparts of the dodbs. The balance in favour
of the northern parts was tilted further by the introduction of artificial
irrigation by wells with the Persian wheel, particularly after the
Turkish conquest of the Punjab at the beginning of the eleventh
century. The number and the size of towns began to increase in the
upper portions of the dodbs in the thirteenth century. This trend was
accentuated further during the Mughal period.
The change in the broad pattern of human settlements in the Punjab
was a result of political as well as technological changes. At the time of
the Aryan influx into India in the second millennium before Christ,
the Indus Culture was in decline. Agricultural economy was revived
when the nomadic Aryans established small republics and monarchies
nearly all over the Punjab. At the time of Alexander's invasion during
the fourth century before Christ the kingdom of Ambhi was situated in
the upper Sindh Sagar Doab, and King Puru (Poros) was ruling over a
kingdom in the adjoining Chaj Doab. These areas had earlier remained
peripheral to the Indus Culture. Soon after Alexander's return the
Punjab became an integral part of the vast Mauryan empire which
stretched from Bengal to Afghanistan under Ashoka. Taxila was linked
by a highway with the imperial capital Pataliputra in Bihar. Itself a
cosmopolitan centre of art and learning, Taxila served as an important
centre of trade with Iran and the Mediterranean world.
For nearly a thousand years after the fall of the Mauryan empire, the
Punjab remained politically isolated from the Ganges plains. In the
second century before Christ, the Greek king Menander, known to
Buddhist monks as Milinda, ruled over the western dodbs of the
Punjab; Greek coins bear testimony to Greek influence over the whole
of the Punjab before the intrusion of the Shakas or the Scythians. In the
first century before Christ, the Kushanas under Kanishka established a
large empire which covered the whole of the Punjab but extended more
towards Central Asia. The successors of Kanishka submitted to the
Sassanian emperor Ardashir in the early third century after Christ. In
the fifth century the Huns established their power in the Punjab; their

king Tormana carried his arms beyond the Jamuna, but his successor
Mihirakula was pushed back into the Punjab first and then into
Kashmir. In the seventh century Harsha ruled over the eastern Punjab
up to the river Beas, while the upper portions of the remaining dodbs
were subjugated by the rulers of Kashmir and the lower portions were
covered by a Kingdom known as Takka. Before the advent of the
Ghaznavid Turks, the Hindu Shahi rulers were dominant in the
Punjab proper and the Satlej-Jamuna Divide was under the Tomar
Rajputs.
From the eleventh century the Punjab became once again a part of
large empires when Mahmud of Ghazni annexed it to his dominions in
Afghanistan and Central Asia. His successors ruled over the land of the
five rivers for over 150 years without extending their territory much
beyond the river Ghaggar. The last of them was ousted from Lahore by
the new rulers of Afghanistan, the Ghurids, before the end of the
twelfth century. The Turkish Generals of the Ghurids conquered
nearly the whole of northern India, and three Turkish dynasties ruled
over the Sultanate of Delhi during the thirteenth century. During the
fourteenth century, much of the Punjab was a part of the large empire
established by the Khalji Turks and maintained by the Tughluqs. The
western dodbs, however, had come under the influence of the Mongol
successors of Chingiz Khan before Timur, the acknowledged ancestor
of the Mughal emperors, invaded India towards the end of the
fourteenth century. The Sayyid rulers came into power at Delhi during
the early fifteenth century and tried to extend their influence over the
Punjab, but without much success. This position was inherited by the
Afghan ruler Bahlol Lodhi in the late fifteenth century. Under his
successors, Sikandar and Ibrahim, the Afghan governor of the Punjab
extended his influence up to the river Jhelum. Meanwhile, Babur had
occupied Afghanistan as a successor of Timur, and was keen to expand
his dominions in the direction of India. He occupied the Punjab in the
early 1520s before he defeated Ibrahim Lodhi in the battle of Panipat in
15 26. For over two centuries then, the Punjab was to remain an integral
part of the Mughal empire in India.
Political changes affected inter multa, alia the character of population
in the Punjab. The dominant tribes of the region during the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries were an important legacy of political changes.
Many a Baloch and Pathan clan was dominant in the area which
became the Multan province of the Mughal empire. The Kharal and Sial

INTRODUCTION
tribes were dominant in the lower portions of the Bari and Rachna
Doabs. The Gakkhars, Awans and the Janjuas were dominant in the
upper Sindh Sagar Doab. Many Rajput clans held lands along the
Shivaliks and the border along Rajasthan. However, the most numer-
ous of the agricultural tribes were the Jats. They had come from Sindh
and Rajasthan along the river valleys, moving up, displacing the
Gujjars and the Rajputs to occupy culturable lands. Before the end of
the sixteenth century they were more numerous than any other
agricultural tribe between the rivers Jhelum and Jamuna. However, it
was still possible to trace the remnants of the original inhabitants of the
Indus Culture, not only in the unprivileged shudras but also in the
dark-skinned among the Brahmans who belonged to the privileged
castes. Most of the Brahmans, however, and nearly all the mercantile
Khatris and Aroras were the decendants of the Aryans who were
represented among the artisans too.
The ethnic plurality in the Punjab was matched by the variety in its
cultural tradition. The Vedic Aryans interacted with the people of the
Indus Culture not only to produce the prototype of the social system
based on caste but also to evolve new systems of religious belief and
practice, combining the simple worship of their nature-gods with the
well-developed cults of the Indus people. This was most evident in the
cult of the Goddess. Due partly to the patronage of non-Aryan rulers,
Buddhism dominated the religious life of the Punjab for several
centuries before its decline became irretrievable in the seventh century.
The forms of religious belief and practice referred to as Shaiva and
Vaishnava were surely becoming popular much before the Turkish
invasions of the Punjab. A variety of Islamic religious beliefs and
practices were introduced in the Punjab during the centuries of
Turko-Afghan rule. To the scriptural authority of the Vedas and the
Puranas was added the authority of the Quran. To Sanskrit in
Devanagri script were added Arabic and Persian in slightly different
scripts of their own. In the past, however, Greek and Kharoshthi
scripts too were known in the Punjab, and so was Brahmi which was
used by the Prakrit writers.
Neither Sanskrit nor Arabic or Persian, however, was the language
understood or spoken by the mass of the people in the Punjab. Just as
they used Landa or Takri script for their simple accounts, they used the
regional dialects in their daily intercourse. These dialects had begun to
emerge clearly between the fall of the kingdom of Harsha in the

seventh century and the rise of the Sultanate of Delhi in the thirteenth.
The great poet Amir Khusrau referred to Lahauri as the spoken
language of the people of the Lahore region, later to be called Punjabi.
At this time, Shaikh Fariduddin Chishti of Pakpattan was using
another major dialect of Punjabi, namely Multani, as the medium of his
literary expression. Those who wished to address themselves to the
mass of the people naturally preferred to use their language. The bards
and minstrels {dhadis) entertained the common people with tales of
love and war in their own dialects, developing in the process a rich
tradition of oral literature in Punjabi.
II
The history of the Sikhs in the Punjab can be traced to the late fifteenth
century. The founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, was born in the Rachna
Doab in April, 1469, when Bahlol Lodhi was ruling at Delhi and Tatar
Khan Lodhi was governing the province of Lahore on his behalf. Guru
Nanak's father, Kalu, was a Khatri, a high caste among the Punjabi
Hindus but the subcaste Bedi to which he belonged was rather
unimportant among the Khatri subcastes. Kalu was residing in a village
called Rai Bhoi di Talwandi in which the most prominent resident was
a Muslim, popularly known as Rai Bular. Like many of his contempo-
rary Khatris, Kalu had learnt Persian to be able to serve as a pafwdri.
He wanted to educate his son well enough to find a place in life. Guru
Nanak appears from his compositions to be a well-educated person.
He could have been self-schooled. But probably he did learn all that
the village teachers of accounts and Persian had to teach.
As a young man Nanak was married to Sulakhni, daughter of Mula,
a Khatri of the newly founded town of Batala who had come there
from his village, Pakho di Randhawi, on the left bank of the river Ravi.
Mula belonged to the subcaste Chona which was less important than
even the subcaste Bedi. As a married young man Nanak was expected
sooner rather than later to earn a living for himself. But there was not
much in the village for a precocious young man in terms of a
profession. Sometime before or after 1490, search for employment
took him across the Bari Doab to Sultanpur in the Bist Jalandhar Doab.
Sultanpur at this time was the seat of an important shiqddr, Daulat
Khan Lodhi, who was later to become the governor of Lahore. It was a
flourishing town on the route from Delhi to Lahore. Its populace

INTRODUCTION
consisted of Hindus and Muslims, following diverse professions. It is

difficult to imagine that there was no one in Sultanpur to expound or to
administer Islamic law, or that there was no one to represent Islamic
mysticism. It is safe to assume that there were Khatri shopkeepers and
traders, Brahman priests and astrologers. There were many who served
Daulat Khan in the administration of the territory under his jurisdic-
tion. There were qdniingos to assist the administrator in the assessment
and collection of land revenue. Indeed, there was an official storehouse
{modlkhdna) for the revenues collected in kind. One of its employees
was Jai Ram, an Uppal Khatri, who was married to Guru Nanak's
sister, Nanki. On his request and surety Guru Nanak was given
employment in the modlkhdna of Daulat Khan.
For about a decade Guru Nanak performed his duties well, living as
a householder in Sultanpur. His two sons, Sri Chand and Lakhmi
Chand, were born there. But neither his service to Daulat Khan Lodhi
nor his attention to his family was the most important aspect of his life
at Sultanpur. He was in search of something more valuable, the
purpose of human life. Possibly, he had met wandering ascetics (sddbs)
in or near Rai Bhoi dl Talwandi. In Sultanpur he could meet the
representatives of both Hinduism and Islam. Religious discussions
between Hindus and Muslims were not uncommon in the fifteenth-
century Punjab. Guru Nanak meditated on the mysteries of life and
reflected on views expressed by others on some of the fundamental
questions of life. His search for truth ended in a sense of divine calling.
This marked the end of his stay in Sultanpur around 1500.
During the first quarter of the sixteenth century Guru Nanak
undertook long journeys in and outside the Indian subcontinent. In
one of his verses there is a reference to towns and cities he visited in all
'the nine regions of the earth' (nau-khand). There is hardly any doubt
that he visited the important centres of Hindu and Muslim pilgrimage.
He debated with the protagonists of nearly all systems of religious
belief and practice in contemporary India. He kept his eyes and ears
open. Even a cursory reading of his compositions is enough to realize
that there was hardly anything that he missed, in politics or govern-
ment, in society or religion, or in nature. His followers came to believe
that he had undertaken these journeys for 'the redemption of the
world'. At the end of his journey the sole purpose of his life was to
deliver his message of salvation to all.
Sometime before or after the age of fifty-five Guru Nanak finally

settled down at a place he named Kartarpur on the right bank of the

Ravi. During the Kartarpur years he seldom moved, not out of the
Punjab anyway. He visited Achal, near Batala, which was an important
centre of the Gorakhnathi jogis in those days. He also visited Pakpat-
tan and Multan where the descendant-successors of Shaikh Fariduddin
and Shaikh Bahauddin Zakariya were still holding discourses on the
sufi way of life. Guru Nanak gave 'instruction' (sikhyd) to all who
visited Kartarpur for nearly a decade and a half before he died in
September, 1539. It is difficult to estimate the number of his followers
in his lifetime. It is clear, however, that the great majority of them
belonged to the Punjab.
The followers of Guru Nanak came to be known as Sikhs, from the
Sanskrit shishya or disciple. Their number began to increase under his
successors. Within a century of his death they were found in many
cities of the Mughal empire as well as in the villages and towns of the
Punjab. For nearly two centuries however, they remained confined to
the Punjab as a result of the political struggle of the Khalsa instituted
by Guru Gobind Singh at the end of the seventeenth century. Under
colonial rule, once again, they began to move out, to other parts of the
country and to other continents. This outmigration gained greater
pace after 1947 when India became independent. The partition of the
Punjab at the same time concentrated the Sikhs in about a dozen
districts of the Indian Punjab. Thus, though it is possible to see a Sikh
in every state of the Indian Union and in almost every country of the
world, the great majority of the Sikhs reside in the Punjab, their
'homeland'.

CHAPTER 1
THE TURKO-AFGHAN RULE
Babur's invading army in the eyes of Guru Nanak was a 'marriage-

party of sin'. Not even the ladies of the nobles were spared dishonour.
With heads once of luxuriant tresses and partings adorned with red,
they suffered now the shears of brutality; their throats were filled with
choking dust; they wandered forlorn, away from the places that had
sheltered them. No longer were there the sports of the nobles them-
selves, and gone were their horses and stables, their trumpets and
clarions, their scarlet tunics and sword belts, their mansions and
palaces, and their seraglios with soft beds and 'beautiful women whose
sight banished sleep'. Rocklike buildings were razed to the ground and
princes were trampled into dust. 'It is Babur who rules in their place
now'.1
Guru Nanak's sharp response to Babur's invasions underlines the
most important political development during his life, the transition
from Afghan to Mughal rule in the Punjab and in northern India. The
first fifty years of Guru Nanak's life had been marked by a period of
peace in the Punjab. At the time of his birth in 1469 the Punjab was a
part of the Sultanate of Delhi under Bahlol Lodhi. The major conquest
of Bahlol and his successors was that of the Sharqi kingdom of
Jaunpur. Their battles for minor political or territorial gains were
fought in Rajasthan. There were only a few insignificant revolts in
the Punjab during a period of about seventy years. Rehabilitation and
resettlement of the countryside and the foundation of new towns like
Bahlolpur and Batala can be seen as the reflection of a long spell of
peace in the Punjab.
More important than wars and battles were the administrative
arrangements made by the Turko-Afghan rulers which had a more
lasting effect on the lives of the people. The Lodhi Sultans, like their
1
These verses occur in the compositions of Guru Nanak referred to as Babur-vdni or the
'utterances concerning Babur': Adi Granth (hereafter AG), 360, 417-18, 722-23.

predecessors, acknowledged the fictional authority of the Abbasid

Caliphs by styling themselves as their deputies {ndib-i-amir al-
muminin). This convention symbolized the cherished unity of an
Islamic world that was actually divided into a large number of states.
More important was the informal authority of the articulate members
of the Sunni Muslim community to whose religious sentiments the
Sultans could appeal in situations of weakness or stress. Only Sikandar
Lodhi (1469-1517) felt the need to destroy temples in war and peace.
Significantly, he also prohibited the annual procession of the spear of
the legendary Muslim martyr Masud Salar and forbade Muslim women
to visit the mausoleums (mazdrs) of Muslim saints. He yielded to the
pressure of the 'ulamd in allowing the execution of a Brahman who had
maintained the equal veracity of his own faith with Islam. All these
measures, like his wars and battles, related to the eastern parts of his
dominions. Sikandar was not a full-blooded Afghan: his mother was
the daughter of a Hindu goldsmith. As a political expediency he tried
to make up for the deficiency in racial purity by a strong dose of Sunni
orthodoxy.
Sikandar's interest in judicial reform too was partly a reflection of his
'religious orthodoxy'. Tribal and caste panchdyats in villages and
towns, local administrators, provincial governors and the wazir per-
formed judicial duties; the Sultan continued to consult the expounders
of the Islamic law (sharVat). The most important result of Sikandar's
interest in the administration of justice was the establishment of the
qdzi's court in a number of towns. With or without the assistance of the
expounder (mufti), the qdzls administered the sharTat in all those
towns and cities which contained a considerable proportion of Muslim
population. The qdzi's court was open to non-Muslims as well for
matters relating to property and secular contracts.2
The state patronage under the Lodhi Sultans, as under their pre-
decessors, was virtually confined to the learned Muslims ('ulamd) and
sufi shaikhs who received stipends in cash (wazifa) or revenue-free
lands (madad-i-ma'dsh) for the maintenance of mosques and khdn-
qahs. To grant entire villages as madad-i-ma'ash was not uncommon.
Such patronage was extended to the genuine or supposed descendants
of the Prophet, and to the members of the tribe to which he belonged.
2
For documentry evidence and its discussion, J. S. Grewal, In the By-Lanes of History:
Some Persian Documents from a Punjab Town, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Simla,
'975-
10

By contrast, the non-Muslim subjects of the Lodhi Sultans and their

predecessors suffered some disabilities. They were supposed to pay the
tax called jizya as the price of their protection by the state. The
Muslims were supposed to pay the tax called zakdt, but for religious
merit. In some parts of the Lodhi Sultanate, the Hindus had also to pay
a pilgrimage tax.3
Acknowledgment of the Sultan's political supremacy enabled non-
Muslim chiefs to retain administrative control of their territories on
certain conditions which made them an integral part of the polity of
the Sultanate. In the territories directly held by the Sultans, however,
the political and administrative power was almost exclusively the
prerogative of Muslims. By far the most dominant among them were
the Afghan tribal leaders and individuals of eminence. They were the
real co-sharers of power with the Sultan. Notwithstanding
occasional transfers, they tended to regard their territories (sarkdr)
consisting of several small units (parganas) as hereditary posses-
sions.4
In the revenue administration of the Lodhi Sultanate, particularly on
the middle and lower rungs, Hindu participation was very consider-
able. Brahmans and Khatris in the Punjab were encouraged to learn
Persian. They were associated with account-keeping, some of them
rising to become diwdns of the provincial governors. The local
administrators often employed Hindu accountants and worked with
the assistance of Hindu qdniingos familiar with local customs, castes
and clans. Many a chaudhari of the pargana, or the part of a pargana,
who assisted the Afghan administrator in the collection of revenue was
Hindu. In all the non-Muslim villages the village headmen (muqad-
dam) were Hindu and so were many of the village accountants
(pa(wdris) even in Muslim villages. The association of the Hindus with
Afghan administration made them important collaborators at the
subordinate levels. Their loyalty to the rulers outweighed their
concern for the common mass of the subject people, whether Hindu or
Muslim.5 There was no effective check on the exploitation of the
peasantry by the intermediaries at various levels.
3
Guru Nanak's reference to the customary tax on gods and their temples is suggestive of
pilgrimage tax: AG, 1191.
4
The term generally used for the Afghan administrator was shiqddr and his jurisdiction
varied from a few parganas to a small province.
5
Guru Nanak brackets all administrators irrespective of their religious affiliation when he
refers to their oppression.
II

II
In imitation of the Lodhi Sultans, the Khans and Maliks of the realm,
the titled nobility, lived a life of luxury and ostentation. They had their
own armies, palace-like mansions, harems, dancing girls and concu-
bines, slaves, musicians and boon companions. Those who could not
afford all the luxuries of the privileged nobles could find consolation in
dancing girls and prostitutes. The brothel was a socially recognized
institution. The Khans and Maliks expressed their piety in raising
mosques, patronizing the 'ulamd, and paying homage to holy men.
The ''ulamd formed an important section of the middling class.
Apart from their role in the administration of justice, they tried to
guard the sharTat through public congregations and the traditional
system of education. Schools and colleges were attached to small or
large mosques in towns and cities. The major subjects of higher
education were interpretation of the Quran (tafsir), tradition with
regard to the sayings and actions of the Prophet (hadis), and juris-
prudence (fiqh). As the recognized guardians of the traditional socio-
religious order, the ''ulamd constituted the most conservative element
in the Muslim community. More popular, however, were the sufi
shaikhs who were venerated by all sections of the Muslim community
except the die-hards among the 'ulamd. The descendants of shaikhs
and pirs, known as shaikhzddas and pirzddas were held in great
respect, and many of them were not lacking in material means. Equally
respectable were the sayyids whose social status was well recognized
by the Afghans. There was hardly a sayyid family which did not enjoy
state patronage.
The middling class in the Muslim community was not confined to
the religious or racial luminaries. There were scholars, soldiers, clerks,
traders, shopkeepers, physicians, scientists and men of letters. The
Muslim community did not consist only of the nobility and the
middling classes. There were artisans and craftsmen: masons, black-
smiths, dyers, weavers, leather-workers, shoe-makers, oil-pressers,
water-carriers and the like. Furthermore, the slave was an important
article of trade in the market, and the institution of slavery was an
integral part of Muslim society in India as elsewhere in the world.
Slaves did not make up a significant part of the agricultural labour
force and the great days of the 'official slave', who served in civil and
military capacities and who could thereby enter the ruling class, were
12

over; but male and female slaves were found in plenty in affluent
Muslim homes for domestic work or concubinage.6
This differentiated Muslim population in the Punjab during the late
fifteenth and early sixteenth century consisted of both foreign and
native elements. The land of the five rivers had remained under Turkish
and Afghan rule for nearly five centuries. Muslim soldiers, admini-
strators, scholars, men of letters, and learned and pious men had
adopted the Punjab as their home. More numerous, however, were the
native Punjabis who had accepted the faith of the rulers. In a long
process of conversion, enslavement of men, women and children as a
measure of war played a considerable role; and so did the institution of
slavery even during the times of peace. An equally important part was
played by the su.fi shaikhs, particularly in the countryside. The
majority of the foreign Muslims lived in cities and towns but the
number of Indian Muslims even in urban centres was probably
larger, consisting partly of the middling classes but largely of artisans,
craftsmen and slaves. On the whole, the proportion of Muslims in the
total population of all the major towns and cities of the Punjab was
quite considerable, and it was larger than the proportion of Muslims in
the total population of the countryside. The majority of native
Muslims in the countryside were to be found in the Sindh Sagar and
Chaj Doabs and in the lower parts of the Rachna and Bari Doabs. Eth-
nically, they belonged to Afghan, Baloch, Rajput, Jat and Gujjar clans.
The cities and towns of the Punjab", as elsewhere in northern India,
served as the centres not only of administration but also of Muslim
culture. Known for their learned men were the cities like Lahore and
Multan and the towns like Tulamba, Ajodhan, Jalandhar, Sultanpur,
Sarhind, Thanesar, Panipat, Samana and Narnaul. Learned men of
local repute were to be found in all the towns. Altogether, they
cultivated not only 'religious sciences' but also secular sciences like
medicine, astronomy and mathematics. There were men of letters too
in the cities and towns. The Persian classics like the Gulistan, BUstdn
and the Sikandarndmd were regarded as an essential part of a liberal
education. Literacy, however, was confined to a very small proportion
of the population.
Those who wished to address themselves to the common people
started making use of the indigenous languages. Malik Muhammad
Jaisi remarked in one of his own works in Hindi that the siifis had
6
The Encyclopaedia of Islam, London, 1965, Vol. 2, 1079.
13

always adopted the language of the people among whom they lived and
worked; he specifically mentioned Hindi and Punjabi. Indeed, Shaikh
Fariduddin Shakarganj, popularly known as Baba Farid, composed
verses in Punjabi during the early thirteenth century for his message to
reach the people of the Punjab. His verses were quoted by his disciples
and successors when they addressed other people. The ground was
thus prepared for Punjabi to become a literary language. There was an
oral tradition of heroic and love poetry in Punjabi. The sufis lent a
certain degree of respectability to the folk tradition by contributing
religious poetry.
Ill
All Muslims formally subscribed to the belief that there was no god
but Allah and Muhammad was His messenger {rasiil). However,
sectarian division had appeared among Muslims even before the advent
of the Turks into the Punjab. Imported by the immigrant Muslims,
ideological differences were perpetuated also by those who came under
their influence in India. It is easy to identify three old sects: the Sunni,
the Shia and the Ismaili. A parallel interpretation of Islam was
cherished, advocated and developed by the sufis, the mystics of Islam,
from the very beginning of the Turkish conquest of the Punjab. In the
late fifteenth century a new movement, known as the Mahdavi
movement, arose in northern India. Of all these sectarian and religious
groups the most important were the Sunnis and the sufis. The Lodhi
rulers professed to subscribe to Sunni Islam, like all their predecessors
and like the majority of their Muslim subjects. But profession of Sunni
Islam and veneration for the sufis were not mutually exclusive. The
Lodhi rulers and the Afghan nobles had no difficulty in reconciling
their 'orthodoxy' to their regard for the sufi shaikhs.
The Sunni 'ulamd accepted and popularized the theology formulated
by al-Ashari in the tenth century.7 In this theology, Allah's uniqueness
and His absolute transcendence over His creation was emphasized, and
so was His majesty and power. Allah is the lord of the universe. He
raised up heavens without visible supports. Not a leaf falls but He
knows it. If all the trees of the earth were pens and all the seven seas
7
For a good presentation of Islam in India on the basis of contemporary evidence, Peter
Hardy, 'Islam in Medieval India', Sources of Indian Tradition (ed. W. M. Theodore de Bary),
Columbia University Press, New York, 1958, 371-435.

were ink, the praise of Allah could not be exhausted. His is the
command (bukm), and unto Him all shall be brought back.'He sends
men astray and He places them on the straight path. His is the final
judgment. Allah is hard towards His enemies but He is essentially just
and righteous. He is omnipotent and inscrutable but He is merciful.
'Praise be to Allah, the lord of the worlds, the beneficent, the merciful'.
The Sunnis believed that Muhammad as the messenger of Allah was the
last of the prophets; the Quran was literally the speech of Allah. They
believed in angels, the day of judgment, paradise and hell. They
professed equal respect for all the first four Caliphs but with a sneaking
sympathy for Ali and his martyr sons Hasan and Husain.
The supreme aim of life for the Sunnis was to earn sufficient religious
merit to enter paradise. The path to paradise was well paved by right
conduct and worship coupled with right belief. There were four
practices which insured piety; five daily prayers (saldt), daily fast
(rozah) during the month of Ramzan, pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj), and
charity to brother Muslims (zakdt). All these observances were rather
external, devoid of religious emotion. Just as Sunni theology tended to
be formal, Sunni piety tended to be ritualistic. Both were nonetheless
valued by the orthodox. Furthermore, the collection of zakdt was
supposed to be the duty of the state. Only a few could afford to go to
Mecca for pilgrimage. The one who did, and thereby became a hdjl,
was treated with respect bordering on veneration. What was left open
to the majority of the people were the daily prayers and the fast in
Ramzan.
The Shias recognized the authority of the Quran as the revealed
word of Allah and they subscribed to the finality of Muhammad's
prophethood. But they rejected the first three Caliphs and regarded Ali
as the true successor of the Prophet and, therefore, the first Imam. The
twelfth Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, disappeared from the world and
he was expected to reappear to restore righteousness and justice. The
authority of the Imam tended to overshadow the other beliefs of the
Shias. The martyrdom of Husain, in the Shia belief, had paved the way
to paradise for all Shias. Based on this belief was the great importance
attached to the taziya for the annual commemoration of his death. The
Shias condemned the first three Caliphs as a logical corollary of their
belief in the exclusive legitimacy of Ali to be the successor of the
Prophet. Because of their considered view that they should conceal
their true identity it was not easy to distinguish them from the Sunnis.
15

But the Sunnis felt their presence in almost all the cities and large towns
of the Punjab.
The Ismailis believed in Allah as the only God, in Muhammad as His
prophet, and in the Quran as His revelation. But they did not believe
that prophethood had ended with Muhammad. They believed in fact
that divine light had passed on to the Imams through Muhammad, the
first Imam being the Caliph Ali. According to them the seventh Imam,
Muhammad ibn Ismail, had disappeared and he was to reappear on the
Last Day. His vicegerents were nonetheless important; they alone
could interpret the Quran because of its esoteric meaning. In the eyes
of some believers they were the incarnation of God. The laws of the
sharTat were not meant for them. The number of Ismailis in the Punjab
was negligible.
The Mahdavi movement had virtually no impact in the Punjab.
Sayyid Muhammad of Jaunpur proclaimed himself to be the Mahdi
expected more or less vaguely by all: the Ismailis, the Shias and the
Sunnis. He was opposed by the 'ulamd, but he was patronized by
Sultan Husain of Jaunpur (1458-1479). Obliged to leave the kingdom
of Jaunpur later, he found shelter in Gujarat under Sultan Mahmud. He
did not dabble in politics, but he was prepared to treat the non-
Mahdavis as harbls who should be obliged to pay jizya like the
protected people (zimmis) in Muslim states. He claimed to be the
restorer of the pristine purity of Islam, interpreting the Quran accord-
ing to his lights. He also claimed to be the last of the walls, which
indicated his intimate connection with the s lifts. Some of his beliefs and
practices had indeed a close resemblance with those of the siifis.
More and more people were coming under the influence of the siifis.s
Their importance is reflected in the increasing recognition given to
them by the Persian chroniclers from the thirteenth to the sixteenth
century, much of whose information was gathered from the works of
the disciples of the shaikhs, like the Siyar al-Auliyd and the Siyar
al-Arifin written between 1350 and 1550. The sufi orders (silsilahs)
proliferated in India as in the rest of the Islamic world. If anything, the
influence of the sufis in the Punjab was more pervasive than elsewhere
in the country. Lahore was known as the abode of many shaikhs since
the time of Ali al-Hujwiri, the author of the Kashf al-Mahjub, who
8
Much has been written on the sufis in general but very little specifically on their ideas
and practices in India on the basis of literature produced in India. For a brief but
comprehensive discussion, J. S. Grewal, Guru Nanak in History, Panjab University,
Chandigarh, 1979, 71-103.
16

settled in Lahore during the rule of the Ghaznavids to be venerated by

successive generations as Data Ganj Bakhsh (the bestower of
treasures). Multan was similarly a seat of many shaikhs, besides the
famous Bahauddin Zakariya. The khdnqah of Shaikh Farid at
Pakpattan remained an eminent centre from the thirteenth to the
sixteenth century. His successor in the early sixteenth century, Shaikh
Ibrahim was known as the 'Second Farid' (farid-i-sdnl). There were
sufis in Hansi, Thanesar and Narnaul. The town of Panipat was
associated with Shaikh Sharfuddin, popularly known as Bu Ali
Qalandar. Lesser luminaries adorned other towns and pockets of the
countryside.
There is a wide range of ideas in sufi literature produced in India and
abroad. In it are found contradictory positions, and there are differ-
ences of emphasis and detail. But there is much that is common and
rather basic. There was a general tendency to find support for
theosophy in some of the verses of the Quran. 'Allah is the light of the
heavens and the earth'; 'Everything will perish save His countenance';
'He loveth them and they love Him'; 'We verily created man and We
know what his soul whispereth to him, and We are nearer to him than
his jugular vein'; 'Adore, and draw thou nigh.' These, and some other
similar verses, held a crucial significance for the sufis. To verses from
the Quran were added some 'sayings' of the Prophet.
However, the most fundamental source of their theosophy was the
mystical experience of the sufis themselves. This experience consisted
essentially of a kind of union with God. The pleasures of paradise are
nothing compared to the everlasting ecstasy of this union. The torment
of hell is nothing compared to the torture of separation from God. The
basis of unification lies in the omnipresence of God: 'everything is He'
and 'He is in everything'. The sufis underlined God's immanence. For
them the relationship between God and man was that of love, and this
mutual relationship eventually led to unification. It was for man to
strive and for God to give. The path to unification was marked by
'stages' and 'states' corresponding to each other, the former attained
through human effort and the latter through God's grace. Man had to
die to his human self (fand) before he could subsist in God (baqd).
Unification was also explained by what may be called the theory of
light (««r). The human heart or soul was comparable to a mirror in
which the divine light could be seen reflected.
The shaikh as a guide (pir) who showed the path to his disciple

(murld) held a crucial position both in theory and practice. The

prophets (nabis) are sinless; the saints (walls) are protected from sin.
The miracle of the prophet (mu'jiza) found a parallel in the miracle of
the saint (kardmat). The command of the shaikh is like the command of
the prophet. In the worship of the pir lies the worship of God. The
formal disciples of the shaikh, from their initiation to the attainment of
the goal, need his guidance.
In contemporary literature the stages between the state of ungener-
ation and the state of subsistence in God (baqd) vary in number and
sequence.In Indian sufi literature great emphasis is laid on repentance
(taubah), renunciation (tark) and satisfaction with whatever is
ordained by God (razd). The first implied realization of heedlessness;
the second involved abandoning pleasures and earthly desires; and the
third meant an eager acceptance of God's decree. One of the most
important practices of the sufis was 'remembrance of God' (zikr). To
repeat the name of Allah alone was preferable to 'There is no god but
Allah' because the latter involved 'negation' whereas in 'Allah' there is
complete affirmation. Throughout the Islamic world the shaikhs
thought of sama or qawwdli as good for spiritual progress. Shaikh
Bakhtyar Kaki of Delhi died while listening to a Persian couplet during
an audition: 'They who are killed by the dagger of submission to God
receive every moment a fresh life from Him.' The verses which affected
Shaikh Nizamuddin were recited by people for a long time after the
audition. The practice of audition was never discarded by the shaikhs in
India despite opposition from the 'ulamd.
The sufi path (tariqat) was not only different from the path of the
sharfat, it was also more difficult to pursue. The practice of zikr did
not replace the five daily prayers; it went beyond. Instead of fasting
only in the month of Ramzan, the sufis advocated much fasting
throughout the year. Charity to brother Muslims was restricted to a
certain share in the idea of zakdt; the sufis placed no limits on charity:
one could give away all one possessed. The Chishti sufis did not see
much merit in the pilgrimage to Mecca; the time spent in hajj could be
more fruitfully utilized nearer home with the plr. On the whole, the
sufis thought that their path began where the path of the sharTat ended.
Abu Hanifa and al-Shafi, the great masters of Muslim Law, had
nothing to teach of love.
The system of sufi beliefs and practices can be appreciated only in
terms of a parallel interpretation of Islam. Indeed, the sufis believed
18

that they were the true representatives of Islam. The essence of sufi
ethics for Shaikh Nizamuddin consisted in not doing unto others
what one did not wish for oneself. Not to injure others, by word or
deed, is recommended again and again. The sufls were inclined to
extend the benefit of spiritual merit to the lowest castes and to women.
They favoured manumission of slaves and humane treatment of the
subject people. They were more tolerant of the non-Muslims, and they
were prepared as much to learn from them as to teach them. They
attributed the relative ineffectiveness of Islam as a religious force in
India to the lack of ethical superiority in the Muslims themselves.
IV
The Arab and Persian writers referred to the Indian subcontinent as
Sindh-wa-Hind and to the peoples of the subcontinent as 'Hindus'.
This in turn gave the name Hindustan to the county of the 'Hindus',
that is Indians. One result of Muslim migration to India, and of
conversion of Indians to the faith of Islam, was that the non-Muslim
Indians came to be equated with Hindus. A secular identity was
thus turned into a religious identity. In due course, not only the
Muslim writers but also the non-Muslims of northern India started
referring to themselves as 'Hindu' in the sense of non-Muslim Indians.
In the Punjab, as in other parts of the Lodhi Sultanate, the number of
Hindus was larger than the number of Muslims, but their proportion in
the total population was smaller in the Punjab than elsewhere, par-
ticularly in the western and southern parts of the land of the five rivers.
Hindus lived in towns and cities as well as in the countryside. Even in
towns founded by Turkish or Afghan administrators the proportion of
Hindus was very considerable. They were indispensable for the
economic life of the urban centres. However, they were predominant
in the countryside, except in those areas where a whole tribe or a clan
had accepted Islam, as in the Sindh Sagar Doab and in the southern
parts of the Chaj, Rachna and Bari Doabs.
The character of Hindu population had undergone a sea change
during the five centuries of Turko-Afghan rule. The Rajput ruling
classes had widely been dislodged from power. Some had migrated to
the neighbouring hills or deserts and some others had accepted Islam.
Their remnants among the Hindus were found in the intermediary
zamlnddrs called Rais. They held zamlnddrls as chaudharis and
19

muqaddams in a large number of parganas, particularly along the

Shivaliks. Their control over the vital politics of the Punjab had
declined. In a few pockets, however, they enjoyed local power under
the aegis of the Lodhi Sultans. Some of them accepted Islam during the
late fifteenth and the early sixteenth century.
The loss of Rajput sovereignty meant also the loss of traditional
patronage to Brahmans. A few Brahmans found favour with the
Afghan nobles for their knowledge of astrology, but as a class they
had to look for new patrons. They acted as family priests to perform
various rites and ceremonies; they looked after the temples and taught
in pdthshdlas; they expounded scriptures to a humbler but more
numerous class of patrons; and they cultivated religious and secular
sciences. However, not all the Brahmans of the Punjab belonged to the
priestly or the learned classes. Many of them had taken to non-priestly
professions like trade and money-lending, agriculture or even petty
service. Nevertheless, their influence in the towns as well as the
countryside was strong though subtle, pervasive though unobtrusive.
They were easily the most conservative element among the Hindus, the
counterpart in a sense of the 'ulamd but without the patronage of the
state. They were extremely meticulous about observing rites and
ceremonies, whether personal, social or religious. In the sphere of
religion, however, theirs was not the only voice among the Hindus of
the Punjab.
In the social sphere they were less important than the Khatris at least
in towns and cities. Besides participation in the civil administration of
the Lodhis, the Khatris of the Punjab had taken to trade and banking.
As sahukdrs and merchants they made large profits and invested their
earnings in landed property in urban centres. They had probably
gained much from the tremendous development of commerce during
the fourteenth century and retained some of this advantage during the
fifteenth. But the Khatris as a class were not reluctant to take to
shopkeeping and money-lending even in the countryside. They felt
proud of their old Kshatriya lineage, and they were certainly older than
the Rajputs, but they showed a remarkable sense of adaptability to the
changing historical situation. In trade and shopkeeping, however, they
were not alone. The Aroras in the western dodbs of the Punjab and the
Banias in the Satlej-Jamuna Divide were equally important.
In the countryside there was a preponderance of Jats, besides the
Rajputs, particularly in the upper Rachna and Bari Doabs, the Bist
20

Jalandhar Doab and the Satlej-Jamuna Divide. They had been moving
up the river valleys during the previous four or five centuries,
encouraged by artificial irrigation made possible by the Persian wheel,
to take up agriculture. Divided into a large number of clans, they had
their chaudharls and muqaddams, many of whom were important as
intermediaries between the cultivators and the rulers. The bulk of the
Jats were ordinary cultivators. Some of the Jat clans, entirely or
partially, had accepted Islam, while some of the Gujjars (originally a
pastoral group) who were taking up cultivation by the fifteenth
century were still clinging to their non-Muslim beliefs and practices.
The cultivators of land needed the services of several categories of
people in the village. They needed the carpenter, the leather-worker,
the potter and the agricultural labourer for cultivation. They needed
the services of many others for their social life, like the jhiwar and the
ndi, who performed more than one service. There were several other
categories, but their number varied from village to village. One village
could have a few weavers, and another one or two goldsmiths; one
village could have a few shoe-makers, and another could have a few
oil-pressers. Similarly, a brewer, a bhdt, a singer, a dyer or a tailor
could be found in some villages. Some Chandals or untouchables also
lived in most of the villages. In the towns and cities too there were
artisans and craftsmen of various categories, and there were menials
and untouchables.
The Hindus of the Punjab during the late fifteenth century did not fit
into the four-caste varna order. This was not a new development. In
the eleventh century, Alberuni had observed that there were four
varnas among the Hindus: the Brahman, the Kshatriya, the Vaishya
and the Shudra. He also observed that there were a number of
subcastes in each varna. Below these four varnas there were several
professional and crafts groups, like the shoe-maker, the weaver, the
washerman, the basket-maker, the fisherman, the boatman, the hunter
and the juggler. This was not all: there were the Chandals and the
like who were outside the pale of society. By the fifteenth century,
strictly speaking, there were no Kshatriyas in the Punjab. Their role
had been taken over by the new rulers. The Brahman was no longer the
most important or the most honoured caste, and the Brahmans as a
class performed duties which were never dreamt of in the varna
concept. There was a similar ambiguity about the Vaishyas and the
Shudras. Nevertheless, the varna order was cherished as the ideal
21

norm. The gulf between the ideal norm and the social reality had
become much wider under the Turko-Afghan rule than ever before.
The Rajputs, the Khatrls and the Brahmans were nonetheless proud of
their lineage, regarding themselves as socially superior to the rest of
the Hindu population.
Though without state patronage now, some of the traditional
'sciences' were cultivated by the Brahmans and Khatrls. The study of
the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Puranas was an important part of
Hindu learning. Some scholars were familiar with the six philosophical
systems. Some branches of knowledge cultivated by the Khatrls as well
as the Brahmans were mathematics, astronomy, medicine, grammar
and prosody. There was some interest in jurisprudence, architecture
and music, and also in astrology, palmistry and magic. Almost all
scholars were to be found in cities and towns. The traders and
shop-keepers learnt account-keeping and a good proportion of them
were literate. Some Khatrls and Brahmans learned Persian for its use in
administrative service.
Among the Rajputs, Khatrls and the Brahmans, women were
respected as daughters, wives and mothers, but their position was
clearly subordinate to that of men. Their best virtues are an eloquent
witness to their subordination. A childless widow was expected to
burn herself on the funeral pyre of her deceased husband to become a
sail, and satis were held in great esteem after self-immolation. She who
did not immolate herself was 'ill-treated' for the rest of her life. In no
case was a widow supposed to remarry. All these practices were related
to the ideal of conjugal fidelity. But for men there was no bar; the idea
of reciprocity was preposterous, not only for self-immolation but also
in terms of monogamy. The ideal of chastity dictated the practice of
child-marriage, but this practice was not confined to the upper castes
and it was prevalent in northern India before its conquest by the Turks.
Much before the advent of the Turks the peoples of India had come
to subscribe to the concept of the four cosmic ages: the satyuga, the
treta, the duapar and the kaliyuga. By the time this idea became
current, the first three ages had already passed and people were passing
through the last, the worst of the four. Much of the evil around could
be explained in terms of the kaliyuga, but 'evil' was defined differently
in different historical situations. In the eleventh century, as Alberuni
tells us, the kaliyuga was associated, among other things, with the loss
of the Brahman's dignity, the rebellion of the small against the great,
22

the abolition of the four varnas, proliferation of religions and sects,

destruction of temples and oppression by the rulers.
All non-Muslim Indians were not 'Hindu' as the term is used today.
There were pockets of Tantric Buddhism in the Punjab hills. In the
plains, there were Jain monks with a lay following among traders and
shop-keepers of many a town in the Punjab. The wandering monks
(yatis) were rather small in number but they were obtrusive because of
their peculiar appearance. They were known for their ascetical living
and their meticulousness about non-injury to living beings, both
visible and invisible. They were unpopular because of their atheistical
system of beliefs.
What is now called 'Hinduism' was represented by Shaiva, Vaish-
nava and Shakta beliefs and practices. Temples dedicated to Shiva as the
supreme deity were looked after by Shaiva Brahmans who also
cultivated Shaiva literature, the Agamas and Puranas. There were
Shaiva monks too, generally known as sanydsis. They were known for
their hard penance and austerity. They belonged to several different
orders, traditionally considered to be ten, because of which they were
also known as Dasnamls. They generally wore ochre-coloured gar-
ments, though some of them went naked and others of them carried
tiger's or panther's skin over their shoulders. Almost all of them wore
ash marks on their foreheads, known as tilak. Some used three
horizontal lines, representing Shiva's trident, or his third eye. Some
others used two horizontal lines with a dot as the phalic emblem of
Shiva. The sanydsis wandered from place to place, but they also
founded establishments called maths. The head of the establishment
could be nominated by the predecessor or elected by his fellow
disciples.
Turning to Vaishnavism in the Punjab we notice that the Vaishnava
texts par excellence were known to Alberuni in the eleventh century:
the Bhagavadgitd, the Bhagavata Parana and the Vishnu Purana.
Temples dedicated to Vishnu as the supreme deity, as Lakshmi-
Narayan or one of his incarnations, were looked after by Vaishnava
Brahmans. The ascetics among the Vaishnavas were generally known
as bairdgls. They recognized merit in ceremonial ritual and pilgrimage
to sacred places. Veneration for the cow and the Brahman they shared
23

with many other Hindus. They advocated total abstention from meat
and liquor. The bulk of the Vaishnavas appear to have belonged to the
trading communities in cities and towns.
The Shaktas worshipped the Goddess in her various forms, giving
primacy to the active principle or the cosmic force (shaktT) which
sustains the universe and the various manifestations of gods. Worship
of the Goddess was of two kinds, generally referred to as 'the cultus of
the right hand' and 'the cultus of the left hand'. Animal sacrifice in
honour of Durga or Kali, or any other terrible form of the Great
Goddess, was an essential element of the cultus of the right. Otherwise,
the right-handers observed the general usages of the Shaivas. The
left-handers performed 'black rites' which, in theory, were meant only
for the adept, and which involved wine (madya), fish (matsya), flesh
(mdnsa), parched grain (mudra) and coition (maithuna). The purpose
of this ritual was to attain to a state of complete identification with
Shakti and Shiva. The practice of this rite was secretive and limited but
it made the left-handers (vdmachdrls) extremely disreputable in the
eyes of the majority of the people.
This brief account of the major forms of Muslim and Hindu religious
beliefs and practices does not take into account a large mass of the
common people and their 'popular religion' which bordered on
animism and fetishism. Godlings of nature, of disease, malevolent
spirits, animal worship, heroic godlings, worship of ancestors, totems
and fetishes made a conspicuous appearance in this popular religion. It
was not a new thing. It had been there for many centuries; it was older
in fact than all formal theologies and theosophies. This popular religion
had survived partly in spite of the 'higher' religions and partly because
of them.
Within Shaivism a new movement arose probably after the Ghazna-
vid conquest of the Punjab. In this movement, initiated by Gorakh-
nath, Hathyoga was adapted to a theological system with Shiva as the
supreme deity. The protagonists and the followers of this movement
came to be known as Gorakhnathl/ogjs or simply as jogis (from yogi).
They figure frequently in Indian sufi literature, and by the fifteenth
century they had come to enjoy great influence in the Punjab. The Tilla
of Gorakhnath in the Sindh Sagar Doab remained their premier
establishment, but jogi centres (maths) were established at other places
also. By the early sixteenth century there were twelve different sections
known as bhekh-bdra. The adept among the disciples were allowed to
24

wear ear-rings (mudrd), and they were known as kanpdtd (ear-torn).

They were also allowed to use the epithet ndth (master) with their
names. The jogis greeted one another with the epithet ddes, and they
kept with them a blowing horn (singi). An important feature of their
monastic centres was a continuous fire (dhiirft). Their centres were well
organized, maintaining a common kitchen (bhanddr) for all the
permanent and temporary inmates.
The psycho-physical techniques of the jogis were meant to attain to
liberation-in-life (jiwan-mukti), a state of everlasting bliss (sahaj). It
was also a state of great power, because the jogi then became a siddha,
possessing supernatural powers. He could become tiny or huge, light
or heavy, and obtain everything at will; he could walk on water or fly
in the air; he could assume any shape or form he liked. The jogis were
believed to be capable of prolonging their life by practising suspension
of breath (habs-i-dam, in Persian). They were associated with alchemy,
possessing the knowledge of turning base metals or even ash into gold.
They were associated with herbal medicine too. Altogether, they
inspired both fear and respect among the common people. They
rejected ritualism and metaphysical speculation. In accepting disciples
they disregarded the differences of caste. But they regarded woman as
'the tigress of the night', a great temptation and, therefore, a great
danger in the jogi's path.
As in Shaivism so in Vaishnavism arose a new movement known as
the bhakti movement. The idea of bhakti or devotion to God was
centuries old. The path of bhakti came to be regarded as a valid path for
salvation, like the path of knowledge (jndna or gidn) and the path of
correct observance of ritual {karma). Ramanuja in the south in the
eleventh-twelfth century made a significant contribution to the bhakti
movement by giving primacy to the path of bhakti. In the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries two further steps were taken: Vaishnava
bhakti began to be addressed to the human incarnations of Vishnu, that
is Rama and Krishna, and it began to be claimed that bhakti was the
only path to salvation. The consorts of Rama and Krishna, namely Sita
and Radha, were also associated with them; the images of Sita-and-
Rama and of Radha-and-Krishna were installed in temples dedicated to
them.
The cult of Rama bhakti was popularized by Ramanand in northern
India during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. His disciples
established centres (maths) at many places. The Ramanandi bairdgis
25

derived much strength from these establishments. Food was provided
in these centres not only to the inmates but also to the visitors. An
integral part of these establishments were pdthshdlas for teaching and
gosbdlas for cows. The daily round of worship was well established.
The cult of Krishna was popularized in the north during the late
fifteenth and the early sixteenth century by Chaitanya in Bengal and
Orissa and by Vallabhacharya in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and
Gujarat. Chaitanya cultivated the emotional side of Krishna bhakti
through kirtanas or devotional poetry sung with musical instruments
and in ecstatic dance. Vallabha developed the ceremonial side of
Krishna bhakti in temples where the daily round of his activities were
ceremoniahzed from the early morning when the Lord awoke till he
went to bed at night for sleep. Vaishnava bhakti was meant primarily
for the upper or middling castes, though its protagonists made some
use of the language of the people and they were more indulgent
towards the lower castes.
VI
For a really lower-class movement we have to look to the Sants of
northern India.9 They discarded the idea of incarnation and the
practice of image-worship in temples. In fact they did not address their
devotion to Vishnu. Nevertheless they were deeply influenced by the
Vaishnava bhakti movement. Almost equally important, however, was
the influence of the sufis and the jogis. The most outstanding figure of
the Sant movement was Kabir, but he was by no means alone. In
Benares itself, where Kabir pursued the profession of a weaver
(juldhd), there was Ravidas who plied his trade as a cobbler (chamdr).
What is true of Kabir is more or less true of Ravidas.
Kabir denounced much of the religious belief and practice of his
times. The mulld and the pandit, the guardians of Muslim and Hindu
orthodoxy, were 'pots of the same clay'; the paths that they advocated
only led astray. The Hindu and Muslim revelational scriptures, the
Vedas and the Quran, were discarded along with their custodians.
Kabir does not believe in Vishnu. All his ten incarnations {avatars),
including Rama and Krishna, are a part of the mdyd which is constantly
•' For the Sant tradition in northern India and its significance, W. H. McLeod, Guru
Nanak and the Sikh Religion, Oxford University Press, 1968, 151-58, 189—90; J. S. Grewal,
Guru Nanak in History, 125-30.
26

subject to annihilation. In unambiguous and uncompromising terms

Kabir denounced worship of images in temples, purificatory bathings,
ritual fasts and pilgrimage to places regarded sacred. His God, neither
Hari nor Allah (but one may call Him Hari or Allah) does not reside in
the east or in the west; He resides in the heart of man. This, and some
other ideas reveal his affinity with the sufis. 'When I was, Hari was not;
now Hari is, and I am no more.' What led to God was the path of love
'cutting as the edge of the sword'. Separation (viraha) involves torment
in which the lover bleeds silently in the depths of his soul, he suffers
many deaths every day. This torment is nevertheless a divine favour, a
mark of God's grace. Love involves sacrifice of self, and metaphori-
cally of life. Kabir's bhaktils an ardent quest in which he is completely
involved at the peril of his life.
Kabir's familiarity with the beliefs and practices of the jogls is
equally evident from his compositions. The ideas of jiwan-muktd
(liberated-in-life), sahaja-samddhi (the state of unison with the div-
inity) and sbabad (the Word) are given great prominence in his verses.
Occasionally, he refers to God as 'the true guide' {satguru). Ideas from
three major sources were integrated by Kabir in a system which came
to possess the originality of a new whole. His ineffable God is both
immanent and transcendant, and to Him alone Kabir offers his love
and devotion. Far from being a disciple of Ramanand, as it is generally
but wrongly believed, Kabir discovered and delineated a new path
which for want of a better term is still called bhakti.
The social situation in the Punjab in particular and in northern India
in general during the late fifteenth and the early sixteenth centuries
was marked by a great change due to circumstances brought about by
the Turko-Afghan rule in the sphere of politics and administration,
urban and rural economy, and the sphere of religious and secular
culture. The continuities, however, remained as important as the
changes. Sensitive individuals responded to the changed situation
according to their lights and moral fervour. Their social background
and social position were equally relevant for the nature and character of
their response. Social change was accompanied by social tension of
various kinds. These tensions were probably the strongest in the
Punjab. This might explain at least partly the distinctive response of
Guru Nanak to the social situation in which he lived and moved.

CHAPTER 2
FOUNDATION OF THE SIKH PANTH
A rigorous analysis of the compositions of Guru Nanak reveals that

there is hardly anything in contemporary politics, society or religion
that he finds commendable. Yet the age of Guru Nanak was not
fundamentally or even radically different from the previous or the
following few centuries. Much of his denunciation, therefore, can be
understood in terms of his moral fervour. For a rational conceptuali-
zation of his position it may be suggested that the entire social order
had lost its legitimacy in the eyes of Guru Nanak because it had lost its
support from the prevalent religious ideologies: it was neither 'Hindu'
nor 'Muslim'. A new religious ideology was needed to become the
basis of a new social order. At one stage in his life Guru Nanak came to
believe that he had discovered a new ideology and he was looking at the
contemporary situation from the standpoint of this new ideology. His
denunciation of contemporary practices and beliefs is only an inverted
statement of his positive ideals.
Guru Nanak was thoroughly familiar with the politico-administrative

arrangements made by the Afghan rulers, particularly in the Punjab.
This familiarity, reflected in the use of his metaphors, is a measure of his
preoccupation with this vital aspect of the social situation. Moreover,
there is direct denunciation of contemporary rule. The rulers are unjust;
they discriminate against their non-Muslim subjects by extorting jizya
and pilgrimage tax. The ruling class is oppressing the cultivators and the
common people. The rajas prey like lions and the muqaddams eat like
dogs; they fall upon the ra'iyat day and night. Notwithstanding the
association of non-Muslims with the administration at subordinate
levels, contemporary rule is occasionally equated with 'Muslim' rule:1
The Primeval Being is now called Allah; the turn of the shaikhs has
come.
1
AG, 1191, 470.
28

In fact, the Turko-Afghan rule is seen as a mark of the kaliyuga :2

The kaliyuga is a knife; the rajas are butchers; dbarma is fast
vanishing; in the dark night of falsehood the moon of truth
nowhere seems to rise.
The rulers did justice when their palms were greased but not in the
name of God.3 They live and die in ignorance of the lord; singed by
their own pride, they would burn like the forest reed in a wild fire.4
Guru Nanak exhorted people to turn to God, the true king, the king
of kings. His service alone is true service. He who finds a place with the
true king does not have to look towards an earthly potentate. In a trice
He can degrade the high and the mighty and raise the low to rulership.
He protects the righteous against brute force; many a time has He cast
down the wicked and exalted the righteous.
II
The compositions of Guru Nanak reveal his familiarity as much with

the socio-economic life of his times as with the politico-administrative
arrangements. It was his conviction that the entire universe is suffused
with divine light and all creation is His creation. The only source of
light in all human beings is the divine light; God alone is the bestower
of life upon all living beings. Caste distinctions and social differenti-
ation did not harmonize with this conviction. God has no 'caste'; He
gives no consideration to caste. None should be regarded high (uttam)
on the basis of his birth or caste; and none should be regarded low
(nlch). Against the Brahmans and the Khatrls, Guru Nanak identifies
himself with the lower castes and the untouchables:5
Be there the lowest among the low, or even the lower, Nanak is
with them.
The pride of the Brahman and the Khatri is totally misplaced. Many a
Brahman eats bread provided by the rulers, reads their books and
adopts their dress in public, taxing the cow and the Brahman, and yet
he tries to maintain ritual purity in private. Many a Khatri has adopted
the language of the rulers, and their manners. They are a part of the
oppressive establishment.
The social reality did not conform to the ideal norm of the varr}a
order. Consequently, the actual role of the 'high castes' did not
2
AG, I 4 J , 1288. > AG, 63. < AG, 350. *AG, 15.
29

conform to the role conceived for them. A true Brahman should attain
to salvation through his conduct and worship. A true Khatri should be
a hero in martial action. These were no longer the roles of the
Brahmans and Khatris; there was nothing commendable in their
conduct. Conversely, those who follow the true path are the true
Brahmans and those who fight bravely in action are the true Khatris.
Degeneration was not peculiar to the Brahman and the Khatri. It was
general. There are millions of fools fallen in the depths of utter
darkness; there are millions of thieves subsisting on the earnings of
others; there are millions of murderers, sinners and slanderers; and
there are millions of the false and the wicked. The chariot of kaliyuga is
made of passion and driven by falsehood. Guru Nanak invites people
to come out of the shells of their castes as individuals to tread the path
of truth; he encourages the lowest of the low to feel confident of his
spiritual regeneration. Do good deeds and think of yourself as low;
think of everyone else as high because 'there is none who is low
(nicby.6
The idea of equality and the universality of spiritual opportunity are
the obverse and the reverse of the same socio-religious coin. The
shudra and the untouchable are placed at par with the Brahman and the
Khatri. The woman is placed at par with the man. The differences of
caste and sex, and similarly the differences of country and creed, are set
aside as irrelevant for salvation.
Ill
As may be expected, Guru Nanak was interested in all the major

forms of contemporary religious belief and practice, whether 'Hindu'
or 'Muslim'. He knows what the 'ulamd and the shaikhs stand for; he
knows what the pandit and the jogi represent; he is also familiar with
the Jain monks and the practices of those who worship Krishna and
Rama. Thus, he is in a position to react to some of the new as well as the
traditional systems of belief and practice. Except for 'stints', he finds
nothing commendable in the contemporary systems.
Guru Nanak is hard on the Jain monks. They have discarded the
occupations of their parents and their families weep for them; they sit
together, each covered with a cloth, as if in condolence; their hair is
plucked by pluckers whose hands are smeared with ash; they always
" AC, 62.
3°

remain filthy; they walk in a single file, with cups tied to their waists
and threads on their heads; they go about despised by the people. If the
pluckheads do not wash, let there be seven handfuls of dust on their
heads. They wore no tilak mark and observed no Brahmanical rites;
they were not allowed to go to the sacred places of pilgrimage, and the
Brahmans did not eat their food.7 But for their atheism, Guru Nanak
might not have taken any notice of them. They commanded little social
influence.
Guru Nanak's attitude towards the traditional Hindu deities and
scriptures is intimately linked up with his attitude towards the pandit.
God created Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh; Shiva-Shakti is God's
creation too. Thus, none of the Hindu deities could be equated with
the Supreme Being. In fact, everything known to myth, legend and
history was the creation of Guru Nanak's God. The human incar-
nations of Hindu deities, like Krishna, could add nothing to God's
greatness. Even if the Vedas were revealed by Brahma, it hardly made
them a 'revealed' scripture for Guru Nanak. The position of the
Puranas, Smritis and Shastras was even weaker. Without direct denun-
ciation or categorical rejection, the attitude of Guru Nanak has in-built
rejection of the traditional authority of the Hindu scriptures. To read
them, or to hear them read, in a language understood only by a handful
of people, was at best useless.
With the rejection of Hindu deities and scriptures went the repudi-
ation of traditional modes of worship and religious practices. There
was no merit in pilgrimage to the sixty-eight sacred places, not even to
the sangam at Prayag where the Ganges and the Jamuna mingled with a
third invisible stream. There was no merit in the worship of images:8
The gods and goddesses whom you worship and to whom you
pray, what can they give? You wash them yourselves; left to
themselves, they will sink in the water.
Ritual reading of scriptures is a waste of time. The performance of horn
is equally useless. Ritual charities are of no use either.
The protagonists of such beliefs and practices, the pandits, naturally
come in for denunciation. 'Can you advise me O learned Pandit how to
find the Master?' This rhetorical question implies that the pandit does
not know. Nor does he care. It is not his primary concern. He does not
believe that the 'truth is within him'. He doles out externalities. He is a
7 8
AG, 149-50. AG, 637.
31

'broker' in false practices. He does it in mundane self-interest. With his
intrinsic interest in worldly occupations, his pretence of knowledge
increases the inner dirt which keeps on multiplying. He is like the
spider that weaves its web all the time, living and dying upside down.
The sacred thread of the pandit, the sacred mark on his forehead, his
spotless dhoti and his rosary are useless without a genuine faith.
Notwithstanding his eristic wrangling, he does not know that he does
not know.9
Guru Nanak gives as much attention to the jogi as to the pandit, and
he is equally familiar with the beliefs and practices of both. Guru
Nanak has no appreciation for the jog I aspiration to gain supranatural
powers:10
Were I to don fire, build a house of snow and eat iron; were I to
drink all miseries like water; were I to drive the earth as a steed;
were I to lightly weigh the skies in a balance; were I to become so
large as to be contained nowhere; to lead everyone by the nose;
were I to have the power to do all this and get it done by others -
all this will be futile.
Guru Nanak does not appreciate the jogi assumption that one can
attain to salvation by psycho-physical or chemico-physical means.
Nor does he appreciate their idea of renunciation (udds):11
Jog does not lie in the cloak, nor in the staff, nor in smearing the
body with ash; it does not consist in the ear-ring, nor in shaving of
the hair, nor in blowing the horn; it is obtained by living pure
amidst the impurities of attachment.
Constant devotion to God is real sahaj-samddh; absorption in the
shabad or the guru is real meditation (tart); the Name is the real nectar
(mahdras). Far from appreciating the jogi, Guru Nanak asks the jogi to
adopt his own values.
The few references to the worshippers of Krishna and Rama in the
compositions of Guru Nanak indicate only his disapproval of their
practices. Once the idea of incarnation is rejected it becomes impos-
sible to treat Rama and Krishna as deities. Any worship addressed to
them, therefore, becomes misplaced. With reference to rdm-lild and
kirtanas, and patronage of plays with quasi-religious themes, Guru
Nanak makes his attitude clear:12
9 10
AG, 56,221,355,358,413,432,470,471-72,635,1171,1256,1290. AG, 147.
11 12
AG, 17. AG, 349-50.

