Sikh state
A Sikh state is a political entity that is ruled by Sikhs. There were various Sikh states, empires, and dynasties, beginning with the first Sikh state established by Banda Singh Bahadur to the Sikh-ruled princely states of British India. Sikhism turned toward militancy by the end of the 17th century and by the 18th century, the Sikhs had established themselves as a dominant player in regional affairs, becoming the political elite of the Punjab. This transformation has been described as being one of rebels turning into rulers. During British-rule, the idea of Sikhs being a unique nation developed further and was aided by the colonial administrative policies. However, territoriality has not played a major part in the self-identity of the Sikhs.
History
Theological underpinnings
Guru Nanak established Sikhism as a religious movement, whereby its followers were called to interact with the Divine directly live in the real-world through their own efforts. There was a prevailing Sikh belief in the mid-16th century that Guru Nanak was the master of both spirituality and temporality but that he allowed Babur to have stewardship over political affairs. The Mughals had established their rule in India by 1526. However, the Mughals were seen as going against this bestowal when they executed Guru Arjan and Guru Tegh Bahadur. Thus, Guru Gobind Singh was envisioned as coming about to destroy the Mughals and their rule. After the death of Guru Arjan, his successor Guru Hargobind introduced the Miri-Piri concept and went to war against the Mughals, which politicalized the Sikh movement.Guru Gobind Singh was brought up with an education in Indo-Islamic literature, which emulated imperial norms of that era. From 1677 onwards, the guru dispatched his Sikhs to the wider Indo-Islamic world, and invited scholars from Sanskritic and Islamic backgrounds to his court in Anandpur, with the formation of literary production and study, including in statecraft. Several texts studied and produced by the Sikh court in this period of the 1680s and 1690s include the Hitupdesha, Chanaka Shastra Bhakha, Mahabharata, and Shahnamah. Furthermore, Guru Gobind Singh wrote works that would later become part of the Dasam Granth, such as Krishna Avatar, Bachittar Natak Granth, and Pakhian Charitar, which expound on statecraft, sovereignty, and the concept of dharam yudh. The Prem Sumarag was compiled in circa 1700, which heavily dealt in kingship and statecraft. These works helped prepare the Sikhs for future rule and mostly saw themselves existing as an autonomous Sikh Raj that had been established by the tenth Sikh guru in Anandpur and Paonta in the late 17th century. In 1688, the raja of Garhwal launched an attack on the Sikhs at Paonta, with the Sikhs emerging victorious, this battle was following by many others that the Sikhs fought with local Pahari rulers. In 1689, the Sikhs had fortified Anandpur, establishing demarcated borders. In 1704, a joint Mughal-Pahari Rajput force destroyed the Sikh raj of Anandpur and Paonta.
Guru Gobind Singh established the Khalsa, which involved a baptism and shared social-practices. According to Satnam Singh, the Khalsa was also established to work towards establishing Sikh autonomous rule over territories. The formalization of the Khalsa order, which is exemplified as being sovereign, in the late 18th century has been described by scholars such as establishing a fundamental aspect of national-construction that allowed for a "national imagination" that gave a shared identity to the Sikh community which allowed for sovereignty and territoriality. The Khalsa was a marker of the Sikhs being a separate Quom, which Walker Connor explains allowed for the development of a national identity of some sorts "that joins people, in the sub- conscious conviction of its members, from all its non-members in a most vital way". Meanwhile, Anne Murphy and Fenech believe that any claims to sovereignty were "guru-centric" to establish an environment of a self-governing religious community. However, not all scholars agree that the establishment of the Khalsa had nationalistic undertones, according to Giorgio Shani the Khalsa "de-territorialises both sovereignty and the nation" and rather was about unlimited sovereignty. Murphy, examining the works of the court-poet Sainapati, stresses that the Sikhs of the past were not overly bothered with political sovereignty. According Nicky Gurinder Kaur Singh, Guru Gobind Singh's ideal of raj was about sharing power with others in a spirit of equality and democracy and not conquering for oneself, domination of a particular piece of territory, nor establishing a dynasty.
The bards Satta Doom and Balvand Rai state the following in the Guru Granth Sahib regarding Guru Nanak establishing a raj :
The Sikh concept of miri-piri emphasizes that spirituality and temporality are intrinsically linked to one another, legitimizing Sikh aims to establish their own sovereignty. Guru Gobind Singh taught the principles of Raj Karega Khalsa as forming the basis for Sikh-rule in the form of a commitment to political domination. In-response to a question posed by Bhai Nand Lal, the tenth guru responded as follows on the issue of sovereignty:
Rattan Singh Bhangu's Panth Prakash describes Guru Gobind Singh as being the ruler of Anandpur in the 1690's, later blessing the Sikhs to rule over the Majha region.
