Mughal-Sikh Wars

The following is a list of battles between the Mughals and Sikhs.

Background

Between the 7th and 11th centuries, Islamic armies conducted several campaigns into the Hindu-dominated Indian subcontinent, making conquests limited to present-day Pakistan and the Punjab. From the 12th through the 16th century, however, Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent were more successful and saw the emergence of Islamic states over Hindu-majority populations. In the early 16th century, one such state was the Mughal Empire, founded by the successful king Babur in northern India. Meanwhile, in the later 15th century in the Punjab, Sikhism had been proclaimed by Guru Nanak as a new monotheistic religion that rejected both Hinduism and Islam, and rapidly gained followers. Perceiving the growth of the Sikhs as a threat, the Mughal authorities began to persecute them, and in 1606 Sikh leader Guru Arjan was executed by Mughal emperor Jahangir, apparently for helping prince Khusrau.[1] Sikhism split into two movements: one led by Guru Arjan's son Guru Hargobind began to regard Guru Arjan as a martyr, became more political and militaristic, and started organising armed rebellions against the Mughals; the other led by Guru Arjan's older brother Prithi Chand focused on peace and nonviolence, and rejected uprisings.[1]

Wars

The tenth and the last guru of Sikhs Guru Gobind Singh organised themselves in jathas, who would see their first battle in 1621. After several decades, small Sikh states known as misls combined to form the Sikh Confederacy in 1716, that jointly fought against Mughal power. In 1735, the jathas would be combined into a single army, the Dal Khalsa. Though successes varied, the Sikhs contributed to the decline of the Mughal Empire during the first half of the 18th century. By the 1750s, the neighbouring northwestern Islamic Durrani Empire and the southern Hindu Maratha Empire had all but destroyed the Mughal Empire, which retained a small territory around Delhi.

Battles

Guru Hargobind
  1. Battle of Rohilla (1621)
  2. Battle of Kartarpur
  3. Battle of Amritsar (1634)
  4. Battle of Lahira.
  5. Battle for Maham.[2]

Guru Gobind Singh
  1. Battle of Bhangani[3][4]
  2. Battle of Guler (1696)
  3. Battle of Nadaun
  4. Battle of Basoli[5]
  5. Battle of Anandpur (1700)
  6. First Battle of Anandpur (1704)
  7. Second Battle of Anandpur
  8. Battle of Nirmohgarh (1702)
  9. Battle of Sarsa
  10. Battle of Chamkaur (1704)[6][7][8][9]
  11. Battle of Muktsar

Banda Singh Bahadur
Left: Sikh Confederacy and Mughal Empire in 1765.
Right: Sikh Empire in 1805.
  1. Battle of Sonepat[10] (1709)
  2. Battle of Samana
  3. Battle of Chappar Chiri
  4. Siege of Sirhind
  5. Battle of Sadhaura[11][12][10][13]
  6. Battle of Rahon (1710)
  7. Battle of Lohgarh
  8. Battle of Jammu
  9. Battle of Jalalabad (1710)
  10. Siege of Gurdaspur or Battle of Gurdas Nangal

Baghel Singh
  1. Battle of Delhi (1783)

See also
  1. Bandi Chhor Divas
  2. Massa Ranghar
  3. Saka Sirhind
  4. Sikh holocaust of 1746
  5. Indian Campaign of Ahmad Shah Durrani
  6. Afghan-Sikh Wars

References
  1. Syan, Hardip Singh (2013). Sikh Militancy in the Seventeenth Century: Religious Violence in Mughal and Early Modern India. London & New York: I.B.Tauris. p. 3, 252. ISBN 9781780762500. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
  2. Dalbir Singh Dhillon (1988). Sikhism, Origin and Development. Atlantic Publishers. p. 119.
  3. Bichitra Natak. Chapter 8, Chaupai 34 Archived 2011-07-17 at the Wayback Machine
  4. Raj Pal Singh (2004). The Sikhs : Their Journey Of Five Hundred Years. Pentagon Press. p. 35. ISBN 9788186505465.
  5. Surjit Singh Gandhi (2007). History of Sikh Gurus Retold: 1606–1708 C.E. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. p. 820. ISBN 9788126908585.
  6. Raju, Karam Singh. Guru Gobind Singh: Prophet of peace. ISBN 9380213646.
  7. Malhotra, Anshu; Mir, Farina (2012-02-21). Punjab Reconsidered: History, Culture, and Practice. ISBN 978-0-19-908877-5.
  8. Fenech, Louis E. (2013). The Sikh Zafar-namah of Guru Gobind Singh: A Discursive Blade in the Heart of the Mughal Empire. ISBN 978-0-19-993145-3.
  9. Surjit Singh Gandhi (2007). History of Sikh Gurus Retold: 1606–1708 C.E. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. p. 822. ISBN 9788126908585.
  10. History of Islam, p. 506, at Google Books
  11. Sagoo, Harbans (2001). Banda Singh Bahadur and Sikh Sovereignty. Deep & Deep Publications.
  12. Raj Pal Singh (2004). The Sikhs : Their Journey Of Five Hundred Years. Pentagon Press. pp. 46–47. ISBN 9788186505465.
  13. Singha, H.S. (2005). Sikh Studies, Book 7. Hemkunt Press. p. 34. ISBN 9788170102458.


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