The disciples play and the gurus dance; they shake their feet and
they roll their heads; dust arises and falls on their heads; people are
amused, they laugh and they return home; the performers beat
time perfectly for bread and the dancers dash themselves to the
ground. They sing of Gopis and of Kanh; they sing of Slta and of
Ram.
The dancers are likened to the spinning wheel, the oil-press, the
potter's wheel, the churning stave and the top. They fail to realize that
the whole universe is a cosmic dance praising the Creator. The patrons
of musical dances or dance-dramas ignorantly think of their charity as
an act of religious merit:13
The gidnis dance and play on musical instruments and they don
costumes to sing loudly of battles and heroes.
Guru Nanak's attitude towards the 'ulamd and the shaikhs is similar
to his attitude towards the pandit and the jogi. Just as there were
thousands of Brahmas, Vishnus and Shivas created by God, there
were millions of Muhammads. The Quran and the other Semitic
scriptures were a sign of God's glory but none of them was a scripture
'revealed' by God. The mere fact of subscribing to the faith of
Muhammad ensured nothing, neither paradise nor salvation. Such a
presumption refuted an essential attribute of Allah Himself: He is
inscrutable. God's grace cannot be taken for granted:14
Allah does not consult anyone when he makes or unmakes, or
when he gives or takes away; He alone knows His qudrat; He
alone is the doer. He watches everyone and bestows His grace on
whomsoever He wills.
Mere talk does not lead to paradise; salvation lies in right conduct:15
If you add spices to unlawfully earned food, it does not become
lawful. Falsehood begets only falsehood.
While addressing the Muslims Guru Nanak shows his preference for
the path of the sufis over that of the 'ttlamd. The Musalmans praise the
sharTat and they read and ponder, but God's true servants 'become His
slaves to see His Face'. They who wish to become true Musalmans
should 'first adopt the path of the Auliya, treating renunciation as the
file that removes the rust' of the human soul. They who wish to
become true Musalmans should 'accept God's decree most willingly,
13 15
AG, 468-69. '« AG, 53. AG, 141.
33

believe in Him as the true Creator and efface themselves'. Only then
might they receive His grace.16
This relative appreciation of the sufi path does not mean, however,
that Guru Nanak gave the sufis his unqualified approval. A true darvlsh
abandons everything, including his 'self, to meet the Creator, placing
complete trust in Him. But many a shaikh subsisted on revenue-free
land granted by the rulers. Presuming to be sure of his own place of
honour with God, the shaikh gave assurance to others as well, and
distributed 'caps' among them to authorize them to guide still others.
He is likened to a mouse which itself is too big to enter the hole and yet
ties a winnowing basket to its tail.17 Considering their earthly pursuits,
Guru Nanak reminds the shaikhs of their own belief that God alone is
everlasting. The earth and the heavens shall perish; only He, the only
One, remains for ever.18
Guru Nanak's basic attitude towards Islam and Hinduism is
explicitly stated in the line:19
Neither the Veda nor the Kateb know the mystery.
In the same way the qdzi, the pandit and the jogi are bracketed :20
The qdzi utters lies and eats what is unclean; the brahman takes
life and then goes off to bathe ceremoniously; the blind jogi does
not know the way; all three are desolated.
IV
God, for Guru Nanak, is the eternally unchanging Formless One. He

has no material sign; He is inscrutable; He is beyond the reach of
human intellect. He is boundless, beyond time, beyond seeing, infinite,
unsearchable, beyond description, eternally constant, unborn, self-
existent and wholly apart from creation. God created the universe as
and when He wished. Consequently, he came to acquire attributes
which become the means of understanding Him. He is the creator, the
sustainer and the destroyer of the universe.
He, the One, is Himself Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and He
Himself performs all.21
16 17 19
AG, 465-66, 140-41. AG, 1286. ™ AG, 64. AG, 1021.
20 21
AG, 662, 951. AG, 1908.
34

He is the only One; there is no second; there is no partner. God

possesses unqualified power and absolute authority. He can oblige the
carnivorous beasts and birds to eat grass, and He can feed the
grass-eaters on meat; He can turn flowing rivers into sand-dunes, and
He can create fathomless waters in place of deserts; He can confer rule
upon an ant, and He can reduce whole armies to dust.22
God is omnipresent and immanent as well as omnipotent and
transcendant.
Within all there is light and it is
Thy light which is in all.23
It is His light that shines in the creation; His light is in everything and
in everyone. Wherever you look there is He; He is everywhere, and
there is no other. He is not far, He is near; He is not far. Hefillsthe
earth and the heavens, and the space in between; He fills all the three
worlds. He is the tablet and the pen and the writing. The ocean is in the
drop, and the drop is in the ocean. He is the speech, the speaker and the
listener. All is He. He is 'within' and He is 'without'. God is as well in
the microcosm as He is in the macrocosm.
For entering into a meaningful relationship with God it is necessary
to understand 'divine self-expression', that is how He stands revealed
in His creation, and to see the implications of that understanding. Guru
Nanak is emphatic about recognizing the Truth (sachcb). God's
creation is real but it is not everlasting. God alone is eternal. To
attribute all creation to God is to recognize the Truth. Men become
'true' only when they lodge the Truth in their hearts and act in
accordance with the Truth. Equally important is the appropriation of
the Name (nam) and the Word (shabad), the object and the medium of
communication. Through the Name one gets recognition from others;
without the Name there can be no honour. There is no fulfilment
without the Name. In the Name is real power, the authority of the
diwdn, the might of the army, and the sovereignty of the Sultan. The
treasure of excellence is obtained by meditating on the Word. Having
no form, colour or material sign, God is revealed through the Word.
The Name and the Word are the revelation of the divine preceptor
(guru). The Truth is recognized through the divine preceptor's instruc-
tion. Without the True Guru one wanders through the cycle of death
22 23
AG, 144. AG, 13,663.
35

and rebirth. Without the True Guru one wanders in the darkness of
ignorance. Only the True Guru bestows the Name without which
there is no purpose in human life; 'one comes and goes like a crow in an
abandoned house'. The recognition of divine order (hukm, bhdna,
raza) is equally essential. The divine order is an all-embracing principle
that accounts for everything: the creation of all forms, high or low
status, misery and happiness, bliss and transmigratory chain. All are
subject to divine order; none is beyond its operation. Everything in the
universe points to the intelligent working of the divine order. It reveals
God as the only doer. Man should recognize the divine order and
submit himself to it. The divine order is a manifestation of God's
omnipotence.
The rigour of God's omnipotence is supported yet softened by His
grace (nadar, kirpa, karam, prasdd, mihr, dayd, bakhsls, tars). It is
through the True Guru's prasdd that ignorance is obliterated and the
light of the Truth is perceived. One receives the Truth through God's
karam. The gift of the Name is received through God's nadar.
Through His grace comes the recognition of the divine order. One
'sees' only what He 'shows'. There is a point beyond which human
understanding cannot proceed and there, it is the bestowing or
withholding of God's grace that decides the issue of salvation. Guru
Nanak's idea of God's grace repudiates all presumption to liberation
by human effort alone.
Nevertheless, though human effort is not sufficient, it is absolutely
necessary. Discarding heedlessness man is to remember God, which
implies not a mere repetition of His name but meditation on the nature
of God and His attributes. Consequently, the remembrance of God
comes to embrace thought, word and deed. Loving devotion and
dedication to God is true bhakti without which there is no salvation.
Man should love God as the chakvl loves the Sun, as the chdtrik loves
the rain or as the fish loves water (so much so that it dies without
water). Bracketed with bhakti is bhai or bhau, that is awe, so that the
term bhai-bhakti is many a time used as one idea. Indeed, they alone
can offer bhakti •who have bhai lodged in their hearts. God's awe is the
remedy for the fear of death. He who lodges God's fear in his heart
becomes fearless. But fear catches hold of those who are not afraid of
God.
In contrast to the 'truth' of God, His creation is 'false' and,
therefore, a snare. So long as man remains attached to the creation he
36

suffers from the misery of dubidhd, misery arising from dual affili-
ation:24
If you worship the attendant you will never see the Master.
Attachment to earthly things is bound to shut out the Truth.25
The love of gold and silver, women and fragrant scents, horses,
couches, and dwellings, sweets and meats - these are all lusts of the
flesh. Where in the heart can there be room for the Name?
But the multiformed mdyd allures man to itself, thanks to his lust,
covetousness, attachment to earthly things, anger and pride. These five
adversaries of man are difficult to subdue. But there can be no
compromise, because there can be no conciliation between man's
affiliation to mdyd and his affiliation to God.
One of the five adversaries of man, namely pride, becomes much
more formidable in the form of self-centredness (haumai). In fact,
pride springs from this self-centredness. Man attributes things to
himself rather than to God, in opposition to the Truth and the divine
order. Haumai is thus opposed to God as the only omnipotent reality;
it is a subtle psychological barrier between man and God. It is a disease
that only the recognition of the divine order and the understanding of
the Word can cure. To die to 'self is to prepare the ground for life
everlasting. The life of the self-willed man (manmukh), who vainly
attributes things to himself, is like that of spurious sesame which is left
desolate in the field.
Psychological detachment from mdyd and eradication of haumai
enable man to perceive God in the microcosm, just as his understand-
ing enables him to perceive God in the macrocosm. Yearning for a
union with God increases the pangs of separation:26
I cannot live for a moment without the Beloved;
I cannot have a wink of sleep without meeting Him.
Supplication is made in devout humility:27
My sins are as numerous as the drops of water in the ocean.
Through your mercy O Lord! even stones can cross the waters.
If man's sins are countless, God's bounty is boundless. In His kindness
God leads the devotee on the path towards Him:28
24 26 27
AG, zz9, 75. ^ AG, 15. AG, 1274. AG, 156.
28
AG, 931.
37

He who is immersed in His love day and night sees Him immanent
in the three worlds, and throughout all time. He becomes like Him
whom he knows. He becomes wholly pure, his body is sanctified,
and God dwells in his heart as his only love. Within him is the
Word; he is blended in the True One.
In the process of man's union with God, an important experience is
visamdd, the awe-inspiring vision of God's greatness and the feeling of
ecstasy resulting from it. The emotion of wonder engendered by the
overwhelming greatness of God leads to refined and intense meditation
which purges man of his haumai. It leads to an intense adoration too,
and the best praises of God appear to be inadequate. This too is His gift
to man. He shows the way; He leads to union.
The ever-widening visamdd leads to higher and yet higher levels of
understanding and experience. Recognizing the law of cause and effect
in the moral as well as the physical world, man realizes the justice of
God. In His court stand revealed the true and the false. Man's wider
understanding of the nature of God becomes a source of joy. Con-
sequently, he puts in greater exertion, and his acts conform to his
increasing understanding. As the reward of his devotion, he ascends to
the Realm of Truth, the dwelling place of the Formless One, in which
there is perfect harmony with His hukm. The transmigratory process
ends with the state of union with God, a state of consummate joy and
perfect peace.
In Guru Nanak's conception of the path to salvation 'the law of
karma' is set aside and a new context is provided for right conduct. He
does make use of the current notion to emphasize the need for good
acts. 'Do not blame others; you receive the reward or retribution for
what you yourself do.' The 'law of karma' is invoked also to explain
the differences of birth; immediately, however, the grace of God is
invoked for explaining the attainment to salvation. In any case, the 'law
of karma' is not independent of God's hukm. The subordination of
karma to the hukm is not without significance. Paradoxically, sub-
mission to God's hukm becomes a means to release from the 'law of
karma'. The chain of karma obviously cannot bind God; rather His
grace breaks the chain of karma. Human acts acquire fresh importance
in this context:29
29
AG, 579, m o .
38

The words man speaks shall be taken into account; the food he eats
shall be taken into account; his movements shall be taken into
account; what he sees and hears shall be taken into account.
Indeed, every breath he draws shall be taken into account.
Loving devotion to God becomes a good act. In fact all those deeds
which enable men to tread the path shown by Guru Nanak become
'true' acts, and those deeds which hinder men on that path are 'false'
acts. Thus, right conduct is closely connected with Guru Nanak's idea
of right belief and right worship. Foremost in right conduct was honest
living and charity based on that:30
He who eats what he has earned by his own labour and gives some
to others - Nanak, he it is who knows the true way.
By the time Babur established his rule in northern India, Guru Nanak
had fully formulated his system of inter-related ideas and correspond-
ing practices. True to his convictions, he attributed all his understand-
ing and all his experience to God. On His authority, therefore, he was
saying what he was saying and doing what he was doing. He regarded
himself as God's herald (tabal-bdz) to proclaim His Truth:31
I was a minstrel (dhddi) without an occupation, but God gave me
an occupation. He ordered me to sing His praises. He called the
dhddi to His abode of Truth, and gave him the robe of 'true praise
and adoration'. The true nectar of the Name has been sent as food.
They are happy who taste it to the full in accordance with the
Guru's instruction. The dhddi openly proclaims the glory of the
Word. By adoring the Truth, Nanak has found the Perfect One.
During the last fifteen years of his life Guru Nanak settled down at
Kartarpur, a place founded by him then on the right bank of the river
Ravi, represented by the present Dera Baba Nanak on the left bank.
Concerned seriously with showing to others the path he had dis-
covered for himself, he acted as a guide. Disciples gathered around him
as an acknowledged preceptor. The work of these years proved to be
the most influential in terms of its legacy for the future. He imparted
regular instruction to his disciples and exhorted the visitors as well to
discard trust in external forms and in status based on caste or wealth, to
30
AC, 1245. " AG, 150.
39

cultivate inner devotion and a truly religious attitude by recognizing

the greatness of God and reflecting upon His revelation. A regular
discipline was evolved for the adoration of God. The early hours of the
morning were devoted to meditation. All the disciples and visitors
joined Guru Nanak in singing the praises of God in the evening as in
the morning. There is a good deal of emphasis in the compositions of
Guru Nanak upon 'true association' or association with the true
devotees of God. This ideal found concrete expression in corporate
worship at Kartarpur. The disciples and the visitors ate communal
meals, for which the believers in the new faith made contribution in
cash, kind or service.
It is difficult to estimate the number or the social background of the
followers of Guru Nanak. There is no doubt, however, that Khatris
were rather numerous among his followers. His successor-to-be was
only one of them. They were petty traders, shop-keepers, agents of
merchants, itinerant salesmen. It is equally certain that cultivators were
among the followers of Guru Nanak, and most of them were Jats. Then
there were some artisans and craftsmen, bond-servants and slaves. The
followers came from towns and the countryside. Most of them
belonged to the lower classes, and all of them were house-holders.
Among themselves they thought they were all equal. 'We are not high,
or low, or the middling; we have taken refuge in God, and we are His
people.'32
The most important aspect of the mode of worship adopted by Guru
Nanak for himself and his followers was the use of his own com-
positions for this purpose. This was a logical corollary of his rejection
of scriptural authority and the scriptures of contemporary religions.
Some of his definitive utterances were used for liturgical purposes. The
later importance given to his Japuji and to his So-dar appears to have
been a continuation of Guru Nanak's own practice. It is likely that
these, and many other compositions, were recorded in writing by
Guru Nanak himself. This aspect of his work became the basis of vital
developments under his successors.
Guru Nanak lived at Kartarpur as a house-holder, with his wife and
his two sons. This fact carried a great significance for the future. In the
compositions of Guru Nanak there are verses which can be interpreted
as supporting renunciation {udds), and Guru Nanak himself had
travelled widely, leaving his family behind. His decision to return to
32
AG, 504.
40

the life of a house-holder, therefore, was important. It demonstrated

his basic ideal that true renunciation consisted in living pure amidst the
impurities of attachment. The followers of Guru Nanak at Kartarpur
and elsewhere pursued honest occupations for livelihood. They
demonstrated thus how to combine piety with worldly activity. A
disciplined worldhness was the hallmark of this new community.
Before his death at Kartarpur in 1539 Guru Nanak chose his
successor from amongst his followers, setting aside the claims of his
sons. Nomination of a successor from amongst one's own disciples was
not a new thing; it was known to many an ascetical order of the times.
But the nomination of Lehna by Guru Nanak was regarded as unique
because Lehna was installed in his office by Guru Nanak himself. His
name too was changed from Lehna to Angad, making him 'a limb' of
the founder. This nomination was important not merely because it
enabled Guru Nanak to ensure the continuation of his work but also
because it served as the basis of the idea that the positions of the Guru
and the disciple were interchangeable. Closely linked with this was the
idea that there was no difference between the founder and the
successor; they represented one and the same light. By the time Guru
Nanak breathed his last the nucleus of a new social group had come
into existence with an acknowledged Guru to guide its social and
religious life according to a pattern set by the founder and in the light of
ideas expounded by him.
41

CHAPTER 3
EVOLUTION OF THE SIKH PANTH

(1539-1606)
By the beginning of the seventeenth century the socio-religious

community of Guru Nanak's followers became 'a state within the
state'. Each of his first four successors made his own distinctive
contribution, working within the ideological and institutional para-
meters adumbrated by him. We have to study their own com-
positions closely to perceive the slow but sure development of the
Sikh Panth in terms of numbers, composition, material resources,
social institutions and a multi-dimensional transmutation of ideas in
a creative response to changing situations. To listen to those who were
closely connected with them is equally rewarding. The context for this
development was provided by the politico-administrative arrange-
ments evolved by Akbar, giving peace and prosperity to a vast
empire. The position of the Sikh Panth at the end of his reign may be
seen as the culmination of a peaceful evolution of nearly three-
quarters of a century. This evolutionary phase came dramatically to a
grave end with the martyrdom of Guru Arjan in the very first year
of Jahangir's reign.
Babur ruled over the territory he conquered from Bhera to Bihar for
only four years till his death in 1530. His son and successor, Nasirud-
din Humayun, temporarily added Malwa and Gujarat to the domin-
ions inherited from Babur. The Afghan resurgence under the leader-
ship of the Sur Afghan Sher Khan obliged Humayun to abandon the
Mughal territory in India in 1540. Sher Shah Sur and his successors
ruled over northern India for fifteen years before Humayun staged a
successful return in 15 5 5. He died a year later. It was left for his son and
successor, Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar, to conquer territories from
Kabul and Qandahar in the west to the Bay of Bengal in the east, from
Kashmir in the north to across the Narbada in the south, and to
introduce changes of great significance during his rule of nearly half a
century till his death in 1605.
42

THE UZBEK KHANATE
AKBAR'S EMPIRE
ALLAHABAD ( ' BIHAR J

/ BENGAL. ^ S ) J
2 Akbar's empire

Akbar adopted several measures which modified the character of the

state. He made an extensive and effective use of suzerain-vassal polity
in which the administrative control of a territory was left in the hands
of its chief under the political control of the suzerain on certain
well-stipulated conditions, especially the payment of annual tribute
and the supply of contingents for imperial service. There were hun-
dreds of chiefs in Akbar's empire who retained their territories on the
conditions of vassalage; the extent of their territories was by no means
negligible. Akbar tried to induct the willing vassal chiefs into the
mansabddri system. Many a vassal chief received high rank to serve the
empire with zeal.1 The bulk of the chiefs were Hindu, and Akbar's
attitude towards them was an important plank of his general policy. He
abolished the discriminatory jizya and the pilgrimage tax. He remitted
the tax on cows and discouraged cow-slaughter. He showed respect for
native customs by participating in the celebration of Dusehra and
DiwalT. He showed interest in traditional learning and literature by
getting Sanskrit works translated into Persian. He extended state
patronage to non-Muslim institutions and individuals of known merit
by giving them revenue-free lands (madad-i-ma'dsh).2
Akbar had a rare genius for organization. For all practical purposes
he dispensed with the office of the all-powerful minister known as the
wazir or the vakil, and distributed the work of the government among
four ministers of more or less equal importance to deal with the
finances of the state, its army and justice and the royal household. This
arrangement imparted stability and efficiency to the government at the
centre and, together with some other measures, increased the control
of the emperor over the administration of the different parts of the
empire. Akbar divided his empire into a small number of rather large
provinces. His province was also qualitatively different from the
primary divisions of the earlier empires. Each province had three types
of territory: vassal territory attached to the province, lands given in
jdgir to the servants of the state, and the khdlisa lands from which
revenue was collected directly for the emperor. In the last decade of the
sixteenth century the diwdn in the province was made independent of
the governor to look after the revenue administration under the control
1
For vassal chiefs under Akbar, Ahsan Raza Khan, Chieftains in the Mughal Empire
During the Reign of Akbar, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Simla, 1977.
2
For a discussion of Akbar's madad-i-maash grants to non-Muslims, B. N. Goswamy
and J. S. Grewal, The Mughals and thejogis ofjakhbar, Indian Institute of Advanced Study,
Simla, 1967.
44

of the dlwdn at the centre. Besides the permanent local officials,

full-fledged officials of the imperial administration were appointed to
help and control the jdglrddrs. The zabti system, which implied the
collection of land-revenue in cash according to rates for a unit area
under cultivation, was introduced on a large scale. Even from villages
not brought under the system of measurement (zabt), the revenue was
generally collected in cash.
Akbar's conquests, his concessions and measures on conciliation
resulted in peace and security in his vast dominions, particularly during
the second half of his reign. This peace and security became an
important condition for the growth of prosperity. Extension of
agriculture was an important objective of Akbar's revenue policy, and
there are clear indications that more and more land was brought under
cultivation during the late sixteenth century. 'Cash crops' were sown
for the market, and agricultural produce was used for manufactures.
Akbar introduced standardization in weights, measures and currency
with the Ilahl gaz, Akbarl man and the silver rupees as the standard.
Two small coins were widely current for small transactions in villages
and towns: one was thepaisa, one-fortieth of the rupee; the other was
the anna, equal to four paisa. To encourage trade, Akbar abolished
many internal imposts. Routes were protected for caravans and trade
became a pretty safe proposition.
Akbar's reign was marked by a revival of trade on a large scale.
Bankers' drafts or bills of exchange (hundls) were widely used for the
purpose of trade. An organized system of insurance also protected
trade interests. River traffic was well developed, and large or small
boats were manufactured at many places, besides ship-building for
coastal and sea trade. There were several mercantile communities to
handle trade. Their distribution over large areas was an asset for
commercial transactions. The increase in the size and number of urban
centres in the dominions of Akbar during the late sixteenth century
was an indication of an increase in the volume of trade and manufac-
tures as well as an increase in agricultural production. On the whole,
in the late sixteenth century northern India presented a historical
situation which was markedly different from that of the late fifteenth
or even of the early sixteenth century.
The province of Lahore was among the advanced provinces of
Akbar's empire in terms of agriculture, manufactures and trade, with
Lahore as one of the largest cities of the Mughal empire, which also
45

meant that it was one of the largest cities of the world around 1600.
Expansion of cultivation in the Punjab had started under Afghan rule.
When Babur crossed the river Jhelum he curiously noticed the Persian
wheel which, later, he found in use for irrigation in the regions of
Lahore and Dipalpur. It extended in fact to the Sarhind region. Akbar's
court historian Abul Fazl observed that most of the province of Lahore
was irrigated by wells with Persian wheels. This artificial means of
irrigation enabled the landholders of the province to grow high
quality or cash crops. Akbar's long presence in Lahore during the
fourth decade of his reign added to the importance of the province.
Well-known for its rock-salt, the province was known also for its
exports of textiles, sugar candy of high quality, boats, shawls and
carpets. Lahore was on the trade route from Delhi to Kabul, while
Multan was on the route to Qandahar, and both these cities were linked
with the ports of the Arabian Sea through riverain traffic. The
economic development of the Punjab provided good opportunities for
enterprising traders and cultivators. The Khatris and Jats of the
province of Lahore were surely not unenterprising. In the empire of
Akbar they tried to make the best of the opportunities offered by peace
and prosperity.
Akbar's reign was covered by the pontificates of three of the first
four successors of Guru Nanak. These three were Guru Amar Das,
Guru Ram Das and Guru Arjan.3 The first successor of Guru Nanak
was Guru Angad, a Khatri of the Trehan subcaste who was a petty
trader and a devotee of the Goddess before he came under the influence
of Guru Nanak. Guru Amar Das too was a Khatri but of the Bhalla
subcaste, and he was a Vaishnava before he became a disciple of Guru
Angad; he too was a petty trader in a village near the present-day
Amritsar. Guru Ram Das was a Khatri of the Sodhi subcaste, and he
came under the influence of Guru Amar Das as a young hawker. Guru
Ram Das nominated one of his own three sons, namely Guru Arjan, as
his successor. Henceforth, Guruship was to remain in the Sodhi family
of Guru Ram Das. All the Gurus, thus, were Khatris with a rural
background. The subcastes to which they belonged were not among
the important Khatri subcastes, not even the Bedi subcaste to which the
founder of the Sikh Panth belonged. Their social position was rather
low among the Khatris.
3
For the successors of Guru Nanak see appendix i.
46

II
Guru Angad's pontificate was an extension of Guru Nanak's work, but

with significant shifts of emphasis. He shows a thorough grasp of the
compositions of Guru Nanak. To preserve these compositions for
posterity he adopted a new script called Gurmukhl which has served
this purpose ever since its adoption by Guru Angad. His own
compositions consist of short verses (shaloks), only a little over sixty
and the longest having only twelve lines. These are composed sig-
nificantly under the name 'Nanak', implying thereby that there was no
difference between the compositions of the successor and the founder.
This practice was followed by others to underline the idea of unity
between the founder and the successors.
In the compositions of Guru Angad the unity, omnipotence, omni-
presence, omniscience and immanence of God are taken for granted,
and so are the divine order (hukm, razd, farmdn) and grace (nadar,
kirpd, prasdd). The disease of self-centredness (haumai) keeps man
entangled in the net of transmigration. Devotion is to be addressed
voluntarily with love and dedication to the only God, in trust and fear,
remembering Him in misery and comfort. The head that does not bow
to Him is better cut off. One should be ready to die in His way.4
There are references to the divine preceptor, but more significant are
the references to Nanak as the Guru. The connotation of the state-
ments with a bearing on the Guru begins to change. 'The Guru has the
key to salvation'; 'There is utter darkness without the Guru.' 5 Such
statements are as much applicable to Guru Nanak as to the divine
preceptor. Similarly, the Word and the Name get equated with the
sacred compositions (bdni) of Guru Nanak. There is only one true
shabad, the nectar-like bdni of Guru Nanak.6 The Gurmukh (God-
oriented) gets equated with the followers of Guru Nanak, and by
implication with the followers of Guru Angad.7
Guru Angad had to establish a new centre. The law of the state could
be invoked by the legal heirs of Guru Nanak to claim Kartarpur as a
matter of right. But Guru Angad voluntarily moved to Khadur (in the
Amritsar district), leaving Kartarpur in the hands of Sri Chand and
Lakhmi Chand, the sons of Guru Nanak. Sri Chand built in fact a
structure over the spot where Guru Nanak was cremated, and refused
4
AG, 83, 88, 138, 463, 787, 788, 954, 1238, 1239. s AQ^ , 4 S J IA(,, 463, 1237.
6 7
AG, 466, 469, 787, 1283. AG, 138, 463, 1288.
47

to recognize Guru Angad as the Guru. Some people were taken in by

his claim to Guruship. The followers of Guru Angad were not thus the
only followers of Guru Nanak. In the compositions of Guru Angad
the presence of the 'others' is assumed. He invokes the principle of
nomination against any other kind of claim to be the successor of Guru
Nanak. 'What kind of a gift is this that one gives to oneself? The true
gift is that which is received by serving the Master to his satisfaction.'8
His faithful followers 'need no instruction' for they have been 'given
instruction by Guru Nanak'.9 The blind are not those who have no
eyes; the blind are those who fail to recognize the Master even when
they have eyes.10
Guru Angad established a community kitchen (langar) at Khadur
where his followers and visitors used to meet for congregational
worship. His wife, known as Mother Khivl, took special interest in the
community kitchen, and it was not uncommon to serve sweet pudding
of rice boiled in milk, a sign perhaps of the ability of the Sikhs to bring
substantial offerings.11 Guru Angad refers to the early morning
meditation and daily worship practised by his followers. Their spirit-
ual state is reflected in the brightness of their faces; the grace of the
sarrdf (God) has in fact gilded their entire frames.12 The metaphors
from trade in Guru Angad's compositions underline the importance of
the Khatri component of his followers, but there were certainly others.
An ironsmith {lohdr) and a barber (not) were among his eminent
followers.13 New followers were initiated in addition to the old
disciples of Guru Nanak. To look after the needs of the congregation
Guru Angad had to appoint a store-keeper (bhanddrt) and a master-
cook (rasoiyd).14
Guru Angad shows a deep regard for his followers. 'Nanak' is the
slave of those who recognize the only true shabad; they are like God to
him. 'Nanak' is the slave of those who recognize the unity of God and
the secret of His Divinity; they are like God to him.15 Only those who
have turned to the Guru know that in the outside world of kaliyuga the
king is really a pauper and the learned pandit is really a fool.16 The
'Gurmukh' thus stands distinguished from the rest of his contempo-
raries. One such Gurmukh had served Guru Angad with devotion
8 n
AG, 474. "< AG, i$o. <° AG, 954. AG, 966-67.
12 AG, 146.
13
Varan Bhdi Gurdds (ed. Giani Hazara Singh), Wazir-i-Hind Press, Amritsar, 1962, vdr
11, pauri 14.
14 15 I6
Ibid., vdr 11,pauri 15. AG, 469. AG, 1288.
48

since 1540. In 1552, Guru Angad nominated him as the successor-

Guru.
Ill
Guru Amar Das had to leave Khadur because it was claimed by Dasu
and Datu, the sons of Guru Angad, as their inheritance. They set
themselves up as Guru Angad's spiritual heirs. Guru Amar Das
founded a new centre a few miles away on the right bank of the river
Beas, on the route from Lahore to Delhi, which developed into a
township known as Goindwal. His community kitchen in Goindwal
came to be known for the plenty of its fine flour and clarified butter,
which may be taken as an indication of the growing prosperity of his
centre.17
In his compositions Guru Amar Das underlines the importance of
true association (sat-sangat), that of his followers who came to the
abode of the Guru (gurdwara) for singing the shabad of the Guru and
to listen to the bdni sung by the minstrels appointed by the Guru for
this purpose. This true association of 'brothers-in-faith' and 'friends-
in-faith' is a source of 'understanding'; it opens the door to salvation.
Access to the sangat is a gift of the Guru. He who fails to turn to the
Guru and to recognize the shabad is self-oriented {manmukh). There
are detractors {nindak) too, and there are deserters who have turned
away (bemukh). The Guru does not regard anyone as his enemy, and
his Sikhs are safe under the protection of the all-powerful God. Their
enemies do not know that He is the only true king; His worshippers
cannot come to any harm at the hands of the agents of the earthly kings.
There are indications, thus, that the opponents of the Guru were
seeking help from the local administrators. Opposition to the Guru
may be taken as a measure of his increasing success in propagating his
faith.18
The compositions of Guru Amar Das read like annotations to the
compositions of Guru Nanak. There is hardly an important idea of
Guru Nanak which does not find a similar expression in the com-
positions of Guru Amar Das. Figuring frequently in his compositions
is God in His attributeless state, His revelation through the Word, the
17
AC967.
'" AC, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 35, 37-38, 65, 67-68, 114, 115, 120, 129, 233, 364, 425, 427,
516, 517, 586, 587, 590, 601, 638, 643, 645, 849, 854, 909, 912, 1046, 1249, 1258, 1259, 1260,
1276, 1334, 1415, 1416, 1417-
49

divine order, the divine preceptor, His grace, His transcendence and
immanence, the mdyd and haumai and the true path of bhakti.
However, there are significant shifts of emphasis and connotation.
Every cosmic age (yuga) had its appropriate faith (dharma); the present
age {kaliyuga) has the Name.19 There is no guru but the true Guru.
Those who do not serve the true Guru remain in misery throughout
the four cosmic ages.20 One should do as the Guru says, and conform
to his wishes (bbdnd).21 The bdnloi the true Guru is true. The barn ol
the Guru is the sweet nectar of immortality. 'Gurmukh bdnl is Brahm.'
Bdnl is God.22
All compositions other than the bdnl of the true Guru are unripe
(kachchi). They who recite or pronounce unripe compositions are
themselves unripe; they who listen to unripe compositions remain
unripe; what is conveyed by unripe compositions is unripe.23 Guru
Amar Das prepared two volumes of true bdnl, consisting mostly of the
compositions of Guru Nanak, Guru Angad and Guru Amar Das
himself. Included in these two volumes was the bdnl of sants and
bhaktas like Kabir and Namdev.24 Guru Amar Das refers to Namdev,
the calico-printer, and Kabir, the weaver, who attained to the state of
salvation with the grace of the perfect Guru; they recognized the divine
shabad and got rid of haumai and the restrictions of caste; now their
bdnl is sung by both gods and men.25 Guru Amar Das found rather
kindred spirits in Kabir and Namdev and collected their compositions
to be incorporated in the volumes containing the bdnl of the Gurus.
There was a professional scribe among his followers; there was also an
eminent singer of the sacred bdnl.2b
The number of Sikhs increased considerably in the time of Guru
Amar Das. Instead of a few individuals here and there in the country-
side, some villages came to have a large number of Sikhs. For the
propagation of his faith he visited Kurukshetra and some of the sacred
places on the Jamuna and the Ganges.27 It is not unlikely that some of
the Khatrl followers of Guru Amar Das had started their trading
activity outside the province of Lahore. In any case, new bonds were
19 2
AG, 229, 797, 880. = / l G , 519.
21
AG, 37, 6 6 ; , 757, 905, 943, 1015, 1248.
22 23
4 G , 3 9 , 246, 515. AG, 920; for sachchi (authentic) ba.nl, by contrast, 968.
2
"* W. H. McLeod, The Evolution of the Sikh Community, Oxford University Press, 1975,
61.
25 26
AG, 67, 555, 1380. Bhai Gurdas, var 11,paurl 16.
27
Stated by Guru Ram Das: AG, 2116.
50

needed for the growing community of followers. Guru Amar Das

constructed a well at Goindwal, with eighty-four steps to reach the
water for bathing, which became sacred for the Sikhs. In a sense, the
first pilgrimage centre for the Sikhs was established at Goindwal. The
Baisakhl and the Diwali became festival days for the Sikhs who visited
Goindwal. Guru Amar Das introduced distinctly Sikh ceremonies for
the occasions of death, birth and marriage, asking the Sikhs not to cry
and lament in their hour of loss and not to forget the divine source of
supreme happiness in their hour of earthly bliss.28 Guru Amar Das
spoke against self-immolation, female infanticide and the consumption
of liquor.29 The first injunction was perhaps meant for his Khatrl
followers; the second and the third, for the Jat cultivators of the
countryside.
Guru Amar Das upheld the principle of nomination. 'God Himself
is the Guru and He Himself is the disciple (chela).'i0 This could be
applied to Guru Nanak and Guru Angad as well. In any case, it is a part
of the divine order that the Guru can raise another to the status of the
Guru.31 As his own successor, Guru Amar Das chose his son-in-law,
Bhai Jetha, as Guru Ram Das. Thinking of the likely opposition from
his sons, Mohan and Mohri, Guru Amar Das decided to found a new
centre. The site was chosen and work was started on digging a pool
when Guru Amar Das died in 1574.
IV
Guru Ram Das got a tank (sarovar) dug where we find it today in the
city of Amritsar. From the very beginning it was meant to be a sacred
tank. The pure water of this 'divine pool' removes dust and dirt from
the bodies of those who bathe here, and their bodies become pure.32
All sins are removed from those to whom the Guru gives the gift of
bathing in this pool filled with 'the nectar of immortality' (amritsar).33
Indeed, Amritsar was the name given to this tank in the beginning; it
came to be extended to the city much later. A township started
growing around the tank and it was appropriately called Ramdaspur or
the town of Guru Ram Das. Besides the followers of the Guru, other
28
In the compositions of Guru Arjan there are references to the recitation of Anand at the
birth of his son Hargobind: AG, 396.
29 3I
AG, 554, 787, 1413. -'° AG, 797. AG, 490. MAG, 774.
53
AG, 732, 774.
51

traders, shopkeepers, artisans and craftsmen were encouraged to live in

the town.
The founding of a town and the excavation of a large tank is
indicative of the resources mobilized by Guru Ram Das. The Sikhs
were expected to make contributions in cash, kind and service. In the
compositions of Guru Ram Das there is a good deal of insistence on the
merit of offerings to the Guru. 'Give your wealth and riches to him
who enables you to meet the Friend.'34 The followers are asked to send
corn and cloth. All their wishes are fulfilled who serve the Guru with
devotion. Whatever they wish, all they wish for, is given: true faith,
earthly riches, pleasures and salvation (dharma, artha, kdma, moksha).
There are indications in the compositions of Guru Ram Das that he
authorized some of his Sikhs to act as his representatives and to collect
offerings from those Sikhs who could not come personally to the
Guru.35
In the compositions of Guru Ram Das, the food, dress and posses-
sions of those who have appropriated the name are sanctified. They
who entertain the Sikhs, their houses and mansions are sanctified. The
caparisoned horses which the Sikhs ride are sanctified.36 They who
have God's name on their lips, their actions and affairs are sanctified.
They who bring offerings to the Guru, acquire the true merit of
charity. The low caste also figure prominently in the compositions of
Guru Ram Das. While Khatrls and Brahmans were ignored by God,
Namdev was drawn close. There were other low-caste devotees of God
who attained to salvation through their devotion, like Kabir, Jaidev,
Tarlochan, Ravidas, Dhanna and Sen.37 Appreciation for the low-caste
Sants and Bhaktas may be treated as an indication of the presence of the
low caste among the Sikhs. Guru Ram Das is aware of the presence of
the cultivators among the Sikhs. He feels concerned about drought and
gratified about timely rainfall; he is also aware of the wells with the
Persian wheel to irrigate the fields.'38 Then there were shopkeepers,
petty traders, artisans and craftsmen among the Sikhs, besides the
wealthy merchants and traders. The community was never much short
of women, but in the compositions of Guru Ram Das their presence is
as palpable as that of men.
There are some other important dimensions of the compositions of
34
AG, 301, 443, 588, 719, 853, 1264. " AG, 301, 303, 307, 443, 588, 590.
36
AG, 648, 1246.
37 38
AG, 733, 799, 835, 976, 995. AG, 304, 368, 1250, 1318, 1329.

Guru Ram Das. The importance of the Guru is increasing with the
increasing number and prosperity of the Sikhs. He provides the
common bond. He is the father and the mother; he is the friend and the
relation. He is the honour of those who possess no honour on their
own.39 Equally important is the bam of the Guru (gurbdni). It is the
embodiment of truth; there is no other true banl.40 The Sikh of the
Guru (gursikh) is like the Guru himself; the true Guru dwells in them.
They meditate on God day and night: 'I am their slave.'41 To meet a
gursikh is the sign of God's grace. The sangat becomes the collective
body of the Sikhs in the compositions of Guru Ram Das. The sangat of
the Guru is dear to God.42 Guru Ram Das composed Idvdn for the
solemnization of Sikh marriage, and ghoridn to be sung on days
preceding the day of marriage.43 He contributed even more to the Sikh
awareness of a distinct identity by separating them clearly from 'the
others' in his compositions. The 'noseless' manmukh stands disho-
noured; he is a 'nameless' bastard born to a prostitute.44
The distinctive identity of the Sikhs is underlined by Guru Ram Das
partly because of the dissension among the professed followers of
Guru Nanak. There are deserters who have turned away from the
Guru (bemukh), the 'black-faced' thieves of God. They are misled by
the detractors (nindak) of the Guru who are envious of his success and
his wealth. They try to imitate the Guru, but what they say is
'unripe'.45 Guru Ram Das upholds the principle of nomination to
castigate his opponents. They do not realize that the treasure of bhaktl
had been bestowed upon the true devotees of God from the very
beginning; they stood cursed by Guru Nanak and by Guru Angad; the
third Guru thought that they possessed no power to harm; the fourth
Guru forgave the detractors and their associates. But the detractors
persist in their folly and suffer ignominy. They seek the support of
local administrators and chaudharls. This combination presented a
threat which Guru Ram Das could not fail to notice.46
Guru Ram Das advises his followers not to retaliate, but to leave
things to God. The dlwdns of God, the Sikhs, need not be afraid of the
earthly dlwdns, the administrators of the empire.47 All the emperors
and kings, khans and amirs and shiqddrs are subject to the power of
39 4 41
AG, 167. ° AC, 304. AG, 3 0 5 - 0 6 , 4 9 3 , 1263.
42
AC, 446, 1197, 1297.
43
AG, 575, 576, 774. *A AG, 837. 4S
AG, 304, 1250.
•"> AC, 3 0 3 , 306, 307, 316, 366, 6 5 1 , 7 3 3 , 850, 8 5 3 - 5 4 .
47
AG, 591.
53

God and they do what He wills for them.48 Since the Sikhs belong to
the 'faction' of God they need not fear an earthly faction (dhard).49
Guru Ram Das invokes myth and legend to reassure the Sikhs that God
is their protector. He is also keen to underline that he is the only
legitimate successor of the world-preceptor (jagat-gurn), Guru
Nanak.50 Before his death in 1581, Guru Ram Das chose his youngest
son, Arjan, as the successor-Guru. The principle of nomination was
upheld, but it was restricted to the family of Guru Ram Das.
If the idea of Guru Ram Das was to enable his successor to have legal
claims over Ramdaspur as one of his heirs, and thereby to enable him to
remain in control of the headquarters, it was eminently successful.
Guru Arjan was the first successor of Guru Nanak who succeeded to
the missionary centre of his immediate predecessor. However, the
other legal heirs could claim a share in the property. Guru Arjan's
eldest brother, Prithi Chand, approached the local administrators
probably to claim the position of his father but he had to be content
with a share in the income from Ramdaspur. Guru Arjan was only
eighteen years old at the time of his nomination, and he had no son.
Prithi Chand bided his time, remaining unreconciled to the Guruship
of his younger brother. After the birth of Guru Arjan's son Hargobind
in 1595, Prithi Chand's hostility was sharpened but he did not openly
defy the Guru. Nevertheless, Guru Arjan had to face covert enmity
from within the family.
There were other detractors too. Guru Arjan refers to them rather
frequently in his compositions. They are generally foiled in their
attempt to harm the Guru's interests. If one of them submitted an
affidavit signed by a number of persons (mahzar) to the qazi against
the Guru, it turned out to be false and the author of this falsehood met
an ignominious end.51 If another tried to poison the child Hargobind,
he was himself killed.52 An inveterate enemy of Guru Arjan was one
Sulhi; he got axed to death before his evil intentions got clothed in
action.53 The faces of the detractors were 'blackened' when they made
a representation against the Guru to a high dignitary of the state who
48 51
AG, 851. « AG, 366. ™ AG, 733. AG, 199.
52
AG, 1137-38.
53
AG, 825.
54

found their charges baseless and allowed the Guru to return home
safe.54 It is possible that Akbar's attitude towards Guru Arjan had a
sheltering effect. On his return from Lahore after a long stay, Akbar
met the Guru at Goindwal in November, 1598. Two weeks later, he
decreased the rate of revenue in the province to bring it down to what
it was before his long stay in Lahore.55
To cope with the feeling of insecurity, arising particularly from the
hostility of the Guru's opponents and detractors, Guru Arjan
exhorted his followers to cultivate profound faith and trust in God. He
who remembers God gets rid of fear. The shabad of the Guru acts like
a protective garrison all around. The 'wealth of God' is the antidote for
anxiety. The Name makes one fearless. They who take refuge in God
have nothing to fear.56 Indeed, God is given new attributes; He is free
from anxiety (achinta); He is the remover of misery (dukh-bbanjan);
and, above all, He is the annihilator of the enemy (satr-dahan).57 With
God lodged in one's heart, not only was the fear of insecurity removed
but also the day-to-day actions of the Sikhs were sanctified. One could
attain to salvation while laughing and playing, and eating and
dressing.58
The bdqi of the Guru was like a shower of rain for those who were
thirsty in spirit. Guru Arjan composed more than any of his pre-
decessors, particularly the short lyrical pieces (sbabads) which could
be easily memorized. He found 'priceless gems' and an 'inexhaustible
treasure' in what had been preserved by his predecessors.59 To the two
volumes compiled by Guru Amar Das were added the compositions of
Guru Ram Das and Guru Arjan himself, besides the compositions of a
few more Bhaktas. A book was compiled in 1604, marked by an
unusually systematic arrangement and a complex but generally con-
sistent pattern of division and subdivision.60 That book is now known
as the Adi Granth, the old book, to distinguish it from the later Dasam
Granth, the book of the tenth Guru; it is more popularly referred to as
Granth Sahib as a mark of respect, and as Guru Granth Sahib to
indicate that it enjoys the status of the Guru. Already for Guru
54
AG, 826-27.
55
Sujan Rai, 'Khulasat ut-Tawarikh' (late seventeenth century) in Ganda Singh (ed.),
Mdkhiz-i-Tawarikh-i-Sikhan, 59.
56
AG, 4 2 , 4 3 , 107, 1 3 1 - 3 2 , 2 i i , 240, 2 6 1 , 2 6 2 , 2 8 1 , 2 8 5 , 2 8 6 , 287, 2 8 9 , 2 9 2 , 3 7 1 , 6 7 4 , 8 2 3 ,
1145.
57 58
AG, 502, 503, 1157. AG, 212, 522. 59 AG, 185.
60
W. H. McLeod, The Evolution of the Sikh Community, 70-73.
55

Arjan, it was no ordinary compilation: it was 'the abode of

God.' 61
By this time the tank of Guru Ram Das had been enlarged, and paved
and walled with burnt bricks. He felt gratified that the construction
work was completed without any hindrance as if God Himself was
amidst the Sikhs when they were working. The tank looked beautiful,
like the earth around, and water flowed into it like nectar.62 Once the
work was completed, all anxieties were gone. They who bathe in the
tank earn salvation for their families as well.63 In the midst of the tank a
temple dedicated to God (harmandir) had been constructed for singing
His praises. It was truly a happy conjunction when the 'everlasting
foundation' of the temple was laid with God's grace. Now the Sikhs
can blissfully sing the praises of God all the twenty-four hours of the
day; the ban!of the Guru is now recited and sung here day and night.64
The town of Guru Ram Das continued to flourish under Guru
Arjan. For him, there was no other place like the beautiful and thickly
populated Ramdaspur, founded by God Himself. In this everlasting
city of the Guru, the Name is the source of happiness, and all wishes
are fulfilled. The Sikhs, who are like brothers and sons to the Guru feel
pleased with the beauty of the town, a standing monument to God's
grace. The rule of Rama (rdm-rdj) prevails in Ramdaspur, due to the
grace of the Guru. Nojizya is levied, nor any fine; there is no collector
of taxes. 65 The administrative control of the town was in the hands of
Guru Arjan. In the context and the framework of the Mughal empire,
Ramdaspur was an autonomous town.
Guru Arjan founded Tarn Taran and Sn Hargobindpur in the Bari
Doab and Kartarpur in the Bist Jalandhar Doab. This can be taken as an
indication of the growing number of Sikhs, particularly in the country-
side. But this is only one indication. Guru Arjan feels gratified that the
greatness of Guru Nanak has been revealed to the entire world. Sikhs
come to the Guru from all the four corners of the world.66 The Name
has proved to be the salvation of all the four varnas: the Khatri, the
Brahman, the Shudar and the Vaish.67 There is no doubt that the
number of Sikhs increased considerably in the Punjab during the
pontificate of Guru Arjan. There were many Sikhs in Lahore. Simi-
larly, Sultanpur Lodhi was known as a great centre of Sikhism. There
*' AG, 1126. " AG,7$i. « AG, 174, 1362. " / 1 G , 820-21.
''s AG, 430, 620, 781, 817, 1002.
"' AG, 43, 611, 724, 801, 811, 819, 1100, 1139, 1141, 1217, 1364, 1429.
" AG, tool.
56

were Sikhs in the smaller towns like Patti Haibatpur, and there were
Sikhs in many villages. There were certainly some Brahmans among
the Sikhs and some of the out-caste. The trading communities, the
cultivators, the artisans and craftsmen were well represented. Among
the trading communities, there was a clear preponderance of the
Khatris; and among the cultivators, that of the Jats. There was one
Mian Jamal among the eminent Sikhs who remained present with
the Guru.68 Furthermore, the Sikhs were not confined to the Punjab.
There were Sikhs in Kashmir and Kabul, and in Delhi and Agra. It
is most likely indeed that Sikhs could be found now in all the
provinces of Akbar's empire.59 Guru Arjan had to appoint a number
of representatives authorized to look after the affairs of the local
sangats at various places, not only outside the Punjab but also in the
Punjab. Once a year, the authorized representatives brought offer-
ings to the Guru, collected from the Sikhs under their supervision,
together with some of the Sikhs themselves to have an audience with
the Guru.
The Guru was at the centre of the whole organization. In the
compositions of Guru Arjan he is the true king, the king of kings, for
his Sikhs who deemed it a great boon to sit with him even for a
moment. His court was the most high. He was the source of all gifts.
His sight removed all sins. His instruction led to salvation. His service
was always well rewarded. The Sikh was expected to remember the
Guru all the time. Indeed, the Guru is God (pdr-brahm). 'Do not be
misled by his human form; the Guru is the veritable God (niranjan).'70
Guru Arjan, like his predecessors, carried an aura of divinity for his
Sikhs.
VI
Over a dozen professional composers (bhdts) have sung the praises of
the Gurus in one vdr and over 120 savayyds are preserved in the Granth
compiled by Guru Arjan.71 They refer to the congregational worship,
68
This is o n e of the few explicit references t o Muslims accepting the Sikh faith t h o u g h in
the seventeenth-century janamsdkhls Mardana and even Daulat Khan Lodhi are treated as the
followers of G u r u N a n a k .
69 70
Bhai G u r d a s , vdr 11,pauri 2 2 - 3 1 . AG, 1476.
71
Sahib Singh (ed.), Stik Satta Balwand diVdr, Amritsar 1949; SaddStik, Amritsar, 1958.
For the Savayyds, Adi Granth 1389-1409.
57

the community kitchen, the increasing number of the Sikhs, and the
centres of pilgrimage at Goindwal and Ramdaspur. They admire the
combination of religious faith and social commitment (jog and raj) in
the mission of the Gurus. They underline the importance of the Name
and the shabad; they refer to the bdnl oi the Gurus as an alternative to
the Vedas and the Quran. The divine sanction for the bhaktl and the
truth proclaimed by Guru Nanak is emphasized, and it is also
suggested that his path possesses an exclusive validity and efficacy
during the present cosmic age (kaliyuga). The divinity of the Guru is
underlined, and so is his grace. One is redeemed by seeing him. He is
the destroyer of fear. By serving the Guru and remembering him, all
one's wishes are fulfilled.
The uniqueness of the Guru is brought out by the bhats in
unambiguous terms. Guru Nanak is the preceptor of the world
(jagat-guru)\ his mission is universal redemption. The unique status
of Guru Nanak and his successors is brought out by invoking myth,
legend and history. The thirty-three crores of gods and goddesses
sing their praises. What they are doing in kaliyuga was done by
Rama in the treta and by Krishna in the duapur. The saints like
Kabir, Ravidas, Namdev, Jaidev, Tarlochan and Beni sing the praises
of the Guru. The greatest emphasis of the bhats is on the unity of
Guruship. The direct line of succession is repeated from Guru
Nanak to Guru Arjan, through Guru Angad, Guru Amar Das and
Guru Ram Das, underlining the exclusive validity of nomination by
the reigning Guru. The same divine light shone through all of them.
It is explicitly pointed out that Guru Arjan is as much a successor of
Guru Nanak as the others. The fact that he is a son of Guru Ram
Das makes no difference to the legitimacy of nomination. One vital
idea which is put forth in the vdr of Balwand and Satta is that Guru
Nanak installed Angad as the Guru during his lifetime and bowed to
him; the position of the Guru and the disciple (chela) was thus
reversed. That is how Guru Nanak makes 'the water run upstream'.
The metaphors used by the bhats in connection with the Gurus are
also significant: the true king, his rule, throne, umbrella, flywhisk,
canopy, crown, court, armies, for instance. Many of the bhats refer
to slanderers, their opposition to the Gurus and their discomfiture.
The bhats show a thorough familiarity with the teachings of the
Gurus but they were not formal Sikhs, which makes their ideas all
the more important. In any case, all these ideas are expressed even
58

more crisply and emphatically by Bhai Gurdas who is often referred to

as the 'St Paul of Sikhism'.72
VII
At the death of Akbar in 1605, the Sikhs were living in many cities of
the Mughal empire, with a clear concentration in the towns and the
villages of the province of Lahore. Accredited representatives
(masands) of the Guru looked after the distant congregations (sangats)
and brought their offerings to Ramdaspur (Amritsar) at least once in a
year. Included among the Sikhs were members of the trading commu-
nities of merchants and shopkeepers, and of the producing communi-
ties of cultivators and craftsmen. Themselves self-reliant, they pro-
vided the economic backbone for the organization evolved by the
Gurus to enable them to undertake large projects without financial
dependence on outside agencies.
The religious ideology of Guru Nanak was reinforced by his
successors in a manner that added new dimensions without minimizing
the importance of his basic ideas. With reference to the nomination of
Angad as the Guru in the lifetime of Guru Nanak, the successors were
brought into equal prominence with the founder; the idea of the unity
of Guruship was adumbrated and upheld; the office of the Guru
became more important than the person of the Guru; and his decisions
became as legitimate as the decisions of the founder. Thus, the
pontificates of the successors became an extension of the mission of the
founder, and the work of his successors became an extension of his
work. With reference to the reversal of the position of the disciple with
the Guru, the individual Sikh was given great consideration by the
Guru, and the collective body of the congregation (sangat) was given
even greater importance. With reference to the shabad as the medium
of divine revelation, and the barn of Guru Nanak as a part of that
revelation, the compositions of the Gurus were brought into parallel
prominence with the Guru. Though neither an incarnation of God nor
His prophet, the Guru was so near allied to Him that his followers
regarded him as the locus of divinity.
72
Bhai Gurdas Bhalla was closely related to Guru Amar Das and associated himself with
Guru Ram Das, Guru Arjan and Guru Hargobind. He served as the scribe when Guru Arjan
compiled the Granth. For his basic ideas, J.S. Grewal, Guru Nanak in History, Panjab
University, Chandigarh, 1979, 295-302.
59

The religious ideology of the Sikhs, which informed their attitudes

to life, was embodied in the Granth compiled by Guru Arjan. The
Sikhs were now becoming more and more conscious that their
scripture was tangibly distinct from the Veda and the Quran. Incorpo-
rating the ideas contained in the compositions of sants, bhaktas and
sufts, which had the greatest affinity with the ideas of the Gurus
themselves, the Sikh scripture thus contained ideas becoming current
in much of the Indian subcontinent. Composed in a language that was
easily understood by common people over a large part of northern
India, it was written out in a script that was easily the simplest of all the
scripts known to India. It became the only authentic source of the
characteristically Sikh ideas which were distinct from much in the
contemporary systems of religious belief and practice. Copies could be
made of the entire Granth, or a significant selection could be made, for
use in distant places. To listen to gurbdni, in any case, was to hear the
voice of the Guru himself.
The distinctive Sikh identity, based initially on religious ideology,
was reinforced by the adoption of distinctly Sikh ceremonies on the
occasions of birth, marriage and death. The Sikhs were free to maintain
the old horizontal links of castes and sub-castes for matrimonial
purposes but there was nothing in the teachings of the Guru that could
be invoked in support of such links. The ideal of equality was openly
demonstrated in the institutions of congregational worship and com-
munity meals. Ramdaspur (Amritsar) as the place of pilgrimage was
open to all Sikhs from far and near, and large crowds used to come for
the festivals of Baisakhi and Diwall. The bi-annual convergence of
Sikh pilgrims to the autonomous town of Guru Ram Das gave them a
feeling of spiritual elation; it gave them also a sense of belonging to a
large brotherhood.
The Sikh Panth was a state within the Mughal empire at the death
of Akbar, but a state that had its opponents and enemies whose
presence was continuously felt by the successors of Guru Nanak.
The enemies were becoming more numerous, and their intrigues
were on the increase. If the law of the state enabled some of them to
approach the administrators with plausible claims over the property
and wealth of the Gurus, the cupidity of the administrators induced
them to entertain those claims. Akbar's catholicity could protect the
Gurus and their followers against open violence but it could not
obviate the nefarious designs of their enemies. The removal of a
60

protecting umbrella could increase the heat of hostility for the Guru
and his followers.
The withdrawal of symbolic protection came rather suddenly and in
such a form that to call it harsh or hostile would be an understatement.
Within eight months of Akbar's death in October, 1605, Guru Arjan
died the death of a martyr at the end of May, 1606, tortured by the new
emperor's underlings at Lahore.
61

CHAPTER 4
TRANSFORMATION OF THE SIKH

PANTH (1606-1708)
During the seventeenth century five Gurus succeeded Guru Arjan. His
son, Guru Hargobind was succeeded by a grandson, Guru Har Rai.
The younger son of Guru Har Rai, Guru Har Krishan was succeeded
by a grand uncle, Guru Tegh Bahadur, the youngest son of Guru
Hargobind. Guru Gobind Singh, who succeeded his father Guru Tegh
Bahadur in 1675, abolished personal Guruship before his death in
1708.'
Interference by the Mughal emperors Jahangir, Shah Jahan and
Aurangzeb in the affairs of the Sikh Panth was an important feature of
this period. We have already referred to the martyrdom of Guru Arjan
at the beginning of Jahangir's rule. A few years later, Jahangir ordered
the detention of Guru Hargobind in the fort of Gwalior which was
generally used for detaining political prisoners. In the reign of Shah
Jahan the Mughal administrators of the Punjab came into armed
conflict with Guru Hargobind. Aurangzeb took an active interest in
the issue of succession, passed orders for the execution of Guru Tegh
Bahadur, and at one time ordered total extirpation of Guru Gobind
Singh and his family. State interference was, thus, a serious matter.
State interference encouraged dissent within the Sikh Panth and
accentuated disunity. Prithi Chand, significantly, put forth his claim to
be the successor of Guru Arjan after his martyrdom, becoming thus a
rival of Guru Hargobind. Dhir Mai, a grandson of Guru Hargobind,
preferred to remain in the good books of the emperors and chose to
have his own centre in the province of Lahore rather than succeeding to
the office of Guru Hargobind at his headquarters in a vassal prin-
cipality. Ram Rai, the elder brother of Guru Har Krishan, chose to
become a protege of Aurangzeb.2
Apart from rival claimants from the Sodhi family of Guru Ram Das,
there were the Udasls who traced their origin to Guru Nanak through
his son Sri Chand; they were renunciant recluses rather than house-
holders. Then there were the followers of Hindal, who did not show
1
For the successors of Guru Nanak after Guru Arjan see appendix i.
- For the descendants of Guru Ram Das see appendix 2.
6l

TRANSFORMATION OF THE SIKH PANTH
much veneration even for the founder of Sikhism; they were trying to
hijack the Sikh movement. In this situation the masands became
lukewarm or indifferent to the nominated Gurus, or actually changed
sides. There was one attitude which all the dissidents and detractors
shared: they were all what may be called 'pro-establishment'.
As a result of the combination of these circumstances the successors
of Guru Arjan shifted the theatre of their activities to the east of the
river Satlej, giving new cradle lands to the Sikh movement. Further-
more, the places now regarded as the most historic outside the land of
the five rivers were associated with the last Guru: Patna in Bihar,
Anandpur and Muktsar in the Punjab, and Nanded in Maharashtra.
The transformation of the Sikh Panth, which began in the time of Guru
Hargobind reached its culmination under Guru Gobind Singh in
response to external interference and internal disunity.
Nuruddin Jahangir, the son and successor of Akbar, states in his

Memoirs that he called for Guru Arjan on account of the charge
brought against him that he had put a saffron mark on the forehead of
the rebel Prince Khusrau as a token of his blessings.3 As a prince,
Jahangir had heard about the 'shop' which had done brisk business for
three or four generations before Guru Arjan started luring ignorant
Muslims as well as foolish Hindus to purchase 'falsehood'.4 Many a
time it had occurred to Jahangir that either this shop of falsehood
should be closed or Guru Arjan should be brought into the fold of
Islam. He ordered Guru Arjan to be put to death, his mansions and his
family to be entrusted to Murtaza Khan and his property to be
confiscated.5
In the Sikh tradition, however, there is hardly any reference to
Jahangir's order of capital punishment. Bhai Gurdas admires the
incredible equanimity of Guru Arjan under unbearable torture, but he
says nothing more. In the Bachittar Ndtak, composed in the last decade
of the seventeenth century, there is a reference to the martyrdom of
3
It was a common practice with Guru Arjan to place his hand on the forehead of a visitor.
This could be easily exaggerated into putting of a saffron mark on Khusrau's forehead by the
opponents of the Guru.
4
Guru Arjan's followers did include at least a few former Muslims.
5
Persian text of the Memoirs printed in Mdkhiz-i-Tawdrikh-i-Sikhdn (ed. Ganda Singh),
Sikh History, Amritsar, 1949, 20-22.
63

Guru Tegh Bahadur, but nothing about the martyrdom of Guru Arjan.
In the late eighteenth century, it was believed that Jahangir imposed a
fine of 200,000 rupees which Guru Arjan refused to pay and he was
tortured. Already in the 1640s the author of the Dabistdn-i-Mazdhab
had stated that Jahangir imposed a heavy fine on Guru Arjan which he
was not in a position to pay, and consequently he was tortured in hot
weather and he died.6 It was generally believed that the person
responsible for torturing Guru Arjan was the dlwdn of Lahore. All this
evidence suggests that the capital punishment was commuted into
heavy fine. It is nevertheless certain that Jahangir was strongly
prejudiced against Guru Arjan partly because of the vast size of his
'shop' which offered its 'wares' to all, irrespective of their caste or
creed.
The action of the state authorities was a stunning blow to the
followers of Guru Arjan. Whether it was due to the intrigues of the
slanderers of the Guru, or the enmity of some local administrator, or
the autocratic prejudice of the emperor, the injustice was patent
enough. Guru Hargobind reacted to the event in proportion to the
enormity of the injustice. He girded two swords, as the Sikh tradition
puts it, one symbolizing his spiritual authority and the other his
temporal power. He encouraged his followers in martial activity. The
Jat component of his followers needed only a little persuasion. Guru
Hargobind added two new features to Ramdaspur. Opposite the
Harmandir he constructed a high platform which came to be known as
Akal Takht, 'the immortal throne'. Here the Guru held a kind of court
to conduct temporal business. He also constructed a fort called
Lohgarh for the purpose of defence.
A clear departure from the practices of his predecessors made Guru
Hargobind conspicuous in the eyes of the administrators and on their
representation Jahangir ordered his detention in the fort of Gwalior.
Before long, however, counter-representations were made on behalf of
Guru Hargobind and he was released. The emperor appears eventually
to have felt satisfied with the justification given by the Guru for his
interests and activities. Guru Hargobind was left free to pursue them
for the rest of Jahangir's reign.7
The slanderers of the Guru, his opponents, criticized him for his
martial activities, with the implication that he was not a true Guru.
After the martyrdom of Guru Arjan, his elder brother Prithi Chand
6 7
(Dabistan-i-Mazdbib) Mdkhiz-i-Tawdrikh-i-Sikhan, 35-37. Ibid., 38.
64

put forth his claim to be the successor of Guru Arjan. After Prithi
Chand's death his son Miharban claimed to be the seventh Guru. Some
of the Sikhs who could not appreciate the measures adopted by Guru
Hargobind were influenced by the propaganda of these rival claimants
popularly known as minds. Bhai Gurdas in his vdrs refers to the plank
of these propagandists. In contrast to the former Gurus, they say, the
present Guru does not stay long at any one place; he was sent into
imprisonment by the emperor; he roams the land without fear; he
keeps dogs and goes out hunting; he does not compose bdnl, nor does
he listen to it or sing it; and he gives preference to scoundrels over his
devoted servants. Bhai Gurdas asserts, however, that Guru Hargobind
is bearing an unbearable burden and the true Sikhs are devoted to him.8
He justifies the new measures of Guru Hargobind with the argument
that an orchard needs the protective hedge of the hardy and thorny
kikar trees.9 In other words, the Panth of Guru Nanak needed physical
force for its protection.
Guru Hargobind's interest in hunting brought him into conflict
with the Mughal administrators of the province of Lahore in the reign
of Shah Jahan who had ascended the throne after Jahangir's death in
1627. Under imperial orders a Mughal commandant attacked Ramdas-
pur but he was repulsed. Nevertheless, Guru Hargobind abandoned
Ramdaspur and went to Kartarpur in the Bist Jalandhar Doab. There
too he was attacked by the Mughal forces. Two Mughal commandants
were killed in the battle and the Guru was victorious.10 He was
convinced, however, that Mughal authorities would not leave him
alone. He decided to leave the province of Lahore, to go into the
territory of a Rajput vassal of the Mughal empire. The place he chose
was Kiratpur in the small principality of Hindur (Nalagarh), protected
not by the physical barrier of the Shivaliks so much as by the political
barrier between the imperial and the vassal territory.
For eight or nine years Guru Hargobind lived at Kiratpur before he
died in the first week of March, 1644. He maintained his stables, his
horsemen and his matchlockmen at Kiratpur. He did not abandon
martial exercises, but there were no battles to fight. In his personal
correspondence he used the epithet 'Nanak' for himself, indicating
clearly that he regarded himself as one with the founder of the Sikh
8
Bhai Gurdas, Varan Bhai Gurdas (ed. Giani Hazara Singh), Wazir-i-Hind Press,
Amritsar, 1962 (reprint), vdr 26, pauri 24.
9 10
Ibid., pauri 25. (Dabistdn-i-Mazdhib) Mdkhiz-i-Tawdrikh-i-Sikhdn, 39.
65

Panth and his successors. The ideas and beliefs which are attributed to
him by the author of the Dabistdn-i-Mazdhib indicate that there was
no change in the religious ideology of Guru Hargobind.11 He had
numerous followers in Ujjain, Burhanpur, Lucknow, Prayag, Jaunpur,
Patna, Raj Mahal and Dacca.12 Like his eminent followers in the
Punjab, they too were mostly Khatris. Among his important masands,
however, there were many Jats, and agriculture was one of the two
most important professions of the Sikhs. The Guru's dependence on
the masands had increased, and some of them had started appointing
their own deputies or agents for the collection of offerings as well as for
initiating others to the Sikh faith. On the day of the Baisakhl they
brought the offerings to the Guru. Some of the masands did not have
their own source of income; they lived on a part of the collections
made.13
With Guru Hargobind's absence from the plains, the field was left
open to his opponents or rival claimants. Ramdaspur was taken over by
Miharban, son of Prithi Chand, who wrote his own bdnl as 'Nanak'
and claimed to be the seventh Guru. He composed a janamsdkhl of
Guru Nanak to buttress his claims.14 His son Harji, succeeded to his
position at Ramdaspur in the 1640s as the eighth 'Nanak'. It may not be
too much to presume that some of the followers of Guru Arjan went
over to the minds. Guru Hargobind's own grandson, Dhir Mai, son of
Gurditta who predeceased the Guru in the late 1630s, was not
interested in succeeding to his position at Kiratpur. With the original
copy of the scripture prepared by Bhai Gurdas under the instruction of
Guru Arjan, Dhir Mai moved to Kartarpur in the early 1640s.15 He was
given revenue-free land at Kartarpur by the emperor Shah Jahan.16
Dhir Mai did not merely leave his grandfather; he also abandoned his
anti-establishment stance. The hostility of the Mughal state was
impinging upon the Sikh Panth in more than one way to affect its
character. As the spokesman of Guru Hargobind, Bhai Gurdas pro-
11 n
Ibid., 40-41. Bhai Gurdas, var n,pauris 30-31.
13
(Dabistdn-i-Mazdhib) Mdkhiz-i-Tawdrikh-i-Sikhdn, 35.
14
"the janamsdkhl attributed to Miharban was edited by Kirpal Singh and published by
the Sikh History Research Department of Khalsa College, Amritsar in 1962 as the Janam
Sakhl Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji.
15
The descendants of Dhir Mai at Kartarpur are still in possession of the original Granth:
W. H. McLeod, The Evolution of the Sikh Community, Oxford University Press, 1975,
61-62, 74.
16
The text of an imperial order issued by Shah Jahan in 1643 ' s given in Mdkhiz-i-
Tawarlkh-i-Sikhdn, 51-52.
66

jects him sharply as the only legitimate successor of Guru Nanak and
condemns the slanderers in general and the minds in particular in loud
and clear terms. His emphatic 'orthodoxy' was partly a result of the
growing dissent.17
Guru Hargobind nominated Har Rai, the younger brother of Dhir
Mai, as the successor-Guru in 1644. Guru Har Rai was only fourteen
years old at this time and he died in 1661 at the young age of a little over
thirty. His pontificate of about seventeen years was rather uneventful.
Soon after his accession he moved to Thapal in the territory of Sirmur
(Nahan) temporarily, not to embroil himself in an armed conflict
between the chief of Hindur (Nalagarh) and the Mughal commandants
who invaded his territories.18 He continued to maintain the retainers
raised by Guru Hargobind, and his masands apparently held their own
in competition with Dhir Mai at Kartarpur and Harji at Ramdaspur in
the Bari Doab. A change in this situation came after Aurangzeb
ascended the Mughal throne in 1658, defeating his elder brother Dara
Shikoh in two battles.
II
The reign of Aurangzeb from 1658 to 1707 was marked by some
important changes, making the context of the late seventeenth century
rather different from that of the late sixteenth century when Akbar was
on the throne. In the first half of his reign Aurangzeb adopted an
aggressive social and political policy. He destroyed some important
Hindu temples even in times of peace. In the early 1670s he ordered
that all grants of revenue-free land given to non-Muslims should be
resumed. That this order was immediately implemented in the Punjab
is evident from the resumption of the madad-i-ma'dsh grant of the
jogis of Jakhbar near Pathankot in the fifteenth year of Aurangzeb's
reign.19 In 1679 the emperor re-imposed the jizya after more than a
century of its abolition by Akbar. That this order too was implemented
in the Punjab is evident from a document laying down the amount of
jizya to be collected from all the three classes of assessees in a village.20
17
For a brief analysis of the vars of Bhai Gurdas, J. S. Grewal, 'Religious Literature and
Secular History', Proceedings Indian History Congress, Amritsar, 1985, 273-84.
(Dabistdn-i-Mazdhib) Mdkhiz-i-Tawdrikh-i-Sikhdn, 45.
19
B. N . Goswamy and J. S. Grewal, The Mughals and the Jogis of Jakhbar, Indian
Institute of Advanced study, Simla, 1967, Documents 9, 12.
20
Irfan Habib, Agrarian System of Mughal India (1526-ijoj), Asia Publishing House,
Bombay, 1963, 119—20.
67

Even during the first half of Aurangzeb's reign there were uprisings
against his authority. In 1669 thejat zamtnddr of Talpat near Mathura
rose in revolt with the support of nearly 20,000 peasants. In 1672, the
Satnamls rose in revolt in thepargana of Narnaul, about 120 kilometres
from Delhi. There were some other revolts in northern India, including
the Punjab, but of much smaller magnitude. In the south, a new
sovereign state was established by Shivaji in the teeth of opposition
from the Mughal commanders and partly at the cost of the Mughal
empire. After a long struggle he declared himself to be a sovereign ruler
in 1674 and died as a sovereign ruler in 1680. Despite his tremendous
exertion Aurangzeb failed to subvert the kingdom founded by Shivaji.
In the process, the Mughals brought down the rulers of Bijapur and
Golkonda. Bijapur was annexed to the Mughal empire in 1686, and
Golkonda in 1687. Two years later the emperor was able to capture and
kill Shivaji's son Shambuji. But the struggle for independence was kept
up by the Maratha leaders under the nominal rule of Raja Ram, another
son of Shivaji. When Aurangzeb died in 1707, Maratha horsemen were
hovering around the imperial camp at Ahmadnagar.
Aurangzeb's long stay in the Deccan, from 1682 to 1707, affected the
general administration of the Mughal empire as adversely as his wars
affected its finances. It became increasingly difficult to assign ade-
quately remunerative lands mjdgir to the mansabddrs. There ensued in
due course a scramble for jdgirs, and the mansabddrs tended to align
with one or another of the most powerful nobles in self-interest. The
beginning of factional alignment was one serious result of the crisis in
the jdgirddri system. Another was the exploitation of the peasantry by
the jdglrddrs. So long as the prospect of getting a good jdgir was there,
the jdglrddrs' attitude was not affected by the transfer of his jdglr. But
in the absence of such a prospect he tried to extract as much as he could
without caring for the future of the land or its cultivators. This
tendency was accentuated by a relative regression in agricultural
production. Exploitation of the peasantry led to unrest among the
peasants.
In the province of Lahore during the reign of Aurangzeb, both
agriculture and trade received an appreciable setback. In the reign of
Jahangir and Shah Jahan expansion of agriculture is evident from the
creation of new parganas and the emergence of new towns. The most
important canal for irrigation in the province was dug in the reign of
Shah Jahan, namely the Shah Nahr which irrigated thousands of acres
68

in the upper Ban Doab. There was a large increase in the revenues of
the province during the early seventeenth century. It amounted to
nearly 68 per cent, from about 66,000,000 of dams in 1595-1596 to
about 100,000,000 dams in 1656.21 In the reign of Aurangzeb the
revenue figures went down to less than 90,000,000 dams. Seen in
conjunction with the rise in prices, which enhanced the revenue
figures, this decrease in the revenue meant a considerable decline in
agricultural production. There is evidence also for a setback to com-
merce in the Punjab. Since trade was intimately connected with
agricultural production, both suffered together. However, the
countryside suffered more, and in the countryside the cultivators
suffered the most.22
Ill
Aurangzeb's aggressive policy is reflected in his attitude towards the

successors of Guru Hargobind. On the rumoured support of Guru
Har Rai to Dara Shikoh during his flight to the Punjab, Aurangzeb
called him to his court. Guru Har Rai sent his elder son, Ram Rai. The
emperor kept him as a hostage in Delhi. Guru Har Rai chose his
younger son, Har Krishan, as his successor. Aurangzeb summoned
Guru Har Krishan also to Delhi. He continued to patronize Ram Rai
and eventually granted revenue-free land to him in the present Dehra
Dun in Uttar Pradesh. Guru Har Krishan died of smallpox in Delhi in
1664 after indicating that his 'grandfather' {bdbd) Tegh Bahadur, the
youngest son of Guru Hargobind, was his successor.
Tegh Bahadur had left Kiratpur after the death of Guru Hargobind
in 1644 and settled in Bakala, the parental village of his mother in the
upper Bari Doab. He started his career as the eighth successor of Guru
Nanak at Bakala. However, the opposition from his nephew, Dhir
Mai, at Kartarpur across the river Beas, and from his other nephew,
Harji, at Ramdaspur, obliged him to leave the Bari Doab, and go to
Kiratpur. There too he was not a welcome guest for his brother Suraj
Mai. During the very first year of his pontificate therefore, Guru Tegh
21
A small coin in Persia, the copper dam in Akbar's empire was the fortieth of a silver
rupee; it came generally to be known as paisa and its value in the seventeenth century was
merely a theoretical fraction of the rupee.
22
For a decline in trade in the Punjab during the seventeenth century see Chetan Singh,
Region and Empire: Punjab in the Seventeenth Century, Oxford University Press, Delhi
1991, 270-85.
69

