A Sikh Space in Pre-Colonial Punjab!
Himadri Sekher Banerji
STATE FORMATION AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NON-MUSLIM HEGEMONY: POST-MUGHAL 19TH- CENTURY PUNJAB by Rishi Singh Sage Publications, Delhi, 2015, 232 pp., 850.00
February 2016, volume 40, No 2

There is growing concern among a section of scholars that the ebbing away of the spirit of Punjabiyat results in erosion of interest in Punjab Studies. They strive to identify some of those over-arching Punjabi ties that communicate the message of Punjabiyat stretched across the five doabs and facilitate forging ties across the religious boundaries. These scholarly initiatives struggle to outline Punjab’s cultural diversity and portray experiences of plurality that flow along the Radcliffe boundary of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent and keep its residents aware of how Punjabiyat is still breathing in the lives of millions of Punjabis.

Recent studies of Christopher Shackle, Farina Mir, Anjou Malhotra, Rajmohan Gandhi and others not only point to distinctiveness of Punjabi social fabric, but also question whether wide spread appreciation of Sikh Studies in Indian-Punjab and elsewhere has served as an erasure of ‘Punjabi identity from scholarly writings’. The present work proposes a counter narrative and explore show the surfacing of a ‘Sikh ‘space’ stirred the emergence of a powerful ‘non-Muslim hegemony’ in medieval Punjab. It is divided into six chapters and revolves round the rise of a dominant Sikh movement and its role in destabilizing ‘hegemonic Muslim elites’ of the province. The author emphasizes that the process began with the birth of Sikhism in mid-fifteenth century which reached the highwatermark through the formation of a nonMuslim state in the first half of the nineteenth century under Ranjit Singh. His journey covers four hundred years of Punjab history and elaborates how these crucial years ‘put a new ruling minority in power’ in the province.

In his assessment, the new Sikh dispensation achieved submission of those ‘hostile’ Muslim tribal leaders who were threatened by its rise, declared jehad and fought in different theatres of war. The scholar declines to tow lines with Indu Banga’s theory that Ranjit Singh’s state consciously pursued a policy of ‘equilibrium of various opposites in the Punjabi society’ which reduced conflict of interest and ensured judicious balance among different religious communities. He elaborates how provincial Islamic hegemonic political setting was coerced to ‘legitimize’ the Sikh monarch’s power ‘in five crucial areas of governance’, namely, the judicial system, agrarian policy, religious administration and formation of a new Muslim elite.

The author contextualizes these changes in the backdrop of the birth of Sikhism under Guru Nanak and its transformation into Khalsa with Guru Gobind Singh at its head. He examines why its followers were mostly members of an agrarian society and suffered varied forms of social marginalization in medieval Punjab. Embracing Sikhism gave them social dignity, offered access to economic opportunities and provided ‘an antiruling identity’. The study takes note of their protestant ethics that had enthused them to build powerful institutions with strict rules of social conduct which propelled them to engage in long-distance trade and forge effective ties with thriving agricultural settlements and busy urban markets.

Continue reading this review