Establishment of the first Sikh rule
In 1708 shortly prior to his death, Guru Gobind Singh ordered a group of Khalsa Sikhs to attack Sirhind, kill Wazir Khan, and re-establish Khalsa-rule after the downfall of Anandpur and Paonta in 1704. Before the Guru dies, he formalizes that the new gurus of the Sikhs would be both the Guru Granth and the Guru Panth, with the panth referring to the initiated body of Khalsa Sikhs. The first Sikh polity, albeit a short-lived one, was founded by Banda Singh Bahadur in May 1710, a disciple of Guru Gobind Singh, after his forces captured Sirhind and issued silver rupee coinage from the Mukhlisgarh Fort based at the Shivalik range. Khalsa-rule was established in the surrounding tracts of land. This was a republic that existed from 1710 to 1716. The issuing of coinage was a mark of sovereignty, marking the beginning of Banda's rule over Sirhind. Additionally, the Sirhind Sarkar was one of the most wealthiest areas of the Mughal Empire. Furthermore, Banda rejected using both the traditional Indic Bikrami calendar and the Islamicate calendar, creating his own calendar where the first year commenced on the date of his victory over Sirhind. Banda's state issued coins in the name of the Sikh gurus. Banda's rebellion lasted from 1708–1715, with the rebellion eventually failing with the capture of Banda and him and other prominent Sikhs under him being executed in Delhi in 1716. His execution marked the end of the short-lived Sikh state. Banda's short-lived state had existed as a parallel government in northwestern India, which motivated future Sikhs to work toward the same achievement.Formation of the Sikh Confederacy
The Mughal Empire in the early 18th century was one of decline due to a vartiety of factors, such as Persian and Afghan invasions. Bands of Sikh warriors, excited by the Khalsa ideals of sovereignty and Banda's temporary success, were active during this time, which has been labelled as a "heroic age" of the Sikhs. These Sikh bands were engaged in-warfare against their enemy, the Mughals, and eventually managed to conquer territory of their own. According to C. A. Bayly, the Sikhs were a social-movement akin to the Marathas, whom became empowered through their absorption of the "pioneer peasant castes, miscellaneous military adventurers, and groups on the fringe of settled agriculture". By the 18th century, groups of Sikhs had coalesced into bands known as jathas, which were based upon various personal, regional, and kinship-ties. The jathas themselves were eventually fused further to form a larger grouping: misls. The misls extended protection over tracts of lands in the central Punjab in-exchange for a payment in the form of sharing produce from the land being protected. The Sikhs began to construct mud-forts, known as garhis, as they began to conquer territory and establish their rule in the 18th century, such as by the Phulkians at Patiala, Nabha, and Jind. The later Sikh Empire also had a number of forts.After the execution of Banda Singh Bahadur after Mughal military victories against the Sikhs, the Sikh rebellion went underground, with the Sikhs adhering to the concept of Raj Karega Khalsa to maintain their aspirations for sovereignty. Between the period of 1726–1733, Zakaria Khan, the Mughal viceroy of Lahore province, enacted a genocidal policy against the Sikhs. After the oppressive anti-Sikh government policy failed to get rid of the Sikh threat, the Mughal government decided to try pacifying the Sikhs by granting them an official jagir grant. Upon Sikh request, a Nawab title was offered to the Sikhs, which was bestowed upon Kapur Singh in 1733, alongside a khilat and bag of gold. In 1734, Nawab Kapur Singh divided the Sikh congregation into two groups: the Taruna Dal and the Buddha Dal. Each of these Dals were further sub-divided into five groups. After a short period of peace between the Mughals and Sikhs, differences between them started to grow again due to the restless and provocative antics of the Taruna Dal, and the Nawab-ship that was bestowed upon the Sikhs earlier by the Mughal Empire was revoked and the jagir was confiscated in 1735. Thus, the former anti-Sikh genocidal policies of the Mughals was put in-place again and the Sikhs once again had to disperse to places of safe haven, such as the Lakhi Jungle.
With the invasion of India by Nadir Shah between January–May 1739 and the total destruction of the Mughal administration in the Punjab as a result, the Sikhs saw an opportunity for themselves and pillaged and sought revenge on their enemies. According to the contemporary writer Harcharan Das in his Chahár Gulzár Shujá'í, in 1740, one year after the attack of Nader Shah, a large force of Sikhs and Jats, including local Muslims, seized the Sirhind sarkar of the Jullunder Doab, establishing a short-lived polity with a person named Daranat Shah as its head. The rebellion was eventually crushed by a Mughal force in 1741 under Azimullah Khan and the Sikhs retreated to the Lakhi Jungle. According to Hari Ram Gupta, Daranat Shah was Baba Deep Singh.
On 1 July 1745, Zakarian Khan died and he was succeeded by less-effective Mughal administrators, such as Yahiya Khan. After this point, Kapur Singh divided the Sikh congregation into twenty-five bands, with each band consisting of about a hundred young Sikh men under the command of a respective leader. With this reform, a basic confederation structure for military activities of the Sikhs was forming shape.
From 1748 onwards, the Durrani Empire was invading the subcontinent, with them taking control of the Mughal provinces of Lahore, Multan, Delhi, and Kashmir. This period is marked by the Afghans, Sikhs, Mughals, and Marathas contesting for control over the wider Punjab region, especially Lahore province. After an initial invasion of India by Ahmad Shah Abdali, Kapur Singh realized that the Afghan invader would surely return for more loot, additionally due to the strict ruling-style of Moin-ul-Mulk, Kapur Singh resolved to reform the then sixty-five Sikh bands into eleven misls on the annual Vaisakhi gathering at Amritsar on 29 March 1748, establishing the Sikh Confederacy and its constituent misls, with the united army of all the Sikhs called the Dal Khalsa. The earlier Taruna Dal and Buddha Dal division system that was established earlier in 1734 was retained, with each of the eleven misls being assigned as part of a dal, with the seminal division being as follows:
- Buddha Dal:
- * Ahluwalia Misl
- * Dallewalia Misl
- * Faizulpuria Misl
- * Karorasinghia Misl
- * Nishanwalia Misl
- * Shaheedan Misl
- Taruna Dal:
- * Bhangi Misl
- * Kanhaiya Misl
- * Nakai Misl
- * Ramgarhia Misl
- * Sukarchakia Misl