Bahadur had to look for a new centre. He chose a place called

Makhowal, only a few miles from Kiratpur but in the territory of the
chief of Kahlur (Bilaspur). By accepting his nomination as the Guru,
Tegh Bahadur gave an affront to Aurangzeb who had presumed to
arbitrate in the matter of succession. Had Guru Tegh Bahadur stayed
on in Makhowal, Aurangzeb might have ignored the affront.
Before the end of 1665, however, Guru Tegh Bahadur left Makho-
wal to establish contact with some of the Sikh centres (sangats) in the
Mughal provinces of the Gangetic plain. Before long, he was taken to
Delhi by one Alam Khan Rohila under imperial orders. On the
intercession of Kanwar Ram Singh, son of Mirza Raja Jai Singh of
Mewar, he was released from detention in December. From Delhi,
Guru Tegh Bahadur went to Agra, from Agra then to Prayag (Allaha-
bad), Benares, Sahsaram and Patna. At all these places there were old
Sikh sangats. He left his family at Patna to be looked after by the local
Sikhs before he moved on to Monghir. There he heard the news of the
birth of his first and only son at Patna on December 22, 1666. From
Monghir, Guru Tegh Bahadur moved to Dacca where Raja Ram Singh
joined him early in 1668. He accompanied the Raja on his expedition
into Assam. In March, 1670, Guru Tegh Bahadur moved back towards
the Punjab, through Patna and Delhi, and reached Makhowal in April,
1671.
In the first five or six years of his pontificate Guru Tegh Bahadur
travelled more than any of his predecessors after Guru Nanak. If his
idea was to reassure the far-flung congregations (sangats) of the Guru's
concern for them, he was amply successful. From his extant letters
(hukmndmas) to the congregations at Patna and Benares it is evident
that the Sikhs of those regions served Guru Tegh Bahadur with
veneration. They looked after his favourite horse, Sri Dhar; they
celebrated the birth of his son Gobind Das with a lot of fanfare;23 they
lodged his family in a spacious mansion; they sent costly articles for his
camp; they sent cloth, fine turbans and cash to him; they went to see
him in large numbers at the time of the Diwall. In one of his letters he
talks of the entire sangat of the province of Allahabad; in another, he
asks the masands of the province of Bihar to bring the sangats along
when they were to bring their offerings to the Guru.24 There is hardly
23
Though the historians generally refer to the young Gobind as Gobind Rai, in the
hukmndmas of Guru Tegh Bahadur he is referred to as Gobind Das.
24
Ganda Singh (ed.), Hukmnimey (Pbi), Punjabi University, Patiala, 1965, Nos. 8-25.
7°

any doubt that the Khatri traders of the Gangetic plains formed an
important constituency for Guru Tegh Bahadur.
According to the Persian chronicler Khafi Khan, when Aurangzeb
came to know that the Sikhs had built temples in all towns and
populous places in the empire and that the agents of their Guru
collected offerings from the multitude of his followers to be scrupulous-
ly forwarded to him, he ordered the deputies of the Guru to be driven
out of the temples.25 The temples were to be demolished. According to
the author of the Ma'dsir-i-'Alamgiri, Aurangzeb had issued a general
order in 1669 that all the schools and temples of the non-Muslims
should be demolished. In the town called Buriya in the sarkdr of
Sarhind the Sikh temple was demolished by the local administrator in
accordance with the imperial orders, and a mosque was built in its
place. The mosque was in turn demolished by the Sikhs and Aurangzeb
felt annoyed with the qdzl and the muhtasib of the place.26 This
incident reveals the tensions created by the imperial orders.
In the compositions of Guru Tegh Bahadur under the name 'Nanak',
which form now a part of the Granth Sahib, there is a clear indication
that he regarded his situation as very grave. They bear witness to the
truths enunciated by Guru Nanak and his successors and the conform-
ity of Guru Tegh Bahadur to their religious ideology. Nevertheless
there is a new dimension, a new note of urgency, and a sense of intense
concern. Life is short; it hastens away; but it provides opportunity for
those who would take it. Participation without entanglement is the
ideal, which can be realized only through conquest of fear. The idea is
not altogether new, but the insistence is. The Sikhs are asked to
acknowledge him alone as truly wise who is not afraid of others and
who inspires no fear in others. Himself prepared for the worst possible
eventualities, Guru Tegh Bahadur wanted others also to face life with
courage. His compositions reveal him as a prophet of reassurance in a
trying situation.27
In 1673 Guru Tegh Bahadur moved out of Makhowal to impart his
message of reassurance to peasants and zamlnddrs in the province of
Delhi. He moved from village to village in most of the districts now
25
Muntakhab al-Lubab, q u o t e d , I n d u b h u s h a n Banerjee, Evolution of the Khalsa, Cal-
cutta, 1980, I I , 59.
26
T h e text of the imperial order issued b y A u r a n g z e b is given in Makhiz-i-Tawartkh-i-
Sikhdn, 73.
27
J . S. Grewal, ' T h e P r o p h e t of Assurance', From Guru Nanak to Maharaja Ranjit
Singh, G u r u N a n a k Dev University, Amritsar, 1982 (2nd edn), 64-70.
71

covered by the states of Punjab and Haryana. There was a good

response to this missionary work of about two years. The news-
writers of the Mughal empire were bound to send reports of this
response, and Aurangzeb was not likely to ignore this. Guru Tegh
Bahadur was making a public demonstration of his convictions at a
time when the emperor was bent upon discouraging such demon-
strations. Whereas the emperor could use the power of the state in
support of his policy, the Guru could rely on moral courage inherited
from a long line of illustrious predecessors to defend the claims of
conscience.
A deputation of Brahmans met Guru Tegh Bahadur at Makhowal in
May, 1675, with a woeful tale of religious persecution in the valley of
Kashmir by its Mughal governor. After a deep reflection on the
situation, Guru Tegh Bahadur decided to court martyrdom to uphold
his beliefs. In July, 1675, n e nominated his young son Gobind Das as
the successor-Guru and moved out of Makhowal. He was arrested
soon after he entered the Mughal territory in the pargana of Ropar and
kept in custody for nearly four months in the sarkdr of Sarhind before
he was taken to Delhi in November, 1675. In Delhi, he was asked to
perform a miracle as the proof of his nearness to God. He refuted the
idea that occult powers were a proof of one's nearness to God.28 As a
logical corollary of his 'failure' to perform a miracle he was asked to
accept Islam. Three of his companions were put to death in his
presence to impress upon him the consequence of a refusal. Guru Tegh
Bahadur refused to accept Islam, and he was beheaded in Chandni
Chauk, the main market-square close to the Red Fort, on the n t h of
November 1675.
Guru Tegh Bahadur's unique sacrifice in the cause not only of his
own faith but also in the cause of freedom of conscience in general was
admired by his son and successor. Metaphorically, he protected the
sacred thread (janjii) and the sacred mark (tilak) of the men of faith.
The world was 'enwrapped in mourning' at his departure.29 The grief
was great and the sorrow was deep, but there was also some
resentment. A Sikh in Agra threw two bricks at Aurangzeb in
October, 1676, when he was returning from the jam? masjid. The
28
T h e Sikh G u r u s , reinforcing the attitude of G u r u N a n a k , believed in the possibility of
miracles b u t regarded the p o w e r t o perform miracles as irrelevant for one's spiritual status
and beneath the concerns of a devotee of G o d .
29
Shabdarth Dasam Granth Sahib (ed. Taran Singh), Punjabi University, Patiala, 1973,1,
72

unfortunate assailant was handed over to the kotwdl, presumably for

execution.30
IV
The first decade of Guru Gobind Singh's pontificate was rather

uneventful. Growing into manhood, he received literary and relig-
ious education, and also training in the use of arms. He was par-
ticularly fond of hunting wild boar. He inspired his young com-
panions and followers to take interest in martial activity. There were
some old Sikhs too who remembered the days of Guru Hargobind.
The annual visits of the Sikhs at the time of the Baisakhi and the
Diwall swelled the numbers at Makhowal which gave the appearance
of an armed camp. The young chief of Kahlur (Bilaspur), Bhim
Chand, did not relish this development, regarding it as a threat to the
integrity of his territories. He insisted on a formal acknowledgment
by Guru Gobind Singh that he was subject to the authority of the
chief. The situation was becoming more and more tense when, in
1685, the chief of Sirmur (Nahan) invited Guru Gobind Singh to his
principality.
Guru Gobind Singh accepted the invitation of the chief of Sirmur
and settled down at Paunta on the right bank of the river Jamuna. This
place was on the border of Sirmur, adjoining the territory of Garhwal,
and there was a long-standing dispute between the chiefs of Sirmur and
Garhwal over the border territories. This unenviable position induced
Guru Gobind Singh not only to build a fortress at Paunta but also to
raise an efficient fighting force from amongst his followers and
kinsmen. Before long they were put to a severe test when the chief of
Garhwal invaded the territory of Sirmur in 1688 with a number of hill
chiefs as his allies, and with the help of some mercenary commanders.
Guru Gobind Singh moved out of Paunta to give them battle at a place
called Bhangani. The mercenary commanders Hayat Khan and
Najabat Khan were killed in the battle and Bhikhan Khan was
unhorsed. The most valiant fighter on the side of the enemy, Hari
Chand, died on the field. The Guru lost his cousin Sango Shah, one of
the five sons of Guru Hargobind's daughter, besides a good number of
30
Ma'dsir-i-'Alamgiri(Pbi, ed. Fauja Singh), Punjabi University, Patiala, 1977, 135.
73

his followers. But the losses of the enemy were much heavier and they
lost the battle.31
Guru Gobind Singh's victory at Bhangani proclaimed the fact that
he was more powerful than any single chief in the hills. He had good
resources in men, bows and arrows, javelins, swords, maces and
horses. But he had no intention of embroiling himself any further in
the affairs of a chief who had tricked him into unreciprocated support.
He left Paunta and returned to Makhowal in 1689 to found Anandpur
in its vicinity. The new township was built with better defences. The
men who had not fought in the battle at Bhangani were not allowed to
reside in Anandpur. Those who had fought well were rewarded and
patronized.
Guru Gobind Singh was building up his strength when a few years
later Bhim Chand, the chief of Kahlur, sought his help against the
Mughal faujddrs of the hills. Bhim Chand was heading the hill chiefs
who had refused to pay tribute, and the Mughal faujddr of Jammu had
sent a force against the rebels. The commandant of this force was
supported by the loyal vassals. Guru Gobind Singh participated in the
battle at Nadaun which ended in Bhim Chand's victory. But soon after
the battle the rebel chief patched up his quarrel with the Mughal
faujddr and agreed to pay tribute. Guru Gobind Singh expressed his
disapproval of his submission by plundering a village in his territory.
Returning then to Anandpur he picked up the old threads.
The concourse at Anandpur became so conspicuous that towards the
end of 1693 the news-writer of Sarhind was constrained to report of the
gathering crowds. Aurangzeb was now in the Deccan, vainly chasing
the Maratha rebels. He ordered the faujddrs to ensure that no crowds
gathered at Anandpur.32 A Mughal force was sent to Anandpur with
the intention of a night attack. But Guru Gobind Singh was awakened
by his guards in time to prepare for defence. The young commander of
the Mughal force was disheartened to hear the unexpected din of
preparation for battle and left the environs of Anandpur without a
fight. Another expedition was sent against the Guru. But, by then,
some of the hill chiefs had become rebellious. The Mughal commander,
Husain Khan, though supported by some hill chiefs, was defeated and
31
The battle is described in the 'Bachittar Natak': Shabdarth Dasam Granth Sahib,
77—79; for an English translation, Indubhushan Banerjee, Evolution of the Khalsa, Vol. 2,
179-82.
32
(Akhbdrdt-i-Darbdr-i-Mu'alld) Chetan Singh, Region and Empire, 274 and n 129.
74

TRANSFORMATION OF T H E SIKH PANTH
killed by the rebel chiefs. A small contingent sent by Guru Gobind

Singh was supporting them. The leader of this contingent died fighting,
together with seven of his horsemen. Another Mughal force was sent
under a Rajput commandant, Jujhar Singh. He too was defeated and
killed by the rebel chiefs. Thus, the campaign against Guru Gobind
Singh was diverted into a campaign against the rebel hill chiefs. When
Aurangzeb sent his son to the Punjab in 1696, he chastised the rebel
chiefs and their supporters. Guru Gobind Singh remained safe at
Anandpur.33
During all these years Guru Gobind Singh was in contact with the
Sikh sangats in the country. His extant letters {hukmndmas) to some of
these reveal the nature of his interests. The sangats of 'the east' (Dacca,
Chittagong, Sondeep and Sylhet) were asked to send offerings col-
lected on various accounts, including fine quality cloth, swords and
matchlocks, a war elephant, besides gold and cash. The Sikhs were
asked to come personally at the time of the Baisakhi and the Diwali.
Some of them were asked to come with batches of foot-soldiers and
horsemen. It is interesting to find the bulk of the hukmndmds
addressed to sangats outside the Punjab and to sangats on the east of
the Satlej.34
There was indeed a shift in the constituency of the successors of
Guru Arjan. It was partly a result of dissent within Sikhism. The
successors of Guru Nanak had experienced opposition from rival
claimants from the very beginning. In the early seventeenth century,
when Guru Hargobind came into armed conflict with the Mughal
authorities and felt obliged to leave Ramdaspur, the rival claimants
became more effective. In terms of followers, the dodbs of the Punjab
were virtually lost to the successors of Guru Hargobind. The erosion
of their influence is reflected among other things in the janamsdkhi
literature of the seventeenth century.35 This form of literature was used
for missionary work by the 'orthodox' followers of Guru Nanak to
underline his uniqueness and to uphold the unity of Guruship on the
principle of nomination. The rival claimants were quick to realize the
importance of this form. The successors of Prithi Chand composed a
janamsdkhi to promote their own sectarian purpose. The Udasis tried
33
'Bachittar Natak', Shabdarth Dasam Granth Sahib, 80-91; for English version,
Indubhushan Banerjee, Evolution of the Khalsa, Vol. 2, 182-89.
34
Ganda Singh (ed.), Hukmndmey (Pbi) N o s . 33-65.
35
W. H. McLeod, Early Sikh Tradition, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1980; for a brief
discussion, W. H. McLeod, The Evolution of the Sikh Community, 20-36.
75

to minimize the importance of all the successors of Guru Nanak and

the followers of Hindal tried to undermine the position of Guru Nanak
himself. The janamsdkhls they produced bear testimony to their partial
success.
Faced with threat from outside and dissension within the Sikh Panth,
Guru Gobind Singh thought long and deeply about his own position as
the successor of Guru Nanak. Turning to the Dasam Granth, or the
Book of the Tenth Master, we find that all that is there in this
compilation was not written by the Tenth Master. But there is much
that was, and more that was approved by him. A careful analysis of this
evidence reveals that Guru Gobind Singh believed in the supersession
of all faiths by the faith enunciated by Guru Nanak; he subscribed to
the idea of the unity of Guruship from Guru Nanak to Guru Tegh
Bahadur; and he regarded himself as their only true successor. Like
Guru Nanak, he believed in one God, the creator, the sustainer and the
destroyer of the universe. He also believed that God exalts the pious
and destroys the wicked. In the universal struggle between the forces of
good and evil, God intervened from time to time to restore the balance
in favour of the forces of good.
It is in this context that Guru Gobind Singh's interest in the
'incarnations' of God acquires meaning and significance. His interest
in the Goddess and in Rama and Krishna springs from his preoccu-
pation with the meaning of his own mission. What was common to
these crucial figures of the old Shaktas in the hills and the new
Vaishnavas of the plains was the use of physical force made by the
'instruments' of God in favour of the good. The use of physical force in
defence of the good was sanctified by God:36
Having created Durga, O God, You destroyed the demons. From
You alone did Rama receive his power to slay Rawana with his
arrows. From you alone did Krishna receive his power to seize
Kansa by the hair and to dash him on the ground.
Guru Gobind Singh believed that he too was a chosen instrument of
God. This providential role he was to fulfil in his own way as the
successor of Guru Nanak. In terms of his historical situation, his
36
Kala Singh Bedi (ed.), War Sri BhagautljiKi, New Delhi, 1966, 104-5.
76

problem was to defend the claims of conscience against external

interference. Guru Tegh Bahadur had given one answer to this
problem. Guru Gobind Singh proposed to give another. His aim was
to obviate external interference with the use of physical force. For the
fulfilment of this purpose he had to set his own house in order, that is,
the Panth founded by Guru Nanak.
On the Baisakhi of 1699, when there was a large gathering at
Anandpur, Guru Gobind Singh proclaimed that henceforth all Sikhs
would be his Khalsa. The term Khalsa was used by that time for the
Sikhs initiated into the Sikh faith by the Gurus themselves and not by
the masands. The far-reaching implication of this declaration was that
all those who were not directly linked with him were not Sikhs either.
This proclamation removed the mediacy of the masands. It also meant
that the followers of the dissidents were not to be treated as true Sikhs.
In fact the Khalsa were instructed not to have any connection with the
masands and their followers (masandls); the Khalsa were similarly
instructed not to have any connection with the followers of Ram Rai,
Dhir Mai and Prithi Chand.37 Direct link of the Khalsa with the
Guru was symbolized by a new baptismal ceremony introduced by
Guru Gobind Singh. This was the chastening baptism of the double-
edged sword (khande klpauhl) which obliged the initiate to keep the
hair unshorn, to wear arms and to bear the epithet 'Singh' with their
names. Any five Singhs could initiate others to the new order. These
indeed were very vital measures. The principle of unity and equality
was re-introduced in the Sikh Panth. Given the vested interests of the
masands and the dissidents, and even of the high-caste Sikhs of Guru
Gobind Singh, this principle introduced an element of internal tussle
between those who accepted the new order and those who did not.
Furthermore, since in their outward appearance the baptized Singhs
stood distinguished from their contemporaries, their socio-religious
identity became more distinctly pronounced than that of the earlier
Sikhs. Indeed, as a contemporary writer puts it, the Khalsa stood
distinguished from the rest of the world.38 The local Khalsa sangats
assumed collectively the position relinquished by the masands. The
Khalsa sangats now represented the Guru. Their decisions were
37
Senapat, Sri Gursobha (ed. G a n d a Singh), Punjabi University, Patiala, 1980, 22; F o r
dissent in Sikhism, J. S. Grewal, ' T h e Dissidents', From Guru Nanak to Maharaja Ranjit
Singh (2nd edn), 50-63.
38
J. S. Grewal and S. S. Bal, Guru Gobind Singh (A Biographical Study), Panjab
University, Chandigarh, 1967, 121.
77

binding on the individual members of the sangat. Guru Gobind Singh

declared the Khalsa to be the heir of everything he possessed, because
he himself owed everything to them.39 In the common consecration of
their lives to God, the baptized Singhs and the Guru became one.
VI
The immediate result of the measures of Guru Gobind Singh was to

invite the outside interference which the Singhs were meant to
withstand. The increasing number of armed Singhs at Anandpur,
particularly at the time of the Diwall and the Baisakhl, presented a
grave threat to the neighbouring hill chiefs. Bhim Chand did not
take long to notice their presence with apprehension. No single
chief, however, was able to confront them. Bhim Chand formed an
alliance with some other chiefs of the hills and attacked Anandpur.
They found it difficult to dislodge Guru Gobind Singh and decided to
approach the Mughal faujddrs for help. The combined forces of the
Mughal faujddrs and the hill chiefs, coupled with the suggestion of an
honourable peace, induced Guru Gobind Singh to cross the river Satlej
into the territory of a friendly chief, and the Mughal troops went back.
Bhim Chand, however, was rash enough to attack the Guru but only to
suffer defeat. His men fled from the field of battle 'as the arrow flies
from a stretched bow'.40 Guru Gobind Singh rode back to Anandpur
in triumph.
The success of Guru Gobind Singh encouraged more and more of
the Singhs to come to Anandpur. Their increasing numbers created the
problem of supplies. It became necesssary for them to raid the
neighbouring villages for food and forage. The hill chiefs could not
close their eyes to this new development. But they felt helpless.
Ultimately they decided to approach Aurangzeb for protection as his
vassals. Imperial and vassal forces were mobilized against Guru
Gobind Singh and a siege was laid to Anandpur. A long blockade and
promise of safe conduct induced the Singhs to agree to evacuate the
fortresses, and Guru Gobind Singh left Anandpur towards the end of
1704 against his better judgment. While crossing a flooded stream near
Ropar he was attacked by the Mughal troops. His wife, Mata Sundri,
39
G u r u Gobind Singh's feeling for the Khalsa is well rendered into English by H a r b a n s
Singh: Guru Gobind Singh, Sterling Publishers, N e w Delhi, 1979, 47.
40
Senapat, Sri Gursobha (ed. Ganda Singh), 6 3 .
78

and his mother, Mata Gujri, and his two youngest sons were separated
from him in the melee. He crossed the stream and stopped at a village
called Chamkaur. He was pursued and attacked. All his followers
and his two eldest sons fell fighting at Chamkaur. Meanwhile,
Mata Sundri was escorted to Delhi by a devoted follower, but
Mata Gujri and the two youngest sons fell into the hands of Wazir
Khan, the Mughal faujddr of Sarhind. He put the young boys to
death
Guru Gobind Singh was able to establish contact with the Khalsa in
the present districts of Faridkot and Bhatinda, and he was able to
repulse an attack from Wazir Khan at a place called Khidrana
(Muktsar). Aurangzeb came to know of these developments in the
Punjab and he thought of conciliating Guru Gobind Singh. When the
Guru wrote a spirited letter (zafarndma) in response, justifying his
position on moral grounds and indicting the emperor with perfidy,
Aurangzeb sent special messengers with orders for Mun'im Khan, the
governor of Lahore, to conciliate the Guru at all costs and to persuade
him to meet the emperor personally in the Deccan.41 Guru Gobind
Singh refused the help offered by the Lahore governor, but he decided
to meet Aurangzeb. On his way to the Deccan he was in Rajasthan
when he heard the news of the emperor's death. Aurangzeb had died in
February, 1707.
Guru Gobind Singh met the new emperor, Bahadur Shah, at Agra in
the summer of 1707. He was well received and encouraged to hope that
he would get Anandpur back. Bahadur Shah went to Rajasthan, and
from Rahjasthan to the Deccan to fight for the throne with his brother
Kam Bakhsh. Guru Gobind Singh remained close to the imperial camp
for nearly a year, hoping that the issue could be resolved any time.
Bahadur Shah, not yet in a position to offend either the Guru or the hill
chiefs, went on postponing the decision to restore the status quo ante.
When the imperial camp halted near Nanded on the banks of the river
Godavari, Guru Gobind Singh decided to stay behind. A few days later
he was stabbed and badly wounded by an Afghan connected with
either Wazir Khan or an imperial officer.42 On October 7, 1708, Guru
Gobind Singh breathed his last.
41
J. S. Grewal, 'The Zafarnama', From Guru Nanak to Maharaja Ranjit Singh, 85—93.
42
J. S. Grewal, 'Guru Gobind Singh and Bahadur Shah', ibid., 94-99; in the Akhbdrdt-i-
Darbdr-i-Mu'alla the name of the Afghan given is Jamshid Khan and it is added that his son
was given a robe by way of condolence by the emperor: Mdkhiz-i-Tawdrikh-i-Sikhdn, 83.
79

VII
Guru Gobind Singh did not nominate any individual as his successor.
For nearly a century now the Sikhs had been nurtured in the belief that
Guruship was confined to the family of Guru Ram Das. This is
explicitly stated not only in the Bachittar Ndtak towards the end of the
seventeenth century but also at the beginning in the vdrs of Bhai
Gurdas.43 At the time of Guru Gobind Singh's death, however, there
was none in the three generations of the surviving Sodhis who could be
considered for taking up this grave responsibility. More important
than this was the process by which Guruship had been gradually
impersonalized, bringing the bdni and the sangat into parallel promi-
nence with the personal Guru. The decision taken by Guru Gobind
Singh did not abolish Guruship itself but personal Guruship. The
position of the Guru was henceforth given to the Khalsa and to
shabad-bdni as a logical development from Guru Nanak's decision to
nominate a disciple as the Guru during his lifetime and his equation of
the Shabad with the Guru. As a further logical development, the
decision of Guru Gobind Singh crystallized into the twin doctrine of
Guru-Panth and Guru-Granth. Larger and larger numbers of Sikhs
came to believe that Guruship after Guru Gobind Singh was vested in
the Khalsa Panth and in the Granth.
All the Sikhs at the time of Guru Gobind Singh's death were not his
Khalsa, and all his Khalsa were not Singhs. The difference between the
Singh and the Khalsa ended with his death and the two terms became
synonymous and interchangeable. The difference between the Sikh and
the Singh remained. It was yet to be seen which component would
become dominant in the affairs of the Sikh Panth. It was also to be
seen how the Singhs would conduct themselves in relation to the
Mughal state.
Political attitude was one important element that distinguished the
Singhs and the Sikhs. What is more important, the political attitude of
the Singhs was not an adjunct but an essential part of their religious
ideology. Bhai Gurdas had used an apt metaphor for the change
introduced by Guru Hargobind in the beginning of the seventeenth
century: the orchard of the Sikh faith needed the thorny hedge of
armed men for its protection. The Singhs of Guru Gobind Singh were
43
Bhai Gurdas, var i,pauri$-j.
8O

the orchard and the hedge rolled into one. In the entire body of the
followers of the Gurus, divided into two distinct components, the
Singhs represented the 'transformed' component. It was soon to
become the mainstream as the result of Guru Gobind Singh's known
preference.
81

CHAPTER 5
RISE TO POLITICAL POWER

(1708-1799)
The eighteenth century in Indian history is known for the decline of

the Mughal empire and the rise of successor states and new powers like
the Marathas and the British. The rise of the Singhs into power during
the eighteenth century was a part of this political process. But there
was nothing in the process itself to ensure their rise to power. The
combination of religious piety and disciplined worldliness that was
evolved by Guru Nanak and elaborated by his successors was extended
to the realm of politics by Guru Gobind Singh. The political struggle of
the Singhs can be appreciated not merely in terms of the growing
weakness of the Mughal empire but also as an extrapolation of the
pontificate of Guru Gobind Singh.
Only about a year after Guru Gobind Singh's death, Bahadur Shah
heard of a serious uprising in the Punjab and left the Deccan for the
north. This uprising was led by Banda Bahadur who had met Guru
Gobind Singh at Nanded and become his follower. He was commis-
sioned to lead the Singhs in the Punjab against their oppressors. Some
of the old followers of Guru Gobind Singh accompanied him, and he
was also given letters (hukmndmas) addressed to the Singhs for coming
to his support. Banda Bahadur and his companions moved cautiously
towards Delhi, entered the sarkar of Hissar and started collecting men
and materials for military action. By November, 1709, they had
gathered enough strength to storm the town of Samana in the sarkar of
Sarhind. The faujddr of Samana was overpowered, its inhabitants were
killed in thousands and the town was razed to the ground. The scale as
well as the suddenness of Banda's action justified the emperor's
anxiety.
Before Bahadur Shah appeared on the scene in December, 1710,
Banda had occupied the entire sarkar of Sarhind and several parganas
of the sarkar of Hissar; had invaded the sarkar of Saharanpur in the
Jamuna-Ganga Doab; and the Singhs had risen in revolt against the
82

Mughal authorities in the Bist Jalandhar and the upper Bari Doab.
Before the fall of Sarhind in May, 1710, Banda had conquered
Shahabad, Sadhaura and Banur on the east of Sarhind; after its fall he
had occupied the territory on the west. In the entire area between the
rivers Satlej and Jamuna, he made his own administrative arrange-
ments, appointing his own faujddrs, dlwdns and kdrddrs. He adopted
Mukhlispur, an imperial fort now given the name of Lohgarh, as his
capital and struck a new coin in the name of Guru Nanak and Guru
Gobind Singh. With a similar inscription he started using a seal on his
orders (hukmndmas).1 In the Jalandhar Doab, the Sikhs occupied the
important town of Rahon; in the upper Bari Doab, they occupied
Batala, Kalanaur and Pathankot. A long belt of territory along the
Shivaliks, from the Jamuna to the Ravi, came under the influence of
Banda and his supporters in less than a year. The imperial forces
invaded Lohgarh towards the end of 1710. Banda escaped into the
hills. While the emperor moved towards Lahore, Banda reappeared in
the upper Bari Doab before the middle of 1711. At the time of Bahadur
Shah's death at Lahore in February, 1712, Banda was still unsubdued.
For three years more the Mughal administrators could not crush the
uprising. Due to the struggle for succession, the emperors were not in a
position for one year to pay any serious attention to the affairs of the
Punjab. During this short span Banda was able to recover much of the
territory conquered earlier, including the fort of Lohgarh. He defeated
Bayazid Khan, the faujddr of Jammu, and killed Shams Khan, the
faujddr of Sultanpur in the Jalandhar Doab. Some of the hill chiefs too
were obliged to pay tribute. When Farrukh Siyar ascended the throne
in February, 1713, he issued a general order that the Sikhs should be
exterminated. Abdus Samad Khan was appointed as the governor of
Lahore and he was successful in expelling Banda Bahadur from the
sarkdr of Sarhind before the end of 1713.
A year later, however, Banda reappeared in the upper Bari Doab,
and his supporters marched towards Lahore with the aspiration of
occupying the provincial captial. Farrukh Siyar admonished Abdus
Samad Khan for his failure to suppress the Sikhs and sent reinforce-
ments from the imperial camp. A considerable number of Singhs
withdrew their support to Banda on account of serious differences.
Banda was eventually besieged by Abdus Samad Khan in the fort of
1
For a facsimile of Banda Bahadur's Hukmnama, Ganda Singh, Life of Banda Singh
Bahadur, Khalsa College, Amritsar, 1935.
83

Gurdas Nangal near the present town of Gurdaspur. The siege lasted
for eight months before Banda and his followers surrendered towards
the end of 1715. Over 700 of them were taken to Delhi to be paraded in
the streets before their execution in March, 1716. Banda and his close
companions were executed in June near the tomb of Shaikh Qutbuddin
Bhaktyar Kakl close to the Qutb Minar.
In the second decade of the eighteenth century it was still possible
for the Mughal emperors to send imperial troops to support their
provincial governors against rebels. Abdus Samad Khan was supported
by the zaminddrs of his province too, like the Bhatti Rajputs, the
Afghans of Qasur and the leaders of the Kharal and Wattu tribes.
Under changed circumstances they would all become keen to carve out
principalities for themselves. In any case, the circumstances of the
Mughal empire were changing rather rapidly, and it is necessary to
keep in view the general process of political change with all its
ramifications in order to grasp the developments in the politics of the
Punjab in their proper perspective.
II
Farrukh Siyar, who had ascended the throne in 1713 with the support
of the Sayyids of Barah was removed and killed by those very Sayyids
in 1719, and three more princes ascended the throne before the year
was out. The last of them, Muhammad Shah, remained on the throne
for nearly thirty years till his death in April, 1748. But he could not
prevent the disintegration of his empire. The nobles at the court failed
to browbeat the emperor but the emperor failed to control the nobles.
Financial difficulties became more acute. While income from the
crownlands (khdlisa) went on decreasing with the increase in the ranks
of the nobles and their jagirs, the provincial governors became more
and more reluctant to send regular instalments of the surplus revenues
to the imperial treasury. The system of revenue-farming (ijdra),
which became well established in the reign of Muhammad Shah,
created new vested interests for appropriating the surplus produce
with serious implications for politics.
The frontiers of imperial authority began to contract rather rapidly,
making room for successor states and new powers. In 1725, when
Nizam ul-Mulk Asaf Jah took over the viceroyalty of the Deccan
provinces, the khutba continued to be read in the name of the emperor

and the coins continued to be struck in his name, but this legal fiction
hardly concealed the fact that Nizam ul-Mulk was the virtual ruler of
the Deccan without any binding political or administrative ties with
the powers at Delhi. He had to contend rather with the Marathas
whose sovereignty over the kingdom established by Shivaji had been
recognized by the Mughal emperor in 1719. In 1737 they defeated
Nizam ul-Mulk in a battle near Bhopal and confined him to the
erstwhile territories of Golkunda, now the nizdmat of Hyderabad.
Before Nadir Shah invaded India in 1738—1739 the Marathas had
subjugated Gujarat and Malwa and extended their sway up to the river
Chambal in Rajasthan.
Two years after his coronation as the Shah of Persia, Nadir Shah
took over Qandahar from the Afghans in March, 1738, and occupied
the Mughal province of Kabul in June. In January, 1739, he entered the
province of Lahore and defeated its Mughal governor, Zakariya Khan,
who was allowed to hold on to his office after paying two million
rupees. Nadir Shah reached Sarhind in the first week of February to
defeat the Mughal army before the end of the month. Having clearly
established the superiority of the Persian bullet over the Mughal arrow,
he moved to Delhi to gather its accumulated riches. When he heard of
the death of his mulcting soldiers at the hands of the citizens of Delhi,
he ordered a general massacre and imposed an indemnity of twenty
million rupees. The Mughal emperor and his nobles made a much
larger contribution in jewels, gold and silver, and precious articles.
Nadir Shah celebrated the marriage of his son with a Mughal princess,
put the crown back on the head of Muhammad Shah and got the
khutba read in his name. With a long train of camels and mules loaded
with spoils, he left Delhi in May after a formal treaty with the Mughal
emperor by which the province of Thatta and all Mughal territories to
the west of the river Indus were ceded to the Persian monarch. The
four parganas (chahdr mahdl) of Sialkot, Pasrur, Aurangabad and
Gujrat in the province of Lahore too were ceded to Nadir Shah.
Soon after Nadir Shah's invasion, the eastern provinces of the empire
were virtually lost to the Mughal emperor. Shuja ud-Daula had
established his power in Bengal, Orissa and Bihar by acknowledging
the authority of Muhammad Shah and by sending regular instalments
of revenue or tribute to Delhi. On his death in 1740 Aliwardi Khan
forcibly took over the nizdmat of Bengal and obtained legal recogni-
tion by paying tribute to the Mughal emperor. Gradually, however,
85

I )
THE MUGHAL EMPIRE

/ Kabul '
Peshawar^ Sr""" (1740s)
\ KASHMIR
V 'Ghazni JJV
V
1 <?/
•"Thatla'
\\^J—
DOMINION
i-—"—
Map 3 The Mughal empire (1740s)
Aliwardi Khan started acting as an autonomous ruler, taking his own

decisions without reference to Delhi and withholding payment of
tribute. In the 1740s, while the Marathas were trying to increase their
power and influence between the Deccan and the Gangetic provinces,
Safdar Jang as the governor of Awadh strengthened his hold over the
province of Allahabad as well. The Jats in the province of Agra and the
Rohila Afghans in the Delhi province were trying to carve out new
principalities for themselves.
Turning to the Mughal governors of the Punjab in this process of
decline and disintegration, we find that Abdus Samad Khan was
succeeded by his son Zakariya Khan in 1726 when the father was sent
to the neighbouring province of Multan. Upon his death in 1737
Multan too was entrusted to Zakariya Khan. When Zakariya Khan
died in 1745 his sons, Yahiya Khan and Shah Nawaz Khan, acted on
the assumption that Lahore and Multan belonged to them almost by
right. In any case, the governorship of Lahore remained in the hands of
Abdus Samad Khan and his son and grandsons for nearly thirty-five
86

years. Themselves Turanis, they were related to a powerful Turani

family in Delhi. Abdus Samad Khan was married to the sister of
Muhammad Amin Khan who became the wazir of Muhammad Shah
after the fall of the Sayyid brothers. Zakariya Khan was married to the
daughter of Muhammad Amin Khan, the sister of Qamruddin Khan
who also became the wazir at Delhi. Qamruddin's daughter was
married to Yahiya Khan. Nizam ul-Mulk Asaf Jah was a nephew of
Muhammad Amin Khan. At least partly, the position of Abdus Samad
Khan and Zakariya Khan was strengthened by these matrimonial ties.
Both Abdus Samad Khan and Zakariya Khan held high mansabs and
they were regarded as competent and powerful governors. Occa-
sionally, however, they had to face refractory vassals or zamindars.
Abdus Samad Khan had to suppress the revolt of Husain Khan of
Qasur. Zakariya Khan had to deal with Ranjit Dev of Jammu and the
zamindars like Jang Pannah Bhatti and Jang Mir. It is not clear whether
or not Zakariya Khan sent surplus revenues to the imperial treasury. It
is quite clear, however, that he received no assistance from Delhi when
he was faced with internal or external threat. A large measure of
autonomy or initiative and nearly a total reliance on their own
resources were the reverse and the obverse of the same political
situation, accounting largely for their strength and weakness at the
same time.
The position of the Mughal governors of Lahore weakened con-
siderably after Zakariya Khan's death in 1745. The emperor was
opposed to the idea of any of his sons becoming the governor of
Lahore or Multan. Qamruddin Khan felt obliged to get these provinces
for himself. Early in 1746 he was able to make Yahiya Khan his deputy
at Lahore but a year later he was ousted by Shah Nawaz Khan. The
emperor was not willing to recognize Shah Nawaz even as a deputy.
He started negotiations with Ahmad Shah Abdali who had succeeded
to the eastern dominions of Nadir Shah in 1747. To neutralize his
inclination to rebel, Shah Nawaz Khan was made Qamruddin Khan's
deputy at Lahore. He decided now to oppose Ahmad Shah Abdali but
he was defeated in a battle near Lahore. Qamruddin himself had to
march against Ahmad Shah. In a battle fought near Sarhind early in
1748 Qamruddin received a fatal wound but his son Muin ul-Mulk
defeated Ahmad Shah Abdali with the support of Safdar Jang. The
governorship of Lahore and Multan was now passed on to Muin
ul-Mulk.
87

Muin ul-Mulk, called simply Mir Mannu by the Singhs, received no

support from the new emperor and the new wazirs. In fact Safdar
Jang encouraged Shah Nawaz Khan to occupy Multan. Muin ul-Mulk
had to send a large force against him; Shah Nawaz was defeated and
killed. When Ahmad Shah Abdali demanded the arrears of the
revenue from the Four Parganas in 1750-1751, Muin ul-Mulk refer-
red the matter to Delhi, asking for reinforcements. But he was told to
pay the arrears. In 1752, Ahmad Shah Abdali defeated Muin ul-Mulk
and occupied Lahore. In this situation Muin ul-Mulk had no hesi-
tation in remaining the governor of Lahore on behalf of Ahmad Shah
Abdali, though his position became even more vulnerable than
before. He died in 1753 as an 'Afghan' governor. In 1757, when the
province of Lahore was formally ceded to Ahmad Shah Abdali by the
Mughal emperor, together with the provinces of Multan and Kashmir
and the sarkdr of Sarhind, Ahmad Shah Abdali appointed his son
Timur Shah as the governor of Lahore. By this time the Singhs had
occupied many pockets of territory in the eastern dodbs of the
Punjab.
Ill
After the death of Banda Bahadur there was no eminent leader among
the Singhs. Their struggle against the Mughal government became
eventually a people's war. From this viewpoint, the period from
Banda Bahadur's death to Nadir Shah's invasion assumes great sig-
nificance. One of the most important developments of this phase was
the emergence of Ramdaspur (Amritsar) as the rallying centre of the
Singhs.2 They established their control over Amritsar against the
claims of the followers of Banda in the time of Abdus Samad Khan,
and appointed Bhai Mani Singh, the lifelong companion of Guru
Gobind Singh and his oldest disciple, to look after the affairs of the
Harmandir. Amritsar became once again the most important centre of
Sikh pilgrimage. Equally important was the Singh insistence on the
end of personal Guruship after Guru Gobind Singh, upholding the
doctrine not only against the old dissidents but also against the new
contenders like Gulab Rai, a grandson of Guru Hargobind, and the
Gangu Shahi Kharak Singh, the successor of an eminent follower of
2
J. S. Grewal, The City of the Golden Temple, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar,
1985.
88

Guru Amar Das. A third important element in this situation was a hard
core of individuals who refused to submit to the Mughals.
It was this last element which was the primary source of anxiety for
the Mughal governors. Many of those who had risen against the
government under the leadership of Banda returned to their old
occupations. Some of them were induced to relinquish arms by
concession of land revenue. Not all of them, however, gave up the
stance of independence. The well-known martyr Tara Singh who
humbled the faujddr of Patti and died fighting against the contingents
sent by Zakariya Khan was only one of them. While the Sikhs in
general, and even a large number of the Singhs, lived as peaceful
citizens of the Mughal empire, the professed rebels, or the tat-kbdlsd,
lived as outlaws in the less-accessible tracts of the province plundering
or killing the government officials and their supporters.
The developments of the 1730s indicate that the number of the
tat-kbdlsd was increasing and, consequently, Zakariya Khan was
becoming more and more grim in his measures of suppression. Early in
the decade, however, he decided to adopt conciliatory measures, to kill
the Singhs with 'sugar' instead of 'poison'.3 The emperor was per-
suaded to confer a robe of honour and the title of nawdb on their
chosen leader, and a number of villages in jdgir for their maintenance.
The title and the robe were accepted by Kapur Singh, remembered
consequently as Nawab Kapur Singh. The villages chosen for jdglr
were close to Amritsar. This ensured peace for a few years.
Amritsar became a converging centre for the scattered Singhs, and it
became necessary for Nawab Kapur Singh to organize the increasing
numbers into large units (deras) under different leaders from amongst
the Khatris, Jats and the 'outcaste' Ranghretas. He entrusted the work
of the common kitchen, the treasury, the stores, the arsenal and the
granary for horses to experienced or competent Singhs. But he failed to
contain the increasing numbers, and many of them became restive.
Some of them took to plunder and adopted an attitude of confrontation
with the officials.4 Zakariya Khan resumed the jdglr and adopted
repressive measures with greater vigour.
The Singhs took to the roving life of outlaws in small bands. They
moved with speed, and struck with effect. When Zakariya Khan failed
3
Ratan Singh Bhangu, Prachin Panth Parkdsh, Wazir-i-Hind Press, Amritsar, 1962 (4th
edn), 210.
4
Ibid., 215-17.
89

to liquidate these illusive bands he turned his attention to their rallying

centre. Bhai Mani Singh was given to understand that the Sikhs could
visit Amritsar on the Diwali if he would pay a stipulated amount to the
government. The Singhs did come but they soon became suspicious
that this was a ruse, and they dispersed. Bhai Mani Singh failed to remit
the stipulated amount, and he was put to death in Lahore; his body was
cut into pieces limb by limb. This did not deter the Singhs from
paralyzing Zakariya Khan's administration. When they plundered the
rear of Nadir Shah's army on its return from Delhi, the Shah warned
the Khan against their potential threat to his rule in the Punjab.5
In the 1740s the rigour of repression increased, but with a diminish-
ing effect. Zakariya Khan established a permanent post in Amritsar. Its
Rajput faujddr, popularly referred to as Massa Ranghar, who used the
precincts of the Harmandir for his amusement with dancing girls, was
killed by Mehtab Singh and Sukhkha Singh. Another faujddr was
appointed in his place. Zakariya Khan also mobilized the support of
local zaminddrs against the Singhs, and persecuted even their sympa-
thizers. That was why the well-known martyr Bhai Taru Singh had to
suffer death. The defiant attitude of the Singhs was symbolized by a
Sandhu Jat, Bota Singh, who started collecting tax from travellers on
the high road to Lahore to invite martyrdom. In the time of Yahiya
Khan, a band of the Singhs under the leadership of Jassa Singh
Ahluwalia turned on their pursuer Jaspat Rai, the faujddr of Eminabad,
and killed him. His brother Lakhpat Rai, the dlwdn of Lahore, pursued
the Khalsa in vengeance and killed several thousand of them in a
relentless campaign.6 By now, the Singhs were able to survive such a
loss. In 1748 they felt strong enough to oust the Mughal faujddr from
Amritsar and to build a small fortress there named Ram Rauni.
In the early 1750s the leaders of Singh bands started occupying
pockets of territory in the Bari Doab in which the capital of the
province was situated. Jai Singh Kanhiya, for instance, started issuing
orders to local officials in 17 5 o. A lesser-known leader named Hakumat
Singh ordered the local officials not to interfere with a religious grant in
the present district of Gurdaspur.7 Jassa Singh Ahluwalia occupied
5
Perhaps a post-eventum prophecy, but this is emphasized by Ahmad Shah, Tdrikh-i-
Hind, MS, SHR 1291, Khalsa College, Amritsar, f. 315; and by Ratan Singh Bhangu, Prachm
Panth Parkdsh, 231-32.
<• In Sikh tradition this event is remembered as chhotd ghallughdrd or the 'small carnage'.
7
The leaders of the Khalsa bands started using their seals to issue orders after the
occupation of territories. It is interesting to note in this connection that the seal of Jai Singh
90

Fatehabad in the present district of Amritsar in 1753, and it served as

his headquarters for nearly a quarter of a century.8 In this context the
memoirs of the contemporary Tahmas Khan begin to make sense. In
1754 Khwaja Mirza Khan was appointed as the faujddr of Eminabad
but before he could take charge he had to fight several times with the
Singhs, and Qasim Beg who was appointed as the faujddr of Patti was
not allowed by the Singhs to join his post. Towards the end of 1757, the
veteran Afghan General Jahan Khan, who was appointed by Ahmad
Shah Abdali to assist his son Timur Shah in the administration of the
province, was nearly overpowered by the Singhs before he was saved
by the timely arrival of fresh Afghan contingents. The Singhs ousted its
Afghan faujddr Sa'adat Khan Afridi from Jalandhar early in 1758.
Henceforth, in whichever direction an Afghan army was sent it came
back defeated. The Singhs even attacked Lahore and plundered its
suburbs.9
At this juncture Ahmad Shah Abdali had to contend with the
Marathas who wanted to establish their own control over the Punjab
on behalf of the Mughal emperor. He came to India towards the end of
1759, stayed in the neighbourhood of Delhi throughout 1760, and
fought the battle of Panipat in April, 1761, to defeat the Marathas and
to oblige them temporarily at least to abandon their aspiration to
dominate the north. However, Ahmad Shah Abdali now found the
Punjab too hot for himself. In September, 1761, the governor he had
appointed to the province of Lahore was defeated by the Singhs near
Gujranwala. The Singhs threw out the other appointees of Ahmad
Shah Abdali like 'a fly from milk' and brought the entire land from the
Satlej to the Indus under their control.10 To strike a decisive blow, he
killed more than 5,000 Singhs in a single day in a running battle in the
present district of Ludhiana.11 But only six months later he felt obliged
to retire to Lahore after an indecisive engagement with the Singhs near
Amritsar. After his return to Kabul his faujddrs were dislodged by the
Singhs from the Bist Jalandhar Doab, Sarhind, Rachna and the Chaj
Kanhiya bears the date 1750 in his orders: B. N. Goswamy and J. S. Grewal, The Mughal
and the Sikh Rulers and the Vaishnavas of Pindori, Indian Institute of Advanced Study,
Simla, 1969, Documents 24, 25; for Hakumat Singh's order, Document 18.
8
Contrary to the general impression, the founder of the Kapurthala state, Jassa Singh
Ahluwalia, occupied Kapurthala towards the end of his career.
9
Tahmas Beg Khan, Tahmas Ndmah (ed. Muhammad Aslam), University of the Punjab,
Lahore, 1986, 106-10, 179-84.
10
Ibid, 251-52.
1
• In Sikh tradition this event is remembered as wadda ghalliighara or the 'great carnage'.
91

Doabs. When Ahmad Shah himself came to the Punjab in 1765 his
authority was confined to his camp; he was on the defensive and he
returned to Kabul without fighting a single battle even though the
Singhs were hovering around his camp. Qazi Nur Muhammad, who
had accompanied the Shah on this expedition, regretfully observed that
the Singhs had divided up the country from Sarhind to the Derajat
among themselves and enjoyed it 'without fear from anyone'.12 The
Singhs formally declared their sovereignty in 1765 by striking a coin at
Lahore after its occupation by three of their leaders. This coin bore the
inscription which Banda Bahadur had used on his seal fifty-five years
earlier.13 Sikh rule was re-established and it had come to stay.
The Singhs were not the only new rulers of the Punjab. The vassal
chiefs of the hills had only to withhold tribute and contingents to
become independent rulers. With the decline in Mughal authority
many of them became independent of outside control. They acknow-
ledged Ahmad Shah's suzerainty only intermitantly in self-interest.
The chiefs of Jammu and Kangra in fact added to their power and
prestige during the late eighteenth century. There was also a good
number of new principalities under non-Sikh chiefs in the plains. Most
of them were descendants of the zaminddrs of the Mughal times. Some
of them were former jdgirddrs. A few of them were heads of religious
institutions enjoying revenue-free lands. They had all come into power
by making use of the politico-administrative framework of the Mughal
empire.14
By contrast, the Singhs rose from amongst the common people,
setting aside the politico-administrative framework of the Mughal
empire and setting themselves up against all its supporters. Their
greatest assets were the arrangements they evolved on the basis of their
common sense, the ties of kinship and, above all, their religious faith
and doctrines which served as the motivating force and the ground for
their military and political action.
The 'institutions' which enabled the Singhs to occupy territories on a
large scale are known as rdkbi, the misl, the dal khdlsd and the
12
Qazi Nur Muhammad./awg Namah, MS, SHR 1547, Khalsa College, Amritsar, f. 177.
13
The Persian couplet of this inscription refers to deg, teg and unlimited success which
Guru Gobind Singh received from Guru Nanak and, by implication, left as a legacy for the
Singhs.
14
Not much attention has been paid to the non-Sikh chiefs of the Punjab during the late
eighteenth century. For a brief discussion see Veena Sachdeva, "The Non-Sikh Chiefs of the
Punjab Plains and Maharaja Ranjit Singh', Journal of Regional History, Guru Nanak Dev
University, Amritsar, i (1981), 1-11.
92

gurmatd.15 They undertook to provide protection (rdkhf) to cultiva-

tors against all outsiders, including the officials of the government,
after levying only a fifth of the produce in return for that protection.
The system became more and more popular as the Singhs became more
and more effective, and it often served as a prelude to permanent
occupation. Since all the leaders had rather limited resources it was
necessary to pool them for the purposes of offence and defence. The
ties of kinship among other things became the basis of small combin-
ations which afterwards came to be known as misls. Territory was
often occupied by the misl as a unit, and sometimes by a combination
of two or more misls. A larger combination of forces became all the
more necessary when the Singhs grew in power. The combination of a
large number of misls came to be known as the dal khdlsd which acted
in concert under the command of a chosen leader for a specific
purpose. Depending upon the needs of a situation the dal khdlsd could
be divided into two or more units. Invariably, before a campaign was
undertaken the matter was discussed and a consensus formed by the
leaders of the Singhs. Such meetings were open to every Singh and the
resolution passed was called gurmatd or the 'resolution of the Guru'.
Most of the important gurmatds were adopted at Amritsar where the
Singhs used to meet at the time of the Baisakhl and the Diwali. But a
gurmatd could be adopted at any place in the presence of the Guru
Granth or even on the field of battle. A gurmatd was morally binding
on all the Singhs, even on those who were not personally present in a
meeting, because of their belief in the doctrine of Guru-Panth. It is
difficult to think of a better basis of cohesion than the gurmatd which
was based on the principles of equality and freedom, which subsumed
the ties of kinship and other social ties, and which imparted a large
degree of flexibility to its practical application. It made the Singhs
much more formidable than the other contestants for power.
The doctrine of Guru-Panth, which provided the basis for concerted
action, also ensured the right of every Singh to fight, to conquer and to
rule. The theoretical derivation of power from God through the grace
of the Gurus, which is implied in the inscription on the coin struck at
Lahore in 1765, enabled the Singhs collectively to assert their sove-
reignty against outsiders; it also gave equal legitimacy to every indi-
15
For a discussion of these institutions, J. S. Grewal, 'Eighteenth Century Sikh Polity',
From Guru Nanak to Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, 1982
(2nd edn), 127-38; Indu Banga, Agrarian System of the Sikhs, Manohar Publications, Delhi,
1978, 27-38.
93

vidual Sikh chief. In any case, the number of identifiable Sikh prin-
cipalities between the Jamuna and the Indus in the 1770s was more than
three scores. The chiefs commanded varying resources in terms of
territory, revenues and horsemen. A small chief could be the master of
apargana yielding only 50,000 rupees a year; a large chief could hold
more than half a dozen parganas yielding nearly 10 lakhs of rupees.16
Eminent among the Sikh chiefs in the former province of Lahore were
Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, Charhat Singh Sukarchakia, Hari Singh Bhangi
and his sons Jhanda Singh and Ganda Singh, Jai Singh Kanhiya, Gujjar
Singh and Jassa Singh Ramgarhia. In the middle rung were the chiefs
like Buddh Singh in the Jalandhar Doab, Hakikat Singh in the Bari
Doab, Sahib Singh Sialkotia in the Rachna Doab and Milkha Singh
Thehpuria in the Sindh Sagar Doab. There were others, followed by a
score of really small chiefs. In the former Mughal province of Delhi
there were about a score of Sikh chiefs, including the chiefs of Patiala,
Nabha, Jind, Faridkot, Ambala, Shahabad, Thanesar, Kaithal, Jaga-
dhari and Buriya.
In the last quarter of the eighteenth century the Sikh chief generally
acted in his individual capacity in his political relations with others.
The more powerful chiefs like Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, Charhat Singh
Sukarchakia, Gujjar Singh, Jai Singh Kanhiya and Jassa Singh Ramgar-
hia asserted their suzerain claims over some of the hill principalities.
Jhanda Singh and Ganda Singh Bhangi conquered Multan and held it
until 1780. Some of the Sikh chiefs of the Satlej-Jamuna Divide led
campaigns across the Jamuna and established rdkhi but without any
permanent gain of territory. Already in the 1770s the Sikh chiefs could
range on opposite sides in alliance with non-Sikh chiefs. Even the
veterans like Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, Jai Singh Kanhiya and Jassa Singh
Ramgarhia could fight against one another. With a few exceptions,
however, the Sikh principalities founded in the eighteenth century
survived into the nineteenth to be subverted or subjugated by Ranjit
Singh, the grandson of Charhat Singh Sukarchakia.
All the chiefs were completely independent of others in the govern-
ment and administration of their territories. Every chief appointed his
own dlwdn, thdnaddr and kdrddrs for the administration of his
territory; every chief appointed his own commandant of the army.
16
Carefully identified and studied in terms of territories and resources by Veena
Sachdeva, Polity and Economy of the Punjab During the Late Eighteenth Century,
Manohar, Delhi, 1993.
94

Those who served the principality at subordinate levels were generally
given jdgirs and not cash salaries. Arrangements for the collection of
revenue from land were made with chaudharis and muqaddams; the
actual cultivators were treated rather leniently. The qdnitngos and
pa(wdns continued to perform their usual functions in revenue admin-
istration. In the administration of justice many of the old courts of the
qdzl were kept up; the individual chief gave his personal attention to
matters of justice; and thepanchdyats in villages and towns were given
more importance. Non-Sikhs were associated with the administration
in different capacities and at various levels. The Sikh chiefs extended
their patronage to Sikhs and non-Sikhs alike, particularly for giving
revenue-free land to religious personages or institutions. In spite of a
total political change from the Mughal rule to the rule of the Sikh
chiefs, which involved much social mobility as well, there was a great
deal of continuity, including institutional continuity.17
IV
Towards the end of the eighteenth century, the number of Singhs was
larger than ever before. However, they did not constitute the entire
Sikh Panth. There were many others who had not received the baptism
of the double-edged sword but who regarded themselves as Sikh.
Though every Sikh was not a Singh, the Singhs were clearly the
dominant component, not merely because of their large numbers or
their association with government and administration, but also because
of the centrality of their doctrines. They believed in the unity of
Guruship from Guru Nanak to Guru Gobind Singh and in the end of
personal Guruship after his death. They also subscribed to the twin
doctrine of the Guru-Panth and Guru-Granth.
The Singhs constituted the bulk of the ruling class in the areas under
Sikh rule. The majority of the rulers were Jat, but there were also
others who had earlier belonged to the lower castes in the countryside,
like tarkhdns and kaldls. At the subordinate levels in administration
also there were some former barbers, water-carriers and scavengers.
They enjoyed jdgirs like the other members of the ruling class. In the
armies too, though there was a preponderance of Jats, the others were
17
Indu Banga, 'State Formation Under Sikh Rule', Journal of Regional History, I (1980),
1 j - 3 5 ; Veena Sachdeva, 'Jagirdari System in the Punjab (Late 18th Century)', ibid., 5 (1984),
1-13.
95

represented. There was a considerable number of cultivators, artisans

and craftsmen, traders and shopkeepers in the Sikh Panth, including
both Singhs and Sikhs. Even in the Singh component, a certain degree
of social stratification was introduced by the political process, and it
was being reinforced after the establishment of Sikh rule by the
operation of government and administration.
The operation of the Sikh government affected the Sikh community
in some other ways too. The descendants of Guru Nanak and Guru
Ram Das, the Bedis and the Sodhis, came to be held in high esteem, and
nearly every Sikh ruler extended patronage to them. The descendants
of Guru Angad and Guru Amar Das, the Trehans and the Bhallas, also
received state patronage. The improvement in their material means as
much as their descent gave them a peculiar prestige in the Sikh social
order. The number of granthis, rdgis and bhdis in general increased
with the extension of patronage to places associated with the Sikh
Gurus. Reconstruction of the Harmandir and the Akal Takht in
Amritsar was only a more pronounced example of the interest of the
Sikh rulers in the sacred places of the Sikhs. Many new gurdwaras were
built with arrangements for religious services. Revenue-free lands were
granted not only to the sacred places in Amritsar but also to many
others. Some of the places were maintained by Udasi sddhs who traced
their origin to Sri Chand, the elder son of Guru Nanak, and used
Granth Sahib for their vedantic exposition of the Sikh faith. During
the late eighteenth century, several of the Sikh rulers gave revenue-
free lands to Udasls. Quite a few of their important centres were
established in the late eighteenth century, including the akhdra
known as Brahm Buta in the vicinity of the Harmandir. Some of the
religious places were maintained by Nihangs, the remnants of the
Khalsa who failed or refused to occupy any territories and who were
not associated with government and administration.18
Largely in the hope of receiving patronage from the rulers, or the
members of the ruling class, quite a few individuals started producing
literature. Important among them was Sarup Das Bhalla, tenth in
descent from Guru Amar Das. He compiled events (sdkhis) connected
18
For patronage of religious persons and institutions by the Sikh rulers of the late
eighteenth century, Indu Banga, Agrarian System of the Sikhs; Veena Sachdeva, Polity and
Economy in the Late Eighteenth-Century Punjab; Sulakhan Singh, 'Udasi Establishments
Under Sikh Rule', Journal of Regional History, I (1980), 70-87; and 'State Patronage to
Udasis Under Maharaja Ranjit Singh', Maharaja Ranjit Singh and His Times (eds J. S.
Grewal and Indu Banga), Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, 1980, 103-16.
96

with the lives of the ten Gurus, adding one on Banda Bahadur, on the
basis of earlier writings and oral evidence. Without much understand-
ing of the Sikh tradition, he underlines the importance of the outward
Singh form (rebat), extols the role of the Bhalla descendants of Guru
Amar Das in Sikh history, and tries to minimize the seriousness of
dissent in the past to clear the way for the acceptance of former
dissidents in the contemporary Sikh social order.19 A Sodhi descendant
of Dhir Mai at Kartarpur, probably Wadbhag Singh, actually
approached Jassa Singh Ahluwalia with the request to intercede with
the Khalsa to rescind the old injunction regarding the excommuni-
cation of the followers of Dhir Mai. After a good deal of debate among
the leaders he was allowed to join the fold.20 The dissidents of old
gradually began to receive patronage from the Singhs, or even to join
their ranks.21
Another writer, Kesar Singh, was a descendant of Chhibber Brah-
mans closely associated with Guru Har Rai, Guru Har Krishan, Guru
Tegh Bahadur and Guru Gobind Singh. In recognition of the services
of his ancestors he expected patronage from the new rulers, but having
got none he was rather resentful. He did not like the association of
Hindu Khatris and Muslims with the government and administration
of the Sikh rulers. In fact he had little appreciation for political power if
it was not used to promote justice and patronage of deserving
persons.22
Kesar Singh Chhibber's work is extremely interesting as one kind of
response to the establishment of Sikh rule. Making a clear distinction
between the Sikh and the Singh he shows much less appreciation for
the Singhs who were associated with political power. Yet he is prepared
to pronounce legitimacy on the rule of 'shiidars'. He subscribes to the
doctrine of Guru-Granth much more emphatically than to the doctrine
of Guru-Panth. This enables him to become an interpreter of 'the
Guru'. Indeed he is proud of his understanding of the scriptures, but he
19
Sarup Das Bhalla's w o r k , written a r o u n d 1770, has been published n o w by the Punjab
Languages D e p a r t m e n t as Mahimd Parkdsb, Patiala, 1970.
20
Joginder Kaur (ed.), Ram Sukh Rao's Sri Fateh Singh Partap Prabhakar (A History of
the Early Nineteenth Century Punjab), Patiala, 1980, 204. According t o Tahmas Beg Khan,
Wadbhag Singh was an active leader of the Sikhs: Tahmas Ndmah, 182-83.
21
T h e Sodhis of Kartarpur, the descendants of Prithi C h a n d and the descendants of Suraj
Mai as well as the Udasis were included a m o n g the recipients of revenue-free land.
22
Kesar Singh Chhibber's work, written around 1770, has been published by the Panjab
University: Bansdwalindma Dasdn Patshdhidn Kd (ed. Ratan Singh Jaggi, Parakh, Vol. 2),
Chandigarh, 1972.
97

interprets them in his own way, presenting on the whole what may be
called a Brahmanized version of Sikhism. Involuntarily a sort of
alliance is implied between the new Sikh state and a Brahmanized Sikh
church. Kesar Singh Chhibber upholds the distinctions of caste among
the Sikhs. What was shared by all the Sikhs and Singhs, according to
him, was only their religious faith; the caste dharma remained oper-
ative for all in matters of matrimony and commensality.
Chhibber was much more conservative than the contemporary
Singhs, almost a reactionary. But he was upholding a position which
differed from the contemporary social reality only to a degree, though
surely a large degree. There was enough differentiation in the growing
complexity of the Sikh social order to compromise the egalitarian
principle of the Order of the Khalsa or even the earlier Sikh Panth.
98

CHAPTER 6
THE SIKH EMPIRE (1799-1849)
In 1799, a process of unification was started by Ranjit Singh virtually to

establish an empire during the first quarter of the nineteenth century.
He made use of an efficient army raised and trained more or less like
the army of the East India Company. The use of the time-honoured
suzerain-vassal polity was equally important in establishing his poli-
tical control. Paying personal attention to revenue administration and
trade in his large dominions he revived prosperity in the Punjab.
Extending state patronage to all important sections of the population
he attached them to the new empire. In the ruling class too, Hindus and
Muslims came to form a substantial element.
The Sikhs formed the dominant element in the ruling class and had
the largest share in jdgirs assigned by Ranjit Singh and his successors.
In state patronage in the form of revenue-free land, the Sikhs received a
much larger share than Hindus and Muslims, but not at their cost. The
state alienated more revenues now in favour of the religious grantees
than in Mughal times. In fact Ranjit Singh only extended the pattern
first set by Akbar and enlarged later by the early Sikh rulers. Some Sikh
members of the ruling class patronized art and literature; a few took
personal interest in traditional learning. The number of Sikhs was
increasing during the early nineteenth century though only a small
number of the new entrants were associated with government and
administration or the army. In the towns and cities the increase was
largely in the number of the professional and commercial middling
class; in the countryside, it was largely in the number of the peasantry.
Besides social differentiation, a certain degree of ideological differenti-
ation also developed in the Sikh community.
Within ten years of Ranjit Singh's death in 1839 his empire was taken
over by the British who had already established their direct or indirect
political control over the rest of the subcontinent. At Lahore, a tussle
for power at the top had brought in a factious nobility, and the
increasing struggle for power brought in the army; the growing
instability eventually brought in the British who were half inclined to
annex the Punjab for reasons which had little to do with its internal
99

affairs. After the hard-fought battles of the Satlej in 1845-1846 the

army and the territory of the boy-king Dalip Singh were cut to size to
make the Punjab more manageable. Lahore was garrisoned by British
troops and a British adviser was given to the Lahore Darbar. The final
annexation of the Punjab was only a matter of time. It came in March,
1849.
The occupation of Lahore by Ranjit Singh in the summer of 1799

marked a watershed in his career and in the history of Sikh rule in the
Punjab. The city was unified more than three decades after its
occupation and partition by Gujjar Singh, Lehna Singh and Sobha
Singh in 1765. The territories of their successors, Sahib Singh, Chait
Singh and Mohar Singh, were taken over by Ranjit Singh. This meant
the end of two Sikh principalities. Only Sahib Singh survived as a chief
with his larger territory around Gujrat. Ranjit Singh adopted Lahore
as his capital. His political achievement as the ruler of Lahore has so
completely overshadowed his late eighteenth-century predecessors
that the year 1799 appears to many historians to mark the beginning of
sovereign Sikh rule in the Punjab.
The legacy of the late eighteenth century was nevertheless relevant
for Ranjit Singh's occupation of Lahore. His grandfather Charhat
Singh was one of the foremost leaders of the Khalsa in their struggle for
power and he had occupied large pockets of territory in three Doabs.
Ranjit Singh's father, Mahan Singh, added to those territories, occu-
pied some strategic places and asserted his suzerain rights over some of
the chiefs in the hills and the plains. A large, almost contiguous, and
well-administered territory from the middle of the Rachna to the
middle of the Sindh Sagar Doab was the most valuable asset Ranjit
Singh inherited from his father, yielding about a million rupees a year.
He also came into command of 5,000 well-mounted and well-armed
cavalry. This advantage was reinforced by two marriages, one in the
family of Jai Singh Kanhiya in the upper Ban Doab and the other in the
family of Kamar Singh Nakkai in the south of Lahore.
The invasions of Zaman Shah, the second successor of Ahmad Shah
Abdali, served as a catalyst to bring out Ranjit Singh's qualities of
leadership. After the first invasion Ranjit Singh recovered his own fort
of Rohtas; during the second, he emerged as a leading Sikh chief; and
100

THE SIKH EMPIRE
during the third, in 1798-1799, he opposed Zaman Shah as the leader of

a number of Sikh chiefs. Within six months of Zaman Shah's departure
from the Punjab, Ranjit Singh occupied Lahore as much with the
willing cooperation of some of its leading Hindu and Muslim residents
as with the assistance of his allies, particularly his mother-in-law Sada
Kaur.
With the conquest of Lahore Ranjit Singh was fairly well launched
on a career of systematic aggrandisement which made him the master
of an empire in less than a quarter of a century. In the first ten years of
this career he subverted more than twenty principalities in the plains.
Before the occupation of Amritsar in 1805, which put an end to the
dominions carved out by the redoubtable Hari Singh Bhangi, Ranjit
Singh annexed the territories of Jassa Singh Dulu and Dal Singh Gill in
the Rachna Doab, and of Jodh Singh Bajwa in the Chaj Doab. Within
the five years following, he took over Rahon and Nakodar in the
Jalandhar Doab on the death of Tara Singh Dallewalia, Philaur from its
Kang chief and Hariana in Hoshiarpur from the widows of Baghel
Singh. In the Bari Doab he took over Pathankot from Tara Singh
Sandhu, Sujanpur from Buddh Singh Bagga, Adinanagar from Gulab
Singh Khaira, Chamian from its Randhawa chief, Qasur from the
Afghans, Maruf from Buddh Singh, and Hujra Shah Muqim from its
Sayyid chief. In the Rachna Doab he took over Pindi Bhattian from the
Bhattis and Kamalia from the Kharals. In the Sindh Sagar Doab, the
territories of Nawab Khan Jodhra around Pindi Gheb and of Muham-
mad Khan Gheba around Fateh Jang were annexed. Thus, before
Ranjit Singh signed the Treaty of Amritsar with the British in 1809, he
was ruling over large areas in all the five Doabs of the Punjab.
By the Treaty of Amritsar, the British recognized Ranjit Singh
as the sole sovereign ruler of the Punjab and left him free to round off
his conquests in the former Mughal province of Lahore, to oust
the Afghans from Multan and Kashmir and finally, to turn the
tables against the successors of Ahmad Shah Abdali in the former
Mughal province of Kabul.1 The Sikh chiefs ousted now were
those of Jalandhar, Hajipur and Mukerian in the Bist Jalandhar
Doab; Jaimal Singh of Fatehgarh Churian, Jodh Singh Ramgarhia of
1
In the first article of the treaty between the British and 'the Raja of Lahore' it was
stipulated that 'the British Government will have no concern with the territories and subjects
of the Raja to the northward of the river Sutlej'. For more than two decades then, the British
did not interfere with the affairs of the chiefs on the north of the Satlej.
IOI

THE PUNJAB UNDER SIKH RULE
Map 4 The Punjab under Sikh rule
Sri Hargobindpur and the Nakkai chiefs in the Bari Doab; the chiefs of
Wazirabad, Hallowal and Doda in the Rachna Doab; of Daska and
Gujrat in the Chaj Doab; and Jiwan Singh of Rawalpindi in the Sindh
Sagar Doab. Batala was taken over from Sada Kaur. Fateh Singh
Ahluwalia of Kapurthala was the only Sikh chief left in the Punjab
whose territory was not taken over. The Rajput chiefs of Jammu and
Kangra, Khari Khariali, Akhnur, Bhimber, Lakhanpur, Nurpur, Guler,
Siba, Kotlajaswan and Datarpur also lost their territories in the hills to
Ranjit Singh. All these states were close to the plains. Attock was
wrested from the Afghans; the Awan, Gakkhar and the Tiwana chiefs
were shorn of their possessions in the Sindh Sagar Doab. The Baloch
chiefs of Khushab and Sahiwal in the Chaj Doab, and the Sial chief of
Jhang in the Rachna Doab lost their territories to Ranjit Singh before
102

THE SIKH EMPIRE
1818. He was well poised now to oust the Afghans from the Punjab and
Kashmir.2
In less than four years Ranjit Singh liquidated all the Afghan
strongholds on the east of the river Indus. Multan fell finally in June,
1818, and all the territories of Nawab Muzaffar Khan were annexed.
Kashmir was conquered a year later, in July, 1819. The chief of
Mankera surrendered his capital in 1821, and all his territory in the
Sindh Sagar Doab was taken over. Then for ten years Ranjit Singh did
not add much to the directly administered areas. In 1831, he took over
Dera Ghazi Khan from the chief of Bahawalpur to whom it had been
entrusted ten years earlier. Peshawar was taken over from its Afghan
governor in 1834 though he had been sending revenues and tribute
since 1824. In 1836, the territories of Bannu, Kohat and Dera Ghazi
Khan were taken over from the subordinate chiefs and made an integral
part of the directly administered dominions of Ranjit Singh. Before his
death in 1839 Ranjit Singh's authority over all the conquered and
subordinated territories between the river Satlej and the mountain
ranges of Ladakh, Karakoram, Hindukush and Sulaiman was recog-
nized by the rulers of Kabul as well as by the British rulers of India.
II
Ranjit Singh's political success would have been impossible without an

efficient army. Apart from his own cavalry, which went on increasing
with his early conquests, he was helped by the cavalry of the chiefs who
allied with him, like Sada Kaur, Fateh Singh Ahluwalia and Jodh Singh
Ramgarhia, and by the contingents supplied by the chiefs whom he
subordinated. There is no doubt that cavalry held great fascination for
Ranjit Singh and his nobles. He raised special troops known as
Orderlies and the ghorcbarha-i-khds. As a European witness
remarked, it was difficult to find a finer or a more striking body of
men.3 However, the cavalry of Ranjit Singh did not increase after 1820.
2
For the detail of Ranjit Singh's conquests, Indu Banga, Agrarian System of the Sikhs:
Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century, Manohar Publications, New Delhi, 1978,
22-26; Veena Sachdeva, 'The Non-Sikh Chiefs of the Punjab Plains and Maharaja Ranjit
Singh', Journal of Regional History, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, 2 (1981), 1-11;
J. S. Grewal, 'Between the Treaty of Amritsar and the Conquest of Multan', in ibid., 12-20.
3
Baron Charles Hugel, Travels in Kashmir and the Punjab (tr. T. B. Jervis), Light and
Life Publishers, Jammu, 1972 (reprint) 330-31, 334-3 5. A ghorchara wore shirt of mail over a
velvet coat; his steel helmet was inlaid with gold; his left arm was covered with a steel cuff
IO3

In fact during the second decade he had started raising cavalrymen

trained on European lines. In 1820 he had three regiments of this
regular cavalry consisting of about 850 horsemen. The number of such
horsemen rose to 4,000 in the 1830s.
The real strength of Ranjit Singh's army lay in its infantry and
artillery. Not only in the conquest of Multan and Kashmir but also in
his earlier conquests, particularly after the Treaty of Amritsar, these
new wings played an increasingly decisive role. Even before 1809,
Ranjit Singh had raised 1,500 infantrymen and two batteries of
artillery. The men who initially served in these units of the army were
mostly deserters from the army of the East India Company; they were
trained by Rohila Afghans in the service of Ranjit Singh. By 1820 there
were thirteen infantry battalions consisting of about 10,000 trained
infantrymen. At this time Ranjit Singh possessed 200 guns. Horse
artillery was added in the 1820s when the most important of his
European officers were also employed, Allard and Ventura in 1822 and
Court and Avitabile in 1827. In 1831 there were 300 guns in the
artillery and about 20,000 trained infantrymen in twenty-one batta-
lions. Towards the end of Ranjit Singh's reign, nearly half of his army
in terms of numbers consisted of men and officers trained on European
lines, with a large number of Punjabis among them. In terms of its
striking power, the state of Ranjit Singh was stronger than many larger
states in Asia.
In the expansion of Ranjit Singh's dominions the time-honoured
institution of vassalage proved to be nearly as important as the
westernized wings of his army. A large majority of the chiefs whose
principalities were subverted were first obliged to pay tribute in
acknowledgment of his political superiority. In this respect there was
no difference between a Sikh and a non-Sikh chief, or a chief of the hills
and the plains. The chiefs of Khushab and Sahiwal, Jhang and Mankera,
for instance, paid tribute to Ranjit Singh for several years before their
territories were annexed. The chief of Multan had paid tribute regu-
larly for nearly a decade before the annexation of Multan in 1818. The
chief of Bahawalpur went on paying tribute for his territory on the
west of the Satlej till 1831. In many cases, in fact, Ranjit Singh went on
increasing the amount of tribute till the chief was either unable or
inlaid with gold; a damascened round shield hung over his back; he held in his right hand a
long bayonet ornamented with gold; he slung a bow over his left shoulder, with a quiver on
the right; he wore a pistol and a Persian dagger.
IO4

