Explore the Sikh role in India's transition from British rule, from the Gurdwara Reform movement to confronting Muslim communal claims in Punjab.
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. Metcaife met the Maharaja in his camp at Khem Karan, near Kasur, on 12 September 1808, taking with him a large number of presents sent by the Governor General of India. He told him how the English wished to have friendly relations with him and presented to him the draft of a treaty.Ranjit Singh did not credit the theory that the British had made the proposal to him because of the danger from Napoleon. On the other hand, he showed his willingness to cooperate with the British, provided the latter recognized his claim of paramountcy over all the Majha and Malva Sikhs.
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 September 1923, an akhandpath (nonstop end to end recital of the Guru Granth Sahib) being said for the Sikh princely ruler of Nabha state, Maharaja Ripudaman Singh, who had been deposed by the British, was interrupted which, according to the Sikh tradition, amounted to sacrilege, and the sangat had been held captive, no one being allowed to go out or come in, not even to fetch food or rations for those inside. Jathedar Dulla Moga tahsfl, then in Firozpur district, organized a small band of desperadoes, naming it Durii Jatha, who collected the required rations and managed to smuggle these in through feint or force.
Explore the Kirpan Morcha, a pivotal movement advocating Sikh rights to wear kirpans, challenging the restrictive Indian Arms Act of 1878.
SIMON COMMISSION, designated after the name of its chairman, Sir John Simon (18731954), was constituted in 1927 as a royal parliamentary commission.
ANGLOSIKH TREATY (1840). In 1832, a treaty was executed by Lord William Bentinck, the Governor General of India, through Col. C.M. Wade, with the Lahore Darbar concerning navigation through the Sutlej and the Indus rivers within the Khalsa territory. Another treaty on the subject was subsequently executed in 1834, fixing a duty on every mercantile boat, independent of its freight and of the nature of its merchandise.A third treaty was executed on this subject on the arrival of George Russell Clerk, agent to the Governor General, at the Sikh Darbar, in May 1839, adjusting the rate of duties on merchandise, according to quantity and kind.
ENGAL SECRET AND POLITICAL CONSULTATIONS (1800-1834), a manuscript series of Indian records at the India Office Library, London. This series contains, in full, correspondence and despatches on the early British relations with the Sikhs.
Explore the daring journey of the Komagata Maru in 1914, challenging Canadian immigration laws with 376 Indian passengers led by Sikh leader Gurdit Singh.
Explore the 1846 Treaty with Gulab Singh, which marked the British recognition of his rule over Jammu & Kashmir, sparking historical debates.
ANGLOSIKH TREATIES (LAHORE, 9 and 11 March 1846). After the end of the first Anglo Sikh war, the British governor general, Lord Harding, entered the Sikh capital on 20 February 1846, and on 9 March imposed upon the young Maharaja Duleep Singh, then aged seven and a half years, a treaty of peace. The preamble to the treaty accused the Lahore government and the Sikh army of having violated the terms of the treaty of 1809 by unprovoked aggression on British provinces. The territories of Maharaja Duleep Singh, situated on the left bank of the Sutlej, were confiscated and annexed.
