A History of the Sikhs, Volume 1: 1469–1839

393 Pages·2005·1.654 MB·English

by  Khushwant Singh

Title Pages
A History of the Sikhs: Volume 1: 1469-1838
Khushwant Singh
Print publication date: 2004
Print ISBN-13: 9780195673081
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2012
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195673081.001.0001
Title Pages
Volume 1: 1469–1839
(p.i) A History of the Sikhs
(p.iii) A History of the Sikhs
First published in 1963, this remains the most comprehensive and authoritative
book on the Sikhs. The new edition updated to the present recounts the return of
the community to the mainstream of national life. Written in Khushwant Singh’s
trademark style to be accessible to a general, non-scholarly audience, the book
is based on sound archival research.
Volume I covers the social, religious, and political background which led to the
formation of the Sikh faith in the fifteenth century. Basing his account on
original documents in Persian, Gurmukhi, and English, the author traces the
growth of Sikhism and tells of the compilation of its sacred scriptures in the
Granth Sahib. Volume II covers a range of issues related to the Sikh struggle for
survival as a separate community—conflict with the English and the collapse of
the Sikh kingdom; its consolidation as a part of Britain’s Indian empire; religious
and sociological movements born under the impact of new conditions; the
growth of political parties—nationalist, Marxist, and communal; the fate of the
Sikhs in the division of the Punjab and the great exodus from Pakistan; and
resettlement of the Sikhs in independent India and the establishment of a
Punjabi-speaking state within the Union.
Page 1 of 3
Title Pages
Khushwant Singh a renowned journalist, is the author of several works of
fiction, and an authority on Sikh history. A former editor of the Illustrated
Weekly of India (1979–80), and the Hindustan Times (1980–3), he was Member of
Parliament from 1980–6. He returned his Padma Bhushan, awarded in 1974, in
protest against the Union Government’s siege of the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
(p.ii)
(p.iv)
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research,
scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade
mark of
Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
Published in India by
Oxford University Press
YMCA Library Building, 1, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi 110001, India
© Oxford University Press, 1999
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
First edition published by Princeton University Press 1963
First Indian edition by Oxford University Press 1977
Oxford India Paperbacks 1991
Tenth impression 2004
Second Edition 2004
Third impression 2011
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as
expressly permitted
by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics
rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the
scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University
Press,
at the address above
You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
Page 2 of 3
Title Pages
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-567308-1
ISBN-10: 0-19-567308-5
Typeset in Pratap (Baskerville) 10.5/12
By Excellent Laser Typesetters, Pitampura, New Delhi 110 034
Printed in India at Pauls Press, New Delhi 110 020
The maps in this volume have been taken from Ranjit Singh by
Khushwant Singh
and used by permission of George Allen and Unwin Ltd
Page 3 of 3
Preface to the Second Edition
A History of the Sikhs: Volume 1: 1469-1838
Khushwant Singh
Print publication date: 2004
Print ISBN-13: 9780195673081
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2012
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195673081.001.0001
(p.vii) Preface to the Second Edition
In the last twenty-five years dramatic changes took place in the fortunes of the
Sikh community. Following the Indian Army’s intrusion in the Golden Temple
Complex, Amritsar, resulting in heavy loss of life and damage to sacred property,
the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, and
frenzied killings of thousands of innocent Sikhs in revenge across northern India
created a sense of distrust towards India’s rulers, and support for the demand of
a separate Sikh state. It also lent popular support to terrorist groups active in
the state. It took almost ten years for the police and the Army to restore law and
order and win back the confidence of the community. The demand for Khalistan
abated leaving only émigré groups in England, Canada, and the United States
which continued to clamour for it. It took a long and painful decade punctuated
by killings and combat-killings, for Punjabis to realize that Khalistan was not the
answer and it was essential for the two communities, Sikhs and Hindus, to live in
harmony as they had done in the past centuries, to make Punjab the most
prosperous state of India once again. This quarter of a century witnessed the
reintegration of the Sikhs into the Indian mainstream, symbolized by the election
of a Sikh as Prime Minister of India and of another being put at the helm of
India’s Planning Commission.
KHUSHWANT SINGH
New Delhi
August 2004
Page 1 of 1
Preface
A History of the Sikhs: Volume 1: 1469-1838
Khushwant Singh
Print publication date: 2004
Print ISBN-13: 9780195673081
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2012
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195673081.001.0001
(p.viii) Preface
Ever since its publication in 1849, Captain Joseph Davey Cunningham’s History
of the Sikhs has been considered the standard work on the religion and history
of the Sikhs. Since then extensive research has been done on different aspects of
Sikh history: large portions of their scriptures have been translated; records
bearing on the building of the Sikh church and community have been unearthed;
the founding of an independent Punjabi state under Sikh auspices and its
collapse after the death of Ranjit Singh have been explained. However, no
attempt has been made to revise Cunningham’s work in the light of these later
researches; nor, what is more surprising, has any one undertaken to continue
Cunningham’s narrative beyond the end of the First Sikh War and the partial
annexation of the Punjab by the British in 1846.
Page 1 of 3
Preface
This work is the first attempt to tell the story of the Sikhs from their inception to
the present day. It is based on the study of original documents in Gurmukhi,
Persian, and English, available in the archives and libraries of India, Pakistan,