THE SIKH EMPIRE
unwilling to pay, which created a situation in which annexation

appeared to be called for if not justified. Before the British came in to
declare that all the chiefs of the Satlej-Jamuna Divide were under their
protection, Ranjit Singh had collected tribute from nearly all of them,
including the chiefs of Patiala, Nabha, Jind, Faridkot, Shahabad,
Thanesar, Kaithal, Malerkotla and Raikot. Nearly all the Sikh chiefs of
the Punjab proper paid tribute to Ranjit Singh after his occupation of
Lahore and before the annexation of their territories. Jodh Singh
Ramgarhia paid tribute to Ranjit Singh for nearly a decade before his
principality was subverted in 1816. The last among the Sikh chiefs to
lose his sovereign status was Fateh Singh Ahluwalia. In 1825 he crossed
the Satlej to seek protection with the British against Ranjit Singh's
alleged or real design over his territory. Fateh Singh succeeded in
retaining his territory, but when he recrossed the Satlej in 1826 he was
walking into vassalage with his eyes wide open.4
Ranjit Singh subverted more principalities in the hills than all the
Mughal rulers put together. However, Mandi, Suket, Bilaspur, Kulu
and Chamba in the former Mughal province of Lahore were not
annexed by Ranjit Singh, and hardly any vassal state of the province of
Kashmir was taken over. Thus, a larger number of vassal chiefs went on
paying tribute to Ranjit Singh. They sent contingents too whenever
they were called upon to do so. Most of them were asked to provide
hostages for their good conduct; succession to their position was
controlled by Ranjit Singh. They could not have any political relation-
ship with one another, or with another sovereign power. They had to
allow passage to persons permitted by Ranjit Singh to pass through
their territories. In the internal administration of their principalities the
vassal chiefs were given more or less complete autonomy.5
Ironically, vassal territories did not decrease with the passage of time
in Ranjit Singh's reign. This was because the Maharaja decided to create
new Rajas of his own after 1820. Fateh Chand, the younger brother of
Raja Sansar Chand, was made a vassal chief with the title of Raja and a
small territory. A son of Raja Sansar Chand was similarly made a vassal
chief all over again after the fall of the Kangra principality. Another
principality to be revived in the Kangra region was that of Siba. It was
4
J. S. Grewal, 'Passage to Vassalage', From Guru Nanak to Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Guru
Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, 1982 (2nd edn), 160-68.
5
For suzerain-vassal relations in the early nineteenth-century Punjab, Indu Banga,
Agrarian Systems of the Sikhs, 59-62.
IO5

in the Jammu region, however, that vassalage was revived on a large

scale.
Before the ouster of Raja Jit Singh of Jammu in 1815, his second
cousin Kishora Singh and the latter's three sons, Gulab Singh, Dhian
Singh and Suchet Singh, had joined the service of Ranjit Singh as
common troopers. They rose rapidly in the estimation of the Maharaja,
and in 1820 they were made jdglrddrs of Jammu, Bhoti, Bandralta
(Ramnagar), Chenini and Kishtwar for maintaining 400 horsemen and
on the condition that they would extirpate Dido, a rebel collateral of
the Jammu Rajas. Dido was killed in 1821. Kishora Singh was made the
Raja of Jammu. When he died in the year following, Gulab Singh was
installed in his place, while Suchet Singh was made the Raja of
Ramnagar (Bandralta). Dhian Singh was given the title of Raja-i-
Rajgan and Raja-i-Kalan Bahadur in 1827 with the territory of
Bhimber. In 1837, Hira Singh, son of Raja Dhian Singh, was made the
Raja of Basohli and Jasrota. More areas were added to their territories
in due course so that, altogether, they came to hold much larger
territories than the former chiefs of Jammu.6
Ill
The territories directly administered by Ranjit Singh were divided into

a large number of primary units over which governors (ndzims) were
appointed by the Maharaja. Each primary unit consisted of ta'alluqas,
also called parganas, over which kdrddrs were appointed for the
collection of revenues and the maintenance of peace and order. The
kdrddrs were assisted by qdniingos, chaudharis, muqaddams and
patwdris. Thus, there was hardly any change in the general framework
of administration. The former Mughal province of Lahore remained
divided into several primary units. The territories across the Indus did
not form a single unit. Thus the area under a province was much less
important. The size of the pargana or the ta'alluqa, however, did not
always decrease, and the Sikh kdrddr remained as important as the
Mughal 'dmil.
Administrative arrangements at the centre became more elaborate
6
For the documents of jdgir, rdjgi and title, J. S. Grewal and Indu Banga, 'The Sikh
Suzerain', From Guru Nanak to Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Guru Nanak Dev University,
Amritsar, 1982 (2nd edn), 139-59. As vassals of Ranjit Singh the Jamwal brothers served the
Lahore state and received large jdgirs in addition to their territories.
IO6

THE SIKH EMPIRE
with the expansion of territories. The entire record of income and

expenditure of the state had to be maintained. Dlwdns and treasurers
were appointed to maintain records relating to different heads of
income and expenditure. The central secretariat came to be known as
the Exalted Secretariat (daftar-i-mu'alld) to distinguish it from the
provincial secretariats. Finance, however, was only one concern of
Ranjit Singh. Assistance was needed for his other concerns too.
Important among these was the day-to-day work of the court (deodbi).
The office of the deodbiddr was therefore extremely important. It was
held by Jamadar Khushal Singh till 1818 when Dhian Singh was
appointed to this office. Under Raja Dhian Singh the office gradually
developed into the office virtually of the Prime Minister (wazir). Ranjit
Singh acted as the Commander-in-Chief of the army but he appointed
one of his Generals to look after the standing army (kampu-i-mu" alia)
in accordance with his detailed instructions from day to day. For
negotiations and correspondence with foreign powers Ranjit Singh
generally used the services of Faqir Azizuddin. There were other
courtiers who apparently held no particular office but who were
consulted from time to time. The Maharaja himself was the chief source
of justice, though judges (addlatts) were appointed all afresh and the
court of the qdzi and panchdyats were kept up in towns and villages.
Though Ranjit Singh introduced cash salaries in his battalions,
regiments and batteries of artillery, jdglrs remained the most important
mode of payment to those who served the state. Remuneration to state
functionaries was made on two accounts, for personal service and for
the maintenance of troopers. Since all the functionaries of the state did
not maintain troops, a large number of them received remuneration
only for their personal service. Those who were paid on account of
maintaining horsemen included not only the army commandants but
also ndzims and kdrddrs. Many a horseman too was paid in jdgir. Thus,
the amount of jdgir given to a person could vary from a few hundred to
a few lakh of rupees, or in other words from half a village to a number
of ta'alluqas. Whereas a civilian like the Treasurer Beli Ram received
about 60,000 rupees a year at one time, a General like Hari Singh
Nalwa received over eight lakhs. Raja Gulab Singh at one time was
getting seven lakhs of rupees as a jdglrddr of the state. Altogether,
nearly 40 per cent of the total revenues of the state were alienated as
jdglrs.
However, revenue from land was alienated not only in favour of
107

those who served the state but also in favour of several other categories
of persons. In the first place, all those chiefs, whether Sikh, Hindu or
Muslim, who were displaced from power were given jdgirs for subsis-
tence. The amount of such jdgirs was generally reduced with the
passage of time, but a certain amount was left permanently with the
descendants of the deposed chiefs. Small jdgirs were given also to the
descendants of persons who had served the state with zeal and
distinction. Hereditary jdgirs of small amounts were given by Ranjit
Singh as a reward for extension of cultivation and for something out of
the ordinary, like the discovery of a mine, the intelligence of a crucial
significance, the defence of a fort in a desperate situation, an act of
personal valour, skill or devotion or the gift of an exceptionally good
horse. The total amount of revenue alienated for such purposes
remained rather small.
A much larger amount of revenue was alienated in favour of persons
and institutions connected with religion. Grants given by former rulers
were generally continued. Additional grants were given to some old
institutions, and fresh grants were given to new centres. Sikh, Hindu
and Muslim institutions received state patronage. The Sodhis and the
Bedis, the Harmandir and its mutasaddis, granthls, arddsias, rdgls and
rabdbis, the Akal Takht, Jhanda Bunga, Shahid Bunga, Ber Baba Sahib,
Dera Baba Atal Sahib and Bibeksar in the precincts of the Harmandir,
Gurdwara Tahli Sahib at Dera Baba Nanak, and the Gurdwaras at
Keshgarh and Kiratpur, the Darbar Sahib at Tarn Taran and at Ramdas,
the uddsl akhdras and Nirmala centres, the Akalis and Nihangs were
prominent among the Sikh recipients of revenue-free lands. Purohits
and Brahmans in general, the purobits of Thanesar and Hardwar, the
court pandits, the Jwalamukhi Temple in Kangra, Shaiva jogis and
Vaishnava bairdgis, particularly the Tilla of Gorakhnath in the Chaj
Doab, the jogl centres at Kirana and Jakhbar, the bairdgl estab-
lishments at Pindori, Dhianpur and Dhamtal, besides a number of
Shivalas and Thakurdwaras were important among the Hindu
recipients. Among the Muslims there were the Gardezi Sayyids of
Multan, the descendants of Shaikh Farid at Pakpattan, the descendants
of Bahauddin Zakariya at Multan, the shrines of Hazratbal and Shah
Hamdan in Kashmir, the shrine of Sakhi Sarwar in Dera Ghazi Khan,
Shaikhs and Sayyids in Bannu and Peshawar, the khdnqah of Pir
Miththa near Wazirabad, and numerous other khdnqahs. Altogether,
more than 7 per cent of the state revenue came to be alienated in
108

THE SIKH EMPIRE
dharmarth by the end of Ranjit Singh's reign. The example of Ranjit

Singh was often followed by the jdglrddrs who gave small grants to all
categories of persons and institutions from their own jagirs. Many of
these continued to be enjoyed by the grantees even after the jdglr was
transferred to someone else.7
IV
The revival of cultivation and trade, which had begun in the late
eighteenth century, reached a high watermark in the reign of Ranjit
Singh. He was keen to extend cultivation to culturable waste land and
to virgin land, and gave general instruction to this effect to ndzims and
kdrddrs. The chaudhans and muqaddams who succeeded in extending
cultivation in the areas under their jurisdiction were rewarded with
revenue-free lands. The actual tillers of new lands were given concess-
ion for a number of years through graded rates of assessment, and also
the right of occupation or even proprietary right. State loans were
given for digging new wells. The Shah Nahr was re-excavated and a
number of inundation canals were dug to help irrigation, particularly
in the province of Multan. The state revenues from land increased con-
siderably in the areas covered by the former Mughal provinces of
Lahore and Multan. Towards the end of Ranjit Singh's reign the total
income from land amounted to nearly 30 million rupees a year. If this
amount was less than the figures available for the reign of Shah Jahan, it
was largely because the rates of assessment in the early nineteenth
century were lower than what they had been in the early seventeenth.
In any case, the loss of the state was the gain of the cultivator.8
The state policy of ensuring larger and larger revenues through
increased agricultural production was favourable to the actual cultiva-
tors of land and to those who could invest capital in wells or
irrigational channels. Many large proprietors of land were reduced to
the status of ta'alluqddrs, which meant that they lost their lands and
retained only a certain share in the produce or a certain percentage in
the revenue.9 The dues of the ta'alluqddr varied from area to area, with
a tendency towards decrease so that in certain areas they received
7
For jagirs and grants in the early nineteenth century Punjab, Indu Banga, Agrarian
Systems of the Sikhs, 118-67.
8
This has been well argued by Indu Banga, ibid., 113-17.
9
The ta'alluqddrs of the Punjab held a widely different position from that of the
ta'alluqdars of Awadh.
IO9

virtually nothing. In the process many a tenant became a proprietor.

The tenants gained at the cost of the peasant proprietors also in places.
In any case, there was a large proportion of tenants cultivating the same
lands for decades. This accounted for the preponderance of 'occu-
pancy' tenants later under British rule in the Punjab. Towards the end
of Ranjit Singh's reign, nearly 10 per cent of the land under cultivation
had become ta'alluqddri, which meant a certain decrease in the
holdings of the large proprietors of land. The bulk of the land under
cultivation was held by small proprietors who generally cultivated
their own lands. The tenants were half the number of peasant pro-
prietors and tilled only a quarter of the cultivated land. Free-peasant
and free-tenant economy was helpful in agricultural production. Land
in well-settled areas was certainly a commodity of some value. The
trading communities in the Punjab invested some of their savings in
land, particularly in the neighbourhood of cities and towns.10 In the
province of Multan many Arora families acquired proprietary rights in
land by providing the means of irrigation.
Increase in agricultural production was paralleled by an increase in
manufacturing and the volume of trade. Cities and towns expanded
with the expansion of Ranjit Singh's dominions.11 The capital cities of
Multan, Srinagar and Peshawar regained some of their former impor-
tance, and the city of Lahore was revived on a larger scale. Towns like
Wazirabad, Gujrat and Sialkot flourished more now than in the late
eighteenth century. Some new towns were also founded. Amritsar
became the premier city in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent.
The number of important urban centres in the dominions of Ranjit
Singh exceeded one hundred, and they all served as centres of trade.
Many of them served as centres of manufacturing as well. The revival
of Lahore, for instance, meant among other things the revival of its
manufacturing of cotton, wool and silk textiles and its metal work.
Multan became famous for its silks and cottons, woollen carpets,
glazed pottery and enamelled silver. Amritsar was more important
than Lahore and Multan, both for its manufacturing and trade. The
shawl industry of Srinagar was revived, and many Kashmiri weavers
10
A large number of Khatri proprietors of land in towns and villages are mentioned by
Ganesh Das in his Char Bagh-i-Panjab: J. S. Grewal and Indu Banga (eds), Early Nine-
teenth Century Panjab, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, 1975.
11
For trade and manufacturing in the early nineteenth century, Reeta Grewal, 'Polity,
Economy and Urbanization: Early Nineteenth Century Punjab', Journal of Regional
History, 4 (1983), 56-72.
IIO

THE SIKH EMPIRE
moved into the cities and towns of the plains as well. Many towns came
to be known for their specialized manufacturing, like Batala, Jaland-
har, Hoshiarpur, Bajwara, Sialkot, Chandiot, Gujrat, Sahiwal and
Wazirabad.
Ranjit Singh encouraged trade by ensuring safe passage for the
caravans of traders and by imposing lenient duties. Banking facilities
were available through the system of hundis, and insurance (bima) was
available at low rates. Trade and manufacturing were almost exclu-
sively a family enterprise. There were no corporate business organi-
zations in the dominions of the Maharaja. The state held the monopoly
of salt, invested a little in trade, and maintained a good number of
workshops (karkhdnas) for manufacturing articles needed by the army
and the royal household. The items of trade in every town were rather
numerous though the quantities involved were not large. Important
items of trade related to agriculture, manufacturing and natural pro-
ducts. Wheat, sugar, rice, cotton, indigo, poppy, pepper and dried
ginger were exported to Afghanistan and central Asia. Gold, silver,
iron, copper, brass and zinc were among the important items of
import, besides silk and wool, fresh and dry fruit, horses and some
luxury goods. Internal trade was more important than external trade.
Amritsar was linked by road with Lahore, and through Lahore with
Multan, Srinagar and Peshawar. All these cities were linked with a
number of towns which in turn were linked with smaller towns and
villages.
The socio-political situation created by the establishment of a large
state by Ranjit Singh was conducive to new developments of great
cultural significance. A new style of architecture is visible in the
religious and secular buildings of the period. A new style of painting
also emerged in the Punjab during the early nineteenth century as a
result of the patronage given to artists by the rulers and the nobles.12
Historical literature in Persian was encouraged by Maharaja Ranjit
Singh. Sohan Lai Suri's monumental Umdat ut-Tawdrikh is only one
example of the historical works on the Punjab produced in Persian
during the first half of the nineteenth century.13 Ram Sukh Rao, a
chronicler patronized by Fateh Singh Ahluwalia, wrote a volume each
on Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, his successor Bhag Singh and Fateh Singh
12
W. G. Archer, Paintings of the Sikhs, London 1966; B. N. Goswamy, 'The Context of
Painting in the Sikh Punjab', Journal of Regional History, 2 (1981), 85-105.
13
It is not generally known that under Colonel Mihan Singh as the governor of Kashmir a
detailed work on its fiscal resources was prepared under the title Tarlkh-i-Kaldn.
I II

Ahluwalia himself, not in Persian but in Gurmukhi script in a language

easily understandable to the people of the Punjab.14 Some of the poets
also wrote in Punjabi in the hope of patronage from the members of the
ruling class if not from the rulers themselves. Only in this context can
we appreciate Sawan Yar's Slharfi Sarkdr Kl praising the rule of Ranjit
Singh, Jafar Beg's Slharfi lamenting his death, and Hakam Singh's
Slharfi celebrating the exploits of Hari Singh Nalwa. Qadir Yar
identified himself with the Punjabi ruling class against their Afghan
opponents.
Not all the Punjabi works were written for the rulers or the members
of the ruling class. Many of them were clearly meant for the common
Punjabis, like Qadir Yar's Qissa Sohni Mahiwdl or his Piiran Bhagat.
His Raja Rdsdlii was actually meant to be sung by popular minstrels
(dhddls). Ahmad Yar, who wrote the Shdhndma of Ranjit Singh in
Persian was nonetheless a poet of the people. All his life he had written
in Punjabi and quite deliberately too. He cannot help mentioning this
in the Shdhndma. Having been born in the Punjab, lived in the Punjab,
breathed its air and tasted its water, he was naturally inclined, he says,
to write on all old or new themes in Punjabi, a language that was much
easier for the people to understand than any other language. Obvi-
ously, Ahmad Yar was writing for the common people of the Punjab.
The themes of his works indicate that he was writing for members of all
the three communities.15 This articulation of regional identity may be
regarded as the cultural counterpart of the secularization of polity by
Ranjit Singh which ensured participation of all important sections of
society on a significant scale.
However, the new interests of the early nineteenth century did not
eliminate the works produced for the consumption of a particular
community. Nor did they undermine the traditional branches of
learning or knowledge. This was partly because of the continuance of
Persian as the language of administration. There were scholars in cities
and towns who went on studying books written in Persian or Sanskrit.
These books related to several areas of interest, like jurisprudence,
politics, poetry, composition, calligraphy, mathematics, medicine,
astronomy and astrology. Jurisprudence was exclusively the domain of
14
One of these works has been edited and published by Dr Joginder Kaur as Ram Sukh
Rao's Sri Fateh Singh Partap Prabhakar, Patiala, 1980.
15
Daljinder Singh Johal, 'Heroic Literature in Punjabi (1800-1850)', Journal of Regional
History, 2 (1981), 57-84; 'Punjabi Literature: Late Eighteenth-Early Nineteenth Century',
ibid., 20-42.
112

THE SIKH EMPIRE
Hindu scholars, particularly Brahmans. All other interests were culti-

vated by Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs alike.16
The Austrian traveller Baron Charles Hugel remarked that the state
established by Ranjit Singh was 'the most wonderful object in the
whole world'. Like a skilful architect the Maharaja raised a 'majestic
fabric' with the help of rather insignificant or unpromising frag-
ments.17 In retrospect it is possible to see that Ranjit Singh did evolve a
structure of power by which he could reconcile all important sections
of his subjects to his rule, and he could induce many of them to be
enthusiastic in his support. He revived prosperity and minimized
oppression. He created opportunities for members of several sections
of the society to improve their social position. It is in this context that
we can appreciate the position of the Sikh community during the early
nineteenth century.
We can form a general idea of the number of Sikhs and their
distribution in the dominions of Ranjit Singh. In the areas covered by
the former Mughal provinces of Lahore, Multan and Kabul there were
about 12 million persons. In this population there were about a million
and a half Sikhs who accounted for about 12 per cent of the total
population. Furthermore, the Sikh population in the dominions of
Ranjit Singh was concentrated in the upper Bari, Jalandhar and the
upper Rachna Doabs. In fact, though this region was much smaller in
area than the rest of the dominions of Ranjit Singh in the plains, it
contained more than 50 per cent of the total population, and nearly 90
per cent of the total Sikh population. Nearly half of the Sikh popu-
lation of this core region was concentrated in the area covered by the
later districts of Lahore and Amntsar. The impression formed by
Alexander Burnes in the 1830s was not off the mark when he observed
that the Sikhs formed about one-third of the total population in the
area of their greatest concentration. Burnes carried the impression that
the number of Sikhs had been increasing year by year.18
However, the importance of the Sikhs in the early nineteenth
16
J. S. Grewal, The Reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh: Structure of Power, Economy and
Society, Punjabi University, Patiala, 1981, 34.
17
Baron Charles Hugel, Travels in Kashmir and the Punjab, 293-94.
18
Alexander Burnes, Travels into Bokhara, Oxford University Press, 1973, Vol. i, 11-13,
44-45, 80; Vol. 3, 102, 119 and 146.
"3

century was not due to their number. Rather, their number was
increasing partly due to their importance. Over 50 per cent of the
ruling class was formed by the Sikhs. It is true that Ranjit Singh
inducted a considerable number of persons on merit, irrespective of
their creed or country. Apart from the well-known European officers
in the army, there were several important civil functionaries like Diwan
Bhawani Das, Diwan Ganga Ram, Diwan Ajudhya Prashad and
Diwan Dina Nath, who did not belong to the Punjab. Among them
were also persons like Jamadar Khushal Singh and his nephew Tej
Singh who accepted the baptism of the double-edged sword to join the
Sikh fold. However, the number of Punjabis among the members of
the ruling class remained much larger. There were men like Diwan
Muhkam Chand, Misr Diwan Chand, Diwan Moti Ram, Diwan Kirpa
Ram, Diwan Sawan Mai, Faqir Azizuddin, Faqir Nuruddin, Faqir
Imamuddin, Diwan Sukh Dayal and Sarab Dayal who belonged to the
Punjab. The Dogra brothers, Gulab Singh, Dhian Singh and Suchet
Singh, and Dhian Singh's son Hira Singh, who all served the Maharaja
as jdgirddrs and vassal chiefs, were matched in importance by the Sikh
vassal chief Fateh Singh Ahluwalia who served the Maharaja with great
distinction.
Furthermore, since Ranjit Singh gave service jdgirs to many disposs-
essed chiefs, and the number of Sikh chiefs among them was the largest,
they became a part of the ruling class. This was equally true of the
jdgirddrs of the former chiefs. In fact men like Hukma Singh Chimni,
and the Majithia and Atariwala Sardars, who were among the most
important members of the ruling class, belonged to this category. Even
the new men, like Hari Singh Nalwa and the Sandhanwalia Sardars,
rose to eminent positions. A commoner like Colonel Mihan Singh, or
Dhanna Singh Malwai, could rise to nearly the highest rung. There is
hardly any doubt that the Hindus, Muslims and the Sikhs of the core
region constituted the large majority of the ruling class, and within this
majority the Sikhs formed the largest component. There were some
khatris, kaldls, ndis and jhiwars among the Sikh nobles. By far the
largest bulk, however, consisted of Jats who constituted also the
dominant agricultural caste in the core region. Among the hereditary
jdgirddrs also the Jat Sikhs formed the largest bulk.19
19
Indu Banga, 'The Ruling Class in the Kingdom of Lahore'', Journal ofRegional History,
3 (1982), 15-24; J. S. Grewal, The Reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh: Structure of Power,
Economy and Society, 32-33.
114

THE SIKH EMPIRE
In the army of Ranjit Singh the Sikhs were represented in large

numbers. The Khalsa horsemen had initially established Sikh rule in
much of the Punjab. The new rulers depended almost exclusively on
cavalry, and their forces consisted very largely of Sikh horsemen.
Many of these forces were taken over by Ranjit Singh when he
subverted the Sikh principalities. The regular cavalry too was raised
mostly by recruiting Sikhs as horsemen. Ranjit Singh encouraged the
Punjabis in general and the Singhs in particular to join the infantry and
the artillery raised on European lines. In the 1830s, several comman-
ders of the infantry and artillery units were Sikh; the number of Sikhs
increased as the ranks became lower till the foot soldier or the gunner
was reached. We have no exact figures, but it may be safe to suggest
that more than half of the men in the army of Ranjit Singh were Sikh,
which would mean about 50,000. Among these too the representation
of the Jats of the core region was the largest.20
The share of the Sikhs in revenue-free grants given by Ranjit Singh
was the largest. The Sodhis and Bedis, who did not belong strictly to
religious classes and who in fact maintained a considerable number of
horsemen, got a very large share. Towards the end of Ranjit Singh's
reign the Sodhis were enjoying jdglrs worth 500,000 rupees a year, and
the Bedis were receiving 400,000 rupees. A descendant of Dhir Mai at
Kartarpur, Sodhi Sadhu Singh, was lavishly patronized by Ranjit
Singh; several villages were given for the Granth Sahib compiled by
Guru Arjan which was in his possession. Eminent among the Bedis was
Baba Bikram Singh of Una, son of Baba Sahib Singh. Their importance
in the early nineteenth century was no less than that of any courtier of
the Maharaja. Bhai Ram Singh and Bhai Gobind Ram, sons of Bhai
Wasti Ram, figured prominently at the court of Ranjit Singh and his
successors. They were more important than the court granthl, Bhai
Gurmukh Singh. The revenue-free grants received by Sikh individuals
and institutions, apart from the Sodhis and the Bedis, amounted to
hundreds of thousands of rupees. Nearly 60 per cent of the total
revenue alienated by the state in favour of religious personages and
institutions was enjoyed by the Sikh grantees. The Nirmalas, the
Nihangs and the Akalis were among them, and they all represented the
Singh component of the Sikh community.
20
A set of over 450 orders of Ranjit Singh to Tej Singh as the officer in charge of the
kampu-i-mu'alld provides valuable insights into the working of the military system of Ranjit
Singh: The Civil and Military Affairs of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (eds J. S. Grewal and Indu
Banga), Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, 1987.
"5

The Singh component of the community spread into the countryside

more in the early nineteenth century than ever before. During the grim
struggle between the Khalsa and the Mughal administrators it was
difficult to find a village entirely of the Singhs. The number of such
villages in the early nineteenth century ran into hundreds. The largest
addition to the number of Singhs from the countryside came from
amongst the Jats of the core region. The bulk of the Sikh peasantry
belonged to the areas which had produced the largest number of Sikh
rulers and Sikh jdgirddrs. Agricultural clans other than those of the Jats
were represented in the Sikh peasantry by Mahtons, Kambos and
Sainis. The gulf between the economic means of the Sikh peasant and
the Sikh noble was conspicuously wide, giving support to the observa-
tion of a contemporary that the difference between the rich and the
poor classes in the Punjab was greater than elsewhere in India.21
Service in the army of the state mitigated the poverty of a large number
of the Sikh peasant families. There was a considerable number of Sikh
artisans and service-performing individuals in the villages. The
Mazhabi Sikhs were represented in the army.22
The number of the non-Singh or Sehajdhari Sikhs in the dominions
of Ranjit Singh appears to have been pretty large. All the Sikhs had not
become Khalsa during the eighteenth century. Those who did not take
up arms against the Mughal authorities, or did not openly support the
Khalsa, had not been persecuted. They went on living in villages and
towns following their ordinary pursuits. In the late eighteenth
century the Udasi protagonists of the teachings of Sikhism had been
patronized by the Sikh rulers, and their centres began to proliferate
more in the early nineteenth century. Before the advent of Sikh rule
their centres numbered about a dozen; in the late eighteenth century,
this number reached about fifty; and by the end of Ranjit Singh's
reign there were nearly Z50 Udasi centres in his dominions. Most of
them were patronized by the state, and the majority of the patronized
centres were in the core region. Though dispersed over the country-
side in large numbers, the Udasi centres in cities and towns were
much larger in size. Presumably, they catered more for the town-
dwellers than for the people living in the countryside. They were
21
H. L. O. Garrett (trans.), The Punjab a Hundred Years Ago, Patiala, 1971 (reprint),
66-67.
22
The outcaste chiihra Sikhs were generally known as Mazhabi.

THE SIKH EMPIRE
useful allies of the state which needed a broad base for the willing
acceptance of its authority. Not for nothing did they receive revenues
worth 2.00,000 rupees a year which was nearly 10 per cent of the
state revenues alienated by way of dharmarth.23
The Udasi version of Sikhism was in some essential ways different
from what the Singhs believed in. The Udasis traced their origin to
Guru Nanak but gave more prominence to Sri Chand as the real
founder of the path of renunciation (udds). They did not reject the line
of succession from Guru Nanak to Guru Gobind Singh, but they
attached greater importance to the chain of succession from Guru
Nanak, through Sri Chand and the Adi Udasis, to the reigning Mahant
of an Udasi establishment.24 They showed no great respect for the
Granth Sahib, and interpreted its essential message in Vedantic terms,
shifting the emphasis from a personal God to an impersonal reality. They
did not subscribe to the twin doctrine of Guru-Panth and Guru-Granth.
The mark of their ideas is left on the literature they produced in the
early nineteenth century. They wrote expositions of several important
compositions in the Granth Sahib; they wrote original mdtras of their
own; they produced new versions of janamsdkhis and gurbildses; and
they wrote about their own past.25 In the process they produced an
interpretation of Sikhism that made them rather 'unorthodox' from the
viewpoint of the Singhs.
New representatives of Sehajdhari Sikhism were arising towards
the close of Sikh rule in the Punjab. They were working outside the
core region, addressing themselves to the small number of Hindu
traders and shopkeepers in the towns of the Sindh Sagar Doab.
They regarded Guru Nanak as the founder of a new faith and paid
equal reverence to his nominated successors. They regarded Granth
Sahib as the Guru but not as the exclusive Guru, because the founders
of the movements were also regarded as gurus. They advocated
adoption of specifically Sikh ceremonies for birth, marriage and death.
However, they did not insist on the baptism of the double-edged
23
Sulakhan Singh, 'Udasi Establishments U n d e r Sikh Rule', journal of Regional History,
1 (1980), 7 0 - 8 7 ; 'State Patronage to Udasis under Maharaja Ranjit Singh', Maharaja Ranjit
Singh and His Times (eds J. S. Grewal and Indu Banga), G u r u N a n a k Dev University,
Amritsar, 1980, 103-16.
24
Founder of four branches of Udasis, the Adi Udasis were Almast, Balu, Hasna and
Goinda who are believed to have lived and worked in the seventeenth century.
25
Sulakhan Singh, 'The Udasis in the Early Nineteenth Century'', journal of Regional
History, 2 (1981), 35-42.
"7

sword. Both the Singhs and the Sikhs with shorn hair could become
their followers.26
The Sikh Panth in the early nineteenth century was thus marked by
ideological differences. Not exactly a vertical division, the first line of
difference was between the Singhs and the Sehajdharis. The Singhs
believed in the indistinguishability and the unity of Guruship from
Guru Nanak to Guru Gobind Singh, and in the end of personal
Guruship after Guru Gobind Singh. The doctrine of Guru-Granth was
coming to the fore in place of the doctrine of Guru-Panth. This is
understandable because the doctrine of Guru-Granth was better suited
to the situation of the early nineteenth century when social inequalities
had to be reconciled to the ideal norm of equality. Every Sikh was
equal in the presence of the Granth Sahib, in the sangat and the langar,
but in the life outside social differences were legitimized.
The Sikh community in the early nineteenth century was not a
caste-ridden society, but there was enough social differentiation in the
community to infringe the idea of equality on which the Sikh Panth
was based in theory and which was still espoused by a handful of the
Khalsa, like the Akalis and the Nihangs. Between the ruling class and
the ordinary peasant there was a wide social gulf. Among the peasants,
artisans and the service-performing groups in the Sikh community,
there were subsistence jdgirddrs, petty functionaries, chaudharis and
muqaddams, and the well-paid soldiers of the state. In addition to
these, there were Sikh traders and shopkeepers in cities and towns,
some of whom were Sehajdharis but a considerable number of them
were Singhs. However, all ideological differences and social stratifi-
cation in the Sikh community appear to have been overshadowed by an
awareness of political power. The Sikhs had a vague feeling that the
rulers of the land were their own people.
Identification with the sovereign Sikh rule found clear expression in
Ratan Singh Bhangu's Guru-Panth Prakdsh completed at Amntsar in
1841.27 He refers to the expulsion of the Marathas from Delhi and from
the sarkdr of Hissar in the early years of the nineteenth century, the
declaration of British 'protection' over the chiefs of the Satlej-Jamuna
Divide, and the establishment of a British Agency at Ludhiana. A
recurrent question which, according to Bhangu, the British were
26
T h e y came to be k n o w n as nirankdris and ndmdhdris in the late nineteenth century.
27
Ratan Singh Bhangu's w o r k has been published as Prachln Panth Parkdsh, Wazir-i-
H i n d Press, Amritsar, 1962 (4th edn).

THE SIKH EMPIRE
asking was about the 'right' of the Singhs to rule. Men like Ochter-
loney and Murray were given to understand that the Singhs were the
subject people of the Mughals and, during the invasions of Ahmad
Shah Abdali, they had illegitimately occupied Mughal territories. The
implication of this view was that these territories could be taken back
by the Mughal emperor, or by someone else on his behalf.
In presenting his own view on this issue, Ratan Singh Bhangu
presents in fact the Singh view of Sikh history. He looks upon Guru
Nanak's mission as transcending all previous dispensations; he sees no
difference between the first Guru and his successors; the personal
Guruship ends for him with Guru Gobind Singh; Guruship hence-
forth is vested in the Khalsa and the Granth; but Ratan Singh Bhangu
attaches greater importance to the doctrine of Guru-Panth. In his
presentation Mughal oppression is the cause of conflict between the
emperors and the Gurus who had no temporal ambition, being the
'true emperors' of the spiritual realm. Guru Gobind Singh instituted
the Khalsa to put an end to Mughal oppression. From the very
beginning the Khalsa was sovereign. Men from all the four varnas were
merged into one varqa, that of the Khalsa. That was why 'khatrls,
tarkhdns, kaldls, ndls and jhlwars' laid down their lives for the
establishment of the sovereign rule of the Khalsa.
Far from taking undue advantage of the anarchy caused by Ahmad
Shah Abdali, the Khalsa in reality wrested from Ahmad Shah Abdali
those provinces which the Mughals had lost to him. Obviously, the
Khalsa ruled over the Punjab in their own right, justified by the
sacrifices they had made and upheld by the sword they had come to
wield against oppression. This was how the sovereignty of the Khalsa
Panth was made manifest to the world. Ratan Singh Bhangu's assertion
of Sikh sovereignty sprang partly from his apprehensions about its
continuance.
VI
Maharaja Ranjit Singh died at Lahore on June 27, 1839, after nominat-
ing his eldest son Kharak Singh as his successor, with Raja Dhian Singh
as the wazir, a position he had held under the Maharaja. The formal
investiture of Kharak Singh as Maharaja was arranged in the capital on
the first of September, deliberately before the arrival of his son, Prince
Nau Nihal Singh, who was in the Peshawar region at the time of Ranjit
119

Singh's death. The increasing influence of a close relative, Chet Singh

Bajwa, on the new Maharaja, and Chet Singh's aspiration to oust Dhian
Singh, induced the latter to conspire with Prince Nau Nihal Singh.
Chet Singh was murdered in early October.28
Prince Nau Nihal Singh became de facto ruler, and ruled generally in
consultation with Raja Dhian Singh. For a little over a year, their
administration was successful. Unrest in the Hazara region was put
down by Sardar Chattar Singh Atariwala; the governors of Kashmir
and Multan, Colonel Mihan Singh and Diwan Sawan Mai, were called
to Lahore to pay up the arrears; expeditions sent to Iskardu, Mandi and
Kulu were successful; and the attempts of the British officers like
MacNaughten to favour the fugitive Shah Shuja at the cost of Maharaja
Kharak Singh in the Peshawar region were foiled. Maharaja Kharak
Singh died of ill health on 5 November 1840. Returning from his
funeral Nau Nihal Singh, accompanied by Raja Gulab Singh's son
Mian Udham Singh, died due to the accidental fall of a gate. With him
died the great expectations associated with that 'Alexander-like
Prince'.29
There were six princes left after the death of Maharaja Kharak Singh
and his son. Sher Singh and his twin brother Tara Singh were in their
mid-thirties; Pashaura Singh, Kashmira Singh and Multana Singh were
in their early twenties; and Dalip Singh was less than three years old.
The accession of Sher Singh as the new Maharaja was proclaimed on
November 9. But the mother of Nau Nihal Singh, Maharani Chand
Kaur, asserted her claim to be the Regent till the birth of the child by
his widow. Raja Dhian Singh became her adviser but only in addition
to Sardar Attar Singh Sandhanwalia, Jamadar Khushal Singh and
Sardar Lehna Singh Majithia. Dhian Singh discovered very soon that he
could not have his way. His opponents were supported by the
Maharani who listened to the Sandhanwalia Sardars more than to him.
To obviate his eclipse at the court, Dhian Singh incited the already
eager Sher Singh to make a fresh bid for power, telling some of the
army commanders to support him.
Prince Sher Singh occupied the fort of Lahore on 20 January 1841,
but only after meeting resistance from the troops of Raja Gulab Singh
28
T h e c o n t e m p o r a r y poet Shah M u h a m m a d in his Vdr looks u p o n this incident as the
beginning of the violence: Vdr Shah Muhammad (eds Sita R a m Kohli and Sewa Singh Giani),
Punjabi Sahit Academy, Ludhiana, 1972, 136.
29
In one of his orders to Tej Singh, the Maharaja refers to the prince as sikandar-misdl:
The Civil and Military Affairs of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Document 454.
I2O

THE SIKH EMPIRE
who was in the fort in support of Maharani Chand Kaur. The use of the
army to decide the issue of succession, with Raja Dhian Singh and Raja
Gulab Singh ranged on opposite sides, had a disastrous effect on
discipline in the army. Commanders were humiliated and coerced at
many places in the empire, some of them were in fact murdered, like
Mihan Singh in Kashmir, Foulkes in Mandi, Ford in Hazara and Sobha
Singh in Amritsar. The civilians of Lahore were molested by the
soldiers of the kampu-i-mu' alia. Maharaja Sher Singh and Raja Dhian
Singh felt obliged to give a raise in pay, in addition to gratuity and
promotions, after parleying with the representatives of the soldiers.
This was the beginning of the army panchdyats which became a crucial
factor in the deteriorating situation.30
During the reign of Maharaja Sher Singh, the British diplomats and
even the Governor-General developed an increasing interest in the
affairs of the Punjab. Maharani Chand Kaur and Maharaja Sher Singh
had both approached the British with the offer of a large slice of the
empire as the price of their support against each other. The discomfi-
ture of the Maharani was at the same time a defeat of the Sandhanwalias
in their drive against Dhian Singh. Sardar Attar Singh Sandhanwalia
and his nephew Ajit Singh sought protection with the British. Sardar
Lehna Singh Sandhanwalia and his nephew Kehar Singh were placed
under detention. All their jdgirs were resumed. Out of a feeling of
insecurity, Maharaja Sher Singh used Dhian Singh's manipulative skills
to ensure first the abortion of Nau Nihal Singh's child and then the
death of Maharani Chand Kaur who had not stopped her intrigue with
either the nobles or the soldiers or the British. The Maharani and the
Sandhanwalia Sardars were not alone in cultivating the British in
self-interest. The European Generals Avitabile and Ventura, who were
keen to take back their earnings to Europe, and Gulab Singh who was
eager to retain his territories, entered into small conspiracies with the
British officers and diplomats. Their inclinations were conveyed to
higher authorities. It was on the suggestion of a British political Agent
that Maharaja Sher Singh pardoned Sardar Attar Singh and Ajit Singh
Sandhanwalia and allowed them to return to Lahore. Lehna Singh and
Kehar Singh were released. They were all reinstated in their jdgirs.
Regaining the Maharaja's confidence and trust, Lehna Singh and Ajit
30
An interesting dimension of this situation was the assumption of the Sikh soldiery and
the junior officers that they were the truer representatives of the Panth than the courtiers and
nobles. In Shah Muhammad's Vdr, they refer to themselves as the 'Khalsa Panth': Var Shah
Muhammad, 167.
121

Singh murdered him and his son, Prince Pratap Singh, on 15 September
1843. They also murdered Raja Dhian Singh who had served himself
well but who had also served the state faithfully for nearly a quarter of a
century.
The intention of the Sandhanwalia Sardars was to install the boy-
prince Dalip Singh, with his mother Maharani Jindan as the Regent to
perpetuate their indirect control over the affairs of the state. But Dhian
Singh's son Raja Hira Singh was able to win the support of the army
against them. About a thousand men, including Lehna Singh and Ajit
Singh, were killed in action when Hira Singh occupied the fort. The
palace revolution of 1843 was thus bloodier than that of 1841. To have
Dalip Singh on the throne, with himself as the wazir, was in Hira
Singh's interest too. In fact he tried to eliminate Prince Pashaura Singh
and Prince Kashmira Singh with the help of Raja Gulab Singh. The
grimness of the whole situation comes out clearly from the fact that
when Raja Suchet Singh made a bid for the office of the wazir against
his nephew Hira Singh, the nephew had no hesitation in eliminating the
uncle. Raja Suchet Singh died fighting against overwhelming numbers
on 27 March 1844. Hira Singh made a move against Gulab Singh too,
who was eventually obliged to send his son Sohan Singh to Lahore
virtually as a hostage.
Sardar Attar Singh Sandhanwalia who had escaped into the British
territories returned to the religious centre of the much-venerated Bhai
Bir Singh at Naurangabad near Tarn Taran. Hira Singh struck at the
centre, treating it as a source of disaffection. Both Bhai Bir Singh and
Attar Singh were killed. This action made Hira Singh a little unpopular.
A greater cause of his unpopularity with the army was the attitude of
Misr Jalla, his factotum at the court who gave offence to all and sundry.
The army punches demanded his surrender. But Hira Singh tried to
escape with him to the hills. They were pursued and killed on 21
December 1844. With them died Sohan Singh, the second son of Raja
Gulab Singh, and Mian Labh Singh, a distant cousin of the Raja. Of the
Jammu Rajas thus only Gulab Singh survived, with only one son left to
succeed him.
In military matters the army punches were now supreme. For civil
affairs, Maharani Jindan acted as the President of a Council consisting
of her brother Jawahar Singh, Bhai Ram Singh, Bakshi Bhagat Ram,
Diwan Dina Nath and Faqir Nuruddin. With the ndzims and kdrddrs
reluctant to submit revenues, and the increasing expenditure on a larger
122

THE SIKH EMPIRE
army, it became difficult to run the administration. The total strength

of the army in 1844 was about 120,000 whereas at the end of Ranjit
Singh's reign it had been about 85,000. The total expenditure on the
army in 1844 amounted to about six million rupees whereas in 1839 it
had been about four million.31 The revenue alienated in favour of
jdgirddrs was in addition to this amount. Among those who had not
paid large arrears to the Treasury were the governors of Multan and
Kashmir, and Raja Gulab Singh.
Troops were sent to Jammu to collect arrears from the Raja. He
accompanied them to Lahore, paid 2,700,000 rupees, but got his
contracts (ijdra) renewed for two years. Asked to become the wazir, he
declined the offer politely and hurriedly marched back to Jammu.
Prince Pashaura Singh rose in revolt; he was killed on 31 August 1845,
on Jawahar Singh's instructions. The army demanded Jawahar Singh's
head. He was killed on September 21.
Maharani Jindan and the Sardars who supported her decided to
approach the British with the suggestion that they may destroy the army
and take the Maharaja under their 'protective wings'. Gulab Singh had
already offered cooperation on the understanding that Jammu and some
other territories should be left with him. The British had been collecting
men and war materials on the Punjab frontiers. The stage was set for a
war. Lai Singh was appointed as the wazir and Tej Singh as the com-
mander of the army.32 Reports of British preparations were assiduously
spread among the soldiery and solemnly confirmed by Diwan Dina
Nath. After a pledge on the samddh of Ranjit Singh to save his state, the
authority of the panches was suspended. The stage was set for a defeat.
One important element in the understanding between the British
agents and the junta at Lahore was that the army of Lahore should
cross the river Satlej to make it appear that the state of Lahore was the
aggressor. The army of Lahore crossed the river on 11 December 1845.
Lord Hardinge declared war on the state of Lahore on December 13.
The first battle was fought near Mudki on December 18. The British
forces suffered heavy losses.33 But in the second battle fought near
31
Sita R a m Kohli, Sunset of the Sikh Empire, O r i e n t L o n g m a n s , B o m b a y , 1967, 85-97.
32
This position was different from the position of Tej Singh u n d e r Maharaja Ranjit Singh
w h e n he was looking after the kampu-i-mu'alld o n behalf of the Maharaja as discussed in The
Civil and Military Affairs of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
33
'British losses in men and officers, considering the brevity of the action, were heavy; 215
killed, including Sir Robert Sale, Sir Joseph McGaskill and two aides of the Governor-
General; and 657 wounded': Sita Ram Kohli, Sunset of the Sikh Empire, 107.
123

Pherushahr on December 21 they could claim a victory. Both Lai Singh

and Tej Singh played their premeditated treacherous roles, informing
the British officers of the disposition of their armies, not attacking the
British critical situations and leaving the field of battle after the
commencement of action. The replacement of Lai Singh by Gulab
Singh before the battle of Sabraon, fought on 10 February 1846, was a
change for the worse. Tej Singh not only left the field of battle but also
destroyed the bridge of boats which could be used for retreat.
Thousands lost their lives in this battle, including the grey-beard
Sardar Sham Singh Atariwala. Ranjodh Singh Majithia had been
defeated in the battle of Aliwal near Ludhiana after his initial success in
the battle of Baddowal in January, 1845. Gulab Singh was eager to
negotiate the terms of peace.
According to a treaty signed on March 9, the Jalandhar Doab was
taken over by the British, Jammu and Kashmir were given to Gulab
Singh under a separate treaty, and the strength of the Lahore army was
reduced. By a supplement added on March 11, a British force was kept
in Lahore at the expense of the state; a British political officer was
stationed there for 'advice and guidance'. Dalip Singh remained on the
throne, with Lai Singh as the wazlr and Tej Singh as the commander of
the army, while Maharani Jindan became the Regent. This was the
reward for their helpful role in the late war. Henry Lawrence was sent
to Lahore with a British force which was to remain there only until the
end of 1846. The state of Lahore was not merely smaller and weaker
now, it was also a 'protected' state for all practical purposes. In a letter
to Henry Lawrence it was made clear by Hardinge that 'the native
prince is in fetters and under our protection, and must do our
bidding'.34
VII
If there was any doubt about the status of Maharaja Dalip Singh, it was
formally clarified by the Treaty of Bhyrowal signed on 22 December
1846, before the expiry of the time for the British force to leave Lahore.
Lai Singh had already been pensioned off to Dehra Dun because of his
complicity in the refusal of the Governor of Kashmir to hand over the
province to Raja Gulab Singh. No one was appointed as wazlr in his
place. Instead, a Regency Council had been formed, consisting of Tej
34
Ibid., 119.
124

THE SIKH EMPIRE
Singh, Diwan Dina Nath, Faqir Nuruddin and Sher Singh Atariwala,
whose sister had been betrothed to Prince Dalip Singh in the reign of
Maharaja Sher Singh, and who was now given the title of Raja. By the
new Treaty, four other members were added to the council: Attar
Singh Kalianwala, Shamsher Singh Sandhanwalia, Ranjodh Singh
Majithia and Bhai Nidhan Singh. More important than the enlar-
gement of the Council was the removal of Maharani Jindan from her
position as the Regent; she was given 150,000 rupees a year as pension.
The most important clause of the treaty, however, was the one that
empowered the Resident at Lahore 'to direct and control the duties of
every department'. These arrangements were to continue till Maharaja
Dalip Singh reached the age of 16 on 4 September 1854.
In the first week of October, 1848, Governor General Dalhousie's
secretary wrote to Frederic Currie, the Resident at Lahore, that he
should consider 'the State of Lahore to be, for all intents and purposes,
at war with the British Government'.35 Dalhousie's own letter reveals
his satisfaction with the crisis developing in the Punjab: 'I have for
months been looking for, and we are now not on the eve of but in the
midst of war with the Sikh nation and the kingdom of the Punjab.'36
Ironically, the 'Sikh nation' and the 'kingdom of the Punjab' were
represented by two rebel governors and not by the Maharaja or the
Regency Council.
Initially, in fact, there was only one rebel, Diwan Mul Raj, the
governor of Multan. The actions of the representatives of the British
Government in the Punjab were partly the cause of his revolt. In 1846,
Mul Raj had accepted all the conditions imposed on him as the
governor of Multan, knowing that Lai Singh was keen to dislodge him.
Subsequently, certain duties were abolished in the province without
reducing the amount of ijdra to be paid by the governor. A simul-
taneous reduction in his judicial powers undermined his authority to
make even the usual collection.37 He offered to resign in December,
1847. John Lawrence, as the officiating Resident, agreed to accept
his resignation but with effect from March, 1848. By then, Frederic
35
S. S. Bal, British Policy Towards the Punjab 1844-49, N e w A g e Publishers, Calcutta,
1971, 204.
36
N . M . Khilnani, British Power in the Punjab 1839—1858, Asia Publishing H o u s e , N e w
Delhi, 1972, 154.
37
F o r changes made in the judicial, civil and revenue matters b y the Resident at Lahore
before the second Anglo-Sikh W a r which created resentment a m o n g various sections of the
Punjabis, ibid., 9 6 - 1 2 5 ; S. S. Bal, British Policy Towards the Punjab, 148-85.
I2
5

Currie had become the Resident and he sent Kahn Singh Man to the
governorship of Multan, appointing Vans Agnew as his political
adviser with Lt Anderson to assist him. Mul Raj handed over the keys
of the fort of Multan to Kahn Singh Man. Soon afterwards, however,
Agnew was attacked by some men without incitement from Mul Raj.
His troops, the largest losers due to the impending change, now forced
him to lead their revolt. A rebel commandant, Godar Singh Mazhabi,
on his own attacked both Agnew and Anderson, and killed them.
Currie did not order the British force at Lahore to march against Mul
Raj. In fact he told Herbert Edwardes, posted in Bannu to 'advise' its
governor, only to contain Mul Raj and not dislodge him from Multan.
James Abbott, posted at Haripur in Hazara to 'advise' its governor,
Sardar Chattar Singh Atariwala, suspecting him of sympathies with
the rebels, moved away from Haripur and recruited unauthorized
levies. When Colonel Canora refused to obey Sardar Chattar Singh's
orders, he was killed and Abbott presented the incident as the
cold-blooded murder of a loyal officer. Currie knew that Chattar
Singh was not at fault, but Dalhousie wanted the Sardar 'smitten'. He
was dismissed from governorship and his jagirs were resumed. Chattar
Singh decided to defy the Resident's orders. He tried to enlist the
support of army units posted in the Sindh Sagar Doab and the
Peshawar region, approaching Dost Muhammad Khan of Kabul and
Raja Gulab Singh for help in the cause of the Punjabis to overthrow the
British usurpers. He wrote to his son, Raja Sher Singh, to join him.
Raja Sher Singh had joined Edwardes in his campaign against Mul
Raj. When General Whish appeared on the scene, he issued a procla-
mation demanding unconditional surrender from the rebels of Multan
on hearing the salute to be fired on the morning of September 5 'in
honour of her Most Gracious Majesty, the Queen of Great Britain, and
her ally, the Maharaja Dalip Singh'. The British intention of annexation
had been noised abroad; this proclamation came as a confirmation.
General Whish suspected the loyalty of the Sikh units and ordered
them to leave on September 11. They decided to join Mul Raj. Raja
Sher Singh went over to the rebels on September 14. In joint procla-
mations with Mul Raj, he exhorted the Hindus and Muslims of the
Punjab to join them against the English, and asked the chiefs of the
Satlej-Jamuna Divide for support. No chief joined the rebels. A forged
letter arranged by Edwardes to fall into the hands of Mul Raj made him
suspicious of Raja Sher Singh who felt obliged to leave Multan on
126

THE SIKH EMPIRE
October 9, eventually to join his father in Hazara. Mul Raj was left
alone to defend himself against the British forces. He was compelled to
lay down arms on 22 January 1849.
The Commander-in-Chief Lord Gough had crossed the Satlej in
November, 1848, at the head of a large army to suppress the revolt of
the Atariwala Sardars. In a battle fought on November 22 near
Ramnagar, close to the river Chenab, Brigadier General Campbell's
force was routed. A Lt Colonel and a Brigadier General of the British
army were killed in this action. In the battle of Chillianwala, fought on
13 January 1849, three British regiments lost their colours, and
Brigadier Pennyuick was killed in action along with 3,000 British
officers and men. This was the worst defeat suffered by the British in
the Indian subcontinent. In the battle of Gujrat, however, Raja Sher
Singh suffered defeat on February 21, and his retreat towards Kabul
was barred by Abbott with the help of Raja Gulab Singh who by now
was bound by a treaty to help the British. On March 14, Sardar Chattar
Singh and Raja Sher Singh surrendered to General Gilbert near
Rawalpindi. Laying down his sword a few days later a greybeard
veteran could not help feeling, 'today Ranjit Singh is dead'.38
Lord Dalhousie kept up the charade till the end. He sent H. M. Elliot
to Lahore with the document of annexation. Elliot coerced Raja Tej
Singh and Diwan Dina Nath first to sign this document, and then
approached Bhai Nidhan Singh and Faqir Nuruddin. The representa-
tives (vakils) of Shamsher Singh Sandhanwalia and Attar Singh Kalian-
wala, both of whom had stuck to Edwardes when Raja Sher Singh had
gone over to the rebels, signed in the absence of the Sardars, On 29
March 1849, Maharaja Dalip Singh held his court for the last time in his
life to sign the document of annexation in Roman letters and to become
a pensioner of the British. The 'majestic fabric' raised by Maharaja
Ranjit Singh was a thing of the past.
38
Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1986, Vol. 2,
82.
127

CHAPTER 7
RECESSION AND RESURGENCE

(1849-1919)
The Punjab as a province of the British empire was larger than the
kingdom of Ranjit Singh and it was also placed in a context almost of
global economy and polity. The colonial rulers introduced a large
measure of bureaucracy and the rule of law, which established a new
kind of relationship between the individual and the state. The 'paternal'
rule of the early decades was eventually replaced by the 'machine rule'
of laws, codes and procedures. The executive, financial and judicial
functions were separated. An elaborate administration was geared to
the purposes of peace and prosperity. For political and economic
purposes as well as for administration, new forms of communication
and transportation were developed, symbolized by the post office, the
telegraph office, the metalled road, the railway and the press.
To increase agricultural production and revenue from land the
British administrators of the Punjab introduced reform in the agrar-
ian system with periodic settlements and records of rights as its
major planks. Land revenue began to increase steadily. New sources
of revenue were tapped. Irrigation projects completed between i860
and 1920 brought nearly 10,000,000 acres of land under cultivation,
creating a 'prosperous, progressive and modern' region in the
province and changing not only its agrarian economy but also its
demographic distribution and even its physical appearance. The
increase in production was reflected in the increasing volume and
value of trade.
Colonial rule in the Punjab as elsewhere in the subcontinent was
marked by economic exploitation. Geared largely to export needs, the
bulk of external trade was controlled by British exchange banks,
export-import firms and shipping concerns. Payment of home charges
out of Indian revenues drained wealth and converted rupees into
sterling at the officially determined rate to the advantage of the British.
The imperial government exercised control over the finances of the
Punjab and shared income and expenditure in a manner that tilted the
128

.--.—-v
_f jS? f Jammu &
v_-
J
•)
\ Kashmir { THE BRITISH INDIA

(20th Century)
Punjab
Laccadive Islands
(INDIA) • •.
Andaman and
Travancore\ Nicobar Islands
(INDIA)
Map 5 British India (twentieth century)
financial balance in its favour, making it a major co-sharer in the

increasing wealth of the Punjab.
From the very beginning, the British administrators of the Punjab
gave importance to education in English literature, western sciences
and social studies. For about two decades Dr G. W. Leitner tried to
revive the learning of Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit, to introduce
western sciences in vernacular languages and to raise the standard of
contemporary Indian literatures. Even his conception of a university
was different from what had been established at Bombay, Calcutta and
Madras. Nevertheless, when the Punjab University was established at
Lahore in 1882 its character was no different from that of the other
universities. The cause of indigenous education in the Punjab was
129

finally lost. Urdu was introduced as the medium of education in

government schools up to the matriculation level, though Punjabi was
the dominant language of the province.
Christian missionaries proved to be the greatest allies of the govern-
ment in spreading English education. The system of grant-in-aid at the
time of its introduction was meant primarily for their schools. They
made the press an effective medium of communication in Punjabi,
Urdu and Hindi for evangelization. In the process they denounced
indigenous religious beliefs and practices, social evils and morals of the
Punjabis rather openly and aggressively, partly because of their own
theological assumptions and partly because they regarded the colonial
rule as providential.1 In the popular mind they were closely allied with
the rulers, and their socio-cultural programme carried a sharper edge
because of this real or supposed alliance. The Punjabis reacted to the
presence of the Christian missionaries also because of their spectacular
success. Starting from about 4,000 in 1881, the number of Indian
Christians in the Punjab rose to over 300,000 in 1921.
The colonial regime produced a certain degree of social trans-
formation in the Punjab. The collapse of peasant prosperity by the
1880s was attributed by one contemporary administrator 'particularly
to the innovations of fixed assessments, freedom of contract, individual
property in land, and the series of technical laws which benefited the
rich and astute at the expense of the poor and the ignorant'.2 The
impoverishment of the small landholder was reflected in the increasing
number of the tenants-at-will. An unprecedented degree of commer-
cialization of agriculture facilitated the emergence of petty commodity
producers in the central districts of the province first and then in the
canal colonies. Socio-economic differentiation among landholders was
accentuated by the Punjab Land Alienation Act of 1900 which brought
the agricultural moneylender into greater prominence during the early
decades of the twentieth century.
Traders and moneylenders, the unconscious accomplices in the
commercialization of agriculture, were the subordinate beneficiaries of
colonial exploitation. The traditional business communities like the
Khatris, Aroras and Banias among the Hindus and the Shaikhs, Khojas
1
For the missionary work of the Presbyterians in the Punjab and their attitudes and
assumptions, John C. B. Webster, The Christian Community and Change in Nineteenth
Century North India, Macmillan, Delhi, 1976.
2
S. S. Thorbum, The Punjab in Peace and War, Punjab Languages Department, Patiala,
1970 (reprint), 252.
I30

and Pathans among the Muslims provided commercial leadership.

Looking for new opportunities they invested capital in small-scale
industries. The Punjab National Bank, a purely Indian concern, was
founded in 1895, followed by a number of other enterprises like the
Bharat Insurance Company and the People's Banking and Commercial
Association. The old moneylender blossomed into usurer through
high interest charges and forced sale of land at below market price,
virtually in collusion with munsifs and lawyers thrown up by the new
regime.
Indeed, to the agrarian and commercial middle classes was added a
professional middle class, through English education, which opened
the door to employment on the middle of bureaucratic rungs and in
professions like law, teaching and medicine. At the end of the
nineteenth century, the Punjabi Hindus outnumbered the Punjabi
Muslims on the middle and upper rungs of administration open to
Indians. The Khatrls among the Hindus occupied the largest propor-
tion of gazetted positions, followed by Brahmans, Aroras, Banias and
Rajputs. Among the Muslims, foremost in employment were Shaikhs,
followed by Pathans and Sayyids. The new professions too were
generally dominated by Hindus, particularly by the Khatrls. All
educated Punjabis were trying to climb up, and those who were lagging
behind wished to catch up with the others.
Numbers began to count, in argumentation as well as in census
reports, strengthening democratic assumptions without even the sem-
blance of a democratic system. Numerically both Hindus and Muslims
lost to Christians and Sikhs, the Hindus much more than the Muslims.
Since numbers were generally equated with strength, particularly for
employment under the government, change in numbers was viewed
with concern. As yet, however, there was little representation on
legislative or executive bodies on the basis of people's will. The Indian
Councils Act of 1861 was made operative in the Punjab only in the last
decade of the century, and all the nine members of the provincial
council were nominated by the Lieutenant Governor. The Act of 1909
raised the number of the legislative council to 30, but only a fifth of
them were to the elected members.
The political and socio-cultural concerns of the Punjabis were
reflected in their journalistic activity.3 More than half of the publi-
3
This is well brought out in Emmett David, Press and Politics in British Western Punjab
(1836-1947), Academic Publications, Delhi, 1983.

cations were brought out in Lahore. Next in importance was Amritsar

but with a wide margin; it brought out only a fourth of the number
published in Lahore. Books too began to be published in increasing
numbers. In 1911, nearly 600 books were published in Urdu, over 450
in Punjabi, and about eighty each in English and Hindi, not only in the
traditional forms of prose and poetry but also in the new forms of
drama and fiction. This literature and journalism reflected the commu-
nal concerns of the Punjabis as well as their interest in religious and
social reform, history and biography, sciences and arts.
The first to own a press for the propagation of their ideas in the
Punjab, besides the Christian missionaries and the government, were
the leaders of the Brahmo Samaj who started bringing out their
monthly Harl Haklkat in 1877. The Brahmo Samaj in the Punjab was
an offshoot of the movement started initially by Raja Ram Mohan Roy
in Bengal. Based on Upanishadic thought and appreciative of western
science and the Christian ethic, this rational yet theistic, tolerant yet
socially radical movement stood for the freedom of the press and
English education and espoused the cause of the low castes and the
Hindu woman. Though willing to make use of Urdu and Punjabi for
the propagation of their own ideas, the leaders of the Brahmo Samaj
had a decided preference for Hindi in Devanagri script. As Lajpat Rai
put it rather negatively, the 'atmosphere' of Brahmo literature was not
free from 'Hindu nationalism'.4
Swami Dayanand Sarswati, the founder of the Arya Samaj, had
published his Satydrth Prakdsh in Hindi before he came to the Punjab
in 1877. He had discarded the Vedantic monism of the Upanishads in
favour of a faith in an eternal, omniscient, all-pervading, just and
merciful God who revealed all true knowledge in the Vedas, the source
of all true virtue. The post-Aryan history of India was a long tale of
degeneration, particularly after its invasion by foreign peoples and
their alien faiths. The time had now come to regenerate Aryavarta with
true knowledge and virtue and to turn the tide against the invaders of
its culture. In the Satydrth Prakdsh there is a stronger argument against
Christianity and Islam than against Puranic Hinduism or Sikhism.
Swami Dayanand discarded idol-worship, traditional rites and rituals,
and pilgrimage to sacred places. He was opposed to child marriage,
discrimination against widows, distinctions of caste and restriction on
4
Quoted, Kenneth W. Jones, Arya Dharm, University of California Press, Berkeley,
1976, 65.

travel to foreign countries. He retained only the ritual oihavan and the
ideal of cow protection.
After Dayanand's death in 1883 the Lahore Arya Samaj decided to
establish a college in memorium. In the last decade of the nineteenth
century a system of Arya education was set up from primary to college
level, geared largely to the needs of the westernized Hindu middle
class. English literature, western science and social studies were
combined with Sanskrit and Hindi to evolve what was generally
known as the Anglo-Vedic system of education. Social reform went
ahead with simpler ceremonies for marriage, birth and death, remar-
riage of 'virgin widows', founding of orphanages, education of girls,
Ved parchdr for the propagation of new ideas and shuddhl for
reconversion to Arya dharma. After a split in 1893—1894, the 'militant'
Aryas in particular waged a war in print against Christians, Muslims,
Sikhs and the traditionist Hindus. The Arya leaders hobnobbed with
the Indian National Congress to promote the interests of Punjabi
Hindus. When the government became hostile to the urban leaders in
general and the Arya Samaj leaders in particular after the agitation of
1907, the Aryas declared the Samaj to be a non-political body and tried
to remove the impression that they were 'seditious'. Hindu Sabhas
sprang up in the province and the Punjab Hindu Conference was held
successively for six years from 1909 to 1914. The 'Arya' consciousness
was being transformed into 'Hindu' consciousness.
The British policy of impartiality towards all religious communities
encouraged corporate action within each, and leaders talked as if they
represented their entire community. The British policy of maintaining
'balance' between the various communities encouraged competition
between them. Communal consciousness, therefore, was not confined
to the Aryas or the Hindus. Muslim associations known as Anjuman-i-
Islamia and Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam were founded over the entire
province and formed a network to embrace education, social reform,
religion and politics during the last two decades of the nineteenth
century. Schools were established with western education as an
essential element in their programme, orphanages for boys and girls
were founded, preachers were sponsored, pamphlets and tracts were
printed and distributed, memorials and petitions were presented to
safeguard and promote Muslim interests.5 The influence of Sir Syed
5
Edward D. Churchill Jr., 'Muslim Societies of the Punjab, i860-1890', The Punjab Past
and Present., Vol. 8, Part i (April 1974), 69—91.
133

Ahmed Khan was palpable in the Punjab in the field of education as

well as politics. In 1887-1888 he advised the Muslims to remain aloof
from the Indian National Congress and his call proved to be effective
in the Punjab. There was a general fear among the Muslims that
representation based on elections and employment based on open
competition were not in their interest.
The 'Anglo-Muslim' programme of education and politics did not
exhaust the concerns of the Punjabi Muslims. In the 1870s there were
still a few hundred Wahhabis in the province, drawn generally from the
pre-industrial lower middle class, but their idea of jihad to get rid of
non-Muslim domination by armed force had lost its appeal.6 There
were a few hundred Ahl-i-Hadis too, who dwelt on the past alone for
reform, which had no appeal for the westernized middle-class
Muslims. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian, the founder of the
Admadiya movement, made a contribution to religious controversy
out of all proportion to the number of his followers. In his Burahin-i-
Ahmadiya (1880-1884), which was meant to rejuvenate Islam on the
basis of the Quran, he tried to refute the Christian missionaries, the
Ayra Samajists and the Brahmos. In another work he argued that Guru
Nanak was in fact a Muslim. Interpreting jihad as a peaceful propa-
gation of Islam (tabligh), he put all his energies into tabllgh, assuming
for himself the position of the promised Messiah (maslh-i-mawliid),
which made him rather heterodox. Muslims as well as Hindus, Sikhs
and Christians reacted to Ghulam Ahmad's publications to make the
last decade of the nineteenth century the highest watermark of
religious controversy in the Punjab.7
In the first and second decades of the twentieth century the idea of
Hindu Muslim separation was given constitutional and political recog-
nition in the Punjab as in the rest of the country. Two years after the
founding of the All India Muslim League the demand for separate
electorates for Muslims was made at Amritsar in 1908. The principle
was conceded and embodied in the Councils Act of 1909. To hasten
political and constitutional change, the Muslim League and the Con-
gress entered into a pact at Lucknow in 1916, ensuring separate
electorates for Muslims in every province and weightage in those in
6
Peter Hardy,'Wahhabis in the Punjab, 1876', The Punjab Past and Present, Vol. 15, Part
2 (October 1981), 428-32.
7
Spencer Lavan, 'Communalism in the Punjab: The Ahmadiyah Versus the Arya Samaj
During the Lifetime of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad', The Punjab Past and Present, Vol. 5, Part 2
(October 1971), 320-42.
134

which they formed a minority. There was only a small and a logical
step from the Lucknow Pact to the Reform Act of 1919 in which both
weightage and separate electorates for the Muslims were enshrined. In
the Punjab they got only separate electorates; weightage was to go to
the minorities.
II
To the British administrators of the Punjab in the early 1850s, the
decline of the former ruling class, the 'pillars' of the Sikh empire,
appeared to be inevitable. The gaudy retinues of the former jagirddrs
had disappeared, their country seats stood rather neglected and their
city residences were not thronged by visitors. The British admini-
strators hoped to 'render their decadence gradual' by allowing them
pensions, or a part of their jdgirs.
However, all of them were not treated alike. Jawahar Singh, the son
of Sardar Hari Singh Nalwa, who had fought against the British with
conspicuous gallantry at Chillianwala and Gujrat, lost all his jdgirs
and got no pension. Sardar Chattar Singh Atariwala and his son Raja
Sher Singh, the arch rebels, were banished from the Punjab but with
pensions. The 'rebels' generally lost jdglrs and got merely pensions for
life. The loyal members of the nobility retained a part of their jdglrs in
perpetuity. Raja Tej Singh, for instance, got z. jdgir worth about 20,000
rupees a year in perpetuity out of a jdgir of over 90,000 rupees for life.
Sardar Shamsher Singh Sandhanwalia, a former member of the
Regency Council, retained a fourth of his jdgir in perpetuity out of
40,000 rupees a year for life. The hope of reward induced a large
number of jagirddrs of the Punjab to demonstrate their loyalty to the
British rulers during the uprising of 1857-58, and the reward came in
terms of increase in pensions and jdglrs, grant of land in proprietorship
and employment in service, proving to be a turning point in their
fortunes. They began to be looked upon as the 'natural leaders' of the
society. Nearly half of the Sikh aristocratic families survived into the
twentieth century, readjusting themselves to the new situation. Many
of them played a leading role in socio-religious reform and consti-
tutional politics.8
8
The changing fortunes of the former jagirddrs of the Punjab come out clearly from an
analysis of Lepel Griffin's The Punjab Chiefs, published in 1865, and its subsequent editions
published in 1890, 1909, 1940.

