JALLIANVALA BAGH MASSACRE, involving the killing of hundreds of unarmed, defenceless Indians by a senior British military officer, took place on 13 April 1919 in the heart of Amritsar, the holiest city of the Sikhs, on a day sacred to them as the birth anniversary of the Khalsa. Jalliarivala Bagh,

SIKH GURDWARAS ACT, 1925, legislation passed by the Punjab Legislative Council which marked the culmination of the struggle of the Sikh people from 1920-1925 to wrest control of their places of worship from the mab-ants or priests into whose hands they had passed during the eighteenth century when the Khalsa

MISLDARI OR MISALDARI, a system of political relationship as well as of land tenure which came into being with the rise of Sikh power in the eighteenth century Punjab. The Sikh warriors who, since the execution of Banda Singh Bahadur in 1716, had lived precariously as small guerilla bands, had

RUHILASIKH RELATIONS. The Ruhilas came from the Yusafzai tribe of Afghans originally belonging to Roh, a tract of land south of Chitral in the North-West Frontier region. They established themselves in the early years of the eighteenth century as a semi independent power in the district lying between the River

ANGLOSIKH TREATY (1806) followed Jasvant Rao Holkar`s crossing over into the Punjab in 1805 after he was defeated at Fateh garh and Dig in December 1804 by the British. Accompanied by his Ruhila ally, Amir Khan, and a Maratha force estimated at 15,000. Holkar arrived at Patiala, but on hearing

COUNCIL OF REGENCY. To govern the State of the Punjab during the minority of Maharaja Duleep Singh, two successive councils of regency were set up at Lahore the first functioning from 1844-46 and the second from 1846-49. After the assassination of Maharaja Sher Singh on 15 September 1843, Raja Hira

KHALSA DARBAR RECORDS, official papers in Persian, written in a running shikasid hand, pertaining to the civil, military and revenue administration of the Punjab under the Sikhs covering a period of 38 years, Samvat 1868 to Chet 1906 (AD 1811 to March 1849). These documents, which came into the hands

SIKHS AND THE TRANSFER OF POWER. The Sikhs, after the two Anglo Sikh wars, lost their kingdom and the Punjab came under the British rule in 1849. The British, by the construction of railways, roads and canals, brought the province stability. The Sikhs, along with other Punjab is, became the

MISLS. Misi is a term which originated in the eighteenth century history of the Sikhs to describe a unit or brigade of Sikh warriors and the territory acquired by it in the course of its campaign of conquest following the weakening of the Mughal authority in the country. Scholars trying

SIKHS` RELATIONS WITH MUGHAL EMPERORS. The Janam sakhis, traditional, accounts of the life of Guru Nanak (1469-1539), describe a meeting between him and Babar (1483-1530), founder of the Mughal dynasty, who was impressed by the former`s spiritual manner. Four of the Guru`s sabdas included in the Guru Granth Sahib allude

ANGLOSIKH TREATY (AMRITSAR, 1809). Napoleon`s victories in Europe had alarmed the British, who, fearing a French attack on the country through Afghanistan, decided to win the Sikhs over to their side and sent a young officer, Charles Theophilus Met caife, to Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s court with an offer of friendship.

DURLI JATHA was an impromptu band of Sikh volunteers active during the Jaito agitation, 1923-24, to force their way through in contrast to the AkaliJ`at has vowed to a nonviolent and passive course. Durii is a meaningless word: whatever sense it possesses is communicated on omatopoetically. At Jaito, on 14