In eighteenth-century Mughal India, warrior groups across the subcontinent rose in rebellion, causing great political disruptions to the existing order. During this period, 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, Sikh elites and peasants began to align themselves with discourses of power and authority, and within a few decades Khalsa 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 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.
The Road to Empire The Political Education of Khalsa Sikhs in the Late 1600s
About the Book
Reviews
"This is an exciting new work, highly relevant in the field of modern Sikh studies and a must-read for both scholars and laypeople."—Pashaura Singh, Distinguished Professor, Department for the Study of Religion, University of California, Riverside
"In this innovative study, Satnam Singh brings to light the complex relationships among the Sikh, Indic, and Islamic literatures that helped shape Sikh conceptions of sovereignty and political theory."—Robin Rinehart, Richard H. Jr. '60 and Joan K. Sell Chair in the Humanities and Professor of Religious Studies, Lafayette College
"I commend Satnam Singh on his thorough, rigorous, and groundbreaking research. Articulately expressed, this is a must-read for gaining expert insights into the development of the Sikh community in the late seventeenth to the late eighteenth century."—Opinderjit Kaur Takhar MBE, Director of the Centre for Sikh and Panjabi Studies, University of Wolverhampton
"The Road to Empire is among one of the only English-language books to deal with a fascinating subject that gets little attention: the literature produced by the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century court of the Tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh. The book’s beauty lies in that it demonstrates that Guru Gobind Singh was not simply mimicking the standards of the Mughal court but rather branching out into fresh directions in his attempt to familiarize Khalsa Sikhs with the responsibilities inherent in political and sovereign power. An excellent contribution to the field."—Lou Fenech, author of The Cherished Five in Sikh History