The dharmarth grantees of the days of Ranjit Singh and his

successors were allowed to retain a part of their grants, and the Sikhs
remained the major recipients of revenue-free grants now as before.
Many Udasi mahants got proprietary rights over lands granted earlier
for their establishments or for the gurdwdras they maintained on
behalf of the Sikhs. The number of important gurdwdras enjoying
grants was not less than three scores, including a score of those
associated with Guru Nanak and his successors. The descendants of
Bhai Ram Singh, Gobind Ram and Bhai Gurmukh Singh, who had
been patronized by the former rulers, were treated with special
consideration by the British administrators.
The influence of Bhais and Sardars was utilized by the new rulers to
maintain effective control over the Golden Temple and the institutions
in its precincts. A committee headed by Raja Tej Singh was formed to
advise Sardar Jodh Singh who was appointed as an Extra Assistant
Commissioner at Amritsar to manage the affairs of the Golden Temple
complex. Through an administrative manual (dastur al-'aml), signed
by a large number of Sardars and the functionaries of the Golden
Temple in the presence of the Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar in
1859, its management was transformed into 'simple magisterial and
political control' to maintain influence over the 'high spirited and
excitable Khalsa'. It was conceded, however, that Guru Ram Das was
the sole proprietor of the institution and the entire body of the Khalsa
constituted the 'noviciate'.9 With the passage of time the Singhs would
claim not only the Golden Temple but all the historic gurdwdras as an
inheritance of the Sikh Panth.
Retrenched after 1845-46 and virtually disbanded after 1848-49,
the Khalsa came to form nearly a third of the 60,000 men raised from
the Punjab during 1857-58. Raised at a most critical time when other
recruiting grounds were in the hands of the rebels, the Khalsa were
called out to 'save the Empire' and they 'fulfilled their mission'.10
Henceforth they were to hold an honoured position in the Indian army
and to fight in nearly all major wars fought by the British in all the
three continents of the world. The proportion of the Sikhs in the
Indian army remained much larger than their proportion in the
9
Ian J. Kerr 'The British and the Administration of the Golden Temple in 1859', The
Punjab Past and Present, Vol. io, Part 2, (October 1976), 306—21.
10
A report of 1858, quoted, Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs, Oxford University
Press, 1978, Vol. 2, 114, n 47.
136

population. Their 'gallant and faithful service in all climes' made them
the 'pride of the Punjab'.11
The Sikh peasantry suffered economically in the late nineteenth
century with the rising tide of indebtedness but much less than others.
'Their love of gain and inherited shrewdness', observed a contempo-
rary British administrator, 'have, since the establishment of our reign
of law, enabled them to avoid the pitfalls of the system of administra-
tion which has demoralised so many of the less efficient agricultural
communities of the province.'12 Many Sikh landholders prospered as
commodity producers in the central Punjab and in the canal colonies.
However, prosperity and debt travelled together for the Sikhs as for
others. If some of the Sikh proprietors became richer, others became
poorer. Differentiation among the Sikh landholders was in evidence
everywhere but more so in the central districts of the Punjab. Apart
from service in the army, which played a sustaining role in rural
economy, emigration promised better opportunities of employment.
In the first decade of the twentieth century, the percentage of net
outmigration from the central Punjab rose from about 1.5 to nearly
4.75, and Sikh agriculturists represented a substantial portion of the
emigrants to other parts of the country and to other countries and
continents.
Much more striking than the increasing richness and poverty of the
Sikh peasantry, the employment of the Sikhs in the Indian army, the
conciliation of the Sikh priestly class or the partial rehabilitation of the
Sikh aristocracy from the viewpoint of Sikh resurgence was the sheer
increase in the number of Sikhs, from less than 2 millions in 1881 to
over 4 millions in 1931, raising the percentage in the total population of
the province from about 8 to over 13. In 1891 the number of Sikhs had
increased by more than 8 per cent but the percentage of increase in the
population of the Punjab was more than 1 o. In 1901, the corresponding
percentages were about 13.5. In 1911, when the total population of the
province was actually 2 per cent less than in 1901, the Sikh population
increased by more than 37 per cent.
Equally remarkable was the increase in the proportion of Keshdhari
Sikhs in the Sikh population. When the British administrators talked of
the declining number of the Sikhs in the early decades of British rule in
1
' Major G. F. Macmunn, 'The Martial Races of India', The Punjab Past and Present, Vol.
3, Pan 1 (April 1970), 75—77; Regionald Hodder, 'The Sikhs and the Sikh Wars', ibid.,
86-105.
12
S. S. Thorburn, The Punjab in Peace and War, 265.
137

the Punjab they had actually the Keshdharl Singhs in mind.13 The early
census operators were instructed to return only those Sikhs as 'Sikh'
who wore kesh and refrained from smoking. In 1911 for the first time
all those persons were returned as Sikhs who thought of themselves as
'Sikh', whether Keshdharis or Sehajdharis. By now the number and
proportion of Keshdharl Sikhs was increasing, rising from about
840,000 in 1891 to nearly 3,600,000 in 1931. The number of Sehajdharis
fell from nearly 580,000 in 1891 to less than 300,000 in 1931. Thus, the
percentage of Keshdharl Sikhs rose from less than seventy to more than
ninety in less than half a century.
Increase in the number of Sikhs was generally attributed to the
policy of the British to give preference to Sikhs in many branches of
government service as well as in the army. However, only in 1911 were
the Sikhs able to catch up with the Hindus in literacy, with 10.6 per
cent of literates among them. In 1921 they formed nearly 16 per cent of
the literates in the province, but literacy among them was still not
higher than among the Hindus. If the number of literates in the army
was not to be counted, the percentage of literacy among the Sikhs was
in fact much lower. Literacy in English was even lower than the
literacy in general. This position was reflected in the number of Sikhs
in the government services. In 1911, nearly 15 per cent of the Sikhs
were in the employment of the government but their percentage in the
civil service was less than eight. Even in the police force in which they
were believed to be well represented their percentage was less than
nine. If 'preference' for the Sikhs in many branches of government
service was the cause of increase in the number of Sikhs it was not
because of the partiality of the British but the smaller representation of
the Sikhs in the services other than the army.
Another cause of increase in the number of Sikhs was thought to be
'conversions' due to concern for religious reform among the educated
Sikhs. There is no doubt that many persons were influenced directly by
parchdr or the propagation of reform. Many more, however, were
affected by the growing consciousness of a distinct identity. 'A change
of sentiment on the part of the Sikh community has led many persons
recording themselves as Sikhs who were formerly content to be
13
This is evident from the statement of Lord Dalhousie quoted by Khushwant Singh in
his History of the Sikhs (Vol. 2,96 n 20) and the statement of Richard Temple quoted by Rajiv
A. Kapur in his Sikh Separatism, Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi, 1987, 8.
138

regarded as Hindus.'14 This phenomenon was best exemplified among

the Jats of the central districts of the Punjab: The percentage of Sikhs
among the Jats rose from less than fifty four in 1881 to nearly eighty in
1921, while the percentage of Hindus among the Jats decreased from
about forty in 1881 to less than ten in 1921. This was not a peculiarity
of the Jats. Their proportion among the Sikhs did not appreciably
change during all these decades. In fact the percentage of many other
caste groups among the Sikhs actually increased by 1921 when the
percentage of the Jats was slightly less than what it had been in 1881.
In terms of traditional professions, the number of agriculturists and
their percentage in the Sikh population increased only slightly during
these four decades, rising from about 1,190,000 persons in 1881 to over
2,000,000 in 1921, from 72.76 per cent to 73.53 per cent. Besides the
Jats they were represented by Kambos, Sainis, Rajputs and Mahtons.
The trading communities were represented by Khatrls and Aroras.
Their number rose from about 73,000 to over 177,000, improving their
percentage from 4.46 to 6.41 during these decades. The number of Sikh
artisans and craftsmen rose from about 122,000 to nearly 324,000 but
their percentage fell from 13.58 to 11.71 during this period. They were
represented by Tarkhans, Lohars, Jhlwars, Nils, Kumhars, Sunars,
Julahas, Darzis and Chhimbas. The number of traditional outcastes,
represented by Chuhras and Chamars among the Sikhs, rose from over
140,000 in 1881 to over 200,000 in 1921, but their percentage fell from
8.59 to 7.31 during these decades. But this could be partly due to the
fact that some of them did not return themselves as Chuhras or
Chamars. By 1921, the Sikhs coming from the traditional occupations
of agriculture, commerce, artisanry and scavenging constituted nearly
99 per cent of the Sikh population in the Punjab.
However, all the Sikhs were not pursuing their traditional occu-
pations. The Khatrls, Aroras and Brahmans among the Sikhs led in
literacy, followed at a considerable distance by Jats and other agricul-
turist groups, followed in turn by Tarkhans and by Jhiwars, Chamars
and Chuhras. In the early twentieth century they were all represented
in the new professions and occupations, though not in proportion to
their numbers. The agriculturists were represented adequately in the
army and the police; the trading groups were represented more than
14
James Douie, The Punjab, North-West Frontier Province and Kashmir, Seema Publi-
cations, Delhi, 1974 (reprint), 117. Douie also observed that the future of Sikhism was with
the Keshdharis: ibid., 118.
139

adequately in civil services and in the new professions of teaching,

medicine and law. However, there were also Khatris, Kalals, Tarkhans
and Chuhras in the army; and there were Labanas, Nals, Jhlwars and
Chhimbas too in the police. They were all represented in the pro-
fessions of law, medicine and teaching. In 1921, there were nearly
seventy factories owned or managed by Sikh Jats and thirty by Sikh
Tarkhans. Several of the non-agriculturist groups owned or cultivated
land. However, the largest bulk of land was still held by the traditional
land-owning groups, just as the bulk of the trade and shopkeeping was
still handled by the traditional business communities. In the pro-
fessions of law, medicine and teaching, the Khatri, Arora and Brahman
Sikhs found the largest representation, followed by the Jats. These
were the groups which had played a conspicuous part in the politico-
administrative and the socio-economic life of the Punjab during the
early nineteenth century. In the early decades of the twentieth century
they were back on the stage to participate in the growing resurgence in
the Sikh community and to feel their way towards wealth and power.
Ill
Religious ferment among the Sikhs was in evidence already at the time
of the annexation of the Punjab to the British empire. Baba Dayal, a
Malhotra Khatri of Rawalpindi, was asking his fellow Sikhs to believe
in only the Formless One (nirankdr), to reject all gods and goddesses,
to discard all Brahmanical rites and ceremonies and to conform their
lives to the teachings of the Granth Sahib. He came to have hundreds of
followers before he died in 1853. His eldest son, Baba Darbara Singh,
established many centres in towns and villages outside Rawalpindi,
appointing his representative (blraddr) for every local congregation
(sangat). For their guidance he prepared a hukmndma containing the
essential teachings of Baba Dayal. Though divine sanction is invoked
for the mission of Baba Dayal in this hukmndma and he is referred to as
'the true guru,' the doctrine of Guru-Granth is clearly enunciated.15
On his death in 1870, Baba Darbara Singh was succeeded by his
younger brother, Sahib Rattaji. He consolidated the work of his
predecessors by an uncompromising insistence on the Nirankari code
(rehat). He transformed the mission at Rawalpindi into an impersonal
15
An English version of this hukmndma is given by John C. B. Webster in The Nirankari
Sikhs, Macmillan, Delhi, 1979, 83-99.
140

institution in 1903, through a formal will which also reflects its

prosperity. The Nirankaris were now counted in thousands, consisting
of the Khatri, Arora and Bhatia traders, bankers and shopkeepers of
the towns and villages of the upper Sindh Sagar Doab. Even there,
however, some of them were turning to a new movement called the
Singh Sabha.16 True to their advocacy of a peculiarly Sikh ceremony of
marriage, the Nirankaris supported the Anand Marriage Bill in 1908-
1909 but the initiative for the bill had come from the Singh Sabha
reformers. Indeed, during the early twentieth century, under the
guidance of Baba Gurdit Singh who succeeded his father Sahib Rattaji
in 1909, the Nirankarl participation in Sikh resurgence remained rather
marginal. Geographically on the fringe, the Nirankaris could never
hold the central position even doctrinally. They remained as much true
to the mission of Baba Dayal as Baba Dayal was true to the mission of
Guru Nanak. But that was not the whole of the Sikh tradition. They
did not take Guru Gobind Singh fully into account, and they were
bound to lag behind when the Singh identity was coming to the fore.
The first reformer to emphasize the importance of Singh identity
under colonial rule was Baba Ram Singh. He was a disciple of Baba
Balak Singh, a Batra Arora, who too had invoked the authority of Sikh
scriptures, emphasized the importance of the Name (ndm) for sal-
vation and addressed himself to both Sehajdhari and Keshdharl house-
holders, from his centre at Hazro near Attock. A new direction was
given to his namdhdrl movement by Baba Ram Singh who worked in
the central districts of the Punjab, instituting the Sant Khalsa in 1862,
the year of Baba Balak Singh's death.17
By the middle of 1863, Baba Ram Singh was ordered by the British
administrators not to move out of his native village Bhaini in Ludhiana
district and not to hold a religious assembly (diwdn). Baba Ram Singh
subscribed to the doctrine of Guru-Granth but the mission of Guru
Gobind Singh was more important in his eyes. His followers were
administered the baptism of the double-edged sword (khande klpauhl)
16
Bhai Manna Singh, 'a saintly Sikh and the most illustrious member of the Nirankari
community, next to the Guru of this sect', performed kirtan and katha for the founding of
Singh Sabha at Gujar Khan. Bhagat Lakshman Singh, Autobiography (ed. Ganda Singh),
Calcutta, 1965, 107-09.
17
There are references to the Sant Khalsa in the official records of the 1860s and Baba Ram
Singh refers to its institution in 1862 in one of his letters. According to Bhagat Lakshman
Singh, Baba Ram Singh was a disciple of Baba Balak Singh who was a disciple of Bhagat
Jawahar Mai, a Kohli Khatri of Rawalpindi, and Baba Ram Singh was known to Jawahar Mai
as well: Autobiography, 3-6.
141

and, since there was a legal ban on carrying a sword, they were asked to
carry some other simple weapon or merely a staff. Like many of his
contemporary Sikhs, Baba Ram Singh believed that Guru Gobind
Singh had invoked the goddess Chandi when he instituted the Khalsa.
Many of his followers believed in the veracity of the San Sdkhi
attributed to Guru Gobind Singh in which the end of British rule in the
Punjab was foretold as a prelude to the establishment of Sikh rule
under a carpenter named Ram Singh.18 With the background of the
uprising of 1857-1858, the activity of his followers appeared to be
potentially dangerous. A circular letter of Baba Ram Singh, asking his
followers to come to Amntsar at the time of the Diwali, convinced the
British administrators that his internment at Bhaini could contain his
increasing popularity.
Within a few years of Baba Ram Singh's internment, however, the
number of his followers was estimated to have shot up to over 100,000.
Organizational improvement was reflected in the 'postal arrange-
ments' he evolved and the appointment of 'provincial governors'
(siibas) he made to look after the Namdharls, now popularly known as
Kukas.19 The millenarian hopes of his followers increased with the
popularity of his ideology among the peasantry in the central districts
of the Punjab. Invocation of the goddess Chandi, through chandl-
pdtbs, became an important ritual, giving a long leverage to the
'frenzied' (mastdna) among his followers. They expressed their icono-
clastic zeal in the destruction of idols, tombs, marhis and samddhs. In
1866-1867, a number of them were sentenced to an imprisonment of
three months to two years in the districts of Ludhiana, Ferozepur,
Hoshiarpur, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Gujranwala and Sialkot.
One great resentment which Baba Ram Singh developed against the
British was over the killing of kine for beef. The more irate among the
Kukas struck at the butchers in Amritsar first and then in Raikot in
Ludhiana district, killing seven persons and wounding twelve. Eventu-
ally, eight Kukas were sentenced to death. The Commissioner of
Ambala Division now marshalled every known fact and plausible
18
This prophecy, included in the Sau Sdkhi, was known to the British administrators in
1863: Nahar Singh (ed.), Gooroo Ram Singh and the Kuka Sikhs, Amrit Books, New Delhi,
1965. This volume contains official documents from 1863 to 1871.
19
In the reports of 1863, the followers of Baba Ram Singh are referred to as Kukas by
some of the administrators. They had acquired this name because of their ecstatic cries
(kaks) during the singing of hymns. Baba Ram Singh, who preferred to call them Namdharls
or Sant Khalsa, was also aware that others referred to his followers as Kukas.
142

argument to convince the higher authorities that murders could not

have taken place without Baba Ram Singh's approval. In any case, Baba
Ram Singh, according to the Commissioner, was oppposed to British
rule in the Punjab and he was hoping if not actually working for the
return of Sikh rule. While the suggestion of his removal from the
Punjab was under consideration, a band of the Kukas struck at Malaud
and Malerkotla in January, 1872, in search of arms to overawe the
kine-killers all over the Punjab. They killed ten and wounded seven-
teen persons in the process of getting one double-barrelled gun, five
horses and some swords. The Deputy Commissioner of Ludhiana,
L. Cowan, acted with undue promptness to save the empire from what
he felt was the beginning of a holocaust like the one of 1857-18 58. He
blew forty-nine Kukas from guns at the spot. The Commissioner of
Ambala, T. W. Forsyth, put his stamp of approval on what his
subordinate had done illegally: Forsyth ordered sixteen more Kukas to
be blown from guns. Cowan was removed from service and Forsyth
was removed from the Punjab. Baba Ram Singh and eleven of his subas
were sent to distant jails in or outside the subcontinent.
The devotees of Baba Ram Singh established contact with him at
Rangoon and letters began to exchange between Burma and the Punjab
with increasing frequency till 1880 when he was removed to Mergui
where he died five years later.20 His letters refer to the practice of
Anand marriage among his followers. Subscribing emphatically to the
doctrine of Guru-Granth, he refers to himself as the Guru's drummer,
his reporteur, a dog sitting at his door. But he was aware of the
prophecies which implied that he was the twelfth Guru. He came to
pay more and more attention to prophetic literature attributed to Guru
Gobind Singh: the Sau Sdkbi, the Prem Sumdrg and a Pothi discovered
at Prahladpur in the Hissar district. He was convinced of the impend-
ing fall of British rule through a political upheaval between 1877 and
1883. In this context he emphasized the importance of chandi-pdth and
the bhogs of Guru Granth Sahib and asked his followers not to join the
service of the British.
In the context of the prophecies of political turmoil, there was a
certain degree of excitement among the Kukas in the Punjab due to the
worsening relations of the British with Afghanistan and Russia. The
Police Superintendent of Ludhiana observed in 1878 that in the case of
20
About sixty letters of Baba Ram Singh are published by Ganda Singh in his Kukidn di
Vithya (Pbi), Amritsar, 1944.
143

a reverse to British arms the Kukas were sure 'to show their teeth' and
to get support from a large portion of 'ignorant agriculturists'.
However, the expected turmoil did not take place and the Kuka unrest
gradually merged into the issue raised by the expected return of
Maharaja Dalip Singh to India. In 1885 they were eagerly looking
forward to Dalip Singhs's visit to the Punjab, hoping that 'this would
be followed by the release and the return of their exiled Guru Ram
Singh'.21 In the late 1880s the Kukas were potentially his most
important supporters. Uneasy excitement among them began to
subside, however, when the Maharaja returned to his loyalty to the
Queen Empress in 1890. In the census of 1891 only about 10,500
persons returned themselves as Namdharis. They were now guided by
Baba Ram Singh's younger brother, Baba Hari Singh, who had taken
his place at Bhaini after his deportation in 1872. On Baba Hari Singh's
death in 1906, the leadership of the Namdharis devolved upon his son,
Mahraj Pratap Singh, who led them into free India as a sect within
Sikhism.
Before the end of the nineteenth century the Namdharis had dis-
carded militancy and stuck to the ideals of personal piety and earnest
living. They retained the idea and practice of 'intoxication'. They
developed the idea of a living guru. They could not be the precursors of
the movement known as the Singh Sabha which was characterized by
serious interest in modern education, including science and English
literature, and in the politics of numbers, municipalities, councils and
legislatures. The Namdhari idea of a living personal guru could not be
reconciled to the doctrines of Guru-Granth and Guru-Panth which
were reinforced by the Singh Sabha reformers with an uncompromis-
ing zeal.
IV
The Sri Guru Singh Sabha of Amritsar was founded in 1873 and
followed by the Lahore Singh Sabha in 1879. Then for twenty years, six
Singh Sabhas on the average were added every year. At the end of the
First World War there were Singh Sabhas in nearly all the cities of the
Punjab, in most of its towns and some of its villages. Nearly all these
associations had formal constitutions. Each Singh Sabha catered to a
21
Ganda Singh (ed.), Maharaja Duleep Singh Correspondence, Punjabi University,
Patiala, 1977, 387-88.
I44

small area in practice but in theory regarded itself as the representative

of the whole community. A new consciousness of common identity
was imparted by common concerns and a kindred outlook on the
world around in spite of rivalries due to differences in the social
background of the leaders, their image of the past or their vision of the
future.
The need for coordination brought into existence the Khalsa Diwan
at Amritsar in 1893 and the Khalsa Diwan at Lahore in 1896. Khalsa
Diwans were founded in a few other cities and towns as well. The Chief
Khalsa Diwan, founded at Amritsar in 1902, had about thirty Sabhas
and Diwans affiliated to it. By 1920, the number of associations
affiliated to the Chief Khalsa Diwan was more than a hundred.
Between 1890 and 1910, about a dozen allied or ancillary associations
were founded, like the Gurmat Granth Pracharak Sabha of Amritsar,
Gurmat Granth Sudharak Sabha of Amritsar, Gurmat Granth Sudha-
rak Sabha of Lahore, Khalsa Dharam Pracharak Sabha of Rawalpindi,
the Khalsa Tract Society, the Central Khalsa Orphanage, the Sikh
Education Conference, and the Punjab and Sind Bank. The leaders of
the Sikh associations came from all sections of the Sikh community in
varying proportions from place to place. The ruling families were
represented by the Princes of Nabha, Faridkot and Kapurthala. The
aristocracy was represented by men like Sunder Singh Majithia and
Harbans Singh Atariwala. The new middle class was represented by
teachers like Gurmukh Singh and Bhai Jodh Singh, petty bureaucrats
like Bhai Jawahar Singh and Babu Teja Singh, businessmen like
Trilochan Singh, scholars like Giani Gian Singh and Bhai Kahn Singh,
writers like Bhai Vir Singh and Bhai Mohan Singh Vaid and publicists
like Bhai Dit Singh Giani.
Whatever the differences between one Sabha or Diwan and another,
they were all concerned with religious reform. They felt a threat from
Christian missionaries who continued to gain converts from amongst
the Sikhs, besides the conspicuous conversion of Maharaja Dalip Singh
and Kanwar Harnam Singh Ahluwalia in the early decades of British
rule. Fear of conversion to Christianity was articulated in Sikh
publications even in the early twentieth century. There were stray
conversions to Islam as well. But more than the threat of Islam and
Christianity, the Singh reformers felt a threat from the Arya Samaj.
Despite Swami Dayanand's dim view of Sikhism in the Satydrth
Prakdsh, several eminent Sikhs had joined the Arya Samaj, but a
145

decisive break came in 1888 when the Arya 'fire-brands' mounted a

'thoughtless attack' on the Sikh Gurus.22 Bhai Jawahar Singh and Bhai
Dit Singh Giani felt obliged to leave the Arya Samaj leaders of Lahore
and to join the Singh Sabha reformers.
The Sikh-Arya confrontation sharpened the issue of Sikh identity.
The Sikh leaders in their farewell address to the Governor General in
1888 at Lahore expressed the view that the Sikhs should not be
'confounded with Hindus but treated in all respects as a separate
community'.23 The death of Dyal Singh Majithia in 1898 made the
question of Sikh identity a legal issue because his widow went to the
court to contest his will on the plea that he was not a Hindu. But the
court ruled that he was. This gave new impetus to the Sikh-Arya
debate. In this context Bhai Kahn Singh published his well-known
work Ham Hindu Nahin which is regarded now as a classic exposition
of a distinct Sikh identity. Bhagat Lakshman Singh refuted Bawa
Chajju Singh's contention that the Sikh Gurus were 'only Hindu
reformers', or that the Sikh scriptures were 'only mutilated copies' of
Hindu works. For Lakshman Singh, 'the Sikh dispensation was an
independent entity and not a subsidiary system, based on Hindu
philosophy'.24 In 1900, the Arya Samaj leaders reconverted some
Rehatia Sikhs through a ceremony involving the shaving of their
heads in public. The Singh reformers evolved their own programme of
purification (sbuddhf) and their confrontation with the Aryas con-
tinued into the twentieth century.
On several vital issues the Singh reformers had to contend not only
with outsiders but also with their fellow Sikhs. If some Sehajdharis
insisted that they were Sikh and not Hindu, some Keshdharis insisted
that they were Hindu. Baba Gurbakhsh Singh Bedi, son of Baba Sir
Khem Singh Bedi, made a public statement in 1910 that the Sikhs were
Hindus. Bhai Avtar Singh, a protege of Baba Sir Khem Singh Bedi,
maintained in a couple of tracts published a year later, that the Sikh
Gurus had worshipped gods and goddesses, accepted no Muslims as
their followers and maintained the distinctions of caste. A conservative
interpretation of Sikhism was built into the commentary of Sant Badan
Singh on the Adi Granth, sponsored by the ruling chief of Faridkot and
published in 1905. The Singh reformers did not appreciate this
22
Bhagat Lakshman Singh, Autobiography, 58.
23
'Bhai Jawahar Singh - Arya Samaj -Singh Sabha', The Punjab Past and Present, Vol. 7,
Part 1 (April 1973), 92.
24
Bhagat Lakshman Singh, Autobiography, 132-33.
146

'Hinduized' commentary and supported the religious views expressed

by Bhai Kahn Singh in his Gurmat Prabhdkar and Gurmat Sudhdkar,
both of which were published around 1900. A similar preference was
shown by the Singh reformers for M. A. Macauliffe's Sikh Religion,
published in 1909, over Ernest Trumpp's Adi Granth published three
decades earlier.
The volume of tracts and pamphlets expressing the social and
religious concerns of the Singh reformers increased sharply in the early
decades of the twentieth century. Apart from the general appeals for
return to the teachings of the Gurus, there were arguments against idol
worship, observance of fasts, notion of auspicious and inauspicious
days, the practice oisbrddhs, the celebration of Holi and other 'Hindu'
elements of belief and ritual. For 'Sikh' ceremonies and rites, a
comprehensive code was published by the Chief Khalsa Diwan in 1915
as the Gurmat Parkdsh Bhdg Sanskdr. The authenticity of the Dasam
Granth was questioned because its contents appeared to compromise
the ideal of monotheism. The idea of Guru-Panth became stronger
with the increasing importance of Singh identity. In a tract published in
1919, it was argued that no human being could be the Guru of the Sikhs
after Guru Gobind Singh decided to vest Guruship in the Adi Granth.
The Sikhs were 'to view themselves as the Panth and not to recognize
any single person as their sole leader'. The idea of Guru-Panth was
emerging as clearly as the equation of the Guru with the Adi Granth. 25
Interest in the past was a reflection of the concern for the present.
Giani Gian Singh led the way by publishing his Panth Parkdsh in 1880,
followed by his Tawdrikh-i-Guru Khdlsd in 1892. A number of books
in Punjabi were published on the lives of the Sikh Gurus, the
institution of the Khalsa, and the political struggle of the Sikhs against
the Mughals and the Afghans. Bhai Vir Singh, by far the most
important literary figure among the Singh reformers, recreated the
heroic age of the Khalsa in his Sundan, Bijai Singh, Satwant Kaur and
Bdbd Naudh Singh, producing historical fiction far more attractive
than history. The creative literature produced by the Sikh writers of the
early twentieth century also reflected concern for reform.26
25
T h e entries in N . Gerald Barrier's The Sikhs and Their Literature, M a n o h a r Book
Service, Delhi, 1970, contain ample evidence of the concerns, ideas and attitudes of the Sikhs
in the early decades of the twentieth century.
26
J. S. G r e w a l , ' T h e E m e r g e n c e of Punjabi D r a m a : A C u l t u r a l R e s p o n s e t o C o l o n i a l
R u l e ' , Journal of Regional History, G u r u N a n a k D e v U n i v e r s i t y , A m r i t s a r , Vol. 5 (1984),
115—S 5-
147

Map 6 The British Punjab
The Singh reformers welcomed English education and appreciated

western science and technology but they did not like the idea of
Christian instruction in missionary schools and no religious instruc-
tion in government institutions. They were keen to teach Sikh tenets
and Sikh history to their boys and girls as well as western science and
literature. This Anglo-Sikh system of education was an important
plank of reform. The proposal for a Khalsa College at Lahore was
made as early as 1885. In 1890, there was a hot debate about its
location.27 The foundation stone of Khalsa College was eventually laid
at Amritsar in March, 1892, and the College soon became the premier
educational institution of the Sikhs. Equally symbolic of the Singh
reform was the Kanya Maha Vidyalaya founded at Ferozpore by Bhai
Takht Singh in 1892, and run without any grant from the government
and without any tuition fees from the girls. It was followed by girls'
27
Some of the Arya Samaj leaders were not happy about the establishment of a Khalsa
College at Lahore: Bhagat Lakshman Singh, Autobiography, 90-93.
148

schools at Lahore, Amritsar, Rawalpindi and Ropar. High Schools

were established not only in cities but also in small towns like
Damdama Sahib and new towns like Lyallpur. A college was estab-
lished at Gujranwala before 1920 when the number of Sikh educational
institutions was more than three scores.
Like the Brahmos and the Arya Samajists, the Singh reformers were
opposed to Urdu as the medium of education and administration.
Unlike them, however, they supported Punjabi in Gurmukhi script
rather than Hindi in Devanagn script. They argued strongly that
school education should be based on 'the language of the people'.28
The traditional Punjabi literature was still dear to Muslim and Hindu
writers but the number of Hindu and Muslim writers taking to the new
literary genres in Punjabi was rather small. The Singh reformers
espoused the cause of new Punjabi literature. In their minds, Punjabi
language and literature were inseparable from the Gurmukhi script in
which were written their sacred scriptures.29 In the opening decade of
the twentieth century, the Singh reformers and the Arya Samajists were
fighting over the linguistic issue as well as the issue of religious
identity. Differences in language and script came to be progressively
associated with differences in religion, deepening communal
consciousness and its appeal.
Like most of the educated Punjabis, the Singh reformers tried to
promote their interests through journalism. The average number of
tracts by the Sikhs and on the Sikhs increased from about sixty a year in
the 1870s to about 160 a year in the late 1890s. Compared with the
'Hindu' press, however, the 'Sikh' press was rather weak. The most
important Sikh publications were the Gurmukhi Akhbdr and the
Khdlsa Akhbdr in Punjabi and The Khdlsa in English, which were
brought out from Lahore. The Nirgunidrd and the Khdlsa Samachdr in
Punjabi and the Khalsa Advocate in English were brought out from
Amritsar.
In the early twentieth century, the viewpoint of the Singh reformers
was consistently represented by the Khdlsa Samachdr. Apart from an
attempt in its numbers to counter the propaganda of Christian
missionaries, the Arya Samajists and the Ahmadiyas, there is an
insistence on the separate socio-religious identity of the Sikhs, an
28
N o t e 23, above.
29
A s an example of c o n t e m p o r a r y attitudes towards languages and scripts, Bhagat
Lakshman Singh, Autobiography, 110-13.
149

emphasis on the study of Sikh religious literature and Sikh history, an

increasing criticism of Udasis, pujdris and mabants, argument for the
good treatment of the Ramdasia and the Rehatia Sikhs, and an advo-
cacy of the education of women. There are pleas for the use of
Punjabi in Gurmukhi script at least up to primary level in education,
in courts, in post offices and in railway carriages. There is advocacy of
the Anand marriage. There is criticism of the management of gurd-
wdras and there is the argument that they should be handed over to
committees of Singhs because they belong to the Panth. There is a
general expression of loyalty to the British Government with pleas
for separate representation for the Sikhs in municipalities, local
boards, the provincial council and the imperial legislature. The domi-
nantly religious concerns of the late nineteenth century were thus
spilling over into the political concerns of the early twentieth cen-
tury.30
The British intelligence officer David Petrie thought of the neo-Sikhs

in 1911 as the source of disaffection among the Sikhs. These neo-
Sikhs were equated by him with the tat-khdlsd or the Singh
reformers. The activities even of the Chief Khalsa Diwan and its
leading light, Sunder Singh Majithia, appeared to him to be
potentially subversive. In any case, he saw a political dimension in the
programme of shuddhi because representation, and consequently
power, was expected to flow from numerical strength. Furthermore,
he disliked loose talk among the Singh reformers about the fallen
estate of the Sikhs because it carried the implication that it was due to
their loss of power. Their wretched condition under the Mughals was
obliquely suggestive of their miserable plight under the British.
Finally the past was invoked to carry implications for the present;
what the sword of Guru Gobind Singh did to the empire of Aurang-
zeb, the might of the Khalsa could do now to the British empire.
Seditious ideas were expressed through quotations from the Sikh
scriptures: 'the brave is he who fights in the cause of religion; the
rulers are lions and muqaddams are dogs; the times are a dagger and
30
Joginder Singh, 'Resurgence in Sikh Journalism', Journal of Regional History, Vol. }
(1982), 99—116; Satpal Kaur, 'Journalism in the Punjab and the Khalsa Samachar (1899-
1919)', M. Phil. Dissertation, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, 1985.
150

the rulers are butchers'. Petrie was inclined to attribute this new mood
to the increasing number and influence of the Singh reformers.31
There is no doubt that one of the professed objectives of the Chief
Khalsa Diwan was to safeguard 'the political rights' of the Sikhs.
However, their idea was to make representations to gain constitutional
positions or advantages from the British. In the late nineteenth
century, some of the Sikh leaders had worked with the Lahore Indian
Association and the Indian National Congress. The most eminent
among them was Dyal Singh Majithia who was closely associated with
the activities of the Brahmo Samajists and left behind the legacy of a
college, a library and The Tribune. Before the end of the nineteenth
century, however, he had come to be looked upon as an apostate by a
large number of Sikhs who did not like even to cast their eyes on him.32
Those of the Singh reformers who wanted to retain their image of
loyalty to the British did not appreciate Dyal Singh's politics either. In
any case, Bhai Jawahar Singh was telling the Sikhs not to associate
themselves with the Congress which was looked upon by the British
administrators with suspicion if not hostility.
Only some members of the ruling and aristocratic families were
representing the Sikhs on councils and legislatures, like the Maharaja of
Patiala, the Yuvraj of Nabha, Kanwar Harnam Singh Ahluwalia, Sir
Ranbir Singh, Baba Sir Khem Singh Bedi and Sunder Singh Majithia.
However they did not remain unaffected by the concerns of the Singh
reformers. The Anand Marriage Bill was proposed by Yuvraj Ripuda-
man Singh and introduced in the Imperial Council in October 1908. It
was meant to give legal recognition to the Sikh ceremony of marriage.
Not only the Arya Samajists but also many Sikhs were opposed to the
Bill, including the granthis of the Golden Temple. The Anand
marriage was regarded as an innovation of the Singh reformers by the
opponents of the Bill. Hundreds of communications were sent for and
against the Bill. The Nirankaris and the Namdharis wrote to the
government in its support. The support of the Nirankaris, who were
basically Sehajdharis, proved to be rather crucial in a tussle between the
conservative Sikhs and the Singh reformers. The Bill was eventually
passed in October 1909, when Sunder Singh Majithia was a member of
the Council.
31
D. Petrie, 'Recent Developments in Sikh Polities', The Punjab Past and Present, Vol. 4,
Part 2 (October 1970), 302-79. This comprehensive report was compiled in August, 1911.
32
Bhagat Lakshman Singh, Autobiography, 128-29.

If the Anand Marriage Act was a triumph for the Singh reformers,
the Act of 1909 proved to be a disappointment. The Provincial Council
was enlarged with the provision for eight of its members to be elected.
For nearly a decade, only one Sikh was elected. The Sikhs could find
representation only through nominated members like Partap Singh
Ahluwalia, Daljit Singh of Kapurthala, Baba Gurbakhsh Singh Bedi,
Sunder Singh Majithia and Gajjan Singh Grewal. The Singh reformers
felt more and more convinced that the Sikhs needed separate elector-
ates like the Muslims. Soon after the Lucknow Pact, Sunder Singh
Majithia wrote to the Lieutenant Governor that the Sikhs should be
given a share in the councils and administration with due regard to
their importance, their status before the annexation of the Punjab, their
present stake in the country and their services to the British empire.
Asking for a share in excess of the proportion of the Sikh population in
the province, Sunder Singh Majithia had in mind the Lucknow Pact
which gave such weightage to Muslims in the provinces where they
were in the minority.
A Sikh deputation met Chelmsford, the Governor General, in
November, 1917, to plead for separate electorates and weightage for
the Sikhs on the basis of their 'unique position'.33 In the Montford
Report it was noted that the Sikhs had remained unrepresented in spite
of their services to the empire. 'To the Sikhs, therefore, and to them
alone, we propose to extend the system already adopted in the case of
Muhammadans.'34 In September 1918, representatives of the entire
Sikh community prepared a memorandum on the initiative of the Chief
Khalsa Diwan to impress upon the government that the principle
conceded in the Montford Report should be 'carried out and fulfilled in
the fullest measure and in all its consequences'. However, the proposal
of 30 per cent share for the Sikhs in the provincial council was not
acceptable to its Hindu and Muslim members. On a strong rec-
ommendation from the Punjab government, nonetheless, the Fran-
chise Committee conceded 'a separate electoral role and separate
constituencies for the Sikhs'. In terms of weightage, however, the Sikhs
got merely half of what they had demanded, ten out of fifty eight seats
and not 30 percent.
Sikh politics was not confined to constitutional politics. During
33
Ruchi Ram Sahni, Struggle for Reform in Sikh Shrines (ed. Ganda Singh), SGPC,
Amrtsar, nd, 45-46.
34
Ibid., 46-47.

the unrest of 1907, Denzil Ibbetson had observed with some

concern that 'if the loyalty of the Jat Sikhs of the Punjab is ever
materially shaken, the danger will be greater than any which could
possibly arise in Bengal'.35 The leader of the agitation, Ajit Singh,
was paying special attention to the Sikhs, including soldiers and
pensioners. The Sikh peasants did participate in the agitation more
than the Muslim or Hindu peasants in proportion to their
numbers.
David Petrie had looked upon Sikh participation in the agitation of
1907 as an example of their disaffection. But the Singh reformers had
little to do with that agitation. As if to bear him out, they felt much
exercised when in 1913 the outer wall of the Rakabganj Gurdwara in
Delhi was dismantled to construct a road through its estate to the
Viceregal Lodge. When the Sikhs came to know of the demolition of
the wall, they sent telegrams, petitions and memoranda to the
Viceroy, the Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab, the Commander-in-
Chief and the Commissioner of Delhi. The Sikh Review was
launched in Delhi, with Sardul Singh Caveeshar as its editor, to
inform Sikh opinion on Sikh interests. However, Sunder Singh Maji-
thia and the Chief Khalsa Diwan tried to support and to accommo-
date the government. In the Sikh Education Conference held at
Jalandhar in April 1914, a Sikh leader from Lyallpur was not allowed
to raise the Rakabganj issue. In a meeting held at Amritsar, Sunder
Singh Majithia and his associates tried to support the official
viewpoint. Protest meetings were held in several places as much
against the Chief Khalsa Diwan as against the government. The
Rakabganj agitation was beginning to gain momentum when the war
broke out in September. The agitation was shelved but only to be
taken up after the war.36 In 1912 David Petrie had 'sufficient evidence
available to prove that a spirit of anti-British disaffection is com-
monly prevalent among the Sikhs in Canada'. Indeed the executive
committee of the Sikh Temple at Vancouver had resolved in October,
1909, that none of its members should wear 'any kind of medal,
buttons, uniforms or insignia which may signify that the position of
the party wearing the article is nothing but of a slave to the British
35
'Sir Denzil Ibbetson's Report o n Political Situation in Punjab (1907)', K. K. Khullar,
Shaheed Bhagat Singh, H e m Publishers, N e w Delhi, 1981, 98-110. This report was written
o n 30 April 1907.
36
Harjot Singh, 'From Gurdwara Rakabganj to the Viceregal Palace - A Study of
Religious Protest', The Punjab Past and Present, Vol. 14, Part 1 (April 1980), 182-98.
153

supremacy'.37 The resentment which thousands of Indians felt against

the blind racial prejudice of their white neighbours was transferred to
the colonial rulers of India. In a meeting of the United India League
and the Khalsa Diwan Society held in February, 1913, it was decided to
send a delegation to the Colonial Secretary and the Governor General
of India to present the case of Indian emigrants against the legal
disabilities and statutory discrimination they were suffering at the
hands of the states and the federal government in Canada. This
delegation was well received by the press in the Punjab, but the
Lieutenant Governor merely warned its members against inflamma-
tory speeches; Lord Hardinge expressed his inability to help them, and
the Colonial Secretary in London refused to meet them.
Before the delegation returned to Canada, a new organization called
the Hindi Association of the Pacific Coast, had been founded. It was
given the popular name of Ghadar Party by Har Dayal in the very first
issue of its weekly, the Ghadar. The Urdu and Gurmukhi editions of
the Ghadar began to circulate among the Indian settlers in three
continents. This propaganda had gone on for about six months when in
May 1914 the Japanese steamer Komagata Maru reached Vancouver
with 376 emigrants. Their entry into Canada became a legal issue in
which the validity of the new laws was upheld and their efficacy was
reflected in the return of the Komagata Maru in July with the bulk of
its passengers. The steamer was on the high seas when the war broke
out. None of its passengers was allowed to disembark before it reached
Calcutta. There, at Budge Budge, the passengers refused to be sent
straight to the Punjab and eighteen of them were killed when the
troops opened fire. The first batch of the Ghadarites had already left
America. The Komagata Maru affair appeared to merge into the
revolutionary programme of the Ghadar Party.
Batches of Ghadarites started coming to India from Canada, the
United States, Hong Kong and Shanghai, including their president
Sohan Singh Bhakna. The Indian government was much better
informed about their intentions and movements than they ever
imagined. Even their entry through the southern ports did not save
them all from the British dragnet. Of over 3,000 returning emigrants
who were handled by the police at Calcutta and Ludhiana, nearly 190
were interned and more than 700 were restricted to their villages.
37
Harish K. Puri, Ghadar Movement: Ideology, Organisation and Strategy, Guru Nanak
Dev University, Amritsar, 1983, 46.
154

Those of the revolutionaries who escaped the police started telling the
people openly to rise against the British. They addressed the Sikh
gatherings at Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Muktsar and Nankana Sahib, with
mixed response from their audiences. If Randhir Singh Grewal, who
had earlier participated in the Rakabganj Gurdwara agitation joined
the Ghadarites, Gajjan Singh Grewal condemned their seditious ideas
and passed their propaganda material on to the police. The leaders of
the Chief Khalsa Diwan looked upon them as dupes, and regarded
their activity as discreditable. The Zaildars and Lambardars in the
villages were ready to inform the police against the revolutionaries.
Their activities during 1914 were confined to a few robberies, an attack
on a railway station and an unsuccessful attempt at looting a treasury.
Disillusioned with the people, the revolutionaries turned to the army
units in the beginning of 1915.
Rash Bihari Bose and a few other revolutionary leaders, the only
category of political activists who had any sympathy for the Ghadarite
cause, arrived at this juncture. The revolutionaries were able to contact
a number of regiments, particularly the 23rd Cavalry at Lahore, the
28th Punjabis at Ferozepur, the 28th Pioneers and the 12th Cavalry at
Meerut. They were optimistic about their response. February 21 was
fixed as the date of general rising, advanced to February 19 in view of
suspected leakage. This date too was known to the authorities. The
disaffected regiments were disarmed; suspects were court martialled
and executed. The attempt of the revolutionaries to capture arms from
the arsenals at Lahore and Ferozepur and the police station at Sarhali in
Amritsar district proved abortive. The revolutionaries blamed the
informers and the loyalist supporters of the administration for this
fiasco and killed a few of them. By about the middle of 1915 the hope of
a popular rising was over. All that was now left of the ghadar was a
series of conspiracy trials in which forty-two of the accused were
sentenced to death, 114 were transported for life and ninety-three were
given long or short terms of imprisonment. A few of them left a legend
behind, like the young Kartar Singh Sarabha who had gone about
seducing the soldiers with astounding audacity and faced the trial with
cool courage, ready to lay down his life in 'the struggle for India's
freedom'.38
Like the Punjabi labourers repatriated in 1914 and 1915, the Ghada-
38
Ibid., 161; 'Sarabha, Kartar Singh', Dictionary of National Biography (ed. S. P. Sen),
Institute of Historical Studies, Calcutta, 1974-
MS

rites who returned to the Punjab to fight for the freedom of the country
belonged overwhelmingly to the central Punjab, and they were over-
whelmingly Sikh. Some of their leaders recalled later that they had been
inspired by the novels of Bhai Vir Singh and the Panth Prakdsh of
Giani Gian Singh to live or die heroically. The non-Sikh revolutionary
leaders made an important contribution in terms of the goal and the
direction. In the process, the rank and file of the Ghadarites as well as
their Sikh leaders acquired a genuinely 'national' outlook. Their source
of inspiration, however, remained almost exclusively Sikh. Appeal to
their religious sentiment was made in many an article or a poem in the
Gbadar, though for a secular end. It was implied that love, whether of
God or the country, demanded sacrifice. To fight against tyranny of
this kind was presented as the duty of a true Sikh. To take up the sword
as a last resort was an injunction of Guru Gobind Singh. The memory
of Sikh heroes and martyrs was evoked. The Sikh heritage of struggle
was presented in terms of a struggle for liberation, substituting the
Khalsa Panth by the country. Not indifference to faith but secular
interpretation of the heritage came to divide them from the Singh
reformers of the Punjab.
156

CHAPTER 8
IN THE STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM

(1920-1947)
The phase of about three decades from the end of the First World War
to the Act of Independence in 1947 was marked by intense political
activity appearing first in the form of the Act of 1935 and then in the
form of independence and partition. However, the struggle for
freedom was not always constitutional; it was also agitational, and even
militant. The Sikhs participated in the struggle for freedom in all its
forms.
In a general meeting of the Sikh leaders at Lahore in March, 1919, a new

political party known as the Central Sikh League was announced, and
it was formally inaugurated at Amritsar in the last week of December.
The immediate and long-term objectives of the new party were put
forth in the first issue of its organ, the Akdli: to rebuild the demolished
wall of the Rakabganj Gurdwara, to bring the Khalsa College at
Amritsar under the control of the representatives of the Sikh commu-
nity, to liberate gurdwdras from the control of the mahants, and to
inspire the Sikhs to participate in the struggle for the country's
freedom.1
The Rakabganj issue was taken up by the Central Sikh League when
a few of the prominent individuals who had participated in the
agitation of 1914 approached Sardul Singh Caveeshar at Lahore to
revive the agitation. Caveeshar issued an appeal in the Akdli of
September 2, 1920: 'Wanted 100 martyrs to save gurdwdras'. Within a
fortnight, he received 700 offers. The method and the mood had
changed. Before the band of martyrs (shabidi jathd) led by Sardul Singh
reached Delhi to construct the demolished wall, the government had
reconstructed the wall at its own expense and handed over the
Gurdwara to the Khalsa Diwan of Delhi.
1
Harjot Singh, 'From Gurdwara Rakabganj to the Viceregal Palace - A Study of Religious
Protest', The Punjab Past and Present, Vol. 14, Part 1 (April 1980), 182-98. The Akdli was
the new name given in May 1920, to the Khalsa Akhbdr, a weekly published by Harchand
Singh of Lyallpur.
157

The control of the Khalsa College at Amritsar was restored to the

representatives of the Sikhs in November, 1920. The Central Sikh
League in its second annual session at Lahore on 20 October 1920, had
resolved to support the non-cooperation movement. The teachers and
students of the Khalsa College demanded that the College should
refuse grant-in-aid from the government. The management of the
College since 1908 had been entrusted to the Deputy Commissioner of
Amritsar ostensibly on financial but intrinsically on political grounds.
When the College Council passed a resolution on October 31 against
receiving any grant from the government, no basis was left for
government control over the management of the College. Sunder Singh
Majithia became President of the Managing Committee in place of the
Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar.2
This development was overshadowed by what was happening at the
Golden Temple. The Central Sikh League had demanded that 'this
foremost seat of Sikh faith should be placed in the hands of a
representative body of the Sikhs, constituted on an elective basis and
responsible for its action to the Panth at large'.3 In the month of
October, the Golden Temple and the Akal Takht were taken over by
the Singh reformers and placed under the management of a committee.
The government appointed another committee consisting of thirty-six
members, mostly from the Sikh aristocracy. The leaders of the Central
Sikh League called a general meeting of the Sikhs in November. It was
attended by more than 10,000 Sikhs who elected 175 members to form
a managing committee for all Sikh gurdwdras. The comprehensive
scope of its authority was implied in the name chosen for this
committee: Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee. It became
responsible for launching a movement for liberating all gurdwdras
from their custodians on behalf of the Sikh Panth. In this self-assigned
task the Shiromani Committee was assisted by the Shiromani Akali
Dal, formed at Amritsar in December, 1920, to coordinate the local
bands of volunteers known as Akali Jathas. Thus, within one year of
the inauguration of the Central Sikh League, its concerns resulted in
the formation of two organizations which were to play a vital role in
the history of the Sikhs after 1920.
1
Kashmir Singh, 'Managing Committee of Khalsa College Amritsar: Its Relations with
British Government', Proceedings Punjab History Conference, Punjabi University, Patiala,
1983, 221-24.
3
Quoted, Mohinder Singh, The Akali Movement, Macmillan, Delhi, 1978, 21.
158

II
With the direct and indirect support of the Central Sikh League and the
Indian National Congress, the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak
Committee and the Shiromani Akali Dal started what a contemporary
called 'the third Sikh war', a non-violent struggle against the govern-
ment for the control of gurdwdras. On 25 January 1921, a band of
about forty Akalis took over the Darbar Sahib at Tarn Taran from its
mahants but not before two Akalis were killed and several of them
were wounded by the henchmen employed by the mahants. In fact, a
local jathd had been beaten up only a fortnight earlier. The mahants
were ejected now and a managing committee was appointed by the
Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee.
The British administrators did not like the gurdwdras to pass under
the control of managing committees appointed by the Shiromani
Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee on behalf of the Sikh Panth. Their
earlier posture that the control of a gurdwara could be contested in a
court of law was of little use to the mahants against the direct action
launched by the Akalis. When the mahant of Nankana Sahib, Narain
Das, approached the administrators for advice and support against the
Akali threat of direct action, he was encouraged to make his own
arrangements to meet the threat. Consequently when over a hundred
Sikhs entered the Gurdwara at Nankana Sahib on 20 February 1921,
without any intention yet of taking it over, they were attacked by the
hired assassins of Mahant Narain Das. Most of them were killed or
wounded, and burnt at the spot. The Akalis reached Nankana Sahib in
thousands. The authorities arrested Mahant Narain Das and over a
score of his hired assassins. On 3 March 1921, the Gurdwara was
handed over to a committee, with Harbans Singh Atariwala as its
President.4
In May, 1921, the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee
passed a resolution in support of non-cooperation. It was clear that the
Singh reformers had thrown in their lot with Mahatma Gandhi. The
British administrators felt obliged to revise their policy of acquiescing
in the increasing control of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak
Committee over the gurdwdras. In October, 1921, the executive of the
Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee asked its secretary,
4
Nankana Sahib was visited in the first week of March by Mahatma Gandhi, Maulana
Shaukat Ali, Dr Saifuddin Kitchlew and Lajpat Rai, among others.

Sunder Singh Ramgarhia, who was also the officially appointed

manager of the Golden Temple, to hand over the bunch of its fifty-
three keys to Baba Kharak Singh, the President of the Shiromani
Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee. Sunder Singh Ramgarhia sought
the advice of the Deputy Commissioner who deputed his subordinate
Lala Amar Nath to collect the keys from Sunder Singh Ramgarhia. The
Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee decided to hold protest
meetings against this interference. The Akah protesters were arrested
and awarded punishments. However, the number of protest meetings,
arrests and punishments went on increasing till 17 January 1922, when
all the Akali workers and leaders were released unconditionally and the
keys of the Golden Temple were handed over to Baba Kharak Singh.
The 'first decisive battle for India's freedom won' was the telegraphic
message sent by Mahatma Gandhi to Baba Kharak Singh.5
The keys were delivered to the Shiromani Committee as a politic
measure in view of the large proportion of the Sikhs in the army, a large
number of disbanded Sikh soldiers, an unprecedented Hindu-Muslim
solidarity on the Khilafat issue and the threat of an intensive civil
disobedience at the beginning of 1922.6 After the middle of the year,
however, the situation appeared to have changed and the British
administrators were inclined to humble the Akalis who, for their part,
were feeling that Swaraj was the only remedy of all their troubles.7
The Mahant of the Gurdwara Guru Ka Bagh, near Ajnala in the
Amritsar district, who had submitted to the Shiromani Committee
nearly a year earlier was encouraged by the administrators to treat the
Akalis as trespassers. The Akalis accepted the challenge and launched a
morchd which became the most famous in the Akali struggle for the
control of gurdwdras. On 9 August 1922, five Akalis who had chopped
wood from the land adjoining the Gurdwara for the community
kitchen (langar) were arrested and put on trial for theft. By August 25,
the number of Akalis arrested rose to over 200. Pickets were placed on
the road to Guru Ka Bagh and the gathering at the Bagh was declared to
be an unlawful assembly. Akali volunteers continued to reach Amritsar
5
Ganda Singh (ed.), Some Confidential Papers of the Akali Movement, SGPC, Amritsar,
1965, 11.
6
John Maynard, 'The Sikh Problem in the Punjab, 1920-23', The Punjab Past and
Present, Vol. 11, Part 1 (April 1977), 129-41. This article was originally published in the
Contemporary Review in September, 1923.
7
Sardul Singh Caveeshar, 'The Akali Movement', The Punjab Past and Present, Vol. 7,
Part 1 (April 1973), 136.
160

and bands of fifty to ioo and even 200 Akalis continued to march from
the Akal Takht to the Guru Ka Bagh to suffer blows in passive
resistance. By October 19, the number of Akalis arrested was more
than 2,450. On October 25, a jatbd consisting entirely of army
pensioners reached Guru Ka Bagh under the leadership of a retired
Subedar Major. This development was deemed to have dangerous
implications. The Mahant was persuaded to sell the entire estab-
lishment to Sir Ganga Ram who, in turn, handed it over to the Akalis
on 17 November 1922. In March, 1923, more than 5,000 Akali
volunteers were released from jails in appreciation of the role of the
Akalis in a situation of Hindu—Muslim riot in Amntsar. C. F.
Andrews, who had visited the Guru Ka Bagh in September 1922 to be
shocked by the brutality and inhumanity of the British administrators
and their henchmen, admired the Akalis for their patient suffering
without any sign of fear. In his eyes the Guru Ka Bagh morcha was a
'new lesson in moral warfare'.8
The last battle of 'the third Sikh war' was fought outside British
territory in a neighbouring princely state. Maharaja Ripudaman Singh
of Nabha was forced to abdicate in favour of his minor son on 9 July
1923. Because of his sympathy for the Singh reformers, the Shiromani
Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee decided on August 4 to take up his
cause. Meetings were held in protest. In a meeting held at Jaito in the
Nabha state on August 25, the action of the government was con-
demned. The organizers of the meeting were arrested. New leaders
started an akhand-pdth. It was disrupted. The Shiromani Gurdwara
Prabandhak Committee condemned the official action and resolved to
restore the Sikh right to free worship.
It was decided to send jathds from the Akal Takht to Jaito for
completing an akhand-pdth as a matter of right. On 12 October 1923,
the Shiromani Akali Dal as well as the Shiromani Gurdwara Praban-
dhak Committee were declared to be unlawful associations. All the
sixty members of the morcha committee were arrested and charged
with treason against the King-Emperor. New members replaced the
old ones and jathds continued to reach Jaito. On 21 February 1924, a
special jathd of 500 Akalis was sent to mark the third anniversary of the
Nankana Sahib massacre. Its departure from the Golden Temple was
witnessed by 30,000 people. The British administrators in Nabha
decided to stop the jathd by firing at the Akalis. Three hundred
8
Ruchi Ram Sahni, Struggle for Freedom in Sikh Shrines, SGPC, Amritsar nd, 176—83.

volunteers were injured, of whom a hundred eventually died. Neverthe-

less, jathds continued to march to Jaito till 101 akhand-pdths were
completed on 6 August 1925, and the right to free worship was firmly
established.
Jawahar Lai Nehru who had marvelled at the courage and sacrifice of
the Akalis during the Guru Ka Bagh morchd, was looking for an
opportunity to show his deep admiration for them by some form of
service. He visited Jaito during the morchd to be arrested, and rejoiced
at being tried for a cause which the Sikhs had made their own. Indeed,
the leaders of the Indian National Congress supported the Akalis in the
Jaito morchd as they had supported them during the morchd at Guru
Ka Bagh. However, after the release of Mahatma Gandhi on 5
February 1924, the Congress support became less enthusiastic.
Mahatma Gandhi wanted the political issue of abdication to be
completely separated from the religious issue. The Punjab Governor,
Malcolm Hailey, was as much keen to separate the religious from the
political issue as to split the Akali leadership, to divide their resources
by opening new fronts and to alienate Hindus and Muslims from their
cause by attributing political designs to them.9
Malcolm Hailey was nonetheless prepared to go a long way in
conceding the demand with which the Akali movement had started.
On 7 May 1925, a Bill was introduced in the Legislative Council and
adopted on July 7. It received the assent of the Governor General in
Council on July 28 and came into force on 1 November 1925. This Act
recognized the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee as the
legal authority to manage and control Sikh gurdwdras. With this
constitutional recognition added to its links with the Sikh masses and
control over a large number of important gurdwdras, the Shiromani
Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, popularly referred to as the SGPC,
was well poised to overshadow the Chief Khalsa Diwan and to become
the foremost Sikh institution of the twentieth century.10
During the five years of the Akali movement 400 persons suffered
death, 2,000 were wounded and 30,000 men and women were jailed.
The pensions and jdgirs of many were withdrawn, fines were imposed
and property was confiscated in the case of many others; many lost
their jobs; soldiers were court-martialled for wearing kirpdn or a black
9
Mohinder Singh, The Akali Movement, Macmillan, Delhi, 1978, 62-86, 126—36.
10
Gobinder Singh, Religion and Politics in the Punjab, Deep and Deep Publications, New
Delhi, 1986.
162

turban; printers, publishers and editors suffered for their sympathy

with the movement. As a contemporary put it, the British authorities
soon came to believe that the Gurdwara Reform Movement was a
subversive movement which aimed at overthrowing the British Raj and
which therefore, it was necessary to suppress.11 For Sardul Singh
Caveeshar, freedom of religion and the freedom of the country went
together. He regarded the Akali movement as 'only an offshoot of the
national movement. The national spirit impregnated the Sikh hearts
through and through; they desired to assume responsibility as much
for the control and management of the temples as for the administra-
tion of the country.'12
In 1920 almost two-thirds of the Akalis were Jats, and 15 per cent of
the protesters belonged to the low castes. This was broadly in
proportion to their numbers in the Sikh population. The urban Singhs,
who were mainly Khatris and Aroras, constituted nearly 19 per cent of
the protesters, representing a much larger proportion than their
number in the Sikh population. The number of recently returned
immigrants was considerable among the Akali protesters and so was
the role of former soldiers in the movement. The general impression
carried by the contemporaries that the Akali movement found support
from nearly all sections of the Sikh community was not wrong.
According to Sardul Singh Caveeshar the Akali movement was 'pre-
eminently the movement of the masses, of the humble folk recruited
from among peasants, artisans and the labourers. Doctors, pleaders,
editors, merchants and the professors were all in the movement but
their number was very small.'13
Ill
All the Akalis did not appreciate passive resistance or non-violence as

the political weapon to fight against the colonial rulers. A few of the
Akali leaders and some old Ghadarites reacted sharply to the cold-
blooded murder of a large number of Singh reformers at Nankana Sahib
in February, 1921. A month later, when the Sikh Education Conference
11
Bhagat Lakshman Singh, Autobiobraphy (ed. Ganda Singh), the Sikh Cultural Centre,
Calcutta, 1965, 256.
12
Sardul Singh Caveeshar, 'The Akali Movement', The Punjab Past and Present, Vol. 7,
Part 1 (April 1973), 135.
13
Sardul Singh Caveeshar, 140; Teja Singh, 'The Singh Sabha Movement', The Punjab
Past and Present, Vol. 7, Part 1 (April 1973), 42.
163

met at Hoshiarpur, a few militant leaders found the opportunity to

conspire revenge upon the persons who were deemed to be essentially
responsible for the massacre at Nankana Sahib. Before the end of May,
1921, an unsuccessful attempt was made on the life of G. M. Bowring,
the Superintendent of Police, and Sunder Singh Majithia. A few of the
conspirators were arrested and the others absconded, including Master
Mota Singh and Kishan Singh popularly known as Gargajj.
During the year following some of the militant leaders were arrested
but the others were able to enlist more supporters to their programme.
In August, 1922, an organization known as the Babbar Akali Jatha was
formed with the twin objective of vindicating the Sikh faith and gaining
political independence. The Babbar Akalis addressed themselves to
demobilized soldiers as well as to the Singh reformers. They invited
Hindus and Muslims too, for eliminating the British officials and their
Indian and Punjabi supporters. They brought out fifteen issues of the
Babbar Ak all Do aba from August 1922 to May 1923, from a press that
moved from place to place to propagate their ideas in the districts of
Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur. In 1923, they also undertook a campaign of
political murders. Consequently, in August, 1923, the Babbar Akali
Jatha was declared to be an unlawful association. In less than a year
then, almost all the important Babbar Akalis were either eliminated or
arrested. They were tried in courts and in the verdict given in February,
1925, it was imputed that their aim was to gain independence in India
and Sikh rule in the Punjab. Six Babbars were hanged a year later, in
February, 1926. Several organizations, including the Central Sikh
League, issued appeals for raising a fund for the families of the Babbars
who were hanged. Many a poet glorified their martyrdom.
Bhagat Singh, a nephew of Ajit Singh, founded the Naujawan Bharat
Sabha which organized public meetings in Lahore from March, 1926 to
April, 1927. It remained dormant for about a year till it was revived in
April, 1928. The declared aim of the Sabha was to organize labourers
and peasants for establishing an independent Republic in India with all
its inhabitants forming a united Indian Nation. Bhagat Singh and his
comrades subscribed to the idea that 'a single deed makes more
propaganda in a few days than a thousand pamphlets'. Nevertheless, in
the sessions of the Naujawan Bharat Sabha in 1929, the ideas expressed
were not only anti-British and revolutionary but also socialistic. One
session was presided over by Sohan Singh Josh who is well known as
both an Akali and a Communist leader; the other session held at
164

Amritsar in August was attended by Jawaharlal Nehru. There was

rather a close link between the Indian National Congress and the
Naujawan Bharat Sabha. In 1928, the Sabha supported the Congress in
its protest demonstration against the Simon Commission. Lord Irwin
observed that the activities of the Sabha and the Congress in the Punjab
had been 'identical'.
At about his time, however, Bhagat Singh was activating the
Hindustan Socialist Republican Association with the help of Sukhdev
and Bhagwati Charan. The objective of the Association was not merely
the freedom of India from foreign rule but also the restructuring of
society on socialist principles. However, their approach was militant.
In fact, they came to regard the civil disobedience movement as a
failure. They favoured violence in the cause of justice. In their
'philosophy of the bomb', it was legitimate to make 'loud noise to
make the deaf hear'. The two best-known incidents in which the
leaders of the Association took an active part exemplified their basic
attitude: the murder of J. P. Saunders, who was thought to be
responsible for Lajpat Rai's death, on 17 December 1928 and the
throwing of a bomb in the Legislative Assembly in Delhi on 8 April
1929. Such activities continued for some time more under the leader-
ship of Yash Pal but militant nationalism lost its appeal soon after the
execution of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru on 23 March 1932.14
Of all the militant revolutionaries, Bhagat Singh, towards the end of
his life, had probably the best grasp of the rationale and the impli-
cations of socialist revolution. In one of his articles published in
September 1931 he states that before the end of 1926 he was convinced
of the baselessness of 'the theory of existence of an almighty supreme
being who created, guided and controlled the universe'. Such a theory,
in his view, was refuted by the existence of human misery. Further-
more, it went against the progressive assumption that it was necessary
for man to establish his domination over nature. Thus, there was a
close connection between Bhagat Singh's atheistic position and his
ideology of social progress. To fight against the alien rulers was a
laudable objective but not a 'revolutionary idea'. Revolution for
Bhagat Singh meant a 'systematic reconstruction' of society after a
'complete destruction' of the existing order. Such a revolutionary
social reconstruction could not be based on a teleological or meta-
14
Kamlesh Mohan, Militant Nationalism in the Punjab, 1919-19}$, Manohar, New
Delhi, 1985, 146-95.
165

physical interpretation of the universe; it needed a rational and causal

world-view.15
The influence of the Russian Revolution was more clearly visible in
the Kirti Kisan Party which drew its support from the former
Ghadarites as well as from some Akalis and Babbars. The Ghadar Party
in California had sent Santokh Singh and Rattan Singh as its repre-
sentatives to the fourth Congress of the Communist International in
November, 1922. They left Moscow for India in 1923 but Santokh
Singh, who was a founder member of the Ghadar Party, was confined
to his village for two years by the police authorities of the Punjab.
Towards the end of 1925 he moved to Amritsar and started the Kirti
with the help of two other Ghadarites, Bhag Singh Canadian and
Karam Singh Cheema. Like the Ghadar and the Babbar Akdli Dodba,
the Kirti made use of verses from the Sikh scriptures. It showed great
concern for liberating the working class from the bourgeois ideology.
In April, 1928, in a meeting called by Sohan Singh Josh and Bhag Singh
Canadian and held at the Jalhanwala Bagh in Amritsar, it was resolved
to establish a party to organize workers and peasants. The name chosen
for it was appropriately the Kirti Kisan Party. Nearly all the leaders of
the party were Sikhs, with a rural or revolutionary background. Unlike
the Naujawan Bharat Sabha, the Kirti Kisan Party was opposed to the
Indian National Congress. The Kirtis supported the idea of expro-
priating large landholders though they did not subscribe to cooperative
farming. They advocated an increase in wages and a reduction in
revenues and water rates. In September 1934, the Kirti Kisan Party was
one of several organizations which were declared illegal and dissolved.
IV
Notwithstanding the preoccupation of the majority of the politically

articulate Sikhs with agitational and militant politics, the working of
the Act of 1919 and the formulation of the Act of 19 3 5 remained central
to the politics of the Punjab. Sikh representation in the Imperial
Council and Legislature was rather marginal. The Sikhs had only one
out of the four seats meant for the Punjab in the Council of States. In
the Legislative Assembly they had only two seats out of the eleven for
the Punjab. The twelfth seat for the Punjab was meant for landholders,
15
Bhagat Singh, Why I Am An Atheist, Shahid Bhagat Singh Research Committee, Delhi,
'979-
166

including the Sikhs. In all, thirteen Sikhs were represented on both

these bodies between 1919 and 1947.16
Sikh participation in the Legislative Council of the Punjab was only
a little more satisfactory. The Sikhs had thirteen seats out of a total of
seventy-one. One of these thirteen seats was meant for the urban
contituency and another for the constituency of landholders. Elections
to the Council were held in 1920, 1923, 1926 and 1930. During all these
years, forty-six persons represented the Sikhs in the Legislative
Council, which indicates that the membership of the Council changed
rather frequently. Only a few candidates were elected twice or thrice.
Though most of the candidates fought elections in their individual
capacity, parties began gradually to be formed.17
Between 1920 and 1937, the Punjab Legislative Council was domi-
nated by the Unionist Party. Formed initially by Fazl-i-Husain as the
Rural Party from amongst the Muslim, Hindu and Sikh members
elected to the Council in 1920, it came to be known as the Unionist
Party by the time of the second elections and dominated the consti-
tutional politics of the Punjab for nearly a quarter of a century till its
defeat in the elections of 1946. Two other political parties contested the
elections in 1923, namely the Swarajists and the Hindu Nationalist
Party. Two of the Sikh members elected to the Council were sponsored
by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee. The Congress
contested elections only in 1926 and won a few seats. In 1930, the
elections were boycotted not only by the Congress but also by the
Central Sikh League and the Akalis. The field, thus, was left wide open
for the Unionists. The Sikh legislators who collaborated with them
were either independents or leaders of the Chief Khalsa Diwan. The
ministers were appointed by the Governor without reference to any
political party. The Sikh legislators who became ministers were Sunder
Singh Majithia and, in his absence, Joginder Singh. Sikh representation
in the Government as well as the Council remained rather unsatis-
factory from the viewpoint of the new Sikh leaders.18
The Unionist Party professed to be representative of the rural
classes, irrespective of religious differences, and to safeguard the
interests of all landholders. In actual operation, however, its Muslim
16
The federal provisions of the Act of 193 5 were never implemented. Therefore the Act of
1919 remained operative till the formation of the interim government in 1946.
17
Knpal C. Yadav, Elections in Punjab, 1920-1947, Manohar, Delhi, 1987.
18
The Sikh minister did not represent the Sikh legislators; they, in turn, did not
necessarily represent the Singh reformers.
167

leaders gave preference to Muslim interests and the interests of the

richer landholders. The Reform Enquiry Committee observed in 1924
that the Ministry of Education, which was headed by Fazl-i-Husain
himself, had subordinated the interests of its departments to 'the
support of the communal interests of the Mohammadans'.19 Separate
electorates were extended by the Unionists to municipal bodies, and
reservation was introduced in educational institutions. In 1932, they
improved the proportion of Muslims in services from the older ratio
of 40, 40 and 20 for Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs respectively to 50, 30
and 20.
The working of the 'transferred' departments under the Unionists
largely determined the attitude of the Sikhs towards constitutional
reform. The Central Sikh League asked for abandoning communal
representation or weightage for the Sikhs. The Akalis as well as the
Central Sikh League decided to boycott the Simon Commission and to
hold protest demonstrations jointly with the Congress. The Chief
Khalsa Diwan submitted a memorandum to the commission asking for
reservations and constitutional safeguards for the Sikhs. The moderate
Sikh leaders formed the Central Sikh Association to represent the Sikh
case before the Commission; they asked for 30 per cent representation
each for the Sikhs and the Hindus. The Unionists, who appeared to
represent the majority view, asked for the maintenance of communal
electorates and for greater autonomy and power for the province.
The Akali and the Central Sikh League leaders attended the All
Parties Conference at Delhi in February, 1928 and Mangal Singh Gill
became a member of the Moti Lai Nehru Committee to frame a
constitution for India as an alternative to the proceedings of the Simon
Commission. The report prepared by the committee recommended
separate electorates for Muslims in provinces other than the Punjab
and Bengal. When the report was taken up in the All Parties meeting at
Lucknow in August, the Sikh delegates raised the issue regarding their
position in the Punjab. Some of them demanded that if separate
electorates or weightage was to be maintained for minorities in other
provinces then a similar provision should be made for the Sikhs. Most
of the Sikh leaders dreaded the prospect of universal suffrage without
reservation of seats for the Sikhs as a minority.
The Central Sikh League decided to reject the Nehru Report and to
i9
Quoted, K. L. Tuteja, Sikh Politics (1920-40), Vishal Publications, Kuruskshetra, 1984,
136.
168

boycott the Congress session scheduled to be held at Lahore. Mahatma

Gandhi, Moti Lai Nehru and M. A. Ansari met Master Tara Singh and
Baba Kharak Singh to inform them that the Congress Working
Committee had replaced the goal of Dominion Status by 'complete
independence', an objective on which Baba Kharak Singh had been
insisting. The Sikh leaders were persuaded to participate in the
Congress session at Lahore towards the end of 1929. In this session the
resolution for 'complete independence' was passed. Furthermore, the
Congress gave explicit assurance to the minorities that no constitution
would be acceptable to the Congress if it did not give 'full satisfaction'
to the Sikhs and the Muslims as minorities. Baba Kharak Singh, Master
Tara Singh and other Sikh leaders felt satisfied with this declaration of
Congress intentions. Sikh participation in the celebration of Indepen-
dence Day on 26 January 1930 was marked by enthusiasm. When
Mahatma Gandhi launched Civil Disobedience in March, 1930, Baba
Kharak Singh refused to join unless the Sikh colour was included in the
national flag, but the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Central Sikh League
decided to join the Civil Disobedience. The Shiromani Gurdwara
Prabandhak Committee joined the movement after the firing incident
at the Sisganj Gurdwara in Delhi.
The report of the Simon Commission appeared in June, 1930,
retaining communal electorates and reservations. It was rejected by the
Sikh leaders. In response to a call from the Congress they decided to
boycott the elections in August. They also decided to boycott the First
Round Table Conference. Ujjal Singh and Sampuran Singh, who were
invited to the Conference, did not represent the Akalis or the Central
Sikh League. In March, 1931, when the Gandhi-Irwin Pact was signed,
the Central Sikh League decided to participate in the Second Round
Table Conference. Master Tara Singh presented a memorandum to
Mahatma Gandhi which contained a proposal to alter the boundaries
of the Punjab to give larger representation to Hindus and Sikhs in
addition to reservation of seats for the Sikhs on the basis of joint
electorates.
In August, Ramsay MacDonald announced his award, popularly
known as the Communal Award, which retained separate electorates
and reinforced reservations. What was galling for the Sikh leaders was
the proposed distribution of seats in the Punjab Legislative Council:
eighty-eight for Muslims, forty-four for Hindus and thirty-three for
Sikhs. The only party that found the award satisfactory was the
169

Unionist party. The Sikh leaders were strongly opposed to the award
but the Congress remained neutral. This award was to become the basis
of the Act in 1935 with greater autonomy to the provinces.20
The Sikh leaders tried unsuccessfully to ensure that the 'communal
award' did not become the basis of formal legislation. As a significant
result of their activity of these few years the Shiromani Akali Dal
emerged as an important political party of the Sikhs. In a general
meeting of the Sikhs held in September, 1932, it was decided to form
the Khalsa Darbar to present a united front against the 'communal
award'. However, in its second meeting held in the year following,
Baba Kharak Singh and his supporters dissociated themselves from the
Darbar and tried to raise parallel organizations, while the Central Sikh
League was merged with the Khalsa Darbar. A further split in the
Darbar on the eve of the elections of 1937 divided its leaders into two
camps: the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Congressite Sikhs. The
Central Sikh League became extinct in the process.
In the election to the Punjab Legislative Assembly in 1937 about a

dozen political parties took part. The most successful were the
Unionists who won ninety-five out of the total 175 seats. In forming
the government, they were joined by the legislators elected on the
ticket of the Khalsa National Party which represented the leaders of the
Chief Khalsa Diwan and the Hindu Election Board which represented
the non-Congress Hindu leaders. In the opposition eighteen legislators
belonged to the Indian National Congress and ten to the Shiromani
Akali Dal. One or two seats each were won by the Muslim League, the
Congress Nationalists, the Socialists, the Majlis-i-Ahrar and the
Itihad-i-Millat, and there were nineteen independent legislators.
Prominent among the Khalsa Nationals were Sunder Singh Majithia,
Ujjal Singh, Joginder Singh and Dasaundha Singh. Among the Akahs,
there were Baldev Singh, Giani Kartar Singh, Partap Singh Kairon,
Sampuran Singh and Kapur Singh. Under Sikandar Hayat and Khizr
Hayat Khan as the Unionist Premiers, Sunder Singh Majithia was
succeeded on his death in 1941 as a minister by Dasaundha Singh who
20
By the Act of 1935 the provincial governments were made 'completely autonomous and
they and the central government acted in mutually excluded spheres of administration': V. P.
Menon, The Transfer of Power in India, Orient Longman, New Delhi, 1979 (reprint), 52.
170

was replaced by Baldev Singh in June, 1942. There remained only one
Sikh minister at a time now as before, though the number of ministers
in the province increased from three in the 1920s to six in the 1940s.21
After the formation of the ministry in 1937 the first important
political development was Sikandar Hayat Khan's agreement with
Jinnah at Lucknow in October, 1937. It made all Muslim legislators of
the Punjab Unionists within the province but Muslim Leaguers outside
the province. In reaction, Gokul Chand Narang left the Unionists.
Sunder Singh Majithia did not leave the Unionists but only because of
Sikandar's reassurance that there would be no change in the policies of
the Unionist Party. There was no need. As Khizr Hayat Khan was to
point out later, the policies of the Unionist Party had enabled 'the
backward' Muslim community of the Punjab to compare 'favourably
with any in India or even elsewhere' and the Muslims were surely the
'predominant community' of the province.22 The Sikandar-Jinnah
agreement brought the Akalis and the Congress leaders formally closer
to one another. In November, 1938, when the All-India Akali Confer-
ence was held at Rawalpindi, the Akali and Congress flags were hoisted
together, and the Akali leaders appreciated the Congress as the only
representative political party in the country, a true trustee of national
honour and self respect.
Much more important than the Sikandar-Jinnah agreement was the
outbreak of war in September, 1939. The Unionists offered uncon-
ditional support. The Chief Khalsa Diwan was equally prompt, though
it wished the government in turn to safeguard Sikh rights and privi-
leges, culture and religious liberty. The Shiromani Akali Dal wanted
the government to declare its war aims, following thus the Congress
lead on this issue. Unlike the Congress, however, the Akali Dal did not
relish the prospect of being isolated in the Punjab on the issue of war
effort. Master Tara Singh tried to persuade the Congress through
Mahatma Gandhi that the Sikhs might participate in the war effort, but
only to receive a categorical and rather strong disapproval from the
Mahatma. Before the end of 1940 Master Tara Singh felt obliged to
resign from the Congress Working Committee.23
21
This fact was pointed o u t as a grievance b y Sikh leaders in the 1940s.
22
Khizr H a y a t Khan Tiwana, "The 1937 Elections and t h e Sikandar-Jinnah Pact' (ed.
Craig Baxter), The Punjab Past and Present, Vol. 10, Part 2 ( O c t o b e r 1976), 356-85.
23
K. L. Tuteja, Sikh Politics (1920-40), 193-95; Jaswant Singh (ed.), Master Tara Singh,
Pbi, Amritsar, 1972, 168-70. Combining the evidence cited in these works it becomes clear
how thin was the line between 'communalism' and 'nationalism' in the minds of the leaders.

