Jahangir attempted to assert authority over the Sikhs by jailing Guru Hargobind at Gwalior, but released him after a number of years when he no longer felt threatened. Guru Arjan Dev's martyrdom led to the sixth Guru, Guru Hargobind, declaring Sikh sovereignty in the creation of the Akal Takht and the establishment of a fort to defend Amritsar.
When the Guru refused, Jahangir ordered him to be put to death by torture. He ordered Guru Arjun Dev, who had been arrested for supporting the rebellious Khusrau Mirza, to change the passage about Islam in the Adi Granth. His successor Jahangir, however, saw the Sikhs as a political threat. As a result of his visit he donated land to the langar and the Mughals did not have any conflict with Sikh gurus until his death in 1605. His conquering grandson, Mughal Emperor Akbar, supported religious freedom and after visiting the langar of Guru Amar Das got a favourable impression of Sikhism. The Sikh religion began around the time of the conquest of Northern Indian Subcontinent by Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire. The Sikh Empire was divided into four provinces: Lahore, in Punjab, which became the Sikh capital, Multan, also in Punjab, Peshawar and Kashmir from 1799 to 1849.īackground Mughal rule of Punjab Finally, by 1849 the state was dissolved after the defeat in the Second Anglo-Sikh War.
After the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the empire was weakened by internal divisions and political mismanagement. He began to modernise his army, using the latest training as well as weapons and artillery. Ranjit Singh rose to power in a very short period, from a leader of a single misl to finally becoming the Maharaja of Punjab. Sahib Singh Bedi, a descendant of Guru Nanak, conducted the coronation. Ranjit Singh was proclaimed as Maharaja of the Punjab on 12 April 1801 (to coincide with Vaisakhi), creating a unified political state. The formation of the empire began with the capture of Lahore, by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, from its Afghan ruler, Zaman Shah Durrani, and the subsequent and progressive expulsion of Afghans from the Punjab, by defeating them in the Afghan-Sikh Wars, and the unification of the separate Sikh misls. However, in the period from 1762 to 1799, Sikh commanders of the misls appeared to be coming into their own as independent warlords. Each of these component armies controlled different areas and cities. This led to a growth of the army which split into different confederacies or semi-independent misls. With the Mughals significantly weakened, the Sikh army, known as the Dal Khalsa, a rearrangement of the Khalsa inaugurated by Guru Gobind Singh, led expeditions against them and the Afghans in the west. The foundations of the Sikh Empire can be traced to as early as 1707, the year of Aurangzeb's death and the start of the downfall of the Mughal Empire. Religiously diverse, with an estimated population of 3.5 million in 1831 (making it the 19th most populous country at the time), it was the last major region of the Indian subcontinent to be annexed by the British Empire. At its peak in the 19th century, the Empire extended from the Khyber Pass in the west to western Tibet in the east, and from Mithankot in the south to Kashmir in the north. It was forged on the foundations of the Khalsa from a collection of autonomous Sikh misls. The empire existed from 1799, when Maharaja Ranjit Singh captured Lahore, to 1849, when it was defeated and conquered in Second Anglo-Sikh War. Sikh Khalsa rule) was a state originating in the Indian subcontinent, formed under the leadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who established an empire based in the Punjab. Government of the Khalsa Punjabi: ਸਿੱਖ ਖ਼ਾਲਸਾ ਰਾਜ ( Gurmukhi), سکھ خالصا راج ( Shahmukhi), romanized: Sikkh Khālsā Rāj, lit.