In the 12th year of his reign as the sixth Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb embarked on his religious aim of converting his empire into an ideal Islamic state. The ruler of such a state is God himself while the civil administration is a mere enforcer of his commandments. One’s loyalty towards the sovereign is measured by one’s faith in the one true god. Disbelief in him is equivalent to sedition, hence punishable. To eradicate infidelity in his realm, Emperor Aurangzeb issued his infamous imperial orders. He ordered his Governors to demolish the schools and temples of infidels and strongly put down their teachings and religious practices. Along with that, he pulled down several Hindu temples and reimposed the religious tax, jizya, on Hindus. These acts thronged him into volatile political conflicts on several fronts for the rest of his life. Hindu kings as well as the common populace engaged in bloody battles for the protection of their faith.

Meanwhile, Sikhs were going through a tumultuous time as multiple claimants had entered the scene trying to replace Guru Tegh Bahadur. They had employed all sorts of intrigues against him but Guru Tegh Bahadur successfully managed to bring the required stability and order among Sikhs. In Punjab, he saw the calamitous condition of people of his faith as Aurangzeb’s Farman had dictated the Governors to destroy the temples of the Sikhs and expel Guru’s agents from the cities who were there to collect tithes and presents of the faithful. In those days Guru’s presence provided the much-needed solace to the people and shone like a beacon of hope for the faithful. Historian JS Grewal and SS Bal in their book, Guru Gobind Singh (A Biographical Study), write that while Aurangzeb was fighting a battle at the Afghan front, Guru Tegh Bahadur set out for his tour of the Malwa region of Punjab. His followers grew and many people converted to the Sikh faith including Muslims. Infuriated by such an act, Aurangzeb ordered his arrest but the Guru’s tour had ended and the orders couldn’t be executed for the time being. In the year 1675, the Guru went on to his next tour, this time he was invited by a Sikh Sangat at Agra. Oblivious about the orders against him, he reached Agra where he was arrested along with his five companions and escorted to Delhi. At Delhi, his companions were tortured to death to force Guru Tegh Bahadur into submitting to Islam which he refused and attained martyrdom.

Did he die for Kashmiri Pandits?

As the popular story goes, in the year 1675, a group of Kashmiri Pandits who had been victims of Islamic tyranny approached Guru Tegh Bahadur and requested him to protect them. On the divine uttering of his 9-year old son, he agreed to help them and said that they must convey to Aurangzeb that if he were to convert Tegh Bahadur to Islam, pandits would follow suit. The entire conversation emanates from a text which primarily focuses on the divinity of the Sikh Gurus that was written almost a century later. However, the historical facts do not corroborate any such happening. Guru Tegh Bahadur’s arrest was ordered not because he raised the voice of Kashmiri Pandits but because he had gained a lot of followers which even included Muslims. The arrest order was executed when Guru had gone for the Sikh Sangat at Agra which further proves that he was not headed to Delhi to raise the issue of Kashmiri Pandits in the Mughal Court. None of the historians, who support the hypothesis, has produced a single contemporary source that mentions the involvement of Kashmiri Pandits in the whole affair. Hence we conclude that the story of protecting Kashmiri Pandits is historically inaccurate.

Power Dynamics of Hill States

Guru Gobind Singh succeeded his father as the 10th Guru of Sikhs. As he was still in his childhood and there was a chance of Mughals trying to capture him, he and his followers shifted to Paonta from Anandpur. Khushwant Singh writes here that Guru Gobind Singh learned to ride and shoot as well as compose several poems. Meanwhile, Aurangzeb got entangled in a battle with Rajputs and a rebellion by his son, Akbar. From there he moved to Deccan with a large army where he ended up in a battle for the next 27 years with Marathas, till the end of his life and never returned north. Aurangzeb’s departure from the north was a huge relief to Sikhs as it diverted the Mughal pressure from them. At the same time, the situation was changing rapidly in Punjab. Sikhs had gained a considerable political influence backed by the military which became a huge cause of concern for the local Hindu kings. The king of that province, Kahlur state, Bhim Chand saw the consolidation as a direct threat to his sovereignty and numerous tussles between him and the Sikhs ensued over years. Historian Hari Ram Gupta writes that Bhim Chand was successful in forming a united front of fellow kings by calling Guru Gobind Singh an enemy of their religion as he was opposed to idol worship. However, he was not successful in his endeavour and Sikhs gained a firm position at Anandpur. Two years later the Hill Rajas following their old tradition of rebelling against the Mughals and stopped paying the annual tribute to them. Mughals responded by launching an offensive but the hill Rajas were able to put up a united front, which included Sikhs as well, and successfully resisted the attack. Though the resistance was successful, it could not have been carried out for long. Therefore, the confederate of hill Rajas chose a strategic retreat and entered into negotiations with the Mughal commanders. Negotiations brought temporary peace between the two sides and after a few years fresh conflict broke out. This time the Sikhs chose not to join the hill Rajas and maintained a neutral position. Aurangzeb who was having a tough time in Deccan ordered his son Moazzam (later Bahadur Shah I) to crush the rebellion. Moazzam crushed the rebellion and at the same time reciprocated the friendly gesture of Sikhs by leaving their territory unharmed. Hari Ram Gupta writes that Moazzam had great respect for saints which led to an amicable relation with Guru Gobind Singh. It is evident from the verses of Bachitra Natak which Guru Gobind Singh himself composed:

“Babe ke Babar ke do-u

Ap kare Parmesar so-u

Din Sah in kau pahchano

Duni pati un kau anumano”

[The successors of Baba (Guru Nanak) and Babar are distinct. God, Himself has created them. These should be recognised as Kings of Din (Religion) and those to be considered masters of the world.]

The conflict between the hill Rajas and the Mughal authorities gave Guru Gobind Singh ample time to formalize the structure of the institution which came to be known as Khalsa.

Khalsa Formalised

On the day of Baisakhi in 1699, a large congregation of Sikhs took place at Anandpur. Here, Guru Gobind Singh incorporated the order of Khalsa by baptising his followers and gave final shape to the religion of the ten Gurus. Evident from his address where he said,

Do not follow the old scriptures. Let none pay heed to the Ganges and other places of pilgrimage which are considered holy in the Hindu religion, or adore the Hindu deities, such as Rama, Krishna, Brahma, and Durga, but all should believe in Guru Nanak and his successors.”

Khushwant Singh writes,

the address is based on the report of a newswriter sent to the Mughal Court and is vouched for by the Persian historian, Ghulam Mohiuddin” and he further says, “the results were visible within a few months of the famous baptismal ceremony, when a sect of pacifists was suddenly transformed into a militant brotherhood of crusaders. The hills around Anandpur began to echo to the beating of war drums and military commands.”

The change further heightened the insecurity of Bhim Chand and other neighbouring Rajas. Fresh series of conflicts erupted and over the next six years, Khalsa fought several battles against the Hill Rajas, who were aided by the Mughals, to protect their sovereignty at Anandpur. Mughal forces were led by ‘faujdar’ of Sirhind, Wazir Khan who invested his full might against Khalsa. The latter showed exceptional courage and many of them laid down their lives for their faith including the four sons of Guru Gobind Singh. In the early days of 1705, Guru Gobind Singh had safely moved to Jatpura while his adversaries were searching for him elsewhere. Along with his followers, he continued ‘baptising’ Sikhs and formed a temporary base at Mukhtasar where his men repulsed the Mughal army of Wazir Khan. Meanwhile, Guru Gobind Singh wrote a letter to Emperor Aurangzeb which is now known as Zafarnama. About the impact of the letter, Khushwant Singh writes,

Aurangzeb was apparently moved by the contents of the letter and issued orders that the Guru was not to be molested any further.”

Guru Gobind Singh proceeded towards Deccan to meet Aurangzeb but by the time he reached Rajputana the latter died. Soon after Aurangzeb’s death, a succession war began. His son Moazzam, who previously had established friendly relations with the Sikhs during his tenure as Governor of Lahore, invited Guru Gobind Singh to Agra. The new Emperor welcomed Guru Gobind Singh and asked the leader of Sikhs to accompany him on a campaign towards the Deccan against his brother, Kam Baksh, who had challenged his succession. At the same time, Wazir Khan was getting restless as cordial relations between the two would have been disastrous for him in future. By the end of September 1708, the Imperial army halted at Nanded where two assassins attacked Guru Gobind Singh and wounded him. The Emperor sent his royal surgeons who stitched the wound but it didn’t heal fully and after a few days he passed away.

It will be fair to conclude that the institution of Khalsa was not aimed at defending Hinduism rather it formalised a distinct Sikh identity, separate from Hindus. Post the martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur, the primary task of the tenth Guru was to maintain the sovereignty of Anandpur that was challenged by the Hill Rajas and Mughal governor. Also in Guru Tegh Bahadur’s time, some claimants of Guruship had approached Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb that led to a turbulent situation for people of the faith. To prevent any such chaos in the future, he invested the Guruship to Guru Granth Sahib as the permanent and inviolable source of spiritual guidance. Apart from that, it will be unfair to present his struggle as a fight against Islam as he never attacked or launched an offensive against the Muslim faith unlike Hindu kings like Maharaja Jaswant Singh, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and others.