By this time, the Akali leaders were not feeling happy with the
Congress because of its indifference to the resolution of the Muslim
League, passed at Lahore in March, 1940, which appeared to demand
separate states in the Muslim majority areas in the north-west and the
north-east of the subcontinent. Sikandar Hayat Khan clarified his
position in a forceful speech in the Assembly, making an appeal to the
Punjabi sentiment of its members.24 Nevertheless, the resolution of the
Muslim League, popularly referred to as the 'Pakistan Resolution', was
denounced at the All-India Akali Conference. Dr V. S. Bhatti of
Ludhiana published a pamphlet demanding 'Khalistan' as a buffer state
between India and 'Pakistan'. That the idea of Khalistan was meant
merely to oppose the idea of Pakistan is evident from the frequent use
of the phrase 'if Pakistan is to be conceded'. On 1 December 1940, a
general conference of the Sikhs was convened at Lahore to pass a
resolution against the formation of Pakistan. Throughout 1940,
however, the Congress did not formally react to the 'Pakistan Resolu-
tion', treating the idea as fantastic.
By the beginning of 1941, the Shiromani Akali Dal was finally
committed to support the war effort. The Khalsa Defence League was
formed in January, 1941, under the leadership of the Maharaja of
Patiala with the sympathy and support of Master Tara Singh and Giani
Kartar Singh among others. Confrontation with the government in the
early 1920s had resulted in the decrease of Sikh soldiers in the Indian
army. The Akalis were afraid of further loss on this account. The
government was equally keen to enlist their entire support during the
war. Sikandar was encouraged to forge a link with the Akali leaders. In
March, 1942, Baldev Singh formed a new party in the Assembly under
the label of United Punjab Sikh Party, consisting initially of a few
Akali and independent legislators. Three months later he joined the
ministry on the basis of an agreement with Sikandar Hayat Khan. The
British administrators looked upon the pact with great satisfaction.
Like the leaders of the left parties, only a handful of Akalis took part in
the Quit India Movement in August, 1942. For the time being, the
Second World War became for them all 'the war for freedom'
(jang-i-dzddf).
24
V. P. Menon, The Transfer of Power in India, 443-5 8. Sikandar was applauded when he
referred to 'our province, our motherland' as 'the sword arm' of India and asked the Punjabis
to stand united to tell the meddling busybodies from outside, 'hands off the Punjab'.
172

Neither the Sikandar-Baldev Singh pact nor the Quit India

Resolution of the Congress was so important to the Sikhs as the
spectre of partition which appeared on the horizon of Indian poli-
tics in 1942. The mission of Stafford Cripps appeared to concede
Pakistan in principle. The experience of 'Muslim' domination in the
province in the form of the Unionist politics which concealed
Muslim partialities under a Punjabi front obliged the Akalis to
dread the prospect of its perpetuation. Therefore, the Sikhs in
general and the Akalis in particular denounced the principle of
partition even more than the fact of the constitutional domination
by a single community in the province. Master Tara Singh and
Giani Kartar Singh declared that Pakistan could be formed only
over 'their dead bodies'.
The idea put forth by Master Tara Singh in his memorandum to
Mahatma Gandhi in 1931 became much more relevant now. Master
Tara Singh wrote to Stafford Cripps that, since the Sikhs could not
dominate in any large area because of their more or less thin distri-
bution over the province, it was unthinkable to demand domi-
nation. However, a province could certainly be carved out 'in
which the Sikhs are dominated by no single community'.25 This
was the basis of the Azad Punjab Scheme which the Akalis tried to
clarify and popularize for about two years as an alternative to the
Cripps Proposals.
The use of the word azad gave the wrong impression that the
proposed Punjab was meant to be an independent state. The Sikhs and
Hindus of the western districts, particularly in the Rawalpindi Divi-
sion, were opposed to it because of their implied exclusion. The Akali
leaders tried to clarify their position and to justify their demand to all
fair-minded Punjabis. Master Tara Singh declared in December, 1942,
that the Punjab he visualized would consist of 40 per cent Muslims, 40
per cent Hindus and 20 per cent Sikhs. Again, in March, 1943, he
asserted that by creating Azad Punjab, the Sikhs and Hindus will get
rid of the spectre of Pakistan. By the middle of 1943, Master Tara Singh
felt obliged to refer to his memorandum of 1931 to make it clear that
the Sikhs were not in a majority anywhere to ask for a Sikh state. He
insisted that they wished to remain in India and should not be forced to
get out. In this context Sadhu Singh Hamdard published a booklet in
25
Quoted, Kirpal Singh, The Partition of the Punjab, Punjabi University, Patiala, 1972,
10.
173

1943 giving the background, the objectives and the boundaries of the
Azad Punjab.26
In 1944 C. Rajagopalachari came out with his famous formula
involving the principle not only of the partition of the country but also
of the possible partition of Bengal and the Punjab. Apparently, he had
the blessings of Mahatma Gandhi and his proposal in the popular mind
came to be associated with the Congress. The Sikhs reacted sharply to
the formula. In August, 1944, an All Parties Sikh Conference under the
presidentship of Baldev Singh came to the conclusion that, since it set
aside the Lahore resolution of 1929, it was a breach of faith by the
Congress. Therefore, in a general meeting of the Sikhs on August
20-21 at Amritsar it was resolved that no settlement would be
acceptable to the Sikhs if it was not based on their prior consent. In
October, 1944, the Akali leaders thought of a Sikh state as an alterna-
tive to Pakistan but their main grievance was that the Congress had not
kept its promise of 1929. Mahatma Gandhi reassured Durlabh Singh
that the Lahore resolution of the Congress was still valid. By this time
Gandhi-Jinnah talks had broken down and Jinnah had rejected Rajago-
palachari's formula as the basis of any understanding with the Con-
gress. In their memorandum to the Sapru Committee, the Sikhs
reiterated that if Pakistan was to be conceded the Sikhs would insist on
the creation of a state with a substantial Sikh population and provision
for transfer of population and property. But even after the Simla
conference in 1945 the Sikh leaders were hoping that the demand for
Pakistan would not be conceded.
VI
The Akalis fought the elections of 1946 independently of the Congress

but in support of the unity and integrity of the country. They could
come to an understanding with the Congress only in four constitu-
encies which were believed to be the stronghold of the Communists
whom the Congress leaders had not forgiven after what was regarded
as their betrayal at the time of the Quit India Movement, and whom the
Akalis denounced as atheists. Ironically, the election manifesto of the
Communists underlined the justification for a Sikh state as much as for
26
Published anonymously in the middle of 1943, the Azad Punjab was brought out for the
second time under the author's name before the year ended. It contains a map showing the
area of the proposed Azad Punjab from the Jamuna to the Chenab.
174

Pakistan.27 They believed that in espousing the principle of self-

determination for cultural minorities they were only being consistent.
They failed to win even a single seat. The largest number of seats were
won by the Muslim League, seventy-four out of 175; the Congress
came out second with fifty-one seats, including ten Sikh seats; the
Akalis won the remaining twenty-three of the Sikh seats, the Unionists
won only twenty-one seats, with only twelve Muslim legislators. The
Muslim League and the Akalis had fought elections on the issue of
Pakistan, ranged on opposite sides. The cleavage was clearly reflected
in the election results. The Akalis emerged as the sole representatives of
the Sikhs on the issue of Pakistan and partition.
The single largest party in the legislature, the Muslim League failed
to form a ministry primarily because no other political party in the
Punjab was willing to form a coalition with its leaders. Jawaharlal
Nehru was inclined to support the League in principle because of its
mass base, but Maulana Abul Kalam Azad as the Congress President
had already decided in favour of a coalition with the Unionists and the
Akalis, and he had the support of Mahatma Gandhi. Khizr Hayat Khan
Tiwana formed the coalition ministry in March, 1946. This 'makeshift
coalition' merely glossed over a position in which practically all
Muslims were on one side and nearly all non-Muslims on the other.
Punjabis ceased to be Punjabis and became Muslims, Hindus and
Sikhs. Until the ministry resigned in March, 1947, the Punjab
Governor thought he was 'the only member of the Government who
could meet members of the opposition naturally and without con-
straint'.28 The major concern of the ministry was to maintain law and
order in face of the mounting communal tension.
The results of the elections convinced the Sikhs that the possibility of
Pakistan had turned into a probability. In any case, when the mission
of the British Cabinet ministers arrived in New Delhi, the most
outstanding issue of the moment was a united India versus Pakistan.
The case of the Sikh community was presented to the Cabinet Mission
first by Master Tara Singh, Giani Kartar Singh and Harnam Singh
together as the Sikh leaders and then by Baldev Singh alone as the Sikh
minister. They were asked specially to express their views on whether
they favoured a united India or its division, and in the case of its
27
D r G . Adhikari, the author of the Sikh Homeland Through Hindu-Muslim-Sikh Unity,
Bombay, 1944, w r o t e the election manifesto of the C o m m u n i s t Party.
28
Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre (eds), Mountbatten and the Partition of India,
Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi, 1982, 133.
175

division whether they would join India or Pakistan, or would they like
to have a state of their own. They were all opposed to the creation of
Pakistan. But if Pakistan was to be created they opted for a Sikh state.
Master Tara Singh wanted the right for a separate independent Sikh
state to federate with Hindustan or Pakistan. However, the Sikh state
or Khalistan of the Sikh leaders was still synonymous with an area in
which no single community was in absolute majority.29
The proposals of the Cabinet Mission, embodied in their statement
of 16 May 1946, gave a serious jolt to the Sikhs. Whereas the Congress
leaders could see in this statement the possibility of a virtual federation
in a united India and the Muslim League a virtual Pakistan, the Sikhs
could see nothing but their perpetual subjection to a Muslim majority
in the Punjab. Master Tara Singh wrote to Pethic-Lawrence on May 25
that a wave of dejection, resentment and indignation had run through
the Sikh community because the Cabinet Mission Proposals would
place the Sikhs permanently at the mercy of the Muslim majority. In an
all-parties conference of the Sikhs at Amritsar on 10 June 1946, the
Cabinet Mission Proposals were rejected.30
Before the Cabinet Mission left India on June 29, the Akali leaders
rejected the interim proposals as well. An organization called the
Panthic Pratinidhi Board was formed as a representative body of nearly
all Sikh organizations. Its formation symbolized the will of the Sikh
community to fight against the dreaded domination of Pakistan. It
resolved to accept no constitution that did not meet their just demands.
Within a fortnight of this resolution the Panthic Board was faced with
the concrete issue whether or not Baldev Singh should join the interim
government. The Board decided against his joining the government.
By early September, however, the Sikh leaders accepted both the
long-term and the interim proposals. On June 2,5, the Congress Work-
ing Committee had noted among other things the unfairness of the
Cabinet Mission Proposals to some of the minorities, especially the
Sikhs; the Congress rejected the idea of joining the interim government
but decided to join the Constituent Assembly. At Wardha on August
8, however, the Congress Working Committee turned in favour of
Jawaharlal Nehru forming the interim government. Baldev Singh asked
Attlee to intervene for undoing the wrong done to the Sikhs. Attlee
29
V. P. M e n o n , The Transfer of Power in India, 242-43. Even w h e n the Sikh leaders
talked of a 'Sikh State', o r 'Khalistan', o r 'Sikhistan', they did n o t think of a territory in which
the Sikhs w o u l d form a majority.
30
Ibid., 272.
176

referred the matter to the Congress President through the Viceroy,

advising Baldev Singh at the same time that the Sikhs should join the
Constituent Assembly. The Congress Working Committee passed a
resolution assuring the Sikhs of all possible support in removing their
legitimate grievances and in securing adequate safeguards for the
protection of their just interests in the Punjab. In response, the Panthic
Pratinidhi Board decided to accept the statement of 16 May 1946, and
to send their representatives to the Constituent Assembly. Baldev
Singh joined the interim government as Defence Minister on 2 Septem-
ber 1946.
VII
Early in August, 1946, the Punjab Governor had noticed that the
League resolution of direct action passed in July was bringing the Sikhs
closer to the Congress. After Baldev Singh joined the interim govern-
ment, Swaran Singh became the leader of the Akali legislators and
signed a pact with Bhim Sen Sachar to ensure unity of action among the
Congress and Akali members of the Assembly. The opponents of
Sachar in the Punjab Congress raised objection to the Akali-Congress
pact but the Congress President, Acharya Kriplani, ruled that Sachar
was within his rights to enter such an understanding with the Akalis in
the Legislative Assembly.
This renewed understanding enabled the Akalis to convince the
leaders of the Congress that the best way to safeguard the interests of
the minorities in the Punjab was to divide the province into two units.
The Sikh leaders were against the idea of compulsory grouping of
provinces. On 5 January 1947, in a meeting of the All India Congress
Committee, Jawaharlal Nehru moved the resolution that the Congress
could not be a party to compulsion. 'In the event of any attempt at such
compulsion, a province or part of a province has the right to take such
action as may be deemed necessary in order to give effect to the wishes
of the people concerned.'31 A few days later Mangal Singh Gill made
the statement that partition of the Punjab into two parts was the 'only
solution which would help the Sikhs'. When Wavell pressed upon
Nehru the necessity of getting the Muslim League into the Constituent
Assembly, Nehru argued that 'it was only logical that large minorities
inside a province, such as the Hindus in Bengal and the Hindus and
31
Ibid., 332.
l
77

Sikhs in the Punjab, could also not be compelled into an unacceptable

constitution'.32
To the attraction of the idea of partition was added an element of
necessity by the mounting violence in the Punjab. Balked in their
aspiration to form a ministry the leaders of the Muslim League had
concentrated their energies upon bringing down the ministry of Khizr
Hayat, resorting to direct action against what they regarded as the
suppression of civil liberties. In January, 1947, Khizr Hayat Khan
banned the National Guards, and the Muslim League started a civil
disobedience movement. With the pace of this movement rose the
pitch of communal tension. The Hindu and Sikh legislators of the
Punjab wanted Khizr Hayat Khan to suppress the agitation; the
agitators wanted him to join the League or resign. On March 2, he
decided suddenly to resign. On March 3 the leaders of the Congress
and the Sikhs made violent speeches to leave no scope for the League to
form a coalition. Riots broke out in Lahore on the day following, and
spread later to Amritsar, Multan, Rawalpindi, Jalandhar and Sialkot.
With reference to these events the Congress Working Committee, in
its meeting on March 5, resolved that 'in order to avoid compulsion of
any section, the province should be divided into two parts so that the
predominantly Muslim portion might be separated from the predom-
inantly non-Muslim portion'.33 This resolution had 'a tremendous
reassuring effect' on the Hindus and Sikhs of the Punjab.
Ten days after his arrival in India in March, 1947, Mountbatten
noted that all parties in the Punjab were seriously preparing for civil
war, and of these 'by far the most business-like and serious are the
Sikhs'.34 He was inclined to think that the partition of the province was
really inevitable. On the Governor's suggestion he decided to meet the
Sikh leaders. He met Master Tara Singh, Giani Kartar Singh and Baldev
Singh on April 18. They were emphatic that the Sikhs would fight to
the last man if put under Muslim domination. They invoked property
and religious or historical associations as the criteria of partition and
talked of 'Sikhistan' with the option to join either Hindustan or
Pakistan to extort the largest possible concessions in terms of territory.
Mountbatten, however, was not yet inclined to give them any areas
» Ibid., 339.
33
Ibid., $46-47. This resolution was approved by the Congress on 8 April 1947: Kirpal
Singh, The Partition of the Punjab, 28.
34
Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre (eds), Mountbatten and the Partition of India,
118.
178

where Muslim population was predominant.35 By April 30, the Punjab

Governor reported to Mountbatten that the Sikhs were deeply, almost
finally, committed to partition. Nehru had declared in a public speech
already on April 20 that the Muslim League could have Pakistan on the
condition that 'they do not take away other parts of India which do not
wish to join Pakistan'.36 Rajendra Prasad as the President of the
Constitutent Assembly told its members a week later that they might
have to draw up a constitution based on the division of provinces. At
the beginning of May a resolution was passed by the non-Muslim
legislators of the Punjab that a just and equitable division of the
province was the only solution of the political problem of the Punjab.
In the month of May, events took a dramatic turn. The idea of
Dominion Status was brought back into focus. Mountbatten was able
to present a new plan on June 2 in a conference with Nehru, Patel,
Kriplani, Jinnah, Liaqat Ali Khan, Abdur Rab Nishtar and Baldev
Singh. Partition of the country and partition of the Punjab and Bengal
was built into the new proposal. Therefore, the question now before
the Congress and the Akalis was to get as much territory as they
possibly could from the British province of the Punjab for the East
Punjab of the Indian Union. As it could be easily anticipated by now,
all the non-Muslim legislators of the Punjab opted for the Indian
Union, making the option of the Muslim members for Pakistan totally
irrelevant according to the terms of the new plan. The question of
territory, however, was not so simple. The Muslim majority districts
covered even the Bari Doab with the only exception the district of
Amritsar. But the Akalis were staking their claims to nearly the whole
of the Rachna Doab on the basis of religious and historical associations
as well as property. For the labour leaders in Great Britain and for
Mountbatten, however, population was virtually the only criterion of
division. Not much discretion was left for the Boundary Commission
after the notional division of the Punjab had been declared on the basis
of population. Nevertheless, the award of Cyril Radcliffe brought the
larger part of the district of Gurdaspur and a small area of the district of
Lahore to the East Punjab.
The Bill for the Independence of India, introduced in the House of
Commons on July 4, was passed on July 15. The House of Lords
35
Larry Collins and D o m i n i q u e Lapierre (eds), Mountbatten and the Partition of India,
9>-
36
V . P . M e n o n , The Transfer of Power in India, 3 5 4 .
179

passed it on the day following, and it received the royal assent on July
18. On 15 August 1947, India became a free subcontinent, with India
and Pakistan as its two sovereign states, and with the larger proportion
of the Sikhs in India. The 'East Punjab' became in a sense a gift of the
Akalis to the Indian Union.
180

CHAPTER 9
TOWARDS THE 'PUNJABI PROVINCE'

(1947-1966)
To the task of framing a constitution for free India was added the
problem of resettlement and rehabilitation almost immediately upon
Independence. The integration of princely states with the Indian
Union too was urgent. Equally important were a long-term territorial
reorganization and economic growth. The politics of the Sikhs in the
early decades of Independence were linked up with these major issues.'
The political decision to partition the subcontinent into two sover-
eign states resulted eventually in the largest transfer of population
known to history. Nearly a million persons perished, and over 13
million crossed the borders. Over 4 million refugees from West
Pakistan crossed into the Punjab and a larger number of Muslims from
the Indian side went to Pakistan. In 1951, when the total population of
the Indian Punjab was over 12V2 millions, there were nearly 2V2 million
refugees, forming a fifth of its population.
Resettlement of refugees became the most urgent task of the new
governments. The Indian Government retained the responsibility of
rehabilitating urban refugees, delegating the responsibility of rehabili-
tating rural refugees in the Punjab to the Punjab Government. The
non-Muslim landowners, who had left 5,700,000 acres of land in the
West Punjab, had to be settled on 4,500,000 acres left by Muslim
landowners in the East Punjab. The government evolved a scheme of
graded cuts by which the refugees lost land in increasing proportion to
the size of their holdings, putting a virtual end to large landholdings.
Several legislative measures from 1951 to 1957, including the abolition
of the Land Alienation Act of 1900, ensured that the occupancy tenants
did not lose, and the 'superior owners' did not retain, their rights. Land
tenures were made more secure;jdgirs were made liable to resumption.
Combined with the consolidation of landholdings, these measures
proved to be effective in increasing agricultural production.
1
For a brief outline of the developments in the first decade, S. S. Bal, British Administra-
tion in the Punjab and its Aftermath, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, 1986, 19-30.

Equally important was the attention given to schemes of irrigation.

The Punjab Government built a new dam at Harike, largely for
ensuring regular flow of water into the canals already in existence. The
Madhopur-Beas link was completed in two years by 1955. The Bhakra
Dam scheme was taken up to be completed at a rapid pace. In 1957,
more than 6V2 million acres of land were under canal irrigation, adding
more than 2V2 millions to the irrigated acreage of 1947. From a deficit
area in food in 1947, the Punjab became a surplus area in 1957. The elan
imparted by the refugees as much as the policy of the government
accounted for a rather rapid rehabilitation in terms of transportation
and industry as well.2 A new university, a new high court and
eventually a new capital were established at Chandigarh.
Rehabilitation and resettlement after partition resulted in a sig-
nificant change in the demographic pattern in the Punjab. In 1951 the
Sikhs formed about 35 per cent of the total population of the state,
while the Hindus represented the majority with over 62 per cent. The
majority status of the Hindu population as well as the increase in the
percentage of the Sikhs was a new thing. Furthermore, since the Sikh
landowners settled mostly in the districts from which they had gone to
the canal colonies, and both Sikhs and Hindus replaced the erstwhile
Muslim population of the cities and towns, the bulk of the Sikh
population came to be concentrated in the area between the Ravi and
the Ghaggar. In fact, in the Sikh princely states and the districts of
Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana and Feroze-
pore, the Sikhs came to represent more than half of the total popu-
lation. For the first time in their history they found themselves
concentrated in a large contiguous territory.
Before the actual partition of the Punjab and the transfer of minority
populations, Baldev Singh and Giani Kartar Singh had met Lord
Mountbatten to suggest that either the Constituent Assembly should
give weightage to the Sikhs in the new constitution or the Hindi-
speaking areas of the East Punjab should be separated from its
Punjabi-speaking areas. When Mountbatten broached the subject with
Jawaharlal Nehru his reaction against the second proposition was
rather strong; in his eyes it was 'a fundamentally wrong principle'.
2
For the attitudes of the refugees, Stephen L. Keller, Uprooting and Social Change,
Manohar Book Service, New Delhi, 1975.
182

TOWARDS THE PUNJABI PROVINCE
However, weightage or reservation with joint electorates could be

given 'with freedom to contest the general seats also'.3
Thinking in terms of weightage and reservations was not a new
thing. All Indian politicians were familiar with this political idiom and
practice. In October, 1948 the Shiromani Akali Dal passed a resolution
in favour of continuing separate representation for the Sikhs because of
an aggressive 'communal mentality' displayed by some Punjabi
Hindus. Three weeks later the Minority Committee formed by the
Punjab Chief Minister to represent the official viewpoint to the
Constituent Assembly elaborated the terms of weightage and reserva-
tion for the Sikhs, adding significantly that if it were not possible to
give weightage and reservation to the Sikhs a new province may be
created with the districts of Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Hoshiar-
pur, Ludhiana, Ferozepore and Ambala as its core.
The Constituent Assembly had been eager to consider the issue of
statutory reservations for religious minorities before August, 1947,
but after the creation of Pakistan it favoured the abolition of all
such reservations. In May, 1949, the Advisory Committee of the
Constituent Assembly was clearly of the view that there was no
room for weightage to religious minorities in a federal republic with
a parliamentary democracy based on adult suffrage, and with the
fundamental rights of all its citizens enshrined in a written constitu-
tion. In any case, the Sikhs as 'a highly educated and virile
community' needed no weightage.4 It was feared in fact that even
proportionate reservation with the right to contest additional seats
would enable them to grab much more than what was their due
share. The unsympathetic attitude of the Constituent Assembly was
more clearly visible in its refusal to extend to the Sikh scheduled
castes the concessions and reservations provided for the Hindu
scheduled castes.5 The last-minute efforts of the Sikh members of
the Constituent Assembly to get at least reservation with the right
to contest additional seats proved futile. They refused to sign the
draft constitution to be adopted by the people of India on 26 January
1950. This was hardly an auspicious beginning.
3
A. C. Kapur, The Punjab Crisis, S. Chand and Company, New Delhi, 1985, 131—32.
4
Quoted, A. S. Narang, Storm Over the Sutlej: The Akali Politics, Gitanjali Publications,
New Delhi, 1983, 91.
5
Master Tara Singh and the other Akali leaders had to struggle for the inclusion of the Sikh
scheduled castes in the general category until 1956.
183

II
On 15 July 1948, Sardar Patel referred to the Patiala and East Punjab
States Union (Pepsu) as 'a Sikh homeland' when he inaugurated the
new state. It had been formed two months earlier by merging the Sikh
states of Patiala, Nabha, Jind, Faridkot, Kapurthala and Kalsia
together with the states of Malerkotla and Nalagarh. The area of this
new state was a little over 10,000 square miles and, in 1951, it had a
population of nearly 3,500,000. Nearly half of this population was
Sikh, which made the Sikhs a little more numerous than the Hindus.
The number of Muslims in the new state was very small, only about 2
per cent. Before 1947 their number was nearly a million but the bulk of
them had crossed over to Pakistan, and their place was taken by about
360,000 Sikhs and Hindus. The former chief of Patiala, Maharaja
Yadvindra Singh, was made the Governor (Rajpramukh) for life, and
the former chief of Kapurthala was made the Deputy Governor
(Uprajpramukh) for life. A caretaker government was installed in
August, 1948, under Sardar Gian Singh Rarewala. Thus, the top
positions in the state, as much as the composition of its population, did
appear to make Pepsu rather than the Punjab 'a Sikh homeland'.
The princely states of the Punjab had served the British as strong
bastions of loyalty and support for more than a century and, though
less 'modernized' and less 'progressive' than the British districts,
neither the rulers nor their subjects had remained isolated from the
developments in the British Punjab. The Akalis had taken interest in
the affairs of the Sikh states and had considerable influence in their
politics. In 1928, their leaders founded the Punjab States Praja Mandal,
an organization that advocated constitutional and agrarian reform. For
about a decade the Praja Mandal received support from the Congress
and the Kisan leaders as well as the Akalis. The changing political
situation of the Punjab in the 1940s found its reflection in the Sikh
states. When the Akalis decided to support the British in their war
effort, they came close to the Maharaja of Patiala. Emphasis was laid on
Sikh interests and Sikh rights in the princely states. The Akalis began to
leave the Praja Mandal while the number of educated Hindus from
professional and business classes, who were coming under the influ-
ence of the Congress, began to increase within the Mandal.6 As in the
6
Ramesh Walia, Praja Mandal Movement in East Punjab States, Punjabi University,
Patiala, 1972.
184

British Punjab so in the princely states, the dominant political parties

among the non-Muslims on the eve of Independence were the Akalis and
the Congress-oriented Praja Mandal. The first consisted entirely of
Sikh leaders and the second very largely of Hindus, though it was to
throw up leaders like Giani Zail Singh and the less-known Tirath Singh.
After Independence, the leaders of the Akalis and the Praja Mandal
revealed their differences first on the question of merger. Whereas the
Akali leaders favoured a union of Sikh states, or even the creation of
two new states by keeping Patiala as a single unit, the Praja Mandal
leaders advocated merger of the princely states with the East Punjab.
The second important issue on which the two parties held divergent
views was the formation of government in Pepsu. Because of their
differences, Gian Singh Rarewala became the premier; he was neither
an Akali nor a Praja Mandalist at that time. When he was sworn in at
the beginning of 1949 he chose his colleagues from the Praja Mandal
and the newly formed Lok Sewa Sabha led by Colonel Raghubir Singh.
Before the middle of 1951, however, the leaders of the Praja Mandal
and the Lok Sewa Sabha, Brish Bhan and Raghubir Singh, joined hands
to oust Rarewala; Raghubir Singh became the Chief Minister and Brish
Bhan agreed to be the Deputy Chief Minister.7
Before the first general elections in 1952 the Praja Mandal and the
Lok Sewa Sabha merged together to form the Pepsu Pradesh Congress
and captured twenty-six out of a total of sixty seats. The Akalis turned
out to be the second largest party in the legislature with nineteen seats.
The remaining seats were won by the Communists and other small
parties and independent candidates. Without a clear majority the
Congress was invited to form a ministry but only to be replaced by a
United Front ministry under Gian Singh Rarewala on 21 April 1952.
He was supported by the Akalis. This first non-Congress ministry in
the country fell in March, 1953, when Gian Singh was unseated
through an election petition. The assembly was dissolved and
President's rule was promulgated in Pepsu, which again was the first
instance of such a rule in the country.
The Akalis were resentful: Gian Singh could have been asked to get
re-elected within six months, they argued; or, another leader of the
7
For relevant information on the Sikh states, Barbara Ramusack, 'Punjab States:
Maharajas and Gurdwaras: Patiala and the Sikh Community', People, Princes and Paramount
Power (ed. Robin Jeffrey), Oxford University Press, 1978, 170-204. 'The Sikh States' and
"The Patiala and East Punjab States Union (Pepsu)', written for The Encyclopaedia ofSikhism
by Barbara Ramusack, have been consulted in typescript through the author's courtesy.
185

United Front could have been invited to form a ministry. The

Congress leaders at the centre appeared to be misusing the consti-
tutional provisions to oust a non-Congress ministry. In any case, by
the end of September, 1953, one of the demands of a Sikh convention
held at Anandpur was early elections in Pepsu. In the mid-term polls in
early 1954, the Akalis won only twelve seats (including two of the
Rarewala group). In fact the Akalis were so hopelessly divided that
they contested the elections on separate tickets. A Congress ministry
was formed under Raghubir Singh. Upon his death in January, 1956,
Brish Bhan became the Chief Minister of Pepsu. By now, the Akalis
were asking for the merger of Pepsu with the Punjabi-speaking areas of
the Punjab to form a new state on the basis of language.
Ill
For over a quarter of a century before 1947 the Indian National

Congress had been harping on the reorganization of provinces on the
basis of languages. After the partition of 1947, however, serious
re-thinking started on the question of reorganization, more perhaps
due to emotional than rational reaction. The Dar Commission recom-
mended before the end of 1948 that contiguity, financial efficiency,
administrative convenience, capacity for future development and a
large measure of agreement among the people speaking a language
should be the criteria for reorganization. In no case was the view of a
majority to be imposed on a substantial minority. At the Congress
session in December, 1948, a committee was formed to consider the
recommendations of the Dar Commission; it consisted of Jawaharlal
Nehru, Vallabbhai Patel and Pattabhi Sitarammaya. Its report was
adopted by the Congress Working Committee in April, 1949. It made a
distinction between the South and the North: 'We are clearly of the
opinion that no question of rectification of the boundaries of the
provinces of Northern India should be raised at the present moment
whatever the merits of such a proposal might be.'8 Jawaharlal Nehru, at
one time the arch-advocate of linguistic states, now began to feel that a
sense of the unity of India was to be given the top priority before
linguistic states could be formed with the consent of all concerned.
The kind of 'consent' visualized by Jawaharlal was hard to find in the
Punjab. Much before 1947 the languages had been 'communalized'. In
8
Quoted, Ajit Singh Sarhadi, PunjabiSuba, U. C. Kapur and Sons, Delhi, 1970, 186-87.
186

TOWARDS THE PUNJABI PROVINCE'
June, 1948, the Punjab Government made Hindi and Punjabi the new
media of instruction in schools in place of Urdu. In February, 1949, the
Municipal Committee of Jalandhar, an old stronghold of the Arya
Samaj, resolved to introduce Hindi in Devanagri script in all its schools.
In June, 1949, the Senate of the Panjab University, virtually a bastion of
the Arya Samaj, refused to have Punjabi in Gurmukhi or even Devana-
gri script as the medium of instruction in schools. The Sikhs in general
and the Akalis in particular began to express their fears that Punjabi was
likely to remain a secondary language even in free India.
In October, 1949, a formula was evolved by Giani Kartar Singh and
the Chief Minister Bhim Sen Sachar to accommodate the Sikh concern
for Punjabi. It created a zone in which Punjabi in Gurmukhi script was
to be the medium of instruction up to matriculation and in which
Hindi in Devanagri script was to be taught from the last year of the
primary school. A parent could opt for Hindi as the medium if the
number of such scholars was not less than ten at the primary stage;
even so, a boy had to take up Punjabi as a compulsory language from
the fourth class and a girl from the sixth. The districts of Gurdaspur,
Amritsar, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana and Ferozepore consti-
tuted the Punjabi zone together with the Ropar and Kharar Tehsils of
the Ambala district and the portions of Hissar district lying on the
north of the Ghaggar. The rest of the Punjab formed the Hindi zone in
which the position of Punjabi and Hindi was reversed.
Though the Akalis objected to the option given to parents, whether
for Hindi or Punjabi, they welcomed the Sachar Formula. However,
the Arya Samajists with their Urdu dailies in Jalandhar and Delhi were
opposed to it. They were supported by the Jan Sangh and the Hindu
Mahasabha. The Arya Samaj institutions refused to implement the
formula; it was never to be implemented in the schools of the Arya
Samajists. The language issue, a legacy of the pre-Independence days,
had come to stay. The Arya Samaj attitude was in fact reinforced by the
political implications of reorganization on a linguistic basis.
The denial of constitutional safeguards to the Sikhs in terms of
reservation made the Akali leaders more eager about the creation of a
Punjabi-speaking state. In the beginning of 1950, Hukam Singh was
clarifying to the journalists in Bombay that the demand for a Punjabi-
speaking state was not communal but secular and democratic. The
Working Committee of the Akali Dal passed a formal resolution in
May in favour of a state on the basis of Punjabi language and culture. It
187

became the demand of a Panthic convention before the end of 1950.

Early in 1951 the Arya Samajists, and others who shared their concerns
and attitudes, persuaded many Hindus to return Hindi as their
mother-tongue on the assumption that this would negate the argument
for the formation of a Punjabi-speaking state.9 Some of them chose to
see an autonomous Sikh state behind the 'smoke screen' of a 'Punjabi
Province'. In the elections of 1952 the Congress won with a more
convincing majority in the Punjab than in Pepsu. The Akali aspiration
to be 'free and equal partners in the destiny of the country', as they had
said in their election manifesto in support of a Punjabi-speaking state,
became stronger after their defeat.10
Moral support came to the Akalis from unexpected quarters.
Towards the end of 1952, Potti Sriramulu died on fast for the creation
of Andhra Pradesh; four days later the Prime Minister announced the
separation of Andhra from Madras as a Telugu-speaking state. The
movement for linguistic states gathered fresh momentum. In
December, 1953, the Government of India announced the formation of
States Reorganization Commission, which kindled hopes and fears in
the Punjab. Its formation by itself was a sign of hope for the Akalis,
who had been articulate on the issue throughout 1953, but Jawaharlal
Nehru repeated his declaration against the Punjabi-speaking state
during the Pepsu mid-term poll in early 1954. The Akalis prepared
their case with care, strictly on the basis of language, using pre-1947
census figures, to argue that an area of over 35,000 square miles with a
population of nearly 12 million was really Punjabi-speaking, though
the Sikh population in this area was much less than half. The Commu-
nists and the Praja Socialists also supported the demand for the merger
of the Punjab and Pepsu and the formation of a Punjabi-speaking state.
The leaders of Himachal and Haryana too wanted separate states in
their respective regions, complementing thus the demand for a
Punjabi-speaking state.
There were many others, however, who advocated the merger not
only of Pepsu but also of Himachal Pradesh, or even a few districts of
Uttar Pradesh, with the Punjab to form a greater Punjab on economic,
administrative, cultural, educational and patriotic arguments. They
alleged that the demand for a linguistic state was only a ruse for
9
Tempers rose so high on the issue that one person was killed in a Jalandhar village:
Kailash Chander Gulati, The Akalis Past and Present, Ashajanak Publications, New Delhi,
1974. 157-
1° Ibid., 157.
188

TOWARDS THE PUNJABI PROVINCE*
creating a state with a Sikh majority; they feared that such a state would
eventually lead to separation and logically to the disintegration of the
country; they insisted that the language of the Punjab was actually
Hindi, with several varieties of Punjabi as its dialects; and as the last
resort they asserted paradoxically that every citizen of India had the
right 'to choose' his 'mother-tongue'. The hard core of the protagon-
ists of 'Maha-Punjab' consisted of the Arya Sarnajists and the Jan
Sanghites.
Besides submitting their memoranda to the States Reorganization
Commission, the protagonists of the 'Punjabi-Province' and the
'Maha-Punjab' used the press and addressed meetings to propagate
their views. Very soon, however, anti-Sikh and anti-Hindu slogans
became a common feature of such meetings. The government decided
to impose a ban on slogans. The Akalis regarded this ban as essentially
a ban on slogans in favour of the Punjabi Province. They decided to
defy the ban. Master Tara Singh was arrested in May 1955. Sant Fateh
Singh joined the morchd for the first time in his life. Within two
months, thousands of volunteers courted arrest and the movement
reached its peak in early July. The government began stopping the
volunteers on their way to the Golden Temple. The arms licences of
the SGPC were cancelled and on refusal to surrender arms the police
entered the Golden Temple complex, stopped the langar, entered
Guru Ram Das Sarai, arrested the head-priests, raided the Akali Dal
Office and used tear gas shells on the volunteers gathered in the Temple
complex. Troops were ordered to flag-march through the bazars and
streets around the Golden Temple. But all this failed to overawe the
Akalis. On July 12, the government withdrew the ban on slogans. The
Chief Minister Sachar visited the Akal Takht to offer a personal
apology.11
The freedom gained by the Akalis to shout slogans in favour of the
Punjabi Province did not impress the States Reorganization Commis-
sion. In its report submitted on 30 September 1955, the majority of the
Punjabis were opposed to the demand for a Punjabi-speaking state. The
most crucial part of this 'majority' was actually the articulate section of
the Hindus of the Punjabi-speaking zone. The Commission confused
the language issue with the issue of scripts on which 'sentiment
was arrayed against sentiment'.12 The 'sentiment' of the anti-Punjabi
11
Sachar lost his Chief Ministership a few months later to Partap Singh Kairon.
12
Quoted, Satya M. Rai, Punjab Since Partition, Durga Publications, Delhi, 1986, 292.
189

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Hindus of the Punjabi-speaking zone won the battle. The Commission

recommended the merger of Himachal Pradesh, Pepsu and the Punjab
to form a new state. The criterion of language was totally set aside.13
Giani Kartar Singh remarked that out of the fourteen languages
regarded as 'national' in the Constitution of India, Punjabi alone was
left without a state formed on its basis.
The report was rejected by the Akalis on the day following its release
on 9 October 1955. They called a convention of all the parties and
organizations of the Sikhs on October 16 and underlined the secular
13
Satya M. Rai, Punjab Since Partition, 295-96. Master Tara Singh remarked that the
Sikhs would have to fight now with their backs to the wall: quoted, A. S. Narang, Storm
Over the Sutlej, 126.
190

and democratic character of the demand. The recommendation of the

Commission appeared to be as partisan as the most rabid partisan could
wish. Even the Sachar Formula, which the Commission recognized
was not implemented, was whittled down. The convention authorized
Master Tara Singh to approach the Government of India on behalf of
the Sikh community.
Master Tara Singh met Jawaharlal Nehru on October 24 in the
presence of Abul Kalam Azad and G. B. Pant. He was accompanied by
Giani Kartar Singh, Hukam Singh, Gian Singh Rarewala and Bhai Jodh
Singh. Their talks were inconclusive. Another deputation met the
Prime Minister on behalf of the Punjab Government to suggest that the
Pepsu formula could be extended to the Punjab for solving the
language problem and the Punjabi language could be promoted in the
whole state. Re-thinking of a sort had started before the annual session
of the Congress was held at Amritsar in December. The Akalis also
decided to hold their conference in Amritsar at the same time, and so
did the protagonists of 'Maha-Punjab'. All took out processions as a
demonstration of popular participation. The Akali procession was the
most impressive. This popular demonstration appealed to the demo-
cratic instincts of Jawaharlal Nehru. He was now prepared to accom-
modate the Akalis as much as he could in the face of contending
pressures.
Hukam Singh had formulated a scheme which essentially met some
of the Akali demands without actually creating a Punjabi-speaking
state. This became the basis of discussion in January 1956, and an
agreement was reached before the end of February. In a general
meeting of the Akali Dal on March 11 the majority of the leaders were
in favour of accepting the scheme. Finalized afterwards, the scheme
came to be known as the Regional Formula. From the viewpoint of the
Akalis it was not a bad compromise. Not Himachal Pradesh but only
Pepsu was to be merged with the Punjab. The new state was to be
bi-lingual, but Punjabi in Gurmukhi script was to be the 'regional' and
the official language in the Punjabi zone. The Punjab Government was
to set up a separate department for the development of Punjabi as well
as Hindi; the Union Government was to encourage Punjabi like any
other 'regional' language in the country. All this appeared to take care
of the language problem. On the political side, a regional committee
was to be formed for each zone, with a certain degree of initiative and
power to legislate on fourteen important subjects. Worked in the right
191

THE PUNJAB (1956-66)

LINGUISTIC ZONES
Lahaul and Spiti
rf
v
\ Uttar Pradesh
Punjabi speaking zone Mohindergarh
Hindi speaking zone
Map 8 The Punjab (19 56-1966): linguistic zones
192

TOWARDS THE 'PUNJABI PROVINCE
spirit, this provision promised a large measure of legislative

autonomy.14
As a part of the understanding between the Akali and the Congress
leaders, the Working Committee of the Akali Dal resolved on 30
September 1956, that the Dal would not have a separate political
programme of its own. It would concentrate on the promotion of the
religious, educational, cultural, social and economic interests of the
Sikh Panth, and guard against any violation of 'fundamental rights'
which might adversely affect Sikh interests; it would actively partici-
pate in the working out of the Regional Formula, and in the implemen-
tation of various plans for the development of the country.15 Master
Tara Singh declared that he would never forsake Jawaharlal Nehru, and
Jawaharlal praised Master Tara Singh for his courage and honesty of
purpose. The new Punjab state was inaugurated on 1 November 1956.
IV
The coalition ministry which had ended with Khizr Hayat's
resignation in March, 1947 was revived after 15 August 1947,
without the Unionists and those legislators whose constituencies
were left in the West Punjab.16 Dr Gopi Chand Bhargava headed the
new ministry which included Swaran Singh and Ishar Singh Majhail.
Recalling the promises of the Congress, particularly its resolution of
1929, and expressing their faith and trust in the great Congress
leaders, the Akalis resolved in March, 1948 that all their legislators
should join the Congress Assembly Party. This was done on
March 18.
In June, 1948, Giani Kartar Singh was included in the cabinet in place
of Ishar Singh Majhail as a concession to the Akalis. Giani Kartar Singh
is believed to have cultivated Bhim Sen Sachar, the leader of the
Congress Assembly Party before 1947, to work against Bhargava. In
any case, Sachar replaced Bhargava as Chief Minister on 13 April 1949.
It was at this time that Giani Kartar Singh worked on the new leader to
evolve the language formula. Sachar lost his Chief Ministership within
a few weeks and Bhargava was back in office in October, 1949.
14
For the text of the 'regional plan', Satya M. Rai, Partition of the Punjab, Asia Publishing
House, Bombay, 1965, 274-75.
15
Quoted, Ajit Singh Sarhadi, Punjabi Suba, 284.
16
Kailash Chander Gulati, The Akalis Past and Present, 149-50. That was why Dr Gopi
Chand Bhargava became the leader of the Punjab Congress and not Bhim Sen Sachar.
193

By this time, the Akalis had failed to get any constitutional safe-
guards.17 In the Bhargava ministry they began to feel rather ineffective.
In a meeting of the Working Committee of the Akali Dal on July 30 the
merger was revoked on the grounds that the hopes of constructive
sympathy and support from the great Congress leaders had been
belied. However, the bulk of the erstwhile Akali legislators chose to
remain in the Congress. At the end of 1950, the 'nationalist' Sikhs like
Udham Singh Nagoke, Gurdial Singh Dhillon, Surjit Singh Majithia,
Sohan Singh Jalal-Usman and Giani Zail Singh could hold a parallel
Sikh convention at Amritsar to oppose the formation of a Punjabi-
speaking state in the interest of 'the unity and strength of the
country'.18 The opponents of the Punjabi-Province, thus, were not
only in Delhi, or among the 'communal' Hindus of the Punjab, but
also among the Sikh leaders themselves, including some of the former
members of the Akali Dal.
The Congress Party in the Punjab was no less divided by factions
than the Akalis. Jawaharlal in 1951 was particularly unhappy about
'communalism' and 'factionalism' in the Punjab Congress.19 Bhargava
could not hold office for long, particularly after the death of his patron,
Sardar Patel. When Bhargava resigned on 16 June 1951, the Congress
High Command opted for President's rule in the Punjab rather than a
new Congress ministry. Early in November, Giani Kartar Singh left
the Congress and became General Secretary of the Shiromani Akali
Dal. This could hardly improve the position of the Dal. The Akali Dal
lost heavily in the elections of 1952, winning only thirteen seats in a
house of 126. With a larger number of rural Sikh leaders in the
Congress, the Akali Dal did not have much chance against the
Congress even in the Punjabi-speaking zone dominated by the Sikhs.
Furthermore, the Akalis fought the elections both in Pepsu and the
Punjab on the issue of the Punjabi-speaking state, and this issue in the
early years of Independence had no fascination for the Sikh peasantry.
The defeat of the Akalis did not mean a defeat of the Sikhs. In fact
when Sachar was sworn in as the new Chief Minister he chose Swaran
Singh, Partap Singh Kairon and Ujjal Singh as his cabinet colleagues
from amongst the Sikh legislators. Not exactly through a convention
17
In this context, Master Tara Singh made the statement that the Muslims got Pakistan and
the scheduled castes got reservations but the Sikhs got kicks for seeking merely constitutional
safeguards: Satya M. Rai, Partition of the Punjab, 203.
18
Quoted, Kailash Chander Gulati, The Akalis Past and Present, 156.
19
Quoted, Satya M. Rai, Partition of the Punjab, 212-13.
194

but because of the sheer exigency of the political situation, Sikh

ministers had parity with the non-Sikh ministers in the Congress
government. This lent plausibility to the contention of the Congressite
Sikhs that even the interests of the community were better served by
remaining in the Congress. When the Akalis decided towards the end
of September, 1956, to have no separate political programme, they too
were hopeful that they would serve themselves and the community
better from within the Congress.
The tussle between the Akali and the Congressite Sikhs for the
leadership of the Sikh community was not confined to the legislative
assembly. The Akalis regarded the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak
Committee as their domain almost by right. With the changing
political alignments of the early 1950s this prerogative was questioned.
Mohan Singh Nagoke, who was the President of the SGPC on 15
August 1947, was replaced by Udham Singh Nagoke on 28 June 1948.
At this time the Akalis were in the Congress. Gradually, however,
Master Tara Singh realized that there was a possibility of the SGPC
being captured by the Sikh leaders who were in the Congress or with
the Congress. For about eight months in 1950 Udham Singh Nagoke
remained out of office because Chanan Singh Orara, who had been
asked to arbitrate between two rival claimants, chose himself to be the
President. The Akali defeat in the elections of 1952 was attributed by
them largely to the fact that the SGPC was not under their control.
Even in June, 1952 Udham Singh Nagoke was able to get his own
candidate elected. But within four months he was replaced by a
nominee of Master Tara Singh. He remained in office for more than a
year before he was replaced by Ishar Singh Majhail on 18 January 1954.
Ishar Singh was replaced by Master Tara Singh himself in February
I9S5-
The importance of the SGPC for Sikh politics had been taken for
granted before 1947. The tussle for its control in the first decade of
Independence intensified the awareness of that importance. In fact
certain amendments were deliberately made in the Gurdwara Act to
enable the members of the General Body to oust the President if he did
not enjoy its confidence. That was how Ishar Singh Majhail was
brought in at the beginning of 1954. Not only the Congress Party but
also the Communists entered the arena of SGPC elections in 1954, the
former in the garb of the Khalsa Dal Front and the latter as the Desh
Bhagat Board. But the Khalsa Dal won only three out of the 132 seats it
195

contested. The Akalis won all the i io seats they contested. They were
nonetheless resentful of 'nationalist' interference in the affairs of the
SGPC. They felt all the more sensitive about this 'religious' institution
because it served as a strong base for their secular politics.
At the time of the inauguration of the new Punjab state on i November

1956, Partap Singh Kairon was the Chief Minister. The Akali legisla-
tors joined the Congress Party under his leadership. The Congress
won 120 seats in a house of 164. There were fifty-eight Sikh legislators
in the Congress Party, and nearly fifty of them represented the Punjabi
'region' which had seventy-one seats in all. However, the proportion
of former Akalis among them was smaller than that of the Congressite
Sikhs. In fact, Master Tara Singh had been rather unhappy about the
number of tickets given to the 'Akalis'. He was not even consulted, and
consequently he had encouraged independent candidates to contest the
elections to demonstrate his resentment. It was not from the Akalis,
however, that Kairon faced the first problem in his new tenure as Chief
Minister. One of the provisions of the Regional Formula was to give no
option to parents for Hindi in the Punjabi region. The Arya Samajists,
who had earlier refused to implement the Sachar Formula in their
schools, now opposed the Regional Formula as something much
worse. Under the Hindi Raksha Samiti they started a 'save Hindi'
movement in their opposition to Punjabi. This movement was sup-
ported by men like Suraj Bhan, Principal of D. A. V. College, Jalan-
dhar, who later became Vice-Chancellor of the Panjab University, and
the Arya Samajist politicians like Virendra, editor of the Pratdp. The
language aspect of the Regional Formula was compromised by con-
cessions to Hindi soon after the agitation started, though the agitation
lasted for seven months.
Jawaharlal Nehru felt sorry in 1957 about the 'save Hindi' move-
ment and feared that it would disintegrate the Punjab.20 What he did
not anticipate was that Partap Singh Kairon would not implement the
Regional Formula. The Akali Dal daily Jatheddr was to observe in
October, 1961 that 'if the Regional Formula had been implemented in
the spirit in which it had been conceived by the Central leadership
under the guidance of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, then no further
20
196

trouble would have arisen in the Punjab'. Till March, 1958 the fore-
most objective of the Akali Dal had been to get it implemented. In June,
however, Master Tara Singh indicated that he would be compelled to
reopen the demand for a Punjabi Province if the Regional Formula was
not implemented. The first Punjabi-Province conference was held in
October. Master Tara Singh was still prepared to accept an impartial
arbitration on whether or not the Formula was being implemented.
Partap Singh Kairon made a successful move to dislodge Master Tara
Singh from the Presidentship of the SGPC with the help of Giani
Kartar Singh who was now a minister in his cabinet. On 16 November
1958 the Master lost the Presidentship by three votes. Kairon pressed
the advantage by reviving an amendment bill apparently to accommo-
date the representatives of Pepsu on the SGPC but actually to change
its constitution to dilute its democratic character. In the Act passed in
January, 1959 however, his intention stood defeated because of a
clearly articulated opposition from the Sikhs outside the Congress.
Master Tara Singh decided to recover his lost position in the SGPC by
fighting elections on the issue of the Punjabi Province. The Shiromani
Akali Dal won 132 out of the total 139 seats, and all the Akali Dal
members of the SGPC took a pledge at the Akal Takht on 24 January
i960 to work for the achievement of a Punjabi Province with single-
minded devotion and with all the resources at their command.
During i960 the movement for a Punjabi-Province gained some
momentum. Master Tara Singh, having failed to induce the majority of
the erstwhile Akalis to resign as Congress legislators, called a Punjabi-
Province conference in May, which was attended by some leaders of
the Swatantra and Praja Socialist parties, and announced a demon-
stration march in Delhi in June. He was arrested; many other Akali
leaders, including some legislators, were arrested; the Akali papers
Prabbdt and Akali were suppressed. Nearly 18,000 Akalis courted
arrest at Amritsar before the end of July. Jawaharlal Nehru took notice
of the demand in his Independence Day speech: 'every Punjabi should
himself consider to learn both Hindi and Punjabi', but there could be
no bifurcation of the Punjab.21 Partap Singh Kairon started releasing
Akali volunteers from jails to create the impression that they were
recanting. The detenus at Bhatinda agitated over their release and four
of them were killed in firing by the police. Sant Fateh Singh, who was
the dictator of the morchd in the absence of Master Tara Singh,
21
197

declared on the first of November that it had become necessary to lay

down his life to save the country from 'dictatorial rule in the garb of
democracy'.22 On December 18 he went on fast unto death to move the
Prime Minister to concede the legitimate demand for a Punjabi
Province purely on linguistic basis.
Jawaharlal Nehru was now prepared to concede the claims for the
Punjabi language. On December 23 he requested Sant Fateh Singh to
give up the fast and come for talks. He was thinking in terms of making
the entire Punjab unilingual.23 Partap Singh Kairon released Master
Tara Singh from detention in Dharamsala on 4 January 1961 appar-
ently to enable Sant Fateh Singh to consult him but actually in the hope
that he would diminish the possibility of an understanding between the
Prime Minister and the Sant. Those who were advising Sant Fateh
Singh that the proposal of the Punjab as a unilingual state should be
accepted now felt weak, and Sant Fateh Singh declined to have talks
with Jawaharlal Nehru.
Master Tara Singh met Jawaharlal Nehru at Bhavnagar on January 7
but failed to convince him about the formation of a Punjabi-speaking
state. On the 8th, however, Nehru declared that no discrimination was
deliberately made against the Punjabi language and the Sikh commu-
nity. He underlined that Punjabi was the dominant language of the
entire Punjab and deserved encouragement in every way. In his view
this statement met the substance of the demand about Punjabi.24
Master Tara Singh too insisted with Sant Fateh Singh that the demand
had been essentially met and persuaded him to give up his fast. The
Sant did so on 9 January 1961. All the Akali volunteers, officially stated
to be 30,000, were released.
However, Sant Fateh Singh's talks with Jawaharlal in February and
May, 1961 failed to produce any result. Apart from his own view of the
situation there was pressure on Nehru from 'the other communities'
against bifurcation of the Punjab. It was insinuated that the Akalis were
in league with Pakistan. The Akali Dal expressed its resentment over
the mendacious propaganda of their opponents and asserted that the
22
This change in the method of agitation has been generally missed. Baldev Raj N a y y a r ,
for instance, talks of Akali strategy in terms of constitutional, infiltrational and agitational
m e t h o d s w i t h o u t assigning much significance t o individual fast u n t o death: Minority Politics
in the Punjab, Princeton University Press, 1966, 325.
23
Ajit Singh Sarhadi, Punjabi Suba, 338-39.
24
Quoted, Kailash Chander Gulati, The Akalis Past and Present, 172.
198

Sikhs were a dynamic limb of the Indian nation.25 Against the

unrelenting attitude of the ruling party, the General Body of the Dal
allowed Master Tara Singh to start his fast on 15 August 1961. Sant
Fateh Singh met the Prime Minister ten days later but only to find that
he was prepared to look into the grievances of the Sikhs but not to
create a Punjabi-speaking state.
Master Tara Singh gave up his fast on the first of October when
Hardit Singh Malik came to Amritsar professedly as an emissary of the
Prime Minister. This was treated as a sign of impending settlement with
the Akalis. There was a strong reaction from the anti-Punjabi lobbies.
Jagat Narain, for example, who had resigned as a minister on the issue
of the Regional Formula, warned the government on October 6 against
any settlement with the Akalis: 'The Hindus of Punjab would not
accept the settlement.'26 Master Tara Singh met the Prime Minister on
October 30. A Commission was formed a day later, with S. R. Das as
its Chairman. Both the personnel of the Commission and its scope
disappointed the Akali leaders and they decided to boycott the Das
Commission. Its first meeting was held in December, 1961 and its
report was submitted in February, 1962. Only a few representations
were made to the Commission, including one by Virendra who argued
that Punjabi was a dialect of Hindi and Gurmukhi merely a religious
script. Balraj Madhok, a protagonist of the Jan Sangh, told the
Commission that the real source of trouble was the Regional Formula
and that the 'regional committees' should be scrapped. The Commis-
sion concluded that the implementation of the Regional Formula was
only delayed but not stopped and therefore it involved no injustice.
The government accepted the report promptly. The general elections
were round the corner.
VI
The prestige of Master Tara Singh, like the morale of the Akali Dal, in
early 1962 was rather low. Towards the end of November, 1961 Master
Tara Singh and Sant Fateh Singh had been summoned by the
Cherished-Five as the representatives of the Sikh Panth to explain why
they had gone back on their decisions to fast unto death after a solemn
prayer (ardds) in the presence of the Guru-Granth. They were found
25
Resolution of the Shiromani Akali Dal, q u o t e d , Ajit Singh Sarhadi, Punjabi Suba, 350.
26
Q u o t e d , Ajit Singh Sarhadi, Punjabi Suba, 365.
199

guilty, particularly Master Tara Singh who had not only broken his
own fast but also persuaded Sant Fateh Singh earlier to break his fast
without achieving its purpose. Master Tara Singh was 'punished' to
perform an akhand-pd(h, to read barn in excess of the daily norm, to
offer kardh parshdd worth 125 rupees, to clean utensils of the Guru's
langar and to clean the shoes of the sangat visiting the Gurdwara. He
did all this in atonement, and he was forgiven by the Cherished-Five.
But his lapse was not forgotten by the Panth. For the first time in his
life he had the sad experience of knowing that the Sikhs were no longer
keen to listen to him; at places in fact they did not allow him to speak.
In the elections of 1962, the Congress won ninety seats out of 154,
and Kairon entered the second term of his Chief Ministership.
However, he himself won only by a margin of thirty-four votes, and
that too was regarded by many as a result of rigging. There was a clear
shift of Sikh votes in favour of the Akalis. They could win only
nineteen seats but they got 20.7 per cent of the total votes. In the
Punjabi-speaking region, they got over 1,500,000 of the Sikh votes
while the Congress got less than 600,000. A little over 72 per cent of the
Sikh voters, thus, supported the Akali candidates.
The defeat of the Akalis in the elections was followed by a division
among them. Master Tara Singh was re-elected President of the SGPC
but only seventy-four members participated in the election. Most of
the remaining eighty-six members had stayed away in protest. In a
convention held in the Ludhiana district in July, 1962 Master Tara
Singh's failure to keep his solemn pledge was openly denounced as the
cause of the failure of the Punjabi Province movement. It was resolved
to take up the cause entirely on linguistic basis under the leadership of
Sant Fateh Singh. On August 1 Sant Fateh Singh clarified to the press at
Delhi that his concept of the Punjabi Province had been fundamentally
different from that of the Master from the very beginning. Early in
October, Master Tara Singh was dislodged from the Presidentship of
the SGPC with a no-confidence vote of seventy-six against seventy-
two. The Akali leaders of Delhi demonstrated their support for Master
Tara Singh by severing all connections of the Delhi Gurdwara Pra-
bandhak Committee with the SGPC at Amritsar. The Akali Dal was
virtually divided into two.
During the Chinese incursion into Indian territory in October, 1962
both the Akali leaders demonstrated their patriotism by giving whole-
hearted support to the government. All the Sikhs responded well, and
200

the Punjab contributed more than 20 million rupees to the national

defence fund, besides gold weighing double the weight of Jawaharlal
Nehru. Sant Fateh Singh presented 50,000 rupees to him on behalf of
the SGPC. In February, 1963 Sant Fateh Singh was still calling for a
war effort to drive out the Chinese. In June, 1963 Master Tara Singh's
effort to dislodge the Sant from the SGPC proved to be unsuccessful
when a no-confidence motion was defeated by eighty-one votes to
sixty-two. The support of Sant Fateh Singh had increased much in one
year at the expense of Master Tara Singh's popularity.
Meanwhile, Kairon's leadership came to be openly criticized by a
number of legislators.27 They submitted a charge-sheet against him to
the Congress President. A deputation of some opposition leaders had
already met the President of India with over thirty charges of corrup-
tion, nepotism and favouritism against Kairon. Such charges in fact had
been brought against him for the first time in 1958 but he was then
strongly supported by Jawaharlal Nehru to ensure that the Punjab
legislators did not pass a vote of no-confidence against him. Even in
1963 Jawaharlal Nehru was inclined to support him, but opposition
was now stronger and more vocal. On 22 October 1963 Nehru
recommended to the President that an enquiry may be made into the
charges against Kairon. He added, however, that any change in the
leadership of the Punjab might result in producing confusion and
putting a stop to the progress the state was making under him. The
Enquiry Commission started its work on 5 December 1963. Nehru's
refusal to suspend Kairon led to the resignation of a few Congress
legislators. The Commission's findings went against Kairon. He
resigned on 14 June 1964, a week before the publication of the
Commission's Report, carrying the verdict that he had connived at
the exploitation of his influence by his sons and relatives, colleagues
and government officials. Jawaharlal Nehru had died already in May,
1964. Kairon was assassinated in February, 1965.
At the time of Kairon's death, the Punjab was on the threshold of
'the green revolution'. His policies and measures for over eight years
had contributed much towards that development. Jawaharlal Nehru
was justified in saying that the Punjab had made great progress under
his guiding care. His commitment to communal harmony and
economic progress was in consonance with Nehru's thinking. Because
27
For factionalism in the Punjab Congress and opposition to Kairon, Pandit Mohan Lai,
Disintegration of Punjab, Sameer Prakashan, Chandigarh, 1984.
2OI

of his support, Kairon was able to withstand the popular movement of

the Akalis. At the same time he tried to cater to the Punjab peasantry in
general and the Sikh peasantry in particular, to create the impression
that he could do more for the Jats than the Akalis could: acquisition of
land for seed farms outside the plan, consolidation of landholdings,
provision of electric power to villages, construction of metalled roads,
loans for tube-wells, introduction of poultry farming and grape
cultivation and establishment of the Punjab Agricultural University.
He could do even more for the Punjabi language, he claimed, by
establishing the Punjabi University at Patiala.28
The number of tenants in the Punjab decreased from hundreds of
thousands to merely tens of thousands between 1955 and 1964.
Agricultural production increased by 42 per cent. From the small
beginnings made in the early years of Independence, nearly 22 million
acres were brought under consolidation by 1964-196 5, more than
5,000 villages were supplied with electric power and nearly 8,000 miles
of metalled roads were under the wheels of buses and trucks. At the
same time, more than 5,000 factories were registered. The growing
prosperity of the Punjab and the policies of the government under
Kairon won many voters for the Congress. The increasing alienation of
the Akalis, however, was alienating the Sikh peasantry also from the
Congress.
VII
On 18 January 1965, Sant Fateh Singh's group won ninety seats and
Master Tara Singh's group got only forty-five seats in the SGPC
elections. Master Tara Singh retired into the hills for six months. His
supporters, however, remained active in the plains. In May, 1965 a
conference was held at Ludhiana in which an important resolution was
moved by 'Justice' Gurnam Singh, leader of the opposition in the
Punjab Assembly, and seconded by the President of the Master Akali
Dal, Giani Bhupinder Singh. It was stated in this resolution that the
Sikh people were makers of history and conscious of their political
destiny in a free India; the law, the judicial process and the executive
action of the Indian Union were heavily weighted against the Sikhs;
28
The Punjabi University was inaugurated by President S. Radhakrishnan in 1962 and
Kairon underlined the importance of Punjabi as a great language. The institution was meant
to fulfil a part of the objectives of the Regional Formula.
2O2

they had no other alternative left than the demand for a self-determined
status within the Union. By the Urdu and Hindi press of the Punjabis it
was interpreted as a demand for a sovereign Sikh state.29
Master Tara Singh returned to the plains in July and put forth his
final thesis in August. He referred to the solemn promises of the
Congress which, after the attainment of freedom, were forgotten; he
referred to the new threat to all the minorities of India in the form of a
resurgence of militant Hinduism, particularly to the Sikhs who shared
much with the Hindus; he referred to the Sikh tradition of eschewing
discrimination against others; he put forth the idea that Sikhism was
against the concentration of wealth in individual hands and any abuse
of the means of production; and he concluded that the Sikh demand for
a space in the sun of free India to breathe the air of freedom was a
legitimate demand. Indeed, what God and history had built could not
be destroyed by the new rulers of India.30 Clearly, then, Master Tara
Singh was in favour of an autonomous state for the Sikhs within the
Indian Union. Seriously put forward for the first time in free India, this
idea of 'a Sikh homeland' was largely the result of Master Tara Singh's
failure not only to get the Punjabi Province but also to retain his
leadership of the Sikh Panth.
The Working Committee of the Sant Akali Dal passed a resolution
that not to form a linguistic state in the Punjab was a clear discrimina-
tion against the people of the Punjab. Sant Fateh Singh was authorized
to meet the new Prime Minister, Lai Bahadur Shastri, to press upon
him the necessity of forming a Punjabi-speaking state. But his meeting
with Shastri proved to be an unmitigated disappointment. He carried
the impression that the leaders in Delhi did not trust the Sikhs. On
August 16 he declared that he would go on fast on September 10 in the
cause of the Punjabi Province and, if he survived the fast for fifteen
days, he would immolate himself on the sixteenth day. However in
view of the armed conflict with Pakistan, he decided on September 9 to
postpone his fast. It was much appreciated by the President of India,
Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan. All sections of the Punjabis, once again,
displayed great patriotic fervour during the three weeks of war till the
cease-fire was declared on 16 September 1965. Soon afterwards, the
Union Home Minister declared that the question of the Punjabi-
Province would be examined all afresh and a Parliamentary Committee
29
Ajit Singh Sarhadi, Punjabi Suba, 4 0 1 - 0 2 .
30
Quoted, Ajit Singh Sarhadi, Punjabi Suba, 402-06.
203

under the Chairmanship of Hukam Singh, the Speaker, would be set

up. A cabinet subcommittee was also formed to advise the Parlia-
mentary Committee from time to time. It consisted of Indira Gandhi,
Y. B. Chavan and Mahavir Tyagi.
Lai Bahadur Shastri died at Tashkent on 11 January 1966 and Indira
Gandhi became the Prime Minister on January 20. She thought of
discussing the matter with a small committee appointed by Sant Fateh
Singh but the Sant suspected further delay. He wrote back that he
would wait for the decision of the government till the end of March.
The delay resulted in the adoption of extreme postures; the Master
Akali Dal reiterated its demand for a Sikh homeland and the Jan Sangh
opposed the formation of even a Punjabi Province. On March 9 the
Congress Working Committee recommended to the Union Govern-
ment that a state with Punjabi as state language may be created out of
the existing Punjab. In reaction, there were strikes, arson and murder,
generally believed to have been orchestrated by the Jan Sangh. Three
Congressmen were burnt alive in Panipat, including an old associate of
Bhagat Singh.
The Union Home Minister, Gulzari Lai Nanda, announced the
appointment of a Commission on 17 April. The falsified returns of
'mother-tongue' in the census of 1961 were made the basis of
enumeration and the tehsil, instead of the village, was made the unit
of bifurcation. These terms of reference minimized the relevance of
'other factors'. The Akalis sought all genuinely Punjabi-speaking
areas for the reorganized Punjab in their memorandum to the
Commission, headed by Justice Shah, a sitting judge of the Supreme
Court, with two retired officials as its members. Two members of the
Commission recommended exclusion of Tehsil Kharar from the
Punjab, carrying the implication of the loss of its capital, Chandigarh,
to the Punjab state. The report of the Commission was considered by
the Congress Parliamentary Committee on 8 June, and accepted with
some modifications. The Punjab Reorganization Bill provided not
only for a linguistic state but also for the creation of Haryana and the
Union Territory of Chandigarh. Introduced in the Lok Sabha on
3 September 1966, it was passed on 7 September. It received the
President's assent on 18 September. Despite protests from the Akalis,
the reorganized Punjab was inaugurated on 1 November 1966.
204

