The Road to Empire: The Political Education of Khalsa Sikhs in the Late 1600sFrom the late seventeenth century to the late eighteenth century, the Sikh community transformed from a relatively insignificant religious minority to an elevated position of kingship and empire. Under the leadership of Guru Gobind Singh (1661–1708), Sikh elites and peasants began to align themselves with discourses of power and authority, and within a few decades Khalsa Sikh warriors conquered some of the wealthiest provinces of the Mughal and Afghan empires. In this book, Satnam Singh argues that the Sikhs’ increasing self-assertion was not simply a reaction to Mughal persecution but also a result of an active program initiated by the Guru to pursue larger visions of scholarship, conquest, and political sovereignty. Using a vast trove of understudied court literature, Singh shows how Sikhs grappled with Indo-Islamic traditions to forge their own unique ideas of governance and kingship with the aim to establish an independent Sikh polity. The Road to Empire offers an impressive intellectual history of the early modern Sikh world. |
Contents
Power Literature and Political Ideas | 1 |
Sikh Tradition and Rajniti | 19 |
The Anandpur Library | 29 |
Oceans of Knowledge | 45 |
Institutional Context of the Dasam Granth Sahib | 56 |
Teaching Statesmanship through Fables and Erotic Stories | 71 |
Balancing Lofty Ideals and Pragmatism | 99 |
The Gurus Political Objectives | 107 |
Combining Rajniti and Rahit | 139 |
The Sikh Raj of Anandpur ca 16841704 | 187 |
The Khalsas Raj around Mukhlispur ca 17101716 | 206 |
Punjab under the Rule of Khalsa Rajas 17651799 | 238 |
The Political Education of Khalsa Sikhs | 269 |
Glossary | 299 |
Other editions - View all
The Road to Empire: The Political Education of Khalsa Sikhs in the Late 1600s SATNAM. SINGH No preview available - 2025 |
Common terms and phrases
Afghan Amritsar Anandpur court Anandpuri compositions Anandpuri court poet appears Aurangzeb authority Bachitar Natak Banda Bhai Gurdas Brahmin century Chanaka Shastra Bhakha chapter Chaubis Avatar Chibbar composed conquered contemporary context culture Dasam Granth Sahib dharam eighteenth eighteenth-century employed established followers governance Grewal Gurbilas Gurmukhi Gursobha Guru Gobind Singh Guru Granth Sahib Guru’s Hindu Hitupdesha hukamnama Indian Indo-Islamic world intellectual Islamicate Khalsa forces Khalsa leaders Khalsa leadership Khalsa rajas Khalsa rule Khalsa Sikhs Khatri king kingdom kingship later literary literature Louis Fenech Mahabharata Maharaja Manu manuscript Mughal Empire Muslim Nabha narrates narrative niti Padam Pakhyan Charitar Panchtantra Pandit Panth Patshahi Persian political sovereignty Prakash Prem Sumarag Punjab rahit rahitnamas rajniti Rajput Ramayana regard rule over territories rulers Sainapati Sanskrit scholars Shahnama Sikh community Sikh literati Sikh raj Sikh rule Sikh tradition Sirhind social society substories teachings Tegh Tenth Guru thereby tion transcreation translated verses warriors wherein wider Zafarnama