The eighteenth century in Sikh history stands for a political revolution in which the erstwhile peasants and artisans who had joined the Khalsa order instituted by Guru Gobind Singh replaced first the Mughal and then the Afghan authority in the province of Lahore (Punjab). Based on a wide range of contemporary sources, the present study takes a fresh look at the political processes, and explores for the first time the accompanying transformation in the religious, social, and cultural life of the Sikhs.
The aspects specifically taken up for study are the political resurgence of the Sikhs;...