Sikh polity

1. Community formation and the foundations of authority

The origins of Sikh polity lay in the community established by Guru Nanak in sixteenth-century Punjab. His teachings emphasised devotion to one God, honest work, sharing and rejection of ritual exclusiveness. Kartarpur, on the Ravi, became an important early centre. Congregational worship through the sangat and the shared meal of langar encouraged collective identity across inherited social divisions. These institutions were not originally organs of a territorial state, but they created networks of loyalty, resources and leadership from which political organisation subsequently developed.

Successive Gurus consolidated this community. Guru Angad promoted the use of the Gurmukhi script. Guru Amar Das strengthened religious organisation through the manji system, while Guru Ram Das developed the settlement that became Amritsar. Guru Arjan compiled the Adi Granth in 1604, bringing together compositions of Sikh Gurus and several other devotional figures. The masands, representatives who linked local congregations with the Guru, helped collect offerings and sustain an expanding institutional network.

The community drew followers from cultivators, artisans and trading groups, including Jats and Khatris. Its egalitarian religious ideal should not be equated with the complete disappearance of caste or social hierarchy. For historical analysis, Sikhism must also be distinguished from Sikh sovereignty: the religious community preceded both the eighteenth-century misls and Ranjit Singh’s kingdom.

• Sangat: congregation of devotees.
• Langar: community kitchen and shared meal.
• Manji and masand arrangements: institutions of religious organisation and resource mobilisation, not equivalent to later misl territories.

2. Mughal relations, militarisation and the Khalsa

Relations with Mughal authority changed over time and cannot be reduced to uninterrupted religious warfare. Guru Arjan’s execution under Jahangir in 1606 marked a major turning point. Political suspicion, including his association with the rebel prince Khusrau, formed part of the context. His successor, Guru Hargobind, developed an armed following and expressed the complementary ideals of miri and piri through two swords. The Akal Takht at Amritsar became associated with temporal authority.

Guru Tegh Bahadur was executed at Delhi under Aurangzeb in 1675. Sikh tradition remembers his death as a defence of religious freedom, particularly in connection with Kashmiri Pandits. Under Guru Gobind Singh, conflicts involved Mughal officers as well as several Himalayan hill chiefs, demonstrating that regional rivalries intersected with religious identities.

On Baisakhi in 1699, Guru Gobind Singh founded the Khalsa at Anandpur Sahib. Initiation through khande di pahul, the example of the Panj Piare and a common discipline strengthened corporate identity. The five Ks were kesh, kangha, kara, kachhera and kirpan. Guru Gobind Singh also ended the authority of the masands. Before his death at Nanded in 1708, he ended the line of personal Gurus and affirmed the Guru Granth Sahib as the enduring Guru. The corporate authority of the Guru Panth became central to Sikh collective decision-making.

• Miri means temporal authority; piri means spiritual authority.
• The Adi Granth’s compilation in 1604 and the Khalsa’s creation in 1699 are separate milestones.
• The Khalsa was a religious-military community, not a territorial monarchy established in 1699.

3. Banda Singh Bahadur and the rise of the misls

Banda Singh Bahadur, commissioned by Guru Gobind Singh, led a major uprising in Punjab from 1709. His forces captured Samana and defeated Wazir Khan, the governor of Sirhind, at Chappar Chiri in 1710. Lohgarh in the Shivalik foothills became an important stronghold. Coinage and seals invoked the authority of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh rather than presenting Banda as a new Guru.

His movement challenged Mughal officials and established landed interests. It is associated with the displacement of oppressive intermediaries and the elevation of cultivators in conquered areas. However, textbook claims that he completely abolished zamindari throughout Punjab should be treated cautiously: his territorial control was uneven and short-lived. Captured at Gurdas Nangal in 1715, he was executed in Delhi in 1716.

