History of the Sikhs Vol. 2: Evolution of Sikh Confederacies

History of the Sikhs is planned as a five-volume survey aiming to present a comprehensive view of the rise, growth and development of Sikh thought and action in every direction. This volume Evolution of Sikh Confederacies (1707-69), is second in the series. The whole series is based on original contemporary sources in Persian, Marathi, Gurumukhi, Urdu, Hindi, and English known to exist in India and abroad.

The dominating theme of the second volume is the Mughal-Sikh and Sikh-Afghan contest for the lordship of the Punjab. The first period of the struggle between the Mughal Emperors and the Sikhs under Banda Bahadur lasted from 1709 to 1716, when Banda was executed.

The second period of conflict was from 1716 to 1753 between the Sikhs and five Mughal viceroys of the Punjab Abdus Samad Khan, his son Zakariya Khan, his son Yahya Khan and Shahnawaz Khan and their cousin Muin-ul-Mulk, popularly called Mir Mannu. The third period extended from 1754 to 1768 in the strife against Ahmad Shah Durrani who had annexed the Punjab in 1752. He inflicted the heaviest blows on the Sikhs like the one struck on the Marathas at Panipat in 1761. Having sacrificed about two lakhs of young men in the whole struggle the Sikhs came out victorious. The two chapters at the end give an account of Mughalani Began and Adina Beg Khan, the last Muslim viceroys of the Punjab.

Dr. Hari Ram Gupta (1902-93), had his education at Lahore. He was the first person to receive the degrees of Ph.D. and D. Litt. in History from the University of the Punjab, Lahore, and his examiners were Sir Jadunath Sarkar, Sir Edward Maclagan, ex-Governor of the Punjab and Professor H.H. Dodwell of London University.

Dr. Gupta was a lecturer at Forman Christian College, Lahore, founder principal of Vaish College, Bhiwani (Haryana), and Head of the Department of History at Aitchison College, Lohore. He served for thirteen years as Professor and Head of the Department of History, and for over a year as Dean University Instruction, Punjab University, Chandigarh. Later he worked for three years as Honorary Professor in the Department of History, University of Delhi. He also headed the Postgraduate Department of History as Honorary Professor at Dev Samaj College for Women, Firozpur, Punjab.

Dr. Gupta is the author of over a dozen research volumes including three volumes on India-Pakistan War, 1965. He enjoyed international reputation as an authority on the history of Punjab and North-West Frontier. The Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta, conferred upon him in 1949 the Sir Jadunath Sarkar gold medal for his outstanding original contribution to the history of Punjab.