the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. It also gives an account of
the Sikh communities scattered in different parts of the world—Great Britain,
the United States, Canada, China, Malaya States, Burma, and South and East
Africa—and of the way they are facing the challenge of modern times in alien
surroundings. (p.ix) The story of the Sikhs is the story of the rise, fulfilment,
and collapse of Punjabi nationalism. It begins in the latter part of the 15th
century with Guru Nanak initiating a religious movement emphasizing what was
common between Hinduism and Islam and preaching the unity of these two
faiths practised in the Punjab. By the beginning of the 17th century, the
movement crystallized in the formation of a third religious community consisting
of the disciples or sikhās of Nanak and the succeeding teachers or gurus. Its
mysticism found expression in the anthology of their sacred writings, the Ādi
Graṅth, comprised of the writings of the Sikh gurus as well as of Hindu and
Muslim saints. The next hundred years saw the growth of a political movement
alongside the religious, culminating in the call to arms by the last guru, Gobind
Singh. Within a few years after the death of Gobind Singh, the peasants made
the first attempt to liberate the Punjab from Mughal rule. Under the leadership
of Banda they defied the authority of Mughal governors and kept the imperial
armies at bay for a full seven years. Although Banda and his followers were
ruthlessly slaughtered, the spark of rebellion that they had lighted smouldered
beneath the ashes and burst into flame again and again in different parts of the
province. The period which followed witnessed a renewal of invasions of
northern India by Afghan hordes led by Ahmed Shah Abdali, which gave a
further impetus to the growth of Punjabi nationalism. Peasants grouped
themselves in bands (misls), harassed and ultimately expelled the invaders.
Page 2 of 3
Preface
The movement achieved its consummation with the liberation of Lahore and the
setting up of the first independent Kingdom of the Punjab under Ranjit Singh in
AD 1799—by a curious coincidence exactly one hundred years after Guru Gobind
Singh’s call to arms (1699), just a little under two hundred years after the
compilation of the Adi Granth (1604), and three hundred years after the
proclamation of his mission by Guru Nanak (1499). Under Ranjit Singh, the
Punjabis were able not only to turn the tide of invasion back into the homelands
of the traditional conquerors of northern India, the Pathans and the Afghans, but
also to make their power felt beyond the frontiers—northwards (p.x) across the
Himalayas; across the Khyber into Afghanistan; in Baluchistan, Sindh, and in
northern India as far as Oudh. The Sikhs became the spearhead of the
nationalist movement which had gathered the parent communities within its
fold. The achievements were those of all Punjabis alike, Hindus, Muslims, and
Sikhs. It was in the fitness of things that in the crowning successes of Punjabi
arms, the men who represented the state were drawn from all communities. In
the victory parade in Kabul in 1839 (a few months after Ranjit Singh’s death) the
man who bore the Sikh colours was Colonel Bassawan, a Punjabi Mussalman.
And the man who carried the Sikh flag across the Himalayas a year later was
General Zorawar Singh, a Dogra Hindu.
This is the theme and substance of Volume 1 and the first part of the projected
second volume. The rest of the next volume will continue the narrative and
describe how the nationalist movement, having run its course, began to peter
out and finally collapsed in a clash of arms with the British in 1848–9. It will also
recount how the Sikhs, who, within a couple of centuries of their birth, had
evolved a faith, outlook, and way of life which gave them a semblance of
nationhood, have had to fight against the forces of dissolution to preserve their
identity. It will deal with the political and social movements that took place
during British rule, the fate of the Sikhs in the partition of their homeland in
1947, their position in independent India, and the demand for an autonomous
Punjabi state within the Indian union.
Page 3 of 3
Acknowledgments
A History of the Sikhs: Volume 1: 1469-1838
Khushwant Singh
Print publication date: 2004
Print ISBN-13: 9780195673081
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2012
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195673081.001.0001
Acknowledgments
I would like to express my gratitude to Dr Percival Spear of Selwyn College,
Cambridge, Dr Sir Gokul Chand Narang, Sardar Sardul Singh Caveeshar, and
Sardar Bahadur Ujjal Singh for reading the manuscript and making valuable
suggestions; to Krishna Shungloo for his assistance in translating the hymns
published in the appendix; to V. S. Suri, Curator of the Punjab Government
Archives, Patiala, for placing unpublished material on Ranjit Singh at my
disposal; and above all to Ms Yvonne Le Rougetel, who collaborated with me in
the research.
(p.xi) I would also like to place on record my deep sense of gratitude to the
Rockefeller Foundation, which made it possible for me to travel extensively and
devote myself exclusively to this work for three years, and to the Muslim
University, Aligarh, which sponsored the research.
For the revised paperback edition I acknowledge assistance given by Satindra
Singh of The Economic Times and Rajinder Singh Bhatia, Editor of Qaumi Ekta.
KHUSHWANT SINGH
Editor
Illustrated Weekly of India, Bombay (p.xii)
Page 1 of 1
Plates
A History of the Sikhs: Volume 1: 1469-1838
Khushwant Singh
Print publication date: 2004
Print ISBN-13: 9780195673081
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2012
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195673081.001.0001
Plates
between pages 210 and 211
Guru Nanak and His Companions, Mardana and Bala
Guru Gobind Singh, last of the Sikh gurus
between pages 242 and 243
Ranjit Singh, with his favourite Muslim wife, Bibi Gulbahar Begam
Harimandir, the Golden Temple of the Sikhs at Amritsar
Page 1 of 1
Maps
A History of the Sikhs: Volume 1: 1469-1838
Khushwant Singh
Print publication date: 2004
Print ISBN-13: 9780195673081
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2012
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195673081.001.0001
Maps
General Map of the Punjab facing page 2
Northern India at the Birth of Ranjit Singh, 1780 178
The Punjab in 1809 facing page 210
Northern India at the Death of Ranjit Singh, 1839 280
Page 1 of 1