Subsequent persecution encouraged mobile armed bands. Nadir Shah’s invasion in 1739 and repeated invasions by Ahmad Shah Durrani weakened Mughal control and opened space for Sikh expansion. The Dal Khalsa was consolidated in 1748 under leaders including Nawab Kapur Singh and Jassa Singh Ahluwalia. Twelve major misls emerged as autonomous military-territorial groupings. They cooperated against common enemies but also competed over resources. The Sarbat Khalsa assembled at Amritsar, where collective resolutions called gurmatas could be adopted. The rakhi system exchanged protection for payments and helped extend Sikh influence.

• Important misls included the Sukerchakia, Ahluwalia, Bhangi, Ramgarhia and Kanhaiya.
• Misls were neither Mughal provinces nor modern democratic republics.
• The Vadda Ghallughara of 1762 was a devastating massacre during Ahmad Shah Durrani’s campaign, but Sikh power subsequently recovered.

4. Ranjit Singh’s territorial monarchy and administration

Ranjit Singh, chief of the Sukerchakia misl, transformed fragmented Sikh power into a monarchy centred on Lahore. He occupied Lahore in 1799 and became Maharaja in 1801. Through alliances, marriage connections and conquest, he subordinated or absorbed several rival chiefs. His kingdom acquired Multan in 1818 and Kashmir in 1819; Peshawar was brought under direct control in 1834. Ladakh was conquered by Zorawar Singh, serving the Jammu ruler Gulab Singh within the Lahore kingdom’s political framework.

The state retained the legitimising language of the Khalsa and issued Nanakshahi coinage, but effective authority rested with the Maharaja. It was not a clerical government. Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs served in important positions: examples include the diplomat Fakir Azizuddin, finance administrator Dina Nath and the Dogra minister Dhian Singh. Persian remained an important language of administration. Patronage extended to institutions of different religions, although this should not be confused with modern constitutional secularism.

Agricultural revenue was the principal fiscal resource, collected through arrangements that varied across regions. Jagirs supported chiefs and military officers alongside more directly administered territories. Ranjit Singh strengthened infantry and artillery with European officers such as Jean-Baptiste Ventura and Jean-François Allard. The Fauj-i-Khas exemplified European-style drill and organisation. Traditional cavalry and irregular forces nevertheless remained important, making the army a combination of older regional practices and newer military techniques.

• Lahore was the political capital; Amritsar remained the principal sacred centre.
• Hari Singh Nalwa was closely associated with campaigns and frontier defence in the northwest.
• Ranjit Singh centralised power without eliminating every jagir, local chief or regional administrative variation.

5. British relations, annexation and historical significance

The Treaty of Amritsar in 1809, negotiated with the East India Company, checked Ranjit Singh’s expansion south and east of the Sutlej towards the cis-Sutlej states. It did not annex his kingdom or impose the standard subsidiary-alliance arrangement. By stabilising this frontier, it enabled him to concentrate on northern and western expansion. In 1838, Ranjit Singh joined the Company and Shah Shuja in the Tripartite Treaty connected with the attempted restoration of Shah Shuja in Afghanistan.

After Ranjit Singh’s death in 1839, succession struggles, court factionalism and the army’s increasing political role weakened central authority. These internal problems interacted with British military concentration and expansionist policy. The First Anglo-Sikh War of 1845–46 ended with the Treaty of Lahore. A separate Treaty of Amritsar in 1846 transferred Kashmir to Gulab Singh under British paramountcy. The Treaty of Bhairowal later that year deepened British supervision of the Lahore administration.

The Second Anglo-Sikh War of 1848–49 ended with British victory, including the decisive battle of Gujrat in 1849. Punjab was annexed under Governor-General Dalhousie and Maharaja Duleep Singh was deposed. Annexation followed warfare, not the Doctrine of Lapse. Sikh polity illustrates a major pattern of eighteenth-century India: regional powers combined local social mobilisation, inherited Mughal practices and military innovation while negotiating the growth of Company rule.

• Do not confuse the Treaty of Amritsar of 1809 with the Treaty of Amritsar of 1846.
• Ranjit Singh’s kingdom belongs to the late-medieval–early-colonial transition rather than exclusively to the medieval period.

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