| Of the regional powers that emerged from the dissolution of Mughal power in eighteenth-century South Asia, historians have isolated the Sikhs as a unique group that was able to mobilize large forces using a militant religious philosophy. The creation of the Khalsa panth—a warrior tradition within Sikhism—by the last Guru of the Sikhs in 1699 is projected as the basis for all subsequent Sikh political expansion. Although scholars have debated the effects of religious ideology on Sikh political institutions and society, they have not questioned the primacy of Sikh religious ideology as the main explanation for the rise of the Khalsa Sikhs; nor have they attempted to explain how that ideology was created, shaped, and transformed by the events of the eighteenth century.; This study demonstrates that although the new militant religious ideology of the Sikh chiefs was initially helpful in recruiting soldiers against the Mughals, the kinship ties of the largely Jat Sikh leadership were equally important. Also, the militant rhetoric of the early Khalsa had a limited success in securing the power of the Sikh chiefs, as the diverse ethnic and religious groups in Punjab were initially hostile to Sikh forces. In order to preserve their power, Sikh chiefs willingly negotiated with many different ethnic and religious elite of North India like the Mughals, Marathas, Afghans, and the British. Khalsa Sikhs gradually created formalized institutions that created a space for multiple identities not only within their kingdoms, but also within Sikh tradition as well. Towards the end of the eighteenth century this gradual process of cultural accommodation formed Sikhism into a heterodox tradition, with a great plurality of identities, rituals, and textual traditions. Contrary to the representation of most historical studies, Khalsa Sikh identity never became the normative identity within eighteen-century Sikhism. |
