SHAHIDGANJ AGITATION (1935-40) marked culmination of the tussle between Sikh and Muslim communities in the Punjab for the possession of a sacred site in Lahore upon which stood Gurdwara Shahidgahj (shahid = martyr, gahj = hoard, treasure or mart) in memory of Sikh martyrs of the eighteenth century and which

RIKABGANJ AGITATION (1913-20) marked the Sikh protest against the demolition by the British of one of the walls of the historical Rikabganj shrine in New Delhi. Gurdwara Rikabganj, sacred to the memory of Guru Tegh Bahadur, at present a. splendid marble edifice, was, in the early

DAL KHALSA is the term used to describe the militia which came into being during the turbulent period of the second half of the eighteenth century and which became a formidable fighting force of the Sikhs in the northwestern part of India. The first Khalsa army formed and led

FATEHNAMAH, by Bhai Dyal Singh, is a versified account of the victory (fateh, in Persian) of the Sikhs in the battle fought on Sunday, 22 Baisakh 1854 Bk/30 April 1797, against Shah Zaman`s forces led by one of his generals Ahmad Khan, also called Shahanchi Khan, in which the latter

SIKHS` RELATIONS WITH HILL STATES lying between the Ganga and the Chenab rivers from the time of the Gurus to the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh fluctuated from guarded friendship to open hostility. Guru Nanak (1469-1539) and later his son, Baba Sri Chand, had preached the Sikh tenets in the

INDIA SECRET PROCEEDINGS (1834-1856), a manuscript series of Indian records at the India Office Library, London, succeeding Bengal Secret and Political Consultations (1800-34). It includes the entire range of despatches and correspondence of the North-West Frontier Agency from the heyday of Sikh political power in the Punjab down to the

SARAGARHI, BATTLE OF, a heroic action fought by a small detachment of Sikh soldiers against heavy odds, took place on 12 September 1897 in the Tirah region of North-West Frontier Province (now in Pakistan). The heroes of Saragarhi, barely 22 in number, belonged to the 36th Sikhs, since re-designated as

RADCLIFFE AWARD, under which the dividing line between the West (Pakistan) Punjab and the East (Indian) Punjab was drawn, is so called after the name of the Chairman of the Punjab Boundary Commission, Sir Cyril Radcliffe, an eminent British jurist especially invited to fix the boundaries between the newly created

DALLEVALiA MISL. See MISLS DALLU, BHAI, a Rihan Khatri of Burhanpur, mentioned by Bhai Gurdas, Varan, XI. 30, among prominent Sikhs of the time of Guru Hargobind. See BHAGVAN DAS, BHAi

JANGNAMA, by Qazi Nur Muhammad, is an eyewitness account in Persian verse of Ahmad Shah Durrani`s seventh invasion of India, 1764-65, for which it is the only major source of information. A copy of the manuscript in the hand of one Khair Muhammad of Gunjaba was preserved at the District

SIKHS` RELATIONS WITH JATS OF BHARATPUR. Hindu Jats, who have ethnic affinity with the Sikh Jatts of the Punjab, had emerged, like the Sikhs, as a new political power in the region south of Delhi. Their first revolt in 1669 under their leader Gokul was ruthlessly suppressed by the Mughal