CHAPTER 10
IN THE NEW PUNJAB STATE (1966-1984)
The new Punjab state created new problems because of the way in
which it was formed. Sant Fateh Singh expressed his dissatisfaction
several months before the new state was inaugurated: genuinely
Punjabi-speaking areas were being left out of the new state and given to
Haryana or Himachal Pradesh; Chandigarh was unjustly being turned
into a Union Territory; power and irrigation projects were being taken
over by the Union Government. Opposing the Reorganization Bill in
the Parliament, Kapur Singh referred to the promises made by the
Congress and its leaders on various occasions; as late as July, 1946
Jawaharlal Nehru had told a press conference that the Sikhs were
entitled to special consideration: 'I see no wrong in an area and a set-up
in the North wherein the Sikhs can also experience a glow of freedom.'
Kapur Singh too favoured a larger state irrespective of Sikh population,
but a state standing in a special relationship to the Centre and having a
special internal constitution, a Sikh homeland.1
Sant Fateh Singh demanded 'the same rights for the Suba administra-
tion as were allowed to other states, and the same status for the
language as enjoyed in other areas'.2 On 17 December 1966 he went on
a fast with the declared intention of immolating himself ten days later.
On the afternoon of December 27 Hukam Singh reached Amritsar to
tell a large congregation in the Golden Temple that the Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi had agreed to arbitrate on the issues involved and that
Chandigarh belonged to the Punjab. Sant Fateh Singh was persuaded
to break his fast. A few days later the Home Minister denied in the
Parliament that any assurance had been given to the Sant. Indira
Gandhi stated on 8 January 1967 that she had agreed to arbitrate but
given no assurance to Sant Fateh Singh.
In the elections of 1967, Master Tara Singh's followers demanded a
special status for the new Punjab, like Jammu and Kashmir. This idea
1
Quoted, Ajit Singh Sarhadi, Punjabi Suba, U. C. Kapur and Sons, Delhi, 1970, 449-50.
2
205

Jammu & j^
Kashmir j * \
PUNJAB
(After 1966) v '— ***
'•"* <f GURDASPUR j "^
j
s/
^-, / t
/ HOSHIARPUR\
V AMRITSAR / > /~\ i Himachal Pradesh
\
PAKISTAN
i *>
j~ ^-vj-l^^ - JALANDHAR V i.
\i"Y \ ( Chandi
FEROZEP
/
V s \
r PATIALA f~—\'.
;
\ ^ SANGRUR
y<
BATHINDA f_
) \
i
Rajasthan
0 50
"•>»-4 Haryana
Kms.
Map 9 Contemporary Punjab
of a Sikh homeland did not go well with the mass of the Sikhs, and the
Master Akali Dal won only two seats, with about 4.5 per cent of the
votes. The Sant Akali Dal, however, won twenty-four seats, with about
20.5 per cent of the votes. A sizeable section of the Sikh peasantry still
supported the Congress which won forty-eight seats, with over 37.5
per cent of the votes. But the Congress failed for the first time after
1947 to have a majority in the Assembly. The Sant Akali Dal, under the
leadership of 'Justice' Gurnam Singh, formed the first non-Congress,
206

IN THE NEW PUNJAB STATE
United Front ministry in March with the support of the Jan Sangh, the
Communist parties and others. The United Front ministry fell on
22 November 1967. Three days later, the defecting Akali leader Lachh-
man Singh Gill formed a new ministry with the support of the
Congress. The leader of the Congress Assembly Party, Gian Singh
Rarewala, tried to persuade the Congress High Command that the
Punjab Congress may form a coalition ministry with the Akalis instead
of merely supporting Lachhman Singh Gill. But the High Command
did not even extend support to Gill for a long time. His ministry fell on
23 August 1968. President's rule was imposed in the new Punjab within
two years of its formation.
The fall of two Akali ministries in less than nineteen months obliged
the Akali leaders to review the political situation. Kapur Singh became
Senior Vice-President of the combined Master and Sant Akali Dal. His
ideas were reflected in the agreement reached and signed on 8 October
1968. The political objective of the Panth, it was stated, was well
grounded in the commandments of Guru Gobind Singh and given
concrete shape in Sikh history. The Khalsa were 'a sovereign people by
birth-right'; all decision-making powers belonged to the Panth; and
the goal of the Shiromani Akali Dal was to achieve an autonomous
status in a well-demarcated territory within free India. More powers
were demanded for the states because 'the Congress party in power has
abused the Constitution to the detriment of the non-Congress
Governments, and uses its power for its party interest'. The Shiromani
Akali Dal demanded that the Constitution of India 'should be on a
correct federal basis and that the states should have greater auton-
omy'. 3 The slogan of state autonomy was added to the earlier concern
for getting Chandigarh included in the Punjab and regaining control of
power and irrigation projects. In the mid-term elections of February
1969, which the Akalis fought in alliance with the Jan Sangh, they won
forty-three seats, five more than the Congress. The percentage of the
Sant Akali Dal votes too increased to 29.5 for the first time. Gurnam
Singh headed the ministry again, in coalition with the Jan Sangh.
The issue of Chandigarh was now taken up by the advocates of Sikh
homeland. Jathedar Darshan Singh Pheruman went on fast unto death
on 15 August 1969 on this issue. H e was determined to demonstrate
that a true Sikh of the Guru did not go back on his vow (ardas) without
attaining its objective. This did not reflect well on Sant Fateh Singh.
3
Resolution of the Akali Dal, quoted, Ajit Singh Sarhadi, Punjabi Sub a, 465-66.
207

Pheruman also declared that though the country was free, the Panth
was still in bondage. And this was supposed not to reflect well on the
Congress leadership. He wished to lay down his life for the ultimate
objective of a Sikh homeland. The Working Committee of the Akali
Dal resolved to struggle for all those objectives for which Sant Fateh
Singh had kept his fast. Nearly all the political parties of the Punjab
combined to take out a huge procession in Chandigarh, demanding its
inclusion in the Punjab. Jathedar Darshan Singh Pheruman died on
October 27.
On 24 November 1969 Sant Fateh Singh announced his decision to
go on fast on the forthcoming Republic Day, 26 January 1970 and to
immolate himself on February 1, if Chandigarh was not given to the
Punjab. The Prime Minister Indira Gandhi announced her award on 29
January 1970 giving Chandigarh to the Punjab. But this was not all. A
part of the Fazilka Tehsil in Ferozepur district was awarded to
Haryana, with a corridor on the border with Rajasthan to bypass the
Punjabi-speaking villages of the Muktsar Tehsil between Haryana and
Fazilka. A commission was to be appointed to consider other terri-
torial claims of the Punjab. The award was to be implemented five
years later in 1975. The All-Parties Action Committee under the
Chairmanship of the Jan Sangh leader Baldev Parkash denounced the
award as unjust and illogical but asked Sant Fateh Singh to give up his
fast because Chandigarh was awarded to the Punjab. Sant Fateh Singh
broke his fast on 30 January 1970.
Within two months of the Prime Minister's award there occurred a
rupture between the Akali Dal organization and its Assembly Party,
more specifically between the President Sant Fateh Singh and the Chief
Minister Gurnam Singh. The Chief Minister got Giani Bhupinder
Singh elected to the Rajya Sabha against the candidate nominated by
the Sant, and Sant Fateh Singh got them both expelled from the Akali
Dal. On 27 March 1970 Parkash Singh Badal became the new Chief
Minister of the Akali-Jan Sangh coalition. Before long, however, his
supporters were asking him to get rid of their Jan Sangh partners who
were becoming aggressive in demanding parity of Hindi with Punjabi
and a change in the jurisdiction of Guru Nanak Dev University
established by Gurnam Singh in November, 1969. The Jan Sangh
members left the government on June 20. Dissension within the Akali
Party synchronized with the increasing hold of Indira Gandhi over the
ruling Congress. In the Parliamentary elections of March, 1971 the
208

Akalis won only one seat. Three months later, Badal advised the
Governor to dissolve the Assembly, afraid of his removal from Chief
Ministership due to defections. President's rule was imposed on the
Punjab on 13 June 1971.
The general elections were held in the Punjab in March 1972 after the
war with Pakistan resulted in the independence of Bangla Desh and the
prestige of Indira Gandhi was at its highest. The Congress swept the
elections in the Punjab, as in many other parts of the country, winning
sixty-six out of the total 104 seats. Its communist allies won another
ten. The Akalis had fought alone, and won only twenty-four seats. In
terms of votes, however, the loss of the Akali Dal was rather marginal,
falling from 29.5 per cent in 1969 to 27.7 per cent in 1972. The gain of
the Congress was largely at the expense of the Jan Sangh which failed to
win any seat and got only 5 per cent of the votes. The Sikh peasant base
of the Akali Dal remained virtually intact. The Sikh scheduled and
backward castes, however, like the urban Hindus and Hindu Harijans,
largely supported the Congress. Thus, when Giani Zail Singh was
elected as the leader of the Congress Assembly party on 15 March
1972, to become the Chief Minister of the Punjab, he did not enjoy the
support of the Sikh landholders, even though nearly 60 per cent of the
Congress legislators were Sikh.4
II
In spite of political instability, the first five years of the new Punjab
state were marked by a spurt in economic growth. When the Akalis
declared in 1967 that they would make the Punjab 'a model province',
'an object of envy' for the rest of the country, the green revolution had
already begun. The consolidation of landholdings was completed in
1969. The rural share of electric power in 1970 rose to over 3 5 per cent.
The percentage of irrigated area in the gross area under cultivation
was increasing rather rapidly. Nearly 2,000 kms of link roads were
constructed in 1969-1970, which was more than the total length of
roads built during the First Five Year Plan. The majority of villages
were linked with main roads and, therefore, with markets. The
functioning of agricultural machinery was ensured by a certain degree
4
For changes in the voting patterns, M. S. Dhami, 'Changing Support Base of the
Congress Party in Punjab, 1952—80', Punjab Journal of Politics, Guru Nanak Dev University,
Amritsar, 1984, Vol. 8, No. 1, 65-97.
209

of indigenization of technology. A high-yielding variety of dwarf

wheat had been introduced in 1965 and within five years the farmers of
the leading district of Ludhiana took entirely to this variety. The area
under wheat doubled from i960 to 1970, and the production of wheat
increased five-fold.5
The Akali regime came to be associated with agrarian prosperity
though the green revolution did not lose momentum afterwards. In the
Punjab as a whole, wheat and rice production increased threefold from
1965-1966 to 1971-1972, wheat rising from 1.9 to 5.9 million tonnes
and rice from 0.29 to 0.92 million tonnes. The rate of increase in the
production of maize and cotton as well as wheat and rice became higher
in the late 1970s. The output of cereals rose from less than 8 million
tonnes in 1975 to nearly 12 million tonnes in 1980. In 1978-1979 the
Punjab contributed over 6 million tonnes of foodgrains to the all India
procurement of about 11 million tonnes. The production of sugarcane
and cotton also increased steadily during the 1970s.
The economic development in the Punjab reduced the poverty ratio
to the lowest in the country but industrial production lagged far behind
the agricultural production. Small-scale industries came to be concen-
trated in Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana, engaged mainly in the
production of cotton and woollen textiles, hosiery, cycles, machine
tools, agricultural implements, sports goods, steel re-rolling and cotton
ginning and pressing, accounting for over 78 per cent of the total value
of small industrial production in 1973-1974, and for 90 per cent in
1978-1979. The large- and medium-scale units, about 200 in 1978-
1979, accounted for about 48.5 per cent of the total production.6
Nevertheless, the gap between the growth of agrarian economy and
industrialization in the state became wider.
A considerable number of the Sikhs from the towns and villages of
the Punjab were moving to other parts of the country in search of
better opportunities. In 1971, when the Sikhs formed nearly 1.9 per
cent of the total population of the country, more than 20 per cent of
them were living outside the Punjab. Their largest number was in
Haryana, well over 600,000, which was a part of the Punjab state only a
few years before. The combined number of Sikhs in Uttar Pradesh and
Rajasthan was larger than in Haryana, and most of them had gone there
5
Partap C. Aggarwal, The Green Revolution and Rural Labour, Sri Ram Centre for
Industrial Relations and Human Resources, New Delhi, 1973.
6
Pramod Kumar and others, Punjab Crisis: Context and Trends, Centre for Research in
Rural and Industrial Development, Chandigarh, 1984, 52-56.
2IO

to reclaim waste lands. Delhi came next with nearly 300,000 Sikhs. In
Jammu and Kashmir and in Maharashtra the number of Sikhs was more
than 100,000 each; in Madhya Pradesh, it was only a little less than
100,000. The percentage of increase in Sikh population in these states
ranged from twenty-four to sixty-eight between 1961 and 1971, a clear
index of their outmigration from the Punjab and their integration with
national economy and polity.
Of over 8 million Sikhs in the Punjab in 1971, who formed a little
over 60 per cent of the total population of the state, over 90 per cent
were living in the countryside. Nearly 65 per cent of the Sikhs in the
Punjab belonged to the cultivating castes, while Khatri, Arora,
Brahman and Rajput Sikhs formed only about 5 per cent. Even in cities
and towns the artisan and scheduled castes among the Sikhs were as
numerous as the Sikhs with a 'high caste' background. Altogether, the
artisans and scheduled castes formed about a fifth of the total Sikh
population, and lived mostly in the villages. The number and propor-
tion of 'high castes' among the Sikhs was smaller than among the
Hindus who lived mostly in cities and towns. The proportion of
scheduled castes too was higher among the Hindus. The proportion of
artisans and craftsmen as well as agriculturalists was much higher
among the Sikhs.
The effects of agrarian growth in the Punjab on the landholders
were not uniform. Amidst a decreasing number of tenants and an
increasing number of labourers in the 1970s, the rich and middle-class
farmers, owning more than ten acres of land (who formed about 23 per
cent of the total landholders) came to operate nearly 65 per cent of the
area under cultivation. The peasants owning five to ten acres of land
constituted about 20 per cent of the landholders and cultivated about
20 per cent of the land. The poor peasants, who cultivated only about
15 per cent of the land, formed nearly 5 7 per cent of the landholders. A
small class of rich peasants existed side by side with a large group of
small and poor peasants. But they all felt concerned about higher prices
and cheaper inputs. The Akali Chief Ministers from 1967 to 1971
catered largely to the countryside. Landholdings up to five acres were
exempted from land-revenue. The abolition of betterment-fee levied
on areas irrigated by the Bhakra canals was accepted in principle. Over
25 millions of dollars from a World Bank loan of 39 millions were
earmarked to purchase tractors which could be 'hire-purchased' by
farmers for 25 per cent of the price. Prices were 'guaranteed' for
211

procurement. To appeal to the sentiments of landholders, the Akalis

contemplated amendment in the Hindu Succession Act of 1956 to
enable married women to get a share in the landed property of the
father-in-law rather than the father to reduce fragmentation of land-
holdings. To hammer the point that the ceiling of thirty acres was an
anti-rural measure, the Akali leaders advocated a ceiling on urban
property exceeding the value of thirty acres of agricultural land. To
underline that middlemen and traders were substantial beneficiaries of
the green revolution they proposed to take over the entire foodgrains
trade.7
On the basis of their experience the Akali ministers became
conscious of the areas of tension between the Centre and the State. One
such area was funds for developmental purposes. They had a strong
feeling that the Punjab was getting a much smaller share from the
Centre than its due. No clearance was given by the Centre for the
Thein Dam Project, and a thermal project had to be started without
prior clearance. The Punjab was not getting its due share from the river
waters. The prices of agricultural produce fixed by the Centre were
rather low. 'At the political level also we faced interference in the very
continuance of the Akali Ministry. These tactics of the Central Party
were ultimately instrumental in the overthrowing of our Govern-
ment.'8 In the early 1970s, while a few of the Akali leaders were in
favour of revising the Centre—State relations in financial matters and a
few others were in favour of a separate constitution for the Punjab, the
majority advocated the introduction of a genuinely federal system,
with defence, foreign affairs, communications and currency as the
great prerogatives of the Union Government. It was on the basis of
such rethinking that a subcommittee was constituted by the Working
Committee of the Akali Dal before the end of 1972 to chalk out a
'policy programme' of the Akali Dal for the future. The proposals of
this sub-committee were accepted by the Working Committee in its
meeting at Anandpur Sahib on the Baisakhi of 1973. Generally referred
to as the Anandpur Sahib Resolution, it was to prove later to be the
most controversial resolution passed by the Shiromani Akali Dal in its
entire history.
7
For the economic measures and ideas of the Akalis, A. S. Narang, Storm Over the Sutlej:
The Akalis Politics, Gitanjali Publishing House, New Delhi, 1983, 194-99.
8
M. S. Dhami, Minority Leaders Image of the Indian Political System, Sterling
Publishers, Jullundur, 197$, 34—35.
212

III
During the ministry of Giani Zail Singh, the land ceiling was reduced
from 30 to 17.5 standard acres and attempts were made to distribute
surplus land among the tenants and the landless. The Akalis regarded
this reform as a political stunt, and it did not endear Giani Zail Singh or
the Congress to the Sikh landholders. From a 'socialistic' animosity
towards large landholders to a thinly veiled antipathy towards the Jats
was only a step. Before the end of his ministry in 1977, some of his
admirers had begun to credit him with humbling the Jat leaders.
One of the major concerns of Giani Zail Singh, however, was to
demonstrate that he was a better Sikh than the best of the Akalis. He
was thoroughly familiar with the Sikh scriptures and knew how to use
this asset with Sikh audiences. If the 300th anniversary of Guru
Gobind Singh's birth was celebrated in 1967 and the 500th anniver-
sary of Guru Nanak's birth in 1969, the Guru Gobind Singh and Guru
Nanak Foundations were established during the tenure of Giani Zail
Singh with substantial financial support from the government. On his
initiative, kirtan darbdrs were organized, foundation stones of public
buildings were laid with an ardds and state functions started with a Sikh
ritual. A road was completed in the name of Guru Gobind Singh, to
commemorate his march from Anandpur Sahib to Damdama Sahib,
combining a large measure of fiction with convenience and utility.
When it was inaugurated on 10 April 1973 the Akalis joined the
procession. On April 13 Giani Zail Singh received a robe of honour
(saropd) at Damdama Sahib, in recognition of his meritorious services
to the Sikh Panth.
The events which led to the ouster of Giani Zail Singh and his
ministry were taking place outside the Punjab. The Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi was legally 'unseated' on 12 June 1974 and her popular-
ity in the country was waning. The Akalis held a rally at Ludhiana in
support of her arch opponent, Jaya Prakash Narayan. In 1975 they
participated in his rally at Delhi in which a call was given for civil
disobedience, and people were asked not to recognize Indira Gandhi as
the legitimate Prime Minister of the country. On 25 June 1975 she
declared that the country was under 'internal emergency'. In a special
meeting of their executive on June 30 the Akalis resolved to oppose 'the
fascist tendency of the Congress'.9 On July 9 they launched a 'save
9
Quoted A. S. Narang, Storm Over the Sutlej, 192.
213

democracy' morchd. They were unhappy with the Congress over the
delay in starting work on the Thein Dam, discrimination in the
allocation of heavy industry, and unremunerative prices for farm
produce. The morchd continued throughout the period of the emer-
gency, and nearly 40,000 Akalis courted arrest by the beginning of
1977 when the emergency was withdrawn.
In the Parliamentary elections of March, 1977 the Congress was
routed. The Acting President of India, B. D. Jatti, dissolved assem-
blies in nine states in which the Congress was the ruling party and
ordered fresh elections. The Akalis formed an alliance with the CPM
and the Janata Party to contest the elections in June. Altogether they
won ninety-one seats against the seventeen of the Congress. The Akalis
alone won fifty-eight out of 117 seats. Parkash Singh Badal, who led
the coalition ministry, declared after assuming office that the Punjab
economy was largely rural and the countryside deserved great atten-
tion: 'The real Punjab lives in villages, and it is necessary that the
benefits of our progress must percolate to the countryside and reach
the needy people.'10 The whole additional outlay of 480,000,000 rupees
in 1977 was earmarked for increasing agricultural production through
extension of irrigational facilities and improvement in infrastructure.
An ambitious programme of integrated rural development was
launched in November, 1978 in the shape of 'focal points' for groups of
villages to provide health services, marketing centres, credit facilities
and recreation. Interest rates on loans were reduced by 1 per cent and a
new system of credit to farmers was introduced to make it more easily
available. The measures and policies of the Akalis benefited the
peasantry greatly, and the rich farmers even more.
Contrary to the general impression studiously spread by their
self-interested opponents that the Akalis forget their demands when
they come into power, in the All India Akali Conference held at
Ludhiana in October, 1978 a dozen resolutions were passed in the light
of the Anandpur Sahib Resolution endorsed by the Shiromani Akali
Dal in 1977.11 These resolutions represented their most important
ideas on the long-term programme of the party, covering a wide range
of political, economic, religious, cultural and social issues. A 'real
federal shape' of the Indian constitution was demanded in the very first
10
Quoted, A. S. Narang, Storm Over the Sutlej, 197.
1
' For the text of the resolution endorsed by Sant Longowal, Government of India, White
Paper on the Punjab Agitation, Delhi, 1984, 67-90.
214

resolution 'to enable the states to play a useful role for the progress and
prosperity of the Indian people in their respective areas by the
meaningful exercise of their powers'. The merger of Chandigarh and
other Punjabi-speaking areas in the Punjab, the control of all head-
works, the just distribution of river waters, the maintenance of the
'present ratio' of the Sikhs in the army and protection to the Sikh
settlers in the Terai areas of Uttar Pradesh were demanded in the
second resolution. The third resolution asked among other things for a
dry port at Amritsar and a stock exchange at Ludhiana. The fourth
resolution asked for Punjabi to be the second language in the states
which had a considerable number of Punjabi-speaking people. Some of
the significant demands in the other resolutions were a broadcasting
station at Amritsar to relay gurbdni to be erected at the expense of the
Khalsa Panth but under the overall control of the Indian Government,
and amendment in the Hindu Succession Act to enable a woman to
inherit her share in the property of her father-in-law, exemption of
farming land from wealth tax and estate duty and a special ministry for
the economically backward classes, including the scheduled castes. On
the whole, the resolutions of October, 1978 were more a manifesto of
the politico-economic concerns of the Akalis than a demonstration of
their religious or cultural preoccupations.12
IV
If the Akalis in power tended to become more secular, their opponents
among the Sikhs tended to become more radical in the spheres of both
religion and politics. In 1977 Sant Jarnail Singh succeeded to the
headship of the Damdami Taksal at Chowk Mehta, near Amritsar,
after the demise of Sant Kartar Singh Bhindranwale (spoken in the
plural as a mark of reverence), an organization which had upheld Sikh
'orthodoxy' for several decades in free India. Running almost parallel
with this mission was the 'heterodox' mission of the Sant Nirankaris of
Delhi who were much different from the successors of Baba Dayal, the
founder of the Nirankari movement. The Sant Nirankaris based their
teachings on the Sikh scriptures but their leader Baba Avtar Singh also
composed his Avtdr Bdrji and Yug Pursh. Their decreasing reverence
12
Anup Chand Kapur, The Punjab Crisis, S. Chand and Co., New Delhi, 1985, 202-05.
The author sees a great difference between the resolutions passed at Ludhiana and the
Anandpur Sahib Resolution without much justification.
215

for the Granth Sahib, coupled with their belief in the living guru, made
the Sant Nirankaris extremely unorthodox in the eyes of the Sikhs
nurtured on the doctrines of the Singh Sabhas. The publication of a
book on the nature, affluence and influence of the Sant Nirankaris
brought them into clearer focus.13
On the Baisahi of 1978 the Nirankari Guru Baba Gurbachan Singh
held a congregation at Amritsar. Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, who
subscribed to the twin doctrine of Guru-Granth and Guru-Panth,
regarded Baba Gurbachan Singh's congregation in the holiest city of
the Sikhs on the day when Guru Gobind Singh had instituted the
Khalsa, as an affront to the entire Khalsa Panth. Encouraged by his
open resentment over the Sant Nirankari Congregation, a number of
Sikhs went there with the idea of stopping its proceedings. The Sant
Nirankaris were ready. Their bullets proved to be more deadly than the
traditional swords of the Khalsa who, consequently, lost many more
lives than their opponents. The Akali government took legal action. In
June, 1978 however, a hukmndma was issued from the Akal Takht to all
the Sikhs that they should have no connection with the Sant Nirankaris
and they should discountenance their heterodoxy. The hukmndma
referred to the false claims of Baba Gurbachan Singh to be an avtdr and
to his turning away from the Shabad-Guru to preach the worship of a
human being.14 The Akalis and the Sikhs in general were content to
invoke legal and social sanctions but there were others who wanted to
avenge themselves on the Sant Nirankaris by other means.
In August, 1978 a council of five was formed in Chandigarh to fight
the 'Nirankari onslaught on the Sikhs'. This small organization was
called Dal Khalsa. It was believed to have been financed and encour-
aged by some Congress leaders opposed to the Akali Dal coalition.
Another small organization which decided to take revenge upon
those Nirankaris and officials who were connected with the incident
of the Baisakhl day of 1978 at Amritsar was a purely religious
organization called the Akhand Kirtani Jatha headed by Bibi Amarjit
Kaur, the widow of Fauja Singh, an Agricultural Inspector, who was
one of the 'martyrs'. The hit squad created by Bibi Amarjit Kaur was
headed by Talwinder Singh.
New political ideas and organizations were sprouting in the
13
Balwant Gargi, Nirankari Baba, Thomson Press, Delhi, 1973.
14
For the text of the hukmndma, Harbans Singh, Khdlistdn, Pbi, Punjabi Writers
Cooperative, New Delhi, 1982, 109-10.
2l6

1970s rather imperceptibly. The idea of Khalistan was thrown out by

Dr Jagjit Singh Chauhan through a half-page advertisement in the New
York Times in October, 1971 after his brief spell as a Finance Minister
under Lachhman Singh Gill. Whatever the superficial historians or
self-interested politicians and public men may say about its ante-
cedents, the idea of Khalistan was altogether a new idea. In the 1970s it
was treated as a hoax and Chauhan was treated well by some eminent
Congress leaders during his visits to India. In the late 1970s the defunct
Sikh Students Federation, originally founded in the 1940s, was revived
as the All India Sikh Students' Federation (AISSF) by Bhai Amrik
Singh, son of the deceased Sant Kartar Singh Bhindranwale, who was
closely linked with Sant Jarnail Singh.15
Some of the new Sikh organizations were opposed to the Akalis. In
the SGPC elections of 1979, for instance, the Dal Khalsa candidates
fought against their candidates though without any success. Sant
Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale also fielded about forty candidates who
were backed by the Congress, but only four of them were elected. In
the elections of 1980 Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale supported some
of the Congress candidates.16
Paradoxically, however, the Congress in the Punjab was becoming
less and less representative of the Sikhs during the 1970s. It won sixty-
three seats in the elections of 1980 when the Akalis and their Commun-
ist allies won only fifty-one. But this was no mean achievement during
the 'Indira wave' of the 1980s. In any case, the main support to the
Congress in the Punjab came from the Hindus living in urban and
semi-urban areas and Harijans living in both villages and towns. Only a
small section of the peasantry, and that too with growing interest in
business and industry, voted for the Congress. The Akalis and their
allies got the bulk of their votes from the agricultural castes, totalling
only a little less than 38 per cent of the votes polled. The Akalis alone
polled nearly 27 per cent of the votes. The increasing polarization
between the country and the town was accompanied by an increasing
polarization between the two major religious communities. This
development affected the Congress Party in a significant way. The
15
For 'extremist' organizations, Chand Joshi, Bhindranwale: Myth and Reality, Vikas
Publishing House, New Delhi, 1984, 32—40.
16
For the rise of Bhindranwale and the support he got from the Congress leaders, Mark
Tully and Satish Jacob, Amritsar: Mrs Gandhi's Last Battle, Rupa and Co., Calcutta, 1985,
52-72.
217

number of Sikh legislators in the Congress was steadily decreasing,

from about 65 per cent in 1967 to about 45 per cent in 1980.
The Congress Chief Minister Darbara Singh had to deal with a

situation marked by increasing militancy and sectarian polarization.17
Baba Gurbachan Singh, who had been acquitted along with his sixty-
one followers by a court ouside the Punjab, was murdered in Delhi
after the Punjab Government withdrew its appeal against him from the
High Court on the fall of the Akali ministry. His son and successor,
Baba Hardev Singh wrote a letter to the Jathedar of the Akal Takht
towards the end of 1981 that he and his followers had deep regard for
the Sikh Gurus, that they were never disrespectful towards the
traditions and practices of Sikhism, and that they regarded the Guru
Granth Sahib as a revelation from God. Baba Hardev Singh also
showed his willingness to expunge objectionable passages from the
Avtar Barn and the Yug Pursh by mutual agreement.18 The Akalis were
inclined to accept this apologetic gesture from the head of the Sant
Nirankaris, but there were others who were not.
Meanwhile, separatist ideas began to be aired. An announcement
was made on 16 June 1980, about the formation of Khalistan by Balbir
Singh Sandhu who put himself forth as the Secretary-General and Jagjit
Singh Chauhan as the President of the National Council of Khalistan.
Ganga Singh Dhillon, a US citizen, addressed the Sikh Education
Conference at Chandigarh in March 1981 to expound the idea that
the Sikhs are a distinct nation. His links with Jagjit Singh Chauhan and
with the President of Pakistan were known to his Indian supporters,
including Jathedar Jagdev Singh Talwandi and Jathedar Gurcharan
Singh Tohra. The Chief Khalsa Diwan dissociated itself from the
statement of Dhillon in a resolution of 16 April 1981 and asserted that
the Sikhs were and would remain an inseparable part of Bharat.
Obviously, the idea that the Sikhs are a distinct nation was taken to
mean that it carried the implication of political separation. It was
suggestive of Khalistan. Nevertheless, the SGPC did pass a resolution
17
For major events from 1980 to 1984, Jagtar Singh, 'Chronology of Events', The Punjab
Crisis: Challenge and Response (ed. Abida Samiuddin), Mittal Publications, Delhi, 1985,
702-1o
18
For the text of his letter, Harbans Singh, Khalistan, 111-12.
2l8

in 1981 that the Sikhs are a nation. The National Council of Khalistan
and the Dal Khalsa stood for an independent state for the Sikhs.
In May, 1981 the All India Sikh Students Federation demanded that
tobacco and other intoxicants should be banned in the holy city of
Amritsar before the end of the month. On May 28 the Arya Samaj and
other 'Hindu' organizations led a huge procession in Amritsar to
demand that not only tobacco but also alcohol and meat should be
banned in the city of Amritsar. They did not relish the idea of lagging
behind in expressing whipped-up religious concerns with political
overtones. On May 31, Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale led a proces-
sion which clashed with the police and nearly a dozen persons were
killed. Tempers were rising.
Lala Jagat Narain, who was present in the Nirankari congregation at
Amritsar on April 13 in 1978 and who had given evidence in support of
the Sant Nirankarls before a special commission, was vociferous
through a chain of papers he owned and edited against the protagonists
of Khalistan whom he regarded as the enemies of the nation without
making any subtle distinction between one group and another among
the Sikhs. He was murdered on 9 September 1981. By his own press
and by some others he was treated as a great martyr.
Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was a suspect now as he was after
the murder of Baba Gurbachan Singh a year and a half earlier. Giani
Zail Singh as the Home Minister had told the Parliament in 1980 that
Sant Bhindranwale had no hand in the murder of the Nirankari Baba. It
was more difficult now to defend him openly. At his headquarters at
Chowk Mehta, Sant Jarnail Singh chose to offer himself for arrest on 20
September 1981. Unfortunately, the police opened fire because of
some misunderstanding and eleven persons were killed. Several inci-
dents of random firing, sabotage and bomb explosions and the
hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane took place before Sant Bhindran-
wale's release from police custody on October 15. Ironically, both
Giani Zail Singh and the Akalis were keen for the release of Sant Jarnail
Singh Bhindranwale. Two months later Jathedar Santokh Singh was
shot dead and when Sant Bhindranwale went to Dehli for the bhog
ceremony, Buta Singh, the Union Minister for Sports and Parliament
Affairs as well as Giani Zail Singh greeted him with customary
veneration.
Sant Harchand Singh Longowal presided over a World Sikh Con-
vention in July, 1981 which directed the Akali Dal to plan dharmyudh
219

(righteous war) to pursue the Anandpur Sahib Resolution. Early in

September the Akali Dal mobilized support for its demands and gave a
call for demonstration before the Parliament to present their memo-
randum of grievances to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. Only a few of
the volunteers were allowed to enter the capital. On September 21,
however, the Akalis were able to present a list of forty-five grievances
to the Prime Minister. They were asked to prepare a memorandum of
their demands. A fresh memorandum of fifteen demands was pre-
sented to Indira Gandhi in October, 1981.19
The first meeting between the Prime Minister and the Akali leaders
was held at New Delhi on October 16. It was meant primarily to
identify issues, and the Foreign Minister Narasimha Rao was to take up
the issues in detail later. But the Akali leaders who met Narasimha Rao
found it 'a waste of time'. Their second meeting with the Prime
Minister took place on November 26. One of the issues discussed was
the circular issued by Indira Gandhi's government during the Emer-
gency which laid down that recruitment to the defence services was to
be made from the different states of the country on the basis of their
population. Its implication for the Sikhs was obvious enough. The
Akali leaders talked of merit as the main criterion of recruitment but
the Prime Minister replied that she had to carry 'others' along, leaving
the impression that it was a considered policy of her government to
reduce the number of Sikhs in the Indian army.
The impression left on the Akali leaders regarding the more vital
issue of river waters was even worse. According to the needs hurriedly
estimated for the Indus Waters Treaty of 1955, the Punjab was
supposed to require 7.20 million acre feet (maf) of water together with
Pepsu, and Rajasthan was supposed to need 8.00 maf, while Jammu and
Kashmir were supposed to require 0.65 maf of water. The Punjab
Reorganization Act of 1966 stipulated that the waters of the Punjab
rivers, but not of the Yamuna from which the Punjab till then had been
drawing water for irrigation, were to be divided between the Punjab
and Haryana on a basis mutually agreed. If they failed to agree, the
Union Government was to decide their shares. Indira Gandhi had
decided during the Emergency in 1976 that out of the 7.20 maf of the
Punjab share, 0.20 be given to Delhi for drinking purposes and the
round figure of 7.00 maf be equally divided between the Punjab and
Haryana. Giani Zail Singh as the Chief Minister of the Punjab did not
" For these lists, White Paper on the Punjab Agitation, 61-65.
220

relish the patent injustice done to his state. He was given the choice to
resign, which he was not inclined to exercise.
When the Akalis came into power they took up the issue with the
Prime Minister, Morarji Desai. He could make the Rajasthanis see with
their own eyes on the map that they had little to do with the Punjab
rivers, but he was not prepared to reopen the decision of 195 5. He was
prepared to give his own verdict on the shares of the Punjab and
Haryana but only on the condition that his verdict would be final.
When the Akalis suggested that they could take the issue to the
Supreme Court, Morarji Bhai had no objection. A suit was filed, and it
was pending in the Supreme Court when Indira Gandhi met the Akalis
on 26 November 1981. She gave assurances of much larger supplies of
water and energy to the Punjab in the future on the basis of more
scientific exploitation of sources but she was not in favour of revising
earlier decisions.
Within five weeks, nevertheless, Indira Gandhi gave a unilateral
decision. The available water was estimated at 17.17 maf, and out of the
additional 1.32 maf 0.72 was given to the Punjab. But at the same time it
was made clear to the Akalis that their talk about Rajasthan being a
non-riparian state was a contemptible nonsense: even though it was
not utilizing the water already allocated, Rajasthan was given the
remaining 0.60 maf of the estimated additional waters. It was also
decided that Satlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal should be completed in
two years for Haryana. Of the three Congress Chief Ministers
concerned two were eager to accept the decision in self-interest. The
Punjab Government felt obliged to withdraw its case from the
Supreme Court against its own interest.
After their third and last meeting with the Prime Minister on 5 April
1982 the Akali leaders returned from Delhi with the impression that
Indira Gandhi had already made up her mind to let the issues
wait. She had, but not on all issues. In view of the impending
elections in Haryana she was keen on getting the SYL canal dug for
Haryana.
The Shiromani Akali Dal organized a 'block the canal' (nahar roko)
agitation on 24 April 1982 with the support of the Communist parties,
at a village close to Kapuri from where the water of the Satlej was to be
diverted to Haryana. Some of the volunteers were arrested. A month
later another agitation was launched at Kapuri itself, which also failed
to mobilize the peasantry. On July 16 the Akalis decided at last to
221

launch their 'righteous war' (dharm yudh) with effect from August 4. It
started with Parkash Singh Badal courting arrest with a large number of
other volunteers.
Soon afterwards, Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale joined the Akali
dharm yudh. Two of his followers had been arrested on July 17. Bhai
Amrik Singh offended the Punjab Governor Chenna Reddy during his
visit to Amritsar by pleading the case of the arrested workers a little too
vehemently, and he too was arrested on July 19. Thara Singh, another
devoted follower of Sant Bhindranwale, was arrested on July 20. Sant
Bhindranwale decided to leave Chowk Mehta to start a peaceful
agitation from the Golden Temple complex against their arrest. His call
failed to evoke much response. He approached the Akali leaders for
support. They asked him to join the 'righteous war' under the
leadership of Sant Harchand Singh Longowal. He accepted the sug-
gestion. The two morchds became one.
The dharm yudh for the political, economic, cultural and religious
demands of the Akalis gained increasing momentum in August and
September. It became more and more difficult for the government to
find room for the protesting volunteers in the existing jails. On
September 11 a bus carrying arrested volunteers collided with a train
near Tarn Taran and thirty-four of them died on the spot. An
impressive procession in their honour was taken out in Delhi on
October 10. Five days later Indira Gandhi decided to release all Akali
volunteers on the auspicious day of the Diwall of 1982. Before the end
of October, Swaran Singh was negotiating settlement with the Akali
leaders on behalf of the Prime Minister. He hammered out a mutually
acceptable formula on several important issues, like Chandigarh and
river waters, the relay of kirtan from the All India Radio, the
Centre-State relations. Indira Gandhi appointed a cabinet subcommit-
tee consisting of Pranab Mukherjee, R. Venkatraman, Narasimha Rao
and P. C. Sethi to consider the formula. They accepted it and Swaran
Singh told the Akali leaders that the government had approved of the
formula. However, the statement placed before the Parliament turned
out to be materially different from what had been agreed upon. Indira
Gandhi had changed her mind.
A despairing Sant Longowal announced in early November, 1982
that the Akali Dal would hold demonstrations in Delhi during the
Asian games. An exhibition of 'Sikh grievances' in the capital on an
occasion of international importance was better avoided. A Congress
222

Member of Parliament, Amrinder Singh, son of Maharaja Yadvindra

Singh of Patiala, negotiated with the Akali leaders on behalf of the
Prime Minister. An agreement was reached, but it was sabotaged by
Bhajan Lai, the Chief Minister of Haryana. Among other things, he
assured the Prime Minister that no Sikh demonstrators would be
allowed to reach Delhi at the time of the Asiad. Bhajan Lai proved to be
truer than his word. No Sikh, whether a Congress member of
Parliament or a retired army general, was allowed to pass through
Haryana without being humiliated in one way or the other. Many an
ordinary Sikh lost not merely metaphorically his 'honour' but literally
his turban. The veteran journalist Kuldip Nayyar observed that the
Sikhs felt humiliated not as individuals but as members of a commu-
nity. 'From that day their feeling of alienation has been increasing.'20
VI
The number of violent incidents had begun to increase steadily before

the imposition of President's rule in October, 1983. In 1982 about sixty
such incidents had taken place. In 1983, the number rose to nearly 140.
The monthly average by September, 1983, rose to nine. In October the
number of violent incidents rose suddenly to thirty-six and in May,
1984, shot up to over fifty. There were bank robberies, thefts of
weapons, cutting of telegraph wires, setting fire to railway stations,
attacks on policemen, bomb explosions, murders of Nirankaris,
murders of public men and attacks on ministers. There was also the
breaking of idols, damage to temples, sacrilege of gurdwdras, firing on
Hindu shopkeepers, killing of cigarette sellers, firing on jagrdtd and
Ram-LIla crowds, indiscriminate firing and, finally, the killing of
Hindu passengers taken out of buses.21
Some of the incidents were more significant than others. On 2 5 April
1983 for instance, a Deputy Inspector General of Police was shot dead
when he was emerging from the Golden Temple. He was not quite an
innocent worshipper as he was made out to be, but he was surely trying
to perform his duties, risking his life in the process. On October 5-6, a
number of innocent Hindu passengers were taken out of a Delhi-
bound bus near Dhilwan on the river Beas and murdered in cold blood.
20
Kuldip N a y y a r and K h u s h w a n t Singh, Tragedy of Punjab: Operation Blttestar and
After, Vision B o o k s , N e w Delhi, 1984, 66.
21
F o r a consolidated list of violent incidents, White Paper on the Punjab Agitation,
110-62.
223

It was decided to remove the Chief Minister Darbara Singh immedi-

ately to impose President's rule on October 6. Not without justi-
fication, he attributed his fall to the machinations of his opponents
within the Congress. On the day following, the Punjab was declared to
be a 'disturbed area'. The Bengal Governor B. D. Pande was sent to the
Punjab as its Governor. His considered view that a political problem
required a political solution went unheeded. He could not have a free
hand even in the administration of law and order because of the
'backseat driving' of a Punjab Committee sitting in Delhi.
Within four weeks of the President's rule, on October 31, the
Sealdah-Jammu Tawi Express was derailed and nineteen passengers
lost their lives. The burning of a gurdwara at Churu in Rajasthan on
November 26-27 transformed the vicious circle into a spiral. On 14
February 1984 the Hindu Suraksha Samiti observed a bandh in which
eleven persons died. 'Some members of extremist Hindu organizations
committed the sacrilege of damaging the model of the Golden Temple
and a picture of Guru Ram Das at the Amritsar Railway Station.'22
From 15 to zo February 1984, there was mob violence in Haryana
against the Sikhs, generally believed to have been engineered by its
Chief Minister on the insistence of the leader of a powerful lobby in
Delhi. On February 19, eight Sikhs were killed on the Grand Trunk
Road in Panipat within sight of the Haryana police. In retaliation,
thirty-five 'Hindus' were killed in the five days following. Harbans
Singh Manchanda, the pro-Congress President of the Delhi Gurdwara
Prabandhak Committee, was assassinated in Delhi on March 28. On
March 31 the examination branch of Guru Nanak Dev University at
Amritsar was burnt to obviate the holding of its annual examinations
involving nearly a lakh of students.23 Harbans Lai Khanna, the
Bharatiya Janata Party leader, was shot dead in Amritsar on April 2,
and eight persons were killed during his funeral procession on the day
following. On April 14 an attempt was made to burn down thirty-four
railway stations. On May 12, Ramesh Chander, the son and successor
of Lala Jagat Narain, was shot dead in Jalandhar. On 2 June 1984 the
Janata leader Om Parkash Bagga was killed.
In this steadily worsening situation of escalating violence and
22
White Paper on the Punjab Agitation, 30. I n Amritsar, however, it w a s generally
believed that this was the w o r k of a Congress legislator.
23
T h e White Paper is silent o n the point b u t a non-Sikh official of the University was
believed t o have provided the information needed: such w a s t h e complexity of the pattern of
violence.
224

communal polarization, the Akali leaders pursued their dharm yudh,

looking for a way out of the impasse. Sant Harchand Singh Longowal
asked the Akali legislators to resign their seats on 26 January 1983 but
with effect from February 21. His call for a meeting of the Sikh
ex-servicemen met a good response from nearly 5,000 persons. In the
camp at Anandpur Sahib, held under the 'command' of Jathedar
Gurcharan Singh Tohra for the training of 'non-violent self-sacrificing
squads', the retired Generals J. S. Bhullar and Narinder Singh were
present. On 4 April 1983 the Akali leaders organized a peaceful 'block
the roads' (rastd roko) campaign but violence erupted in spite of their
intentions, and twenty-six persons were killed. On June 17, the Akalis
organized a 'stop the trains' {rail roko) campaign but the government
decided not to run any trains, and yet there was some violence. The
campaign of the Akalis to 'stop work' (kdm roko) on August 29 was a
great success.
However, the 'clean-hearted' Sikhs who responded to the call of
Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale on 3-4 September 1983 did not
express much satisfaction with either the success or the methods of
Sant Longowal. Tension in the Golden Temple complex was increas-
ing. Sant Bhindranwale referred to the rooms of Sant Longowal as
'Gandhi Niwas' and Sant Longowal referred to his rooms as the
'Ravines of ChambaP, known to have been the refuge of dacoits in
Madhya Pradesh. Towards the end of 1983, the Bharatiya Janata Party
and the Lok Dal demanded army action and the government gave the
green signal for Sant Bhindranwale's arrest on December 16. He
moved into the Akal Takht on December 15. While the militants could
engage even the security forces, the police felt demoralized; the
judiciary was intimidated; Sant Bhindranwale started giving decisions
on disputes between private persons, with the implication of a 'parallel
government'.
On 8 February 1984 the Akalis organized a bandh to demonstrate
their strength and their trust in non-violent agitation. It was a success.
A tripartite meeting was held on February 14 and 15, which was
attended by five cabinet ministers and five secretaries, five of the Akali
leaders and fifteen leaders from the opposition parties.24 It came close
to a successful settlement. It was at this juncture that anti-Sikh violence
24
For the tripartite as well as the secret meetings of the Akali leaders and their meetings
with the Prime Minister and the cabinet ministers, White Paper on the Punjab Agitation,
91-97.

was orchestrated in Haryana to frustrate settlement. On February 27,

the Akali leaders carried out their decision to burn the pages of the
Constitution which contained Article 25(2) (b) in Delhi and Chandi-
garh, and they were arrested.25 Others followed them to court arrest.
Early in March Indira Gandhi unilaterally appointed the Sarkaria
Commission to go into Centre-State relations.26 On March 30, the
Home Minister P. C. Sethi declared in Parliament that the government
was willing to amend Article 25(2) (b). The Akali Dal withdrew the call
given for observing the 'Panth Azad' week beginning with April 2. In
the absence of any initiative from the Centre, Sant Longowal gave a call
in May for non-cooperation with effect from June 3, the day on which
Operation BlueStar was to start.
The question of army action in the Punjab was first discussed in
December, 1983.27 Indira Gandhi decided finally in favour of the army
action in April, 1984. However, when Sant Longowal declared on May
23 that a morchd for non-cooperation would start on June 3, Indira
Gandhi's emissaries met Parkash Singh Badal and Gurcharan Singh
Tohra on May 27-28 to suggest that the Akali leaders should negotiate
settlement instead of launching a morchd. The Akali leaders were
prepared to pick up the old threads, but on June 2 it became clear that
nothing short of the demands in the Anandpur Sahib Resolution was
acceptable to Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale.28
On June 3 the Punjab was cut off from the rest of the country and
movement within the state was made impossible by the presence of
troops everywhere. The supply of water and electricity to the Golden
Temple complex was stopped. On June 4 the army opened exploratory
fire. On June 5 the commandos and CS gas proved to be ineffective. On
the morning of June 6 tanks were used against 'the enemy' in the Akal
Takht. Meanwhile, tanks and helicopters were used, among other
things, to deter the thousands of agitated villagers from converging
upon Amritsar, and several other gurdwdras in the state were taken
25
T h e real issue, as Sant Longowal w r o t e t o P . C . Sethi, was a separate personal law for
the Sikhs, and therefore related t o the question of the inheritance of landed p r o p e r t y : Kuldip
N a y y a r and K h u s h w a n t Singh, Tragedy of Punjab, 85.
26
Kuldip N a y y a r a n d K h u s h w a n t Singh, Tragedy of Punjab, 71. T h e unilateral concess-
ions did n o t help the Akali leaders t o w i t h d r a w the morchd.
17
C h a n d Joshi, Bhindranwale: Myth and Reality, 19. In this discussion the idea figured
that army action w o u l d consolidate H i n d u votes in favour of the Congress.
28
T h e Prime Minister's broadcast t o the nation o n 2 J u n e 1984, referred t o settlement
through negotiations b u t there was hardly any point in it b y then. F o r the text of t h e
broadcast, White Paper on the Punjab Agitation, 105—09.
226

over by the army. The crucial action in the Golden Temple complex
was over before the nightfall of June 6. A large number of pilgrims,
including women and children, died in cross-firing. The infuriated
troops shot some young men dead with their hands tied at their backs
with their own turbans. Some died of suffocation in the 'prisoners
camp' set up in a room of Guru Nanak Niwas. According to one
estimate, the total casualties of officers and men were about 700 and of
civilians about 5,00c29
The officers and men of the Indian army commented on 'the courage
and commitment' of the followers of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale
who died in action. The Sikhs were outraged at the attack on the
Golden Temple complex and the destruction of the Akal Takht. All
sections of Sikh opinion, from the urban sophisticates sipping Scotch
in their bungalows in Delhi to the peasants in the fields, were horrified
at what had happened. Two Congressite Sikhs resigned from the
Parliament. The two best-known historians of the Sikhs returned
'honours' received from the President of India. Operation BlueStar
revived the memories of Ahmad Shah Abdali in Sikh imagination.
Action from Prime Minister Indira Gandhi came 'too late' and it
proved to be 'too much'. 30
29
Chand Joshi, Bhindranwale: Myth and Reality, 161.
30
Mark Tully and Satish Jacob, Amritsar: Mrs Gandhi's Last Battle, 13. According to
Chand Joshi, the negotiations of the Pime Minister with the Akalis failed because they were
not meant to succeed: Bhindranwale: Myth and Reality, 75.
227

EPILOGUE
The Akali leaders present in the Golden Temple complex during

Operation BlueStar were taken into custody along with some 'extrem-
ists' and ordinary visitors, including women and children. The
countryside was combed in search of arms and 'rebels', and about 5,000
young men were taken into custody. Quite a few innocent persons
were killed in the process. Those who were supposed to have waged
war against the state were to be tried by Special Courts. In reaction to
the rumours of an attack on the Golden Temple, Sikh soldiers at several
places in Bihar, Rajasthan, Assam and Jammu 'mutinied' to march
towards Amritsar. Scores of them got killed in the attempt and a few
thousand were marked for court martial. Some retired Sikh Generals
who thought that these men had acted on the spur of the moment
'under a great emotional stress' wanted them not to be treated as
'ordinary deserters' but their appeal had no immediate effect on the
trials.
Sikh reaction to BlueStar induced Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to
rebuild the Akal Takht. The octogenerian Baba Kharak Singh agreed to
undertake this service (kdr sewd) but only on the condition that the
Golden Temple was cleared of troops. This was not acceptable to the
Prime Minister. Her Minister Buta Singh persuaded Nihang Santa
Singh to preside over the reconstruction undertaken essentially by the
government. The speedily rebuilt Akal Takht was handed back to the
SGPC by October, 1984. This could hardly help; the building or
rebuilding of the Akal Takht had always been regarded as a prerogative
of the Sikhs and their chosen representatives. Sikh resentment against
the government was mounting. No computation in Delhi could gauge
its intensity. On the morning of 31 October 1984 when the Prime
Minister was traversing the short path from her residence to the
adjoining office, one of her guards Beant Singh drew his revolver and
shot at her; Satwant Singh emptied his sten gun into her frail body. She
had returned from an election tour in Orissa; Beant Singh had returned
from his home in the Punjab. Physically at one place, they were
mentally and emotionally living in two different worlds.
228

EPILOGUE
The universality of Sikh resentment was reflected in a spontaneous

celebration of the assassination of the Prime Minister in the towns and
villages of the Punjab, in the capital of the country and in many parts of
the world. An equally spontaneous anger over her assassination
resulted in mob violence in Delhi and in some other cities of India.
'Sikhs were sought out and burned to death. Children were killed,
shops looted, cars burnt, markets destroyed, houses gutted. Trains
were stopped, and Sikhs were picked out and murdered.'1 In the scenes
of arson, looting and murder many policemen were seen in khaki and
many Congressmen in khaddar. More brutal than the days of the
partition, the Delhi happenings were a reminder of the historic
massacres (ghailugharas) of the eighteenth century. The psychological
alienation of the Sikhs was almost complete.
Conversely, if Bluestar brought Indira Gandhi close to the electoral
victory, her assassination ensured it for the Congress. To the slogan of
unity and integrity of the country was added the charge of separatism
in the Anandpur Sahib Resolution for the consumption of emotionally
surcharged voters. The Congress scored a thumping victory in the
parliamentary elections held towards the end of 1984. It gave the new
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi great confidence. In March, 1985 the
Akali leaders began to be released. The ban imposed on the All India
Sikh Students' Federation was lifted. An inquiry into the Delhi
massacres was ordered. Sant Harchand Singh Longowal asked the
government to apologize to the Sikh community for storming the
Golden Temple, demanded the release of Sikhs detained without trial
and wanted the government to rehabilitate the Sikh 'deserters'. He
declared himself to be against the idea of Khalistan. On invitation from
the Prime Minister he went for a secret meeting to negotiate terms of
settlement, so secret indeed that it was not known even to Parkash
Singh Badal and Gurcharan Singh Tohra. On 24 July 1985 he signed a
memorandum of settlement with Rajiv Gandhi, generally called the
Rajiv-Longowal Accord.
There was nothing spectacular about the Accord. It provided for an
ex gratia grant and compensation to sufferers of violence, rehabili-
tation of Sikh soldiers discharged from the army and extension of the
inquiry into the violence against the Sikhs that happened in Kanpur
and Bokaro. Some issues had been resolved before Bluestar, like merit
as the criterion of selection for the army, an all India Gurdwara Act,
1
M. J. Akbar, India: The Siege Within, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1985, 109.
229

protection of minority interests and the promotion of Punjabi. The

Anandpur Sahib Resolution, like other memoranda on the issue of
Centre-State relations, could be submitted to the Sarkaria Commission
already appointed. Regarding the two most important issues of terri-
tory and river waters, there were positive and rather concrete sugges-
tions. The Accord was hailed as a great document by the bulk of the
people in the country. Its spirit appeared to be more important than its
letter. It was meant to bring to an end 'a period of confrontation' and to
usher in 'an era of amity, goodwill and cooperation'.2
BlueStar had not put an end to militancy. The new spirit of protest
and resentment it produced was reinforced by the Delhi massacres.
There were incidents of violence in March and April, 1985. Nearly
eighty persons were killed in transistor-bomb explosions in Delhi in
the month of May. There was resentment against the Akali leaders too.
Sant Bhindranwale's father Baba Joginder Singh formed the United
Akali Dal, unilaterally dissolving the Longowal and Talwandi Akali
Dais. Gurcharan Singh Tohra and Parkash Singh Badal retained their
former positions only because the district Jathedars expressed their
support for them. When the Accord was signed in this context it was
denounced as a 'sellout' by Baba Joginder Singh as a spokesman of the
militants. That was why Rajiv Gandhi appreciated the courage and guts
of Sant Harchand Singh Longowal, and that was also why Sant
Longowal was assassinated on 2.0 August 1985. His mantle fell on Surjit
Singh Barnala who had been taken into confidence by Sant Harchand
Singh Longowal for signing the Accord and who was more acceptable
to the Congress High Command than the more senior leaders.
The polarization between Hindus and Sikhs of the Punjab which had
been increasing gradually in the early 1980s and rather suddenly after
BlueStar and the Delhi massacres was reflected in the elections held in
the Punjab in September, 1985. The Akalis won seventy-three seats;
the congress won only thirty-two. Among the Congress legislators
there were only a few Sikhs, and many who had always voted for the
Congress now voted for the Akalis. Just as the bulk of the Sikh support
went to the Akalis, the bulk of the Hindu support went to the
Congress. The consolation of the Congress leaders that there was only
a slight margin in the votes polled in their favour and in favour of the
Akalis was rather hollow. Never were the Punjabis split so clearly on
2
Rajiv Gandhi-Longowal Accord, Satya M. Rai, Punjab Since Partition, Delhi, 1986,
405-08.
23O

EPILOGUE
communal lines as in the elections of September 1985. Surjit Singh
Barnala was sworn in as the Chief Minister on the 29th after nearly
two years of President's rule in the Punjab. His hope was to see the
Accord implemented. His problem was to contain the militants whose
spokesmen had boycotted the elections.
The first jolt to the Accord came early, and it proved to be crucial.
The capital project area of Chandigarh was to go to the Punjab and
some Hindi-speaking territories in the Punjab were to go to Haryana
in lieu of Chandigarh. A commission was to be appointed to determine
the Hindi-speaking areas on the principle of contiguity and linguistic
affinity with a village as a unit. The commission was to give its findings
by 31 December 198 5, and the transfer of these areas to Haryana and of
Chandigarh to the Punjab was to take place simultaneously on 26
January 1986. However, the phrase 'other matters' was added to the
terms of reference given to the Mathew Commission for this purpose.
When the Akali leaders pointed out this departure from the letter of the
Accord, the Prime Minister assured them that this phrase was included
as a matter of routine. Nevertheless, though it was well known that a
Punjabi-speaking village separated Haryana from the Abohar-Fazilka
villages, the Commission identified Hindi-speaking areas in the
Abohar-Fazilka region instead of looking elsewhere for Hindi-
speaking villages contiguous to Haryana. The Commission, con-
sequently, failed to give a verdict but suggested that another commis-
sion could be asked to identify Hindi-speaking areas. Mathew's
successor Venkataramiah ruled rather arbitrarily that 70,000 acres
should go to Haryana in lieu of Chandigarh, but he could identify only
45,000 acres as Hindi-speaking. It began to be argued now that the
remaining 25,000 acres should somehow be given to Haryana. This was
unacceptable to the Chief Minister Surjit Singh Barnala because such
an area could only be a Punjabi-speaking area. The territorial issue was
thus messed up, and Chandigarh was not transferred to the Punjab on
26 January 1986. B. G. Verghese of the Indian Express remarked about
a year later that Chandigarh was 'a crucial test and posed the first
deadline. The Centre must take major responsibility for derailing this
part of the accord'.3
Militancy began to increase after January 26. By the end of 1986
more than 500 persons had been killed and violence spread from the
districts of Amritsar and Gurdaspur to Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur
3
Indian Express, 5 December 1986, editorial page.
231

across the Beas and to Ferozepur and Ludhiana across the Satlej,
spilling into the Union Territory of Chandigarh. Batches of clean-
shaven passengers were murdered in cold blood near Muktsar first and
then in Hoshiarpur district on 30 November 1986. Early in October a
nearly successful attempt was made on the life of Julio Francis Ribeiro,
the Director General of Police. Killing of innocent villagers by the
CRPF and the BSF personnel began to be reported, followed by 'fake
encounters'. According to one report, over 500 crores of rupees were
spent on Ribeiro's operations in 1986, inflating the police budget to
five times the amount in 1983. The militants replenished their material
resources with huge robberies to buy arms from Pakistan. They were
partially successful in obliging Hindu families to leave the countyside
for the towns and cities or to move out of the Punjab. Increasing
militancy brought the question of law and order into focus to create a
certain degree of confusion about priorities. A year after the Chandi-
garh fiasco, while the Chief Minister of the Punjab was complaining
about 'the delay in the implementation of the Punjab accord by the
Centre and the difficulties it had created for him within and without
the party', the Centre in turn was complaining about 'the lack of
adequate measures to check the deteriorating law and order situation in
the state and the difficulties it had created for the Prime Minister in the
rest of the country'.4
By now the Chief Minister of the Punjab was politically crippled.
The United Akali Dal, which had been formed before the Accord, was
sympathetic to the AISSF and the Damdami Taksal, both of which
were believed to be the organizers of militancy. They had demolished
the Akal Takht and virtually taken over the kdr sewd for its reconstruc-
tion after 26 January 1986. The police action in the Golden Temple on
April 30 divided the Akali Dal into two groups. Though the larger
number of Akali legislators were still supporting Surjit Singh Barnala,
his opponents under the leadership of Parkash Singh Badal and
Gurcharan Singh Tohra enjoyed more popular support. They had a
more realistic assessment of the Sikh sentiments. Tohra won against the
candidate of the ruling Akahs in the SGPC elections held on 30
November 1986. This was a clear indication of Barnala's fallen credit
with the Sikh masses and his position as Chief Minister was further
weakened. Parkash Singh Badal as well as Gurcharan Singh Tohra were
placed under detention because of their soft attitude towards the
4
The Tribune, 19 January 1987, 4.
232

EPILOGUE
militants. But this did not help the Chief Minister in handling the
deteriorating situation.
Towards the end of 1986 there was an overwhelming media support
for a political initiative by the Prime Minister in the form of talks with
all segments of Sikhs including the Badal group, the extremists and the
middle-roaders, and for implementation of the Accord. There was also
a general feeling that the Jodhpur prisoners, barring those who were
accused of waging war against the Indian Union, should be released
and something should be done to heal the wounds of the riots of
November, 1984. There was a near consensus that 'terrorism' could not
be wiped out merely with 'superior state terrorism'.5 Hard line could
produce results only when combined with political initiative. Early in
1987 the Punjab appeared to be 'still manageable' to many like Kuldip
Nayyar. In a seminar held at Delhi with spokesmen of nearly all Sikh
groups there was a consensus that an informal dialogue could be started
with the leaders of the Sikh youth in and outside the jails, besides the
release of Jodhpur prisoners, the rehabilitation of the remaining
'deserters' and punishing the culprits of the Delhi massacres.6
In February 1987 came out the report of the Ranganath Misra
Commission on the Delhi riots. The press treated it as 'a whitewash',
'flawed inquiry flawed report' and the 'best of a bad job'. The terms of
reference for the inquiry had closed many legitimate angles because the
Commission was to inquire into allegations of 'organized violence' and
to recommend measures to obviate future recurrence of such violence.
The report pointed out the participation of Congress leaders in the
riots but absolved the Congress Party from the charge of organizing
violence. Against the Congress leader H. K. L. Bhagat the Commission
found no 'convincing material' that he had instigated the riots. The
police and the Delhi administration were indicted but not the Home
Ministry. The report appeared to be 'a great let-down'. The editor of
The Tribune posed the question: 'should not the Congress(I) indi-
viduals who took part in the crimes be identified and punished'?7 The
veteran journalist S. Mulgaokar rightly observed that the report
'carried no conviction with the Sikh community. Instead of winning its
trust in some measure it has made the community more distrustful of
New Delhi's intentions'.8 The Chief Minister Barnala, who had
5
Bhabani Sen Gupta, Indian Express, 20 December 1986, 6.
6
The Tribune, 22 January 1987, 3.
7
Ibid., 25 February 1987, editorial.
8
Indian Express, 28 February 1987, editorial page.
2
33

insisted on the release of the report, could derive no consolation

from it.
The Punjab Government and the Akali Dal (Longowal) submitted
their memoranda to the Ranjit Singh Sarkaria Commission on the
Centre-State relations, reiterating their political philosophy in favour
of 'true federalism', with the balance of constitutional powers vested
in the states and the centre exercising powers only in relation to
national security, defence, foreign affairs, communications, railways,
aviation and currency. The Constitution, in their view, should have
checks and balances to ensure that the Governors of the States were
not used by the ruling party at Delhi as rival centres of power to the
State Governments. No Governor should have the right to dismiss a
State Government until the loss of majority was established on the
floor of the House. There should be more clearly laid down rules on
when and how the President's rule could be imposed on the States.
Ironically, Barnala's ministry was dismissed on n May and Presi-
dent's rule was imposed on the Punjab.
Many journalists like Khushwant Singh expected the Punjab
Governor, Sidharatha Shankar Ray, to stamp out terrorism as the first
priority of his administration. They also wanted the Governor to
ensure that Chandigarh was transferred to the Punjab, the SYL canal
was completed, and river waters were equitably distributed. The
report of the Eradi Commission on river waters was released in June. It
came as a great disappointment to the Punjab. According to the
Accord, the farmers of the Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, were to
continue getting water 'not less than what they were using from the
Ravi-Beas system as on 1.7.1985'. The claims of the Punjab and
Haryana over the remaining waters were to be adjudicated by a
tribunal presided over by a judge of the Supreme Court. The SYL canal
was to be completed by 15 August 1986. The tribunal presided over by
Justice Balakrishna Eradi was to submit its report by 15 January 1987.
In view of the elections in Haryana, however, he was asked to defer it
to June. The Bhakra Beas Management Board had given the figures
regarding usage of water on 1 July 1985, as 9.655 maf for the Punjab,
1.334 maf for Haryana and 4.500 maf for Rajasthan. The total water
available was calculated to be 18.28 maf. Only less than 3.00 maf
could be distributed between the Punjab and Haryana according to the
terms of the Accord. The Punjab was therefore to get at least 10.00
maf. But it was awarded only 5.00 maf by the Commission, which was
2-34

EPILOGUE
far less than even the actual usage. Haryana was awarded a much
larger share than it actually used: 3.83 maf. The award clearly reflected
the political interest of the ruling party in Delhi. The share of
Rajasthan, as determined by the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in
1981, was not touched at all: it remained 8.6 maf.
The editor of The Tribune felt constrained to observe that the
Rajiv-Longowal memorandum of understanding was 'neither news
nor is it any good. The spirit of accommodation and understanding it
generated at the time has all but evaporated and the letter remains - a
standing monument to the insincerity, waywardness and lack of
commitment on the part of persons in authority.' Commitments went
into cold storage; statements inundated the media and the society.9
Another journalist observed a month later that the 'extremists' were
gradually asserting their authority in the religio-political affairs of the
Sikhs in the absence of any opposition from the Akali factions and
the head priests.10
The militants were asserting themselves in politics. In the summer
of 1987 there were more than a score of militant groups. Four of
these were really important: the Khalistan Commando Force, the
Khalistan Liberation Force, the Bhindranwale Tigers Force and the
Babbar Khalsa. Early in August 1987, Professor Darshan Singh
(Acting Jathedar of the Akal Takht since 1986) organized a World
Sikh Convention. Its main resolution asked for an area in the north
where the Sikhs could have 'a glow of freedom'. This ambiguous goal
was actually a reminder of what Jawaharlal Nehru had said in 1946.
It failed to impress the militants because it appeared to fall short of
Khalistan. Jathedar Darshan Singh was obliged to leave the Golden
Temple. In September the Panthic Committee (of the militants) got
Khalistan declared as the goal of Sikh politics.
The report of the Sarkaria Commission came out in October 1987.
No change in the Constitution was recommended but the Commis-
sion did hammer the point that its provisions had been misused by
the ruling party at the Centre in its own interests. The report was
shelved to gather dust. By this time Rajiv Gandhi had abandoned his
political approach in favour of a law-and-order solution. Siddhartha
Shankar Ray as the Punjab Governor and Julio F. Ribeiro as the
Director General of Police adopted an aggressive policy of repression.
Fully armed squads were let loose on the people in the form of
9 10
The Tribune, 24 July 1987, editorial. Indian Express, 3 July 1987, 6
2-35

vigilante, consisting of dismissed policemen and militant approvers.

This opened the door to misuse of police power. It was openly
justified by Ribeiro and approved by Ray on the plea that the police
all over the world used 'undercover people'. The militants were
gaining ground nonetheless. In December 1987 they passed a resolu-
tion in support of Khalistan at Fatehgarh Sahib, not far from the
state headquarters in Chandigarh.
Amidst a great spurt in militancy in early 1988, Bhai Jasbir Singh
Rode was released from detention in March to work for a settlement
short of Khalistan. He failed to persuade all the groups and there was
a split among the militants. Arms were smuggled into the Golden
Temple, giving the opportunity to K. P. S. Gill, the Director General
of Police, to organize 'Operation Black Thunder'. The 'militants'
who surrendered to the security forces were disowned by others and
denounced as 'agents' of the government. K. P. S. Gill looked upon
this operation as the high point of his career. But he was yet to
struggle hard against the militants. Armed stalemate was to continue
for a few years more. Even in 1991 a journalist observed that there
was no government in the Punjab: there were either the militants or
the police.
Meanwhile, V. P. Singh, as leader of the Janata Party, came into
power at the Centre as Prime Minister of the National Front. He
visited the Golden Temple in a gesture of goodwill towards the Sikhs
and repealed the 59th Amendment to the Constitution which had
provided for President's rule in the Punjab beyond three years and for
declaring an 'emergency' if necessary. He announced speedy trial of
the accused in the Delhi massacres, promised to rehabilitate the army
deserters of 1984, and agreed to review the case of every Sikh detenu.
Above all, he organized all-party meetings to evolve a reasonable
political settlement.
The parliamentary elections of November 1989 had brought
Simranjit Singh Mann to the fore in Sikh politics. Though still under
detention, he was put up as a candidate by the United Akali Dal
which won eight seats. The UAD victory was a reflection of the
strength of the militants who looked upon Simranjit Singh Mann as a
suitable leader. When he came out of jail, Sikhs thronged his meet-
ings, journalists sought his views and politicians courted him.
Knowing little about the political aspirations of the militants, he
asked for autonomy within the Indian Union in terms of the
236

EPILOGUE
Anandpur Sahib Resolution. But the minority government of V. P.

Singh was not in a position to concede any major concession. The
militants stepped up their activities. By 13 April 1990, Mann was
supporting plebiscite for self-determination as the only solution.
Despite V. P. Singh's declaration and intentions, President's rule was
extended for six months more and the elections due in May were
postponed to October 1990. V. P. Singh's helplessness was demon-
strated further by the postponement of elections due in October and
the extension of President's rule in the Punjab by another six months.
All the 'national' parties - the Congress, the BJP and the Communists
- were opposed to the elections. They were afraid that the militants
would win and resolve in favour of Khalistan in the Punjab
Assembly.
Chandra Shekhar, who replaced V. P. Singh, was the leader of a
splinter group of the Janata Party and, therefore, even more depen-
dent on the Congress. He offered to discuss political settlement with
all the Sikh leaders. Simranjit Singh Mann presented a memorandum,
asking for the right of self-determination. The Prime Minister started
secret negotiations with some of the militant groups to explore the
possibilities of a solution within the framework of the Indian
Constitution. The former Akali leaders were in favour of elections
but the Congress threatened to revoke the elections if it came into
power. Scheduled for 21 June 1991, the elections were postponed in
the early hours of the polling day. The Union Home Minister said
later that neither he nor Chandra Shekhar knew anything about it.
The results of the Parliamentary elections were going in favour of the
Congress and the Chief Election Commissioner 'bent backwards to
please his new masters': on his own he stopped the polls. The
Governor of the Punjab, General O. P. Malhotra, sincere in his
commitment to hold elections, resigned on the same day.
The new Congress Prime Minister, P. V. Narsimha Rao, was in no
hurry to introduce constitutional procedures. The elections in the
Punjab were delayed and were held actually in February 1992. The
Communist leader Satya Pal Dang remarked that there was heavy
rigging in favour of the Congress. And yet, only about 22 per cent of
the total votes were polled. In 70 (out of 117) constituencies, polling
was extremely low. These were the constituencies where the Akalis
had their roots and support. They had boycotted the elections and
non-polling was virtually a referendum against the ruling party.
237

Nevertheless, the leader of the Punjab Congress, Sardar Beant Singh,

claimed that he had got popular mandate.
Beant Singh pursued three interrelated objectives in his tenure of
over three years: to suppress militancy, to prove his legitimacy, and to
undermine the Akalis. The first three months of his Chief Minister-
ship made no difference to the perilous phase through which the
Punjab was passing. The media, the bureaucracy, the educational
institutions, and the Panchayats felt obliged to follow the diktat of
the militants. They evolved a five-point programme to subvert the
banking system, to stop work on the SYL canal, to force intellectuals
to sign support for Khalistan, to force Sarpanches to resign so that
'Khalsa Panchayats' were formed, and to target the media officials if
they infringed the code imposed on them.
In the summer of 1992., the security forces succeeded in killing
some important militant leaders: Rachhpal Singh and Surjit Singh
Behla of the Bhindranwale Tigers Force, Amrik Singh Kauli and
Sukhdev Singh of the Babbar Khalsa. The founder of the Babbar
Khalsa, Talwinder Singh, was eliminated in October. At the end of
the year, the editor of The Tribune was talking of an 'atmospheric
change' in the Punjab. Gurbachan Singh Manochahal, one of the top
leaders, was killed early in 1993. The area of Tarn Taran was
'recaptured' by the security forces. By the middle of 1993 the Punjab
was relatively calm. Before the end of the year K. P. S. Gill could talk
of the Punjab as 'the most peaceful state'. The return of normalcy
brought the shocking surprise of 31 August 1995 into sharp relief:
Beant Singh was killed by a human bomb which took more than a
score of other lives. The Babbar Khalsa maintained that he had
earned this punishment for betraying the Sikh community. The
Congress Party honoured him as a 'martyr'.
Acutely conscious of a dubious mandate to the Congress, Beant
Singh had ordered elections to municipalities in September 1992. with
the first appearance of some relief from the militants. Victory of the
Congress candidates in the cities and towns of the Punjab was a
foregone conclusion: these were the traditional strongholds of the
Congress. Elections to Panchayats in the villages were held in 1993
when the militants were 'retreating'. A massive rigging in favour of
the Congress candidates was reported. Nevertheless, pro-Akali candi-
dates formed the majority of over 2,400 candidates elected un-
opposed. In order to create the impression that all the elected
238

EPILOGUE
Sarpanches supported the government, a swearing-in ceremony was

held at Fatehgarh Sahib. The media made much of Beant Singh's
'success'. But the people of the villages felt merely amused.
Fortunately for Beant Singh, the first by-election to a seat in
Parliament took place in Jalandhar, a relatively strong constituency
of the Congress. The seat was won by the Congress candidate, Sardar
Umrao Singh. However, more than 80 per cent of the Sikh votes went
to the Akali candidate, Sardar Kuldip Singh Wadala. In the by-
election to the Punjab Assembly from Nakodar in 1994, despite
rigging in favour of the ruling party, the Congress candidate won
only by a narrow margin. The by-election from Ajnala was actually
won by the Akali candidate. Beant Singh's credentials were at stake
when he fought the last battle of his life in Gidderbaha, the home
constituency of Sardar Parkash Singh Badal. All the Congress legisla-
tors and many bureaucrats worked in the field for weeks. Money
flowed like water. The Akali candidate won by a narrow margin. But
this was enough to indicate that Beant Singh did not rule on popular
mandate.
Furthermore, the Gidderbaha battle demonstrated that Beant
Singh had failed to undermine the Akalis. He had pursued this
objective from day one. As a former editor of The Tribune recalled,
Beant Singh's relentless campaign against the Akalis was buttressed
by a 'ruthless use of government forces'. In 1993 he was actually
talking in terms of abolishing the Sikh Gurdwaras Act of 192.5.
Towards the end of the year he addressed Sikh gatherings at
Fatehgarh Sahib and Muktsar to convey his message to the audiences
that the Akalis were responsible for all their ills. They were respon-
sible for militancy in which innocent Sikhs lost their lives and
suffered many other atrocities. Till he death in August 1995 Beant
Singh lost no opportunity to assert that the Akalis were responsible
for the decade-long turmoil in the state. However, this assertion did
not carry much conviction with the people.
In his anxiety to curb and contain militancy, Beant Singh had not
cared about the means and methods employed by the security forces.
Along with the militants, innocent persons were killed. Human
shields were used by the security forces and the innocent persons
killed in the process were declared to be 'terrorists'. In the summer of
1992. it was reported that police excesses and high-handedness
continued unabated. In September, some women were kicked to
239

death, apparently to extort information. In transgressing all legal

limits the security personnel found the easy way out in blaming all
their acts on 'the terrorists'. The lure of rewards induced them to
take the chance of killing innocent persons. The relatives of wanted
militants were tortured to death. Persons were picked up by the
police but in the police records they were neither wanted nor
arrested. The 'undercover agents' of the security forces had no regard
for life; they had great hunger for property. Early in 1993, villagers
were discovering that among the men who plundered, raped or killed
were actually policemen, including officers of the rank of Super-
intendent. It began to be aired that the 'super-cop' Gill was closing
his eyes to police illegalities and atrocities. In retrospect this appears
to have been an understatement. Such reports continued to pour in.
The Chief Minister was either unable or unwilling to rein in the
security forces. Peace returned but the people in the countryside
remained frightened: they had to reckon with the police. Sad to say,
but there were not many mourners in the Punjab at the news of Beant
Singh's death.
The return of constitutional politics created some space for the
political activity of the Akalis. Jathedar Gurcharan Singh Tohra was
re-elected President of the SGPC in November 1992. and the SGPC
paid tribute to a few militants as 'martyrs' in the cause of Sikhism.
The House demanded the release of Bhai Ranjit Singh who was
under detention due to his alleged involvement in the murder of the
Nirankari Baba Gurbachan Singh and who had been made Jathedar
of the Akal Takht by the SGPC. Resolutions were passed also with
regard to the victims of the Delhi massacres of 1984, the second-
language status for Punjabi in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi
and Rajasthan, and visas for Sikh pilgrims to Pakistan. Before the
end of 1992., the SGPC asked for an investigation into the violation
of human rights in the Punjab by a team from Amnesty International.
The Akalis began to condemn the Congress government for its
excesses and institutionalized corruption. A number of Akali leaders
were arrested in December 1993. The police entered the Gurdwara at
Gujjarwal and disrupted an akhand path. The Akalis launched a
campaign of protest. In September 1994, Jaswant Singh Khalra was
picked up by the police to vanish into thin air like thousands of
others. But, unlike others, he had exposed violation of human rights
in the Punjab as Secretary of the Human Rights Committee of the
240

EPILOGUE
Shiromani Akali Dal. The Akalis launched a morchd and many of

them were put behind bars.
Gradually, but surely, the Akalis were picking up the old political
threads. Before the end of 1993 Jathedar Jagdev Singh Talwandi
declared that the aim of the Akalis was to get the demands of the
Anandpur Sahib Resolution conceded and implemented, and not to
establish Khalistan: the opponents of the Akalis were falsely bracket-
ing them with the militants. In the summer of 1995, even Beant
Singh felt impelled to declare that the Punjab could not spare a single
drop of water for any other state. Sardar Parkash Singh Badal laid
increasing emphasis on the Anandpur Sahib Resolution as the
charter of Akali politics, and Jathedar Tohra laid increasing emphasis
on Akali unity. The choice was between the political objectives
formulated by the Akali leaders before 1984 and the post-BlueStar
aspirations expressed by Simranjit Singh Mann. Eventually, the
majority of the Akalis opted for their earlier moorings under the
leadership of Parkash Singh Badal and Gurcharan Singh Tohra. They
launched a sustained campaign of mobilization for elections early
in 1996.
In the elections held in February 1997, the Shiromani Akali Dal
won two-thirds of the total number of seats. Their unprecedented
success can be taken as a measure of the alienation from the Congress
of the people of the Punjab villages. The Sikhs of the Punjab feel
gratified that they have survived the gravest crisis of their history since
1947. The Akalis are groping for solutions to the problems created for
the Punjab since 1966. Many people in the country entertain the hope
that the leaders of the so-called 'national' parties will learn to
accommodate 'regional' aspirations and to move towards a genuinely
federal system of polity. The future of the Sikhs of the Punjab is
closely linked up with the nature and functioning of the Indian
federation in the future.
241

APPENDIX 1
THE SUCCESSORS OF GURU NANAK
1539-1552 Guru Angad (b.1504)

1552—1574 Guru Amar Das (b.1479)
1574— 1581 Guru Ram Das (b. 1534)
1581-1606 Guru Arjan (b.1563)
1606-1644 Guru Hargobind (b.i 595)
1644-1661 Guru Har Rai (b.i630)
1661-1664 Guru Har Krishan (b.1656)
1664-1675 Guru Tegh Bahadur (b.1621)
1675-1708 Guru Gobind Singh (b.i666)
242

APPENDIX 2
THE DESCENDANTS OF GURU RAM DAS

Prithi Chand Mahadev GURU ARJAN
GURU HARGOBIND
Gurditta Ani Rai Atal Rai GURU TEGH BAHADUR Suraj Mai
Dhir Mai GURU HAR RAI GURU GOBIND SINGH
Ram Rai GURU HAR KRISHAN Ajit singh Jujhar Singh Zorawar Singh Fateh Singh

APPENDIX 3
THE MUGHAL RULERS OF INDIA
1526—1530 Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur

1530-1556 Nasiruddin Muhammad H u m a y a n *
15 5 6— 160 5 Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar
1605—1627 Nuruddin Jahangir
1627-1658 Shihabuddin Shah Jahan (dethroned)
1658-1707 Muhiyuddin Aurangzeb
1707-1712 Muhammad Mu'azzam Shah Alam Bahadur Shah
1712-1713 Muhammad Muizzuddin Jahandar Shah
1713-1719 Jalaluddin Muhammad Farrukh Siyar
1719-1719 Shamsuddin Muhammad R a n ud-Darajat
1719-1719 N e k o Siyar
1719-1748 Nasiruddin Muhammad Shah
1748-1754 A b u al-Nasir Muhammad Ahmad Shah
1754-1759 Muhammad Azizuddin Alamgir II
1759-1806 Jalaluddin Ali
Gohar Shah Alam II (blinded in August 1788)
1806-1837 Muhiyuddin Akbar Shah II
1837-1858 Abul al-Zafar Muhammad
Sirajuddin Bahadur Shah II (banished)
"'After H u m a y u n ' s defeat in M a y 1540 and his eventual expulsion from

India, Sher Shah Suri and Islam Shah ruled over northern India till
April 1554, and then their successors Muhammad Adil Shah, Ibrahim
Shah and Sikandar Shah till July 1555.
2-44

APPENDIX 4
C H R O N O L O G Y OF EVENTS
FROM 1708 TO 1997
1708 October 7 Guru Gobind Singh's death

1709 November 26 Samana sacked by Banda Bahadur
1710 May 14 Sarhind occupied by Banda Bahadur
1710 December 10-11 evacuation of Lohgarh by Banda Bahadur
1713 February 22 Abdus Samad Khan made governor of Lahore
1715 December 7 surrender of Banda Bahadur at Gurdas Nangal
1716 June 9 execution of Banda Bahadur at Delhi
1725 February occupation of Gujarat by the Marathas
1725 establishment of the Nizamat of Hyderabad
1726 Zakariya Khan made governor of Lahore
1733 February occupation of Malwa by the Marathas
1733 jdgir given by Zakariya Khan to Kapur Singh with the title of
Nawab to conciliate the Sikhs
1737 death of Abdus Samad Khan
1738 March the province of Qandahar taken over by Nadir Shah
1738 June the province of Kabul taken over by Nadir Shah
1738 November martyrdom of Bhai Mani Singh
1739 invasion of India by Nadir Shah: sack of Delhi; the four
parganas of the province of Lahore and the Mughal territories
west of the Indus ceded to Nadir Shah
1739 May Nadir Shah's baggage plundered by the Sikhs
1740 August Massa Ranghar murdered by Mahtab Singh and Sukha
Singh
1740 foundation of the Nizamat of Bengal
1742 foundation of the kingdom of Awadh under Safdar Jang
1745 July 1 death of Zakariya Khan
1746 January 3 Yahiya Khan made governor of Lahore
1746 May 1 the first carnage (chhotd ghalliighdrd)
1747 March Yahiya Khan ousted from Lahore by Shah Nawaz Khan
1748 January 12 Lahore occupied by Ahmad Shah Abdali
1748 March Ahmad Shah Abdali's defeat at Manupur near Sarhind
1748 April Ram Rauni built by the Sikhs at Amritsar
245

APPENDICES
1748 April Muin-ul-Mulk, known as Mir Mannu, made governor of

Lahore
1752 Mir Mannu defeated by Ahmad Shah Abdali but retained as the
governor of Lahore; conquest of Kashmir by Ahmad Shah
Abdali
1753 October death of 'Nawab' Kapur Singh
1753 November 4 death of Mir Mannu
1753 occupation of Fatehabad by Jassa Singh Ahluwalia
1757 Prince Timur Shah made the governor of Lahore by Ahmad
Shah Abdali
1758 March Sarhind occupied by the Marathas
1758 April Lahore occupied by the Marathas
1761 January 14 the Marathas defeated by Ahmad Shah Abdali in the
battle of Panipat
1761 March Ala Singh recognized as a vassal chief by Ahmad Shah
Abdali
1761 September Khwaja Abed, the Afghan governor of Lahore,
defeated by the Sikhs near Gujranwala
1762 February 5 the great carnage (waddhd ghallughdrd)
1762 April the Golden Temple destroyed by Ahmad Shah Abdali
1763 May Qasur sacked by the Sikhs under the leadership of Hari
Singh Bhangi, Charhat Singh Sukarchakia, Jassa Singh Ramgar-
hia and Jai Singh Kanhiya
1764 January the Afghan governor Zain Khan killed and the terri-
tories of Sarhind occupied by the Sikhs.
1765 May Lahore captured by Gujjar Singh, Lehna Singh and Sobha
Singh; Gobind Shahi coin struck at Lahore
1765 occupation of Gujrat by Gujjar Singh Bhangi; death of Hari
Singh Bhangi
1765 death of Ala Singh of Patiala
1767 Rai Ahmad Manj, the Rajput chief of Nakodar, ousted by Tara
Singh Dallewalia
1 y6j Pind Dadan Khan, Ahmadabad, Jehlam and Rohtas occupied by
Charhat Singh Sukarchakia in concert with Gujjar Singh Bhangi
1767 the Gakkhar chief Muqarrab Khan ousted from Rawalpindi by
Milkha Singh Thehpuria in association with Gujjar Singh
Bhangi and Charhat Singh Sukarchakia
1771 occupation of Bhera by Dhanna Singh with the assistance of
Jhanda Singh Bhangi
246

APPENDICES
1772 October 23 death of Ahmad Shah Abdali

1772 occupation of Multan by Jhanda Singh Bhangi
1773 occupation of Sultanpur by Jassa Singh Ahluwalia
1774 death of Charhat Singh Sukarchakia and Jhanda Singh Bhangi
1775 Jassa Singh Ramgarhia dislodged from his territories by Jassa
Singh Ahluwalia and Jai Singh Kanhiya
1780 November 13 birth of Ranjit Singh
1780 Rai Ibrahim Bhatti ousted from Kapurthala by Jassa Singh
Ahluwalia
1780 Multan recovered by Timur Shah; Muzaffar Khan Saddozai
appointed as its governor
1783 October 20 death of Jassa Singh Ahluwalia
1783 occupation of the Kangra fort by Jai Singh Kanhiya
1783 occupation of Alipur and Manchar by Mahan Singh Sukar-
chakia
1785 territory lost in 1775 recovered by Jassa Singh Ramgarhia
1786 recovery of the Kangra fort by Sansar Chand
1788 death of Gujjar Singh Bhangi
1790 occupation of Malka Hans by Bhagwan Singh Nakkai
1790 death of Mahan Singh Sukarchakia
1793 death of Jai Singh Kanhiya
1793 death of Timur Shah
1797 death of Lehna Singh Bhangi of Lahore
1798 November occupation of Lahore by Zaman Shah
1799 July 7 occupation of Lahore by Ranjit Singh
1803 tribute paid by Muzaffar Khan of Multan and Ahmad Khan Sial
of Jhang to Ranjit Singh.
1804 tribute paid by Fateh Khan Baloch of Sahiwal and Jafar Khan
Baloch of Khushab to Ranjit Singh
1805 occupation of Amritsar by Ranjit Singh
1806 January treaty of the East India Company with Ranjit Singh and
Fateh Singh Ahluwalia
1807 occupation of Qasur, Dipalpur, Hujra Shah Muqim, Pathankot
and Sialkot by Ranjit Singh
1808 occupation of the fort of Shaikhupura by Ranjit Singh
1809 April 25 the Treaty of Amritsar signed by Ranjit Singh alone
with the East India Company
1809 August 24 occupation of the fort of Kangra by Ranjit Singh
2-47

APPENDICES
1809 occupation of Philaur, Adina Nagar and Sujanpur by Ranjit

Singh
1810 occupation of Sahiwal, Khushab, Kusak, Khari Khariali and
Gujrat by Ranjit Singh
1811 October 7 occupation of Jalandhar by Ranjit Singh
1812 occupation of Akhnur by Ranjit Singh
1813 occupation of Shamsabad, Pindi Gheb and the fort of Attock by
Ranjit Singh
1815 occupation of Jammu and Rawalpindi by Ranjit Singh
1816 occupation of Jhang and the territories of the Ramgarhias by
Ranjit Singh
1817 occupation of Nurpur Tiwana by Ranjit Singh
1818 June 2 occupation of Multan by Ranjit Singh
1819 June 23 occupation of Rajauri by Ranjit Singh
1819 July conquest of Kashmir by Ranjit Singh
1821 December 14 occupation of Mankera by Ranjit Singh
1822 March Ventura and Allard employed by Ranjit Singh
1825 December Fateh Singh Ahluwalia seeks protection with the
British across the Satlej
1826 return of Fateh Singh Ahluwalia to vassalage under Ranjit Singh
1828 March the title of Raja-i-Rajgan conferred on Dhian Singh by
Ranjit Singh
1831 the territory on the west of the Satlej allowed earlier to remain
under Bahawal Khan now taken over by Ranjit Singh
1831 October 2 5 meeting between Ranjit Singh and William Bentinck
at Ropar
1832 December 26 the Indus Navigation Treaty signed by Ranjit
Singh with the East India Company
1834 occupation of Peshawar by Ranjit Singh
1836 occupation of Dera Ismail Khan by Ranjit Singh
1837 April 30 the battle of Jamrud
1837 October death of Fateh Singh Ahluwalia
1838 June 25 the Tripartite Treaty signed by Ranjit Singh with the
British and Shah Shuja
1839 June 27 death of Ranjit Singh
1839 September 1 investiture of Kharak Singh as the ruler of Lahore
1840 occupation of Mandi, Suket and Kulu by Kharak Singh
1840 May Iskardu made tributary by Kharak Singh
248

APPENDICES
1840 November 5 death of Kharak Singh and Prince Nau Nihal Singh
1840 December 2 Rani Chand Kaur proclaimed Regent of the Punjab
1841 January 17 Maharani Chand Kaur removed from the palace and
given a jdglr
1841 January 20 Prince Sher Singh invested as the Maharaja
1841 June 12 Maharani Chand Kaur murdered by her female
attendants
1843 September 15 Maharaja Sher Singh and Raja Dhian Singh
assassinated by the Sandhanwalias
1843 September Dalip Singh proclaimed Maharaja with Raja Hira
Singh as the Prime Minister
1844 May 21 Raja Hira Singh and Pandit Jalla assassinated by the
army Panchas
1845 September 21 Jawahar Singh, brother of Rani Jindan, murdered
by the army Panchas
1845 December 11 the Satlej crossed by the Lahore army
1845 December 13 war declared by the British against the rulers of
Lahore
1845 December 18 the battle of Mudki
1845 December 21-22 the battle of Pherushahr
1846 January 21 a skirmish near Baddowal
1846 January 28 the battle of Aliwal
1846 February 10 the battle of Sabraon
1846 March 9 the Treaty of Lahore
1846 March 16 a separate treaty signed by Raja Gulab Singh with the
British by which he was made the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir
in subordination to the British
1846 December 22 the Treaty of Bhayirowal
1848 April 20 murder of Vans Agnew and W. Anderson at Multan
1848 September 4 siege of Multan
1848 November 22 the battle of Ramnagar
1849 January 13 the battle of Chillianwala
1849 January 22 fall of Multan
1849 February 21 the battle of Gujrat
1849 March 11 Chattar Singh and Raja Sher Singh surrendered to
Major Gilbert near Rawalpindi
1849 March 14 arms laid down by the supporters of Chattar Singh
and Raja Sher Singh
1849 March 29 annexation of the Punjab
2-49

APPENDICES
1857-58 uprisings in India and at a few places in the Punjab;

Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs of the Punjab support the British
1862 Baba Ram Singh institutes the Sant Khalsa
1863 Baba Ram Singh ordered not to leave his village
1872. Baba Ram Singh's Kukas (Namdharls) strike at Malaud and
Malerkotla; sixty-five of them are blown from guns
1873 foundation of Sri Guru Singh Sabha at Amritsar
1877 the Brahmos start their monthly Hart Hakikat; Swami
Dayanand visits the Punjab
1879 foundation of the Singh Sabha of Lahore
1880 publication of Giani Gian Singh's Panth Parkash
1882 the Punjab University is established at Lahore
1883 the Aryas of Lahore found a college in commemoration of
Swami Dayanand's death
1887 Sir Syed Ahmed Khan advises Muslims to remain aloof from
the Indian National Congress
1888 Arya 'fire-brands' of Lahore attack Sikh Gurus; Bhai Jawahar
Singh and Bhai Ditt Singh leave the Arya Samaj and join the
Singh Sabha; the Sikh leaders of Lahore submit to the
Governor General that the Sikhs should be treated as a
community separate from the Hindus
1892 the first Khalsa College is founded at Amritsar; the Kanya
Maha Vidyalaya is founded at Ferozepore; Giani Gian Singh's
Tawdnkh-i Guru Khalsa is published
1893 Khalsa Diwan is founded at Amritsar; split in the Arya Samaj
1895 The Punjab National Bank is founded at Lahore
1896 Khalsa Diwan is founded at Lahore
1898 Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha's Ham Hindu Nahin is published
1900 some Rehtia Sikhs are shaved by the Arya leaders of Lahore in
a ceremony of purification (sbuddhi)
1902 Chief Khalsa Diwan is founded at Amritsar
1905 Sant Badan Singh's commentary on the Adi Granth is published
1907 agitation over water tax and proprietary rights
1909 membership of the Punjab Council raised from nine to thirty
and election partially introduced; the first Hindu Conference is
held; the Anand Marriage Act is passed
1911 for the first time anyone claiming to be a Sikh is returned as
such in the census
250

APPENDICES
1913 outer wall of Gurdwara Rakabganj is demolished; the Sikh Re

view is launched as a part of Sikh agitation
1914 the Ghadarites resort to robberies for raising funds
1915 the Ghadarites approach army units for armed revolt; the Chief
Khalsa Diwan publishes a comprehensive code of conduct as
Gurmat Parkdsh Bhdg Sanskar
1917 a Sikh deputation meets the Punjab Governor for separate
electorates
1918 representatives of the Sikh community impress upon the
government the need to implement the principle of weightage
and reservations enunciated in the Montford Report
1919 formation of Central Sikh League is announced at Lahore in
March; it is inaugurated at Amritsar in December
1920 the Government reconstructs the wall of Gurdwara Rakab-
ganj; Singh reformers take over the Golden Temple and the
Akal Takht; Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee and
the Shiromani Akali Dal are formed
192.1 Darbar Sahib at Tarn Taran is taken over by the Akalis; over a
hundred Akalis are massacred at Nankana Sahib before its
Gurdwaras are taken over by the SGPC; Sunder Singh Ram-
garhia is asked to hand over the keys of the Golden Temple
Complex to the SGPC President, Baba Kharak Singh
19ZZ keys of the Golden Temple are handed over to Baba Kharak
Singh; Guru ka Bagh morcha begins; the Babbar Akali Jatha is
formed and the Babbar Akali Dodbd is launched; Gurdwara
Guru ka Bagh is handed over to the SGPC
192.3 Maharaja Ripudaman Singh of Nabha is forced to abdicate;
Akalis are arrested at Jaito and akhand path is interrupted; the
SGPC and the Shiromani Akali Dal are declared to be un-
lawful associations; the Babbar Akalis are declared to be
unlawful
1924 21 February, a special jatha of 500 Akalis reaching Jaito is
fired at; 300 are injured and 100 killed
1925 Sikh Gurdwaras Bill is introduced in the Punjab Legislative
Council and passed, coming into force on 1 November; the
Kirti is launched
1926 six Babbar Akalis are hanged to death; Bhagat Singh founds
the Naujawan Bharat Sabha
251

APPENDICES
1928 Akali and Central Sikh League leaders attend the All-Parties
Conference at Delhi; Mangal Singh Gill of the Central Sikh
League is made a member of Moti Lai Nehru Committee; the
Kirti Kisan Party is founded at Amritsar; protest against Simon
Commission is made at Lahore; J. P. Saunders is murdered
1929 the Congress declares 'complete independence' as its goal and
gives assurance to minorities that no constitution for India
would be accepted without their consent
1930 the Central Sikh League, the Shiromani Akali Dal and the
SGPC join the Civil Disobedience launched by Mahatma
Gandhi
1931 Master Tar a Singh presents a memorandum to Mahatma
Gandhi as representative of the Sikhs at the Round Table
Conference
1932 23 March, execution of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru;
formation of Khalsa Darbar to oppose the 'communal award'
1934 the Kirti Kisan Party is declared unlawful
1937 the Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal contest the Sikh
seats in the elections; Sikandar and Jinnah sign a pact
1938 All-India Akali Conference is held at Rawalpindi
1939 Outbreak of the Second World War
1940 Master Tara Singh resigns from the Congress Working Com-
mittee due to basic differences with Mahatma Gandhi on the
issue of recruitment; All India Muslim League passes what is
popularly known as the Pakistan resolution; V. S. Bhatti
publishes his Khdlistan
1941 formation of Khalsa Defence League under the Maharaja of
Patiala
1942 Baldev Singh joins the ministry; Master Tara Singh presents a
memorandum to Sir Stafford Cripps, asking for reorganization
of the Punjab province; the Akalis put forward the Azad
Punjab Scheme
1943 Sadhu Singh Hamdard publishes his Azad Punjab
1944 Rajagopalachari's formula and Gandhi-Jinnah talks impel the
Akalis to ask for a Sikh state as an alternative to Pakistan
1945 Failure of the Simla Conference
1946 the Akalis win twenty-three out of thirty-three Sikh seats in
the elections; Khizr Hayat Khan forms a coalition ministry;
the Cabinet Mission proposals are rejected by the Akalis;
252

APPENDICES
Baldev Singh is allowed by the Panthic Pratinidhi Board to join

the Interim Government as Defence Minister
1947 Khizr Hayat resigns; Lord Mountbatten replaces Lord Wavell;
non-Muslim legislators of the Punjab resolve in favour of its
partition; India is divided into two sovereign states, each
having truncated Bengal and Punjab
1948 the Congress constitutes a committee to consider the recom-
mendations of the Dar Commission; Akali legislators join the
Congress Assembly Party and Giani Kartar Singh is inducted
into the cabinet; Hindi and Punjabi replace Urdu as the
medium of education in schools; PEPSU is inaugurated by
Sardar Patel and a caretaker government is formed by Gian
Singh Rarewala; the Shiromani Akali Dal resolves in favour of
separate representation to the Sikhs; the Minority Committee
formed by the Punjab Chief Minister recommends weightage
for the Sikhs and formation of a new province of six districts
as an alternative
1949 Jalandhar Municipal Committee makes Hindi in Devnagri
script the medium of school education; the Senate of the
Punjab University rejects Punjabi even in Devnagri script as
the medium of school education; Bhim Sen Sachar evolves a
language formula to give due recognition to Punjabi; he is
replaced by Bhargava as Chief Minister; the Congress
Working Committee adopts the report of the committee on the
recommendations of the Dar Commission
1950 The Constitution of India remains unsigned by the Akali
members of the Constituent Assembly; the Working Com-
mittee of the Akali Dal resolves in favour of a linguistic state
in the Punjab, and revokes merger of the Akali legislators with
the Congress Assembly Party
1951 Raghubir Singh becomes Chief Minister of PEPSU; the Arya
leaders ask Hindus to return Hindi as their 'mother-tongue';
Bhargava resigns as Punjab Chief Minister and President's rule
is imposed without any constitutional justification
1952 the Akalis win only thirteen seats; the Congress forms
the ministry; the United Front ministry under Gian Singh
Rarewala displaces the Congress ministry in PEPSU; a Telugu-
speaking state is announced after fast unto death by Potti
Sriramulu
253

APPENDICES
1953 President's rule is imposed in PEPSU; the State Reorganization

Commission is formed
1964 the Akalis win only twelve seats in the mid-term polls in
PEPSU and the Congress forms ministry
1955 Master Tara Singh replaces Ishar Singh Majhail as the SGPC
President; Sachar apologizes for police entry into the Golden
Temple complex; the State Reorganization Commission recom-
mends merger of PEPSU and Himachal Pradesh with the Punjab
1956 Hukam Singh works out a 'Regional Formula' which is
acceptable to the Congress as well as to the Akalis; only
PEPSU is merged with the Punjab and the new state is
inaugurated on 1 November
1957 the 'save Hindi' agitation in the Punjab
1958 Master Tara Singh loses SGPC Presidentship to a candidate
supported by Partap Singh Kairon
1960 all the 132 Akali members of the SGPC take pledge at the Akal
Takht to work for the creation of a Punjabi-speaking state;
Sant Fateh Singh goes on fast unto death
1961 Sant Fateh Singh is persuaded by Master Tara Singh to give up
fast on the basis of his talks with Jawaharlal Nehru; Sant
Fateh Singh's talks with Nehru fail; Master Tara Singh goes on
fast; he is persuaded by Hardit Singh Malik to give it up; the
S. R. Das Commission is appointed
1962 the Punjabi University is inaugurated at Patiala; report of the
Das Commission finds no injustice in the delay to implement
the Regional Formula; the Congress wins 90 out of 154 seats
in the elections
1963 Jawaharlal Nehru recommends inquiry into charges against
Kairon
1964 Nehru dies; Kairon resigns before he is indicted by the Enquiry
Commission
1965 Sant Fateh Singh wins majority in the SGPC elections against
Master Tara Singh; Kairon is assassinated; Sant Fateh Singh
postpones fast unto death in view of the outbreak of war with
Pakistan and gives support to the government; a Parliamentary
Committee and a cabinet subcommittee are formed to create a
Punjabi-speaking state
1966 Prime Minister Lai Bahadur Shastri dies and his place is taken by
254

APPENDICES
Indira Gandhi; the Congress Working Committee recommends

creation of a Punjabi-speaking state; a Commission is appointed
(bypassing the Parliamentary Committee) with new terms of
reference; the Punjabi-speaking state is created and inaugurated
on i November despite protests from the Akalis; Sant Fateh
Singh goes on fast to get Chandigarh included in the Punjab and
Hukam Singh persuades him to give it up
1967 the Congress wins only forty-eight seats in the elections and
the Akalis form a coalition government with 'Justice' Gurnam
Singh as the Chief Minister; his ministry falls due to defection
by Lachhman Singh Gill who is supported by the Congress
1968 the Congress withdraws support to Gill; the Akalis resolve in
favour of a genuinely federal system
1969 Jathedar Darshan Singh Pheruman goes on fast and dies for
getting Chandigarh included in the Punjab; Sant Fateh Singh
announces his resolve to immolate himself on 1 February on
the same issue; Guru Nanak University is inaugurated at
Amritsar
1970 Indira Gandhi awards Chandigarh to the Punjab and a part of
the Fazilka Tehsil to Haryana (with effect from 1975); Sant
Fateh Singh is persuaded to give up his fast; Sardar Parkash
Singh Badal becomes the Chief Minister in place of 'Justice'
Gurnam Singh
1971 the Akalis win only one seat in the Parliamentary elections;
President's rule is imposed on the Punjab after Badal's advice
to the Governor to dissolve the Assembly
197Z the Congress wins 64 out of 104 seats of the Punjab Assembly
and Giani Zail Singh becomes the Chief Minister
1973 the Working Committee of the Akali Dal passes a set of
resolutions known collectively as the Anandpur Sahib Resolu-
tion
1974 Indira Gandhi is legally unseated
1975 Indira Gandhi declares 'internal emergency'; Akalis launch the
'save democracy' morcha
1976 Indira Gandhi awards only 3.5 maf of water to the Punjab
1977 the Akalis win 58 out of 117 seats in the Assembly elections
and Parkash Singh Badal heads a coalition ministry
1978 the All-India Akali Conference at Ludhiana passes the
2-55

APPENDICES
Anandpur Sahib Resolution as endorsed by the Akali Dal in

1977; a number of Sikhs are killed in a clash with the armed
Sant Nirankaris in Amritsar; the Dal Khalsa is founded at
Chandigarh to fight the Nirankari menace
1979 Candidates of the Dal Khalsa and Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindran-
wale contest elections to the SGPC
19 81 Lala Jagat Narain is murdered; Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindran-
wale is arrested and released; Akalis meet the Prime Minister
1982 Indira Gandhi gives 0.72 maf more of water to the Punjab,
0.60 maf more to Rajasthan, and decides to complete the SYL
canal for Haryana; the Akalis start the nahar roko agitation
first and then dharmyudh for the Anandpur Sahib Resolution
1983 President's rule imposed on the Punjab; violence escalates
1984 violence escalates still further; the Akal Takht is destroyed in
Operation BlueStar and Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale is
killed; Indira Gandhi is assassinated; the Sikhs are massacred
in Delhi and some other cities
1985 Akali leaders are released from detention and Sant Longowal
signs an agreement with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi; Sant
Longowal is assassinated; Sardar Surjit Singh Barnala becomes
Chief Minister after the September elections
1986 Police action in the Golden Temple; Jathedar Gurcharan Singh
Tohra is re-elected as SGPC President against the candidate of
the ruling Akalis
1987 Barnala ministry is dismissed and President's rule is imposed
on the Punjab; a World Sikh Convention asks for an area of
freedom for the Sikhs; resolution for Khalistan is passed at
Fatehgarh Sahib
1988 Operation Black Thunder obliges some militants to surrender
1989 Simranjit Singh Mann is catapulted by the November elections
as a militant leader; asks for autonomy in terms of the
Anandpur Sahib Resolution
1990 Mann declares plebiscite for self-determination as the only
solution
1992 February elections are boycotted by the Akalis; less than 22 per
cent of the votes are polled; Beant Singh becomes the Congress
Chief Minister; Jathedar Tohra is re-elected SGPC President
1993 Akali leaders are arrested
256

APPENDICES
1994 by-elections in Nakodar and Ajnala take place; Jaswant Singh

Khalra is picked up by the police and the Akalis launch an
agitation
1995 by-election in Gidderbaha is won by the Akalis despite an all-
out effort by Beant Singh; a human bomb blasts Beant Singh
1997 the Akalis win two-thirds of the seats in the February elections
2.57

APPENDIX 5
HEADS OF BRITISH ADMINISTRATION

IN THE PUNJAB
1849-1853 Board of Administration: Henry Lawrence, John
Lawrence and Charles E. Mansel (replaced by Robert
Montgomery in 1851)
1853-1858 John Lawrence as Chief Commissioner
1859 John Lawrence as Lieutenant Governor
LIEUTENANT GOVERNORS
1859-1865 Robert Montgomery
1865-1870 Donald McLeod
1870-1871 Henry Marion Durand
1871-1877 Robert Henry Davies
1877-1882 Robert Eyles Egerton
1882-1887 Charles Umphreston Aitchison
1887-1892 James Broadwood Lyall
1892-1897 Dennis Fitzpatrick
1897-1902 William Mac Worth Young
1902-1907 Charles Montgomery Rivaz
1907-1908 E. J. Denzil Ibbetson (for a few months Thomas Gordon
Walker acted in his place)
1908-1913 Louis William Dane
1913-1919 Michael O'Dwyer
1919-1921 E. D. Maclagan
GOVERNORS
1921-1924 E. D. Maclagan
1924-1928 Malcolm Hailey
1928-1933 Geoferrey Fitzbervey De Montmorency
1933-1938 H. W. Emerson
1938-1941 H. D. Craik
1941-1946 B. J. Glancy
1946-1947 E. M. Jenkins
258

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY
This essay is by no means exhaustive. It is meant to serve as a guide to some of

the best material on Sikh history, but the omission of a work is no reflection on
its character. What is included is sufficiently representative of historical
writing and major categories of source materials on the subject. The essay is
divided into five parts. The first four cover the four distinct periods of Sikh
history mentioned in the Preface. The last contains a few general observations.
After the classic work of Joseph Davey Cunningham, A History of the Sikhs
(London, 1849), Gokal Chand Narang picked up the threads more than six
decades later in his Transformation of Sikhism (4th edn, New Delhi, 1956) to
be followed by J. C. Archer, The Sikhs in Relation to Hindus, Moslems,
Christians and Ahmadiyas: A Study in Comparative Religion (Princeton,
1946); Teja Singh and Ganda Singh, A Short History of the Sikhs (Bombay,
1950); Indubhusan Banerjee, Evolution of the Khalsa (2nd edn, Calcutta,
1962); and Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs (Oxford, 1963). More
analytical than these general histories is Niharranjan Ray's The Sikh Gurus
and Sikh Society: A Study in Social Analysis (Patiala, 1970). W.Owen Cole
attempts to place the Sikh movement in a broad context in Sikhism and its
Indian Context 1469-1708 (New Delhi, 1984). For ideas and institutions, the
trail was blazed by Teja Singh in Sikhism: Its Ideals and Institutions (Bombay,
1937), to be followed much later by W. H. McLeod, The Evolution of the Sikh
Community (Oxford, 1975). A few critical essays on the period by J.S.
Grewal, From Guru Nanak to Maharaja Ranjit Singh (2nd edn, Amritsar,
1982) provide some new insights.
Besides general histories, a number of scholars have written monographs on
the Sikh Gurus, notably on the first and the last, and on Guru Tegh Bahadur:
Teja Singh, Guru Nanak and His Mission (6th edn, SGPC, 1984); Harbans
Singh, Guru Nanak and Origins of the Sikh Faith (Bombay, 1969); Gurbachan
Singh Talib, Guru Nanak: His Personality and Vision (Delhi, 1969); and
Surinder Singh Kohli, Philosophy of Guru Nanak (Chandigarh, 1969). The
most critical in terms of Guru Nanak's biography and the most comprehensive
in terms of the exposition of his ideas is W. H. McLeod, Guru
Nanak and the Sikh Religion (Oxford, 1968). In J. S. Grewal, Guru Nanak in
History (2nd edn, Chandigarh, 1979) his mission is sought to be understood in
terms of his response to his historical situation. A philosophic interpretation
of Guru Gobind Singh's mission was given by Kapur Singh in his Prashar-
prasna Or the Baisakhi of Guru Gobind Singh Qullundur, 1959); a critical
2-59

biography is presented by J. S. Grewal and S. S. Bal, Guru Gobind Singh
(Chandigarh, 1967); and an interesting narrative by Harbans Singh, Guru
Gobind Singh (New Delhi, 1979). A biography of Guru Tegh Bahadur was
first attempted on an elaborate scale by Trilochan Singh, Guru Tegh Bahadur:
Prophet and Martyr (Delhi, 1967), to be followed by Fauja Singh and
Gurbachan Singh Talib, Guru Tegh Bahadur: Martyr and Teacher (Patiala,
1975), and Harbans Singh, Guru Tegh Bahadur (Delhi, 1982).
By far the most important source of early Sikh history is the Adi Sri Guru
Granth Sahib Jl (Sri Damdami Bir, various printed editions, standard pagi-
nation) which becomes easier to understand with the help of Sabddrth Sri
Guru Granth Sahib ]l (text and commentary, 1936-1941). An early English
translation was attempted by Ernest Trumpp, The Adi Granth (London, 1887)
to be replaced by Max Arthur Macauliffe's selected translations in The Sikh
Religion (Oxford, 1909); a full translation by Gopal Singh, Sri Guru Granth
Sahib (Delhi, 1962), has run into several editions. Next in importance to the
Sikh scriptures is Varan Bhai Gurdas, not yet translated into English. The
janamsdkhl literature has been thoroughly analysed by W. H. McLeod, Early
Sikh Tradition: A Study of the Janam-Sakhis (Oxford, 1980). One of the
earliest works in this genre has been translated into English by McLeod, The
B/foJanam-Sdkhl(Amrhsar, 1981). SriDasam Granth Sahib, edited by Bishan
Singh, provides the major source for Guru Gobind Singh; it is discussed
in C. H. Loehlin, The Granth of Guru Gobind Singh and the Khalsa
Brotherhood (Lucknow, 1971). The extremely valuable letters of Guru
Gobind Singh as well as Guru Tegh Bahadur are collected in Fauja Singh,
Hukamnamas of Shri Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib (Patiala, 1976) and Ganda
Singh, Hukamnamay (Patiala, 1967). J.S. Grewal, Guru Tegh Bahadur and
the Persian Chroniclers (Amritsar, 1976), reveals primarily the uselessness of
this evidence on the times of Guru Tegh Bahadur. Senapat's Sri Gur Sobha (ed.
Shamsher Singh - Amritsar, 1967) is the best evidence on the last decade of
Guru Gobind Singh's life. Covering the entire period from Guru Nanak to
Guru Gobind Singh, W. H. McLeod has given a good selection of texts in
Textual Sources for the Study of Sikhism (Manchester, 1984). For a historical
analysis of Sikh literature, Surjit Hans, A Reconstruction of Sikh History from
Sikh Literature (Jalandhar, 1987).
There is some useful information in Persian works like the Baburnama,
the Akbarndma, the Tuzk-i-Jahdngiri, the Dabistdn-i-Mazdhib, the Ma'dsir-i-
Alamgin, the Khuldsat-ut-Tawdrlkh and other contemporary works, which
have been put together by Ganda Singh, Mdkhiz-i-Tawdrlkh Sikhdn
(Amritsar, 1949). Much of the contemporary evidence makes better sense in
the light of general studies like W. H. Moreland, The Agrarian System of
Moslem India (2nd edn, Delhi, 1968), and India at the Death ofAkbar (reprint,
Delhi, 1962); Irfan Habib, The Agrarian System of Mughal India (Bombay,
1963); Nurul Hasan, Thoughts on Agrarian Relations in Mughal India (New
Delhi, 1973); Tapan Raychaudhari and Irfan Habib, Cambridge Economic
History of India (Hyderabad, 1984); Shireen Moosvi, The Economy of the
Mughal Empire (Oxford,i987); Ibn Hasan, The Central Structure of the
2.60

Mughal Empire (reprint, New Delhi, 1970); Ahsan Raza Khan, Chieftains in
the Mughal Empire During the Reign ofAkbar (Simla, 1977); Athar Ali, The
Mughal Nobility Under Aurangzeb (reprint, Bombay, 1970); Athar Abbas
Rizvi, Muslim Revivalist Movements in Northern India in the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries (Agra, 1965); Chetan Singh's Region and Empire:
Punjab in the Seventeenth Century, New Delhi, 1991.
11
Some of the general histories mentioned in the previous section cover partly or
wholly the period from Guru Gobind Singh's death to the annexation of the
Punjab by the British. N. K. Sinha's Rise of the Sikh Power (reprint, Calcutta,
I
973)» however, relates to the eighteenth century, followed by H. R. Gupta's
three volumes of the History of the Sikhs (vol. 1 2nd edn Simla 1952 and vols.
2 and 3 Lahore, 1944) before 1947. Recently the ground has been covered
more thoroughly by Veena Sachdeva's Polity and Economy of the Punjab
During the Late Eighteenth Century (New Delhi, 1993). Individual leaders
and rulers have been treated in Ganda Singh, Life of Banda Singh Bahadur
(Amritsar, 1935) and Ahmad Shah Durrani (Bombay, 1959); Kirpal Singh, A
Short Life Sketch of Maharaja Ala Singh (Amritsar, 1953); Henry T. Prinsep,
Life of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (reprint, Patiala, 1970); N. K. Sinha, Ranjit
Singh (Calcutta, 1968); Khushwant Singh, Ranjit Singh: Maharaja of the
Punjab (London, 1962); Waheeduddin, The Real Ranjit Singh (4th edn,
Karachi, 1965). The army of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his successors is
covered by Fauja Singh, Military System of the Sikhs (Delhi, 1964). For the
early nineteenth century, Lepel Griffin, Rajas of the Punjab (reprint, Patiala,
1970); Gulshan Lai Chopra, The Punjab As a Sovereign State (Lahore, 1928);
Indu Banga, Agrarian System of the Sikhs (New Delhi, 1978); J. S. Grewal,
The Reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh: Structure of Power, Economy and
Society (Patiala, 1981).
The decade from the death of Ranjit Singh to the annexation of the Punjab is
well covered by Sita Ram Kohli, Sunset of the Sikh Empire (New Delhi, 1967);
Fauja Singh, After Ranjit Singh (New Delhi, 1982); Barkat Rai Chopra,
Kingdom of the Punjab, 1839-184} (Hoshiarpur, 1969); S. S. Bal, British
Policy Towards the Punjab 1844-49 (Calcutta, 1971); N. M. Khilnani, British
Power in the Punjab i8j9~i8j8 (New York, 1972); for the Anglo-Sikh Wars
Charles Gough and Arthur D. Inns, The Sikhs and the Sikh Wars (reprint,
Patiala, 1970). For some other aspects of the period see J. S. Grewal, The City
of the Golden Temple (Amritsar, 1986); W. G. Archer, Paintings of the Sikhs
(London, 1966); Sulakhan Singh, 'Udasis Under the Sikh Rule (1750-1850)'
(doctoral thesis, Amritsar, 1985); Daljinder Singh Johal, 'Society and Culture
As Reflected in Punjabi Literature (1750-1850)' (doctoral thesis, Amritsar,
1985); Indu Banga, 'State Formation Under Sikh Rule' Journal of Regional
History (1980), and 'The Ruling Class in the Kingdom of Lahore', ibid. (1982);
B.N. Goswamy, 'The Context of Painting in the Sikh Punjab', ibid. (1981);
Reeta Grewal, 'Polity, Economy and Urbanization', ibid. (1983).
261

Important among the contemporary Persian works are, Tahmas Beg Khan's
Tahmas Ndmah; Qazi Nur Muhammad's Jang Ndmah; Khushwaqt Rai,
Tawdrikh-i-Sikhdn; Ahmad Shah's Tarikh-i-Hind; Ganash Das's, Chdr-
Bagh-i-Panjab; Sohan Lai Suri's Umdat-ut-Tawdrikh. For contemporary
Persian documentary evidence and chronicles translated into English, B. N.
Goswamy and J.S. Grewal, The Mughals and the Jogis of Jakhbar (Simla,
1967) and The Mughal and the Sikh Rulers and the Vaishnavas of Pindori
(Simla, 1969); J.S. Grewal, In the By-Lanes of History (Simla, 1975); V.S.
Suri, Umdat-ut-Tawarikh (New Delhi, 1961, 1972); J.S. Grewal and Indu
Banga, Early Nineteenth-Century Punjab (Amritsar, 1975); H. L. O. Garrett
and G.L. Chopra, Events at the Court of Ranjit Singh 1810-1817 (reprint,
Patiala, 1970); J. S. Grewal and Indu Banga, The Civil and Military Affairs of
Maharaja Ranjit Singh (Amritsar, 1987). For information on the voluminous
records of the government of Ranjit Singh and his successors now lodged in
Maharaja Ranjit Singh Museum and Archives at Amritsar see Sita Ram Kohli,
Catalogue of Khalsa Darbar Records (Lahore, 1919, 1927)- There are some
useful documents in J. Ph. Vogel, Catalogue of Bhuri Singh Museum at
Chantba (Calcutta, 1909). For contemporary works in Punjabi see Kesar Singh
Chhibber, Bansdwalindmah (Chandigarh, 1972); Sarup Das Bhalla, Mahima
Parkdsh (Patiala, 1971); Ratan Singh Bhangu, Prachin Panth Parkdsh (5th edn,
Amritsar, 1972); Shah Muhamnmad, Vdr (Ludhiana, 1972); Ram Sukh Rao,
Fateh Singh Partdp Parbhdkar (Patiala, 1980).
Some numismatic evidence and travel literature is available in C. J. Rodgers,
'On the Coins of the Sikhs', Journal of the Asiatic Society of Benegal, vol. 1
(1881); Ganda Singh, Early European Accounts of the Sikhs (reprint, Calcutta,
1962); W. Moorcraft and G. Frebeck, Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of
Hindostan and the Punjab, in Ladak and Kashmir in Peshawar, Kabul and
Kunduz and Bokhara from 1819 to 182$ (London, 1837); H. L. O. Garrett,
The Punjab a Hundred Years Ago, as Described by V.Jacquemont and
A. Soltykoff (reprint, Patiala, 1971); G.T. Vigne, A Personal Narrative of a
Visit to Ghazni, Cabul and Afghanistan and of a Residence at the Court of
Dost Muhammad With Notices ofRanjit Singh, Khiva and Russian Expedition
(London, 1840); Baron Charles Hugel, Travels in Cashmere and the Punjab
(London, 1845); W. G. Osborne, The Court and Camp of Ranjeet Singh
(London, 1840); Alexander Burnes, Travels in Bukhara (London, 1834);
Major Hugh Pearse, Memories of Alexander Gardner Colonel of Artillery in
the Service of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (reprint, Patiala, 1970) and Sir Lepel
Griffin, The Punjab Chiefs: Historical and Biographical Notices of the
Principal Families in the Lahore (Lahore, 1865).
For some general developments during the period see Sir Jadu Nath Sarkar,
Fall of the Mughal Empire in four volumes (Calcutta, 1932); Satish Chandra,
Parties and Politics at the Mughal Court (1707-1740) (2nd edn, New Delhi,
1972), Zahir-ud-Din Malik, The Reign of Muhammad Shah (Bombay, 1977);
Noman Ahmad Siddiqi, Land Revenue Under the Mughals (1700-17)0)
(Bombay, 1970); J.Hutchison and J.Ph. Vogel, History of the Punjab Hill
States in two volumes (Lahore, 1933).
262

III
General histories by Khushwant Singh, Gopal Singh and Sangab Singh cover the
period of colonial rule. There are several good monographs which add detail
and depth, like Dolores Domin, India: A Study in the Role of the Sikhs in
185J-59 (Berlin, 1977); John C.B. Webster, The Nirankari Sikhs (Delhi,
1979); Fauja Singh, Kuka Movement: An Important Phase in Punjab's Role in
India's Struggle for Freedom (Delhi, 1965); Richard Fox, Lions of the Punjab:
Culture in the Making (Berkeley, 1985); Mohinder Singh, The Akali Move-
ment (Delhi, 1978); Sukhmani Bal, Politics of the Central Sikh League (New
Delhi, 1991). Kailash Chander Gulati, The Akalis: Past and Present (New
Delhi, 1974); K. L. Tuteja, Sikh Politics (192.0-1940) (Kurukshetra, 1984);
Ethne K. Marenco, The Transformation of Sikh Society (New Delhi, 1976);
Tom G. Kessinger, Vilyatpur 1848-1968: A Study of Social and Economic
Change in a North Indian Village (California, 1974). There are a few
biographical studies like Durlab Singh, The Valiant Fighter: A Biographical
Study of Master Tara Singh (Lahore, nd) and Sikh Leadership (Delhi, 1950);
G. S. Deol, ShahidAjit Singh (Patiala, 1973) and Shahid Bhagat Singh (Patiala,
1973); K. K. Khullar, Shaheed Bhagat Singh (New Delhi 1981); Gurcharan
Singh, JiwaniSardar Sewa Singh Thikriwala (znd edn, Patiala 1974).
Quite a few studies, though not directly on Sikh history, have a close
bearing on the subject, like Harish K. Puri, Ghadar Movement: Ideology,
Organization and Strategy (Amritsar, 1983); Hugh Johnston, The Voyage of
the Komagata Maru (Delhi, 1979); Ramesh Walia, Praja Mandal Movement in
East Punjab States (Patiala, 1972); Kamlesh Mohan, Militant Nationalism in
the Punjab 1919-1935 (New Delhi, 1985); P. R. Uprety, Religion and Politics
in Punjab in the 1920s (New Delhi, 1980); Bhagwan Josh, Communist
Movement in Punjab (1926-47) (Delhi, 1979).
There are several works on the history of the Punjab which remain relevant
for an understanding of Sikh history: P. H. M. van den Dungen, The Punjab
Tradition (London, 1972); Norman Gerald Barrier, Punjab History in Printed
British Documents (Missouri, 1969); N. Gerald Barrier and Paul Wallace, The
Punjab Press, 1880-190} (Michigan, 1970); Himadri Banerjee, Agrarian
Society of the Punjab (1849-1901) (New Delhi, 1982); Sukhwant Singh,
'Agricultural Development in the Punjab 1849-1947' (M.Phil, dissertation,
Amritsar, 1980); Sukhdev Singh Sohal, 'The Middle Classes in The Punjab
(1849-1947)' (doctoral thesis, Amritsar, 1987); Harish C. Sharma, Artisans
of the Punjab (New Delhi, 1996). Sri Ram Sharma, Punjab in ferment
(Delhi, 1971); Kenneth W. Jones, Arya Dharm: Hindu Consciousness in 19th
Century Punjab (London, 1976); Spencer Lavan, The Ahmadiyah Movement:
A History and Perspective (New Delhi, 1974); Emmett Davis, Press and
Politics in British Western Punjab 1836-1947 (Delhi, 1983); Satya M. Rai,
Legislative Politics and the Freedom Struggle in the Punjab 1897-1947
(Delhi, 1984); Kirpal C. Yadav, Elections in Punjab 192.0-1947 (New Delhi,
1987).
The Jallianwala Bagh happenings are well covered in V. N. Datta, Jallian-
Z63

wala Bagh (Ludhiana, 1969); Raja Ram, The Jalhanwala Bagh Massacre: A
Premeditated Plan (2nd edn, Chandigarh, 1978); Alfred Draper, Amntsar:
The Massacre that Ended the Raj (Delhi, 1981). On the partition, Penderal
Moon, Divide and Quit (London, 1961); Kirpal Singh, The Partition of the
Punjab (Patiala, 1972); Satya M. Rai, Partition of the Punjab (Bombay, 1965).
There is a useful biographical study, Fazl-i-Husain: A Political Biography
(Bombay, 1946), by Azim Husain.
The works of contemporary British administrators have their own merit in
spite of their limitations: James Douie, The Punjab, North Western Province
and Kashmir (Cambridge, 1916); S. S. Thorburn, Musalmans and the Money-
Lenders in the Punjab (reprint, Delhi, 1983); S. S. Thorburn, The Punjab in
Peace and War (reprint, Patiala 1970); H. K. Trevaskis, Punjab of Today: An
Economic Survey of the Punjab in Recent Years 1890-192} in two volumes
(Lahore, 1931) and The Land of the Five Rivers: An Economic History of the
Punjab from the Earliest Times to the Year of Grace 1890 (Oxford, 1926);
H. Calvert, The Wealth and Welfare of the Punjab: Being Some Studies in
Punjab Rural Economics (Lahore, 1922); Malcolm Lyall Darling, The Punjab
Peasant in Prosperity and Debt (London, 1928).
There are some works on Indian history which provide a useful context for
the Punjab and for Sikh history: Percival Spear, India: A Modern History
(Michigan, 1972); A. R. Desai, Social Background of Indian Nationalism
(Bombay, 1954); Sumit Sarkar, Modern India 1885-1947 (Delhi, 1983);
K. M.L. Saxena, The Military System of India (New Delhi, 1974);
G. Macmunn, The Armies of India (reprint, Delhi, 1980); John C. B. Webster,
The Christian Community and Change in Nineteenth Century North India
(Delhi, 1976); J. N. Farquhar, Modern Religious Movements in India
(London, 1924); Peter Hardy, The Muslims of British India (Cambridge,
1972); Ayesha Jalal, The Sole Spokesman Jinnah: The Muslim League and the
Demand for Pakistan (Cambridge, 1985); V. P. Menon, Transfer of Power in
India (reprint, New Delhi, 1979).
Some easily available contemporary evidence on Sikh history during this
period is in Attar Singh, Sakhee Book (Benaras, 1873); Ganda Singh, Kukiydn
dl Vithya (Amritsar, 1944 for the letters of Baba Ram Singh); N.Gerald
Berrier, The Sikhs and Their Literature (Delhi, 1970); Bhagat Lakshman
Singh, An Autobiography (Calcutta, 1965); Some Confidential Papers on the
Akali Movement (SGPC, 1965), edited by Ganda Singh; Ruchi Ram Sahni,
Struggle for Freedom of Sikh Shrines (SGPC, nd); G. R. Sethi, Sikh Struggle for
Gurdwara Reform (Amritsar, 1927); Bhagat Singh, Why I am an Atheist
(Delhi, 1979); J. S. Grewal and H. K. Pun, Letters of Udham Singh (Amritsar,
1974); Swarup Singh, The Sikhs Demand Their Home Land (London, 1946);
Gurbachan Singh and L. S. Giani, The Idea of the Sikh State (Lahore, 1946);
Sadhu Singh Hamdard, Azad Punjab (Amritsar, 1943).
Apart from gazetteers, reports and other government publications there is
published official evidence having a direct bearing on Sikh history in Gooroo
Ram Singh and the Kuka Sikhs (New Delhi, 1965) edited by Nahar Singh;
Maharaja Duleep Singh Correspondence (Patiala, 1977) edited by Ganda
2.64

Singh; David Petrie's report of 1911, Developments in Sikh Politics (Amritsar,

1911); Confidential memorandum on the Akali Dal and the Shiromani
Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, 1921-22 (The Punjab Past and Present
1967, 252-311); John Maynard 'The Sikh Problem in the Punjab, 1920-23'
(The Punjab Past and Present 1977, 129-141). There is some important
contemporary evidence, though not exclusively on Sikh history, in Lepel
Griffin and C. F. Massy, Chiefs and Families of Note in the Punjab (Lahore,
1891, 1909 and 1940); N.Gerald Barrier, The Punjab in Nineteenth Century
Tracts (East Lansing, 1969) and Banned Controversial Literature and Political
Control in British India (New Delhi, 1976); Larry Collins and Dominique
Lapierre, Mountbatten and the Partition of India March 22 -August i}, 1947
(Delhi, 1982).
There are some useful articles on the different aspects of Punjab and Sikh
history during this period: Reeta Grewal 'The Pattern of Urbanization in the
Punjab Under Colonial Rule'', Journal of Regional History (1984) 69-81; J.S.
Grewal, 'Business Communities of the Punjab', (ibid. 1984); Richard Fox,
'Urban Class and Communal Consciousness in Colonial Punjab: The Genesis
of India's Intermediate Regime', Modern Asian Studies (1984), 459-89; Paul
Wallace, 'Communalism, Factionalism and National Integration in the Pre-
Independence Punjab', Punjab Past and Present (1975), 389-405; Ian J. Kerr,
'The British and the Administration of the Golden Temple in 1859', Punjab
Past and Present (1976), 306-21; W.H. McLeod, 'The Kukas: A Millenarian
Sect of the Punjab', The Punjab Past and Present (1979), 164-87; J. S. Grewal,
'The Emergence of the Punjabi Drama: A Cultural Response to Colonial
Rule' Journal of Regional History (1984), 115-5 5; Fauja Singh, 'Akalis and the
Indian National Congress (1920-1947)', The Panjab Past and Present (1981),
453-70; Barbara N. Ramusack, 'Punjab States: Maharajas and Gurdwaras:
Patiala and the Sikh Community' (Oxford, 1978), 170-204; Harjot Singh
Oberoi, 'From Gurdwara Rakabganj to the Viceregal Palace - A Study of
Religious Protest', The Panjab Past and Present (1980), 182-98; Harbans
Singh and N. Gerald Barreir, Punjab Past and Present: Essays in Honour ofDr
Ganda Singh (Patiala, 1976).
IV
Satya M. Rai's Partition of the Punjab (Bombay, 1965) actually covers the
history of the Indian Punjab up to 19 5 6. Stephen L. Keller discusses the role of
refugees in the development of the Punjab in his Uprooting and Social Change
(Delhi, 1975). On the green revolution there are two books: Partap C.
Aggarwal, The Green Revolution and Rural Labour (New Delhi, 1973) and
M.S. Randhawa, Green Revolution (Ludhiana, 1974). In the Political Dyna-
mics of Punjab (Amritsar, 1981), edited by Paul Wallace and Surendra Chopra,
there are some good articles on the post-independence politics of the Punjab.
Baldev Raj Nayyar has studied Sikh politics before the creation of the
Punjabi-speaking state in his Minority Politics in the Punjab (Princeton, 1966).
Ajit Singh Sarhadi traces the background as well as the creation of the
265

Punjabi-speaking state in his Punjabi Suba (Delhi, 1970). Sikh politics in
relation to language and religion finds good coverage in Paul Brass, Language,
Religion and Politics in North India (London, 1974). The political system of
the Sikh Jats is studied by Joyce Pettigrew in her Robber Noblemen (Boston,
1975). Pandit Mohan Lai's Disintegration of Punjab (Chandigarh, 1984)
contains detailed information on the Politics of the Punjab, particularly during
the 1960s. M.S. Dhami's Minority Leaders Image of the Indian Political
System (New Delhi, 1975) is based on interviews with important Akali leaders.
Some useful information is given by Gur Rattan Pal Singh in The Illustrated
History of the Sikhs (1947-78) (Chandigarh, 1979). A. S. Narang discusses
Akali politics after 1947 in his Storm Over the Sutlej (Delhi, 1983). The
history of the SGPC after independence too is given by Gobinder Singh,
Religion and Politics in the Punjab (New Delhi, 1986).
A considerable number of monographs and articles have been written on the
crisis of the 1980s, particularly after Operation Bluestar: Parmod Kumar,
Manmohan Sharma, Atul Sood and Ashwani Handa, Punjab Crisis: Context
and Trends (Chandigarh, 1984); V. D. Chopra, R. K. Mishra and Nirmal
Singh, Agony of Punjab (New Delhi, 1984); Kuldip Nayyar and Khushwant
Singh, Tragedy of Punjab: Operation Bluestar and After (New Delhi, 1984);
Chand Joshi, Bhindranwale: Myth and Reality (New Delhi, 1984); Mark
Tully and Satish Jacob, Amritsar: Mrs Gandhi's Last Battle (London, 1985);
Abida Samiuddin, The Punjab Crisis: Challenge and Response (Delhi, 1985).
Satya M. Rai has extended her earlier work to the 1980s in Punjab Since
Partition (Delhi, 1986). Rajiv A. Kapur's Sikh Separatism: The Politics of Faith
(London, 1986) too, brings the narrative to the 1980s. The Punjab in
Prosperity and Violence. Ed. J. S. Grewal and Indu Banga (New Delhi,
1998). There is useful information in Anup Chand Kapur, The Punjab Crisis:
An Analytical Study (New Delhi, 1985), though the title hardly fulfils its
promise.
There are some useful bibliographies: Ganda Singh, A Bibliography of the

Punjab (Patiala, 1966); Ikram Ali Malik, A Bibliography of the Punjab and its
Dependencies (1849-1910) (Lahore, 1968); W. Eric Gustafsan and Kenneth W.
Jones, Sources on Punjab History (New Delhi, 1975). Useful for biographical
references are: Fauja Singh's Eminent Freedom Fighters of Punjab (Patiala,
1972) and Who is Who: Punjab Freedom Fighters (Patiala, 1972); Jagdish Saran
Sharma, The National Biographical Dictionary of India (Delhi, 1972); S. P.
Sen, Dictionary of National Biography, four volumes (Calcutta, 1974). Equally
useful for reference are: H. A. Rose, A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the
Punjab and North-West Frontier Province (reprint, Patiala, 1970); H.H.
Wilson, A Glossary of Judicial and Revenue Terms, (Delhi, 1968); B.H.
Baden-Powell, Handbook of the Economic Products of the Punjab, with a
Combined Index and Glossary of Technical Vernacular Words (Lahore, 1869
and 1872).
266

Articles on Sikh history appear from time to time in the Proceedings of the
Indian History Congress, Indian Economic and Social History Review,
Modern Asian Studies, Journal of Asian Studies and Journal of the Asiatic
Society of Bengal. More important though recent, however, for articles on the
Punjab and Sikh history are the Proceedings of the Punjab History Conference
(Patiala), the Journal of Regional History (Amritsar), the Punjab Journal of
Politics (Amritsar) and the PSE Economic Analyst (Amritsar). The most
important periodical, particularly for the reprints of old and new articles, is
The Panjab Past and Present (Patiala).
P.S.
The past decade was marked by controversies in Sikh studies, involving all
major themes of the Sikh tradition. This protracted debate has been analyzed
in J. S. Grewal, Historical Perspectives on Sikh Identity (Patiala, 1997) and in
J. S. Grewal, Contesting Interpretations of the Sikh Tradition (New Delhi,
1998). Notable among the works which figure in these analyses are the recent
publications of W. H. McLeod as well as his earlier works. With these stand
bracketed the works of Piar Singh, Harjot Oberoi, Pashaura Singh and
Gurinder Singh Mann. On the other side of the debate are mainly the works
of Daljeet Singh, Jagjit Singh and G. S. Dhillon. There are other contestants,
too numerous to be listed here.
267

J. S. Grewal - The New Cambridge History of India, Volume 2, Part 3 - The Sikhs of The Punjab (1991)

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What is the book about?

What is the book about?

What is the structure of The New Cambridge History of India?

What is the structure of The New Cambridge History of India?

The Sikhs of the Punjab

In a revised edition of his original book, J. S. Grewal brings the history of

j . s. GREWAL is Director of the Institute of Punjab Studies in

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

General editor GORDONJOHNSON

Although the original Cambridge History of India, published between

I The Mughals and Their Contemporaries

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

© Cambridge University Press 1990

First published 1990

Typeset in Sabon [CE]

Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data

Transferred to digital printing 2003

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

General editor's preface xi

i The Turko-Afghan rule 9

8 In the struggle for freedom (1920-1947) 157

10 In the new Punjab state (1966-1984) 205

Bibliographical Essay 259

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

1 The land of the Five Rivers 2

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

other sorts of reference book. The Editors of the New Cambridge

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

of Advanced Study, Shimla, among the institutions. Dr Veena Sach-

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

'adalati a touring justice under Sikh rule,

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

bemukh 'without face'; one who has turned away from

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

deodhi entrance hall; royal residence; the royal court,

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

gurmatd a decision arrived at by a congregation of Sikhs,

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

langar the kitchen attached to a gurdwdra from which

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

matrds religious writings of the Udasls.

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

pd(hshdla an elementary school, especially for simple

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

sat-sangat true association or assembly; used for a Sikh

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

ta' alluqdar a person entitled to a share in the produce from

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

zabt a method of assessment per unit area, based on

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

JTHE PUNJAB REGION

Map i The land of the Five Rivers