Author: Gopal Singh
Publisher: Allied Publishers
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 860
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8170231396
Description
This is the first-ever exhaustive and authoritative history of the Sikhs based on original records, both published and unpublished, available in India or abroad. It is a highly readable book whose style has an easy flow but whose intensity of feeling and sincerity of utterance cannot fail to move the reader.
It however steers clear of the hagiographic myth-making, as much as the prophets of doom who look upon the Sikh phenomenon as a momentary historical upsurge whose authenticity ad potential will soon be exhausted.
On almost every page, the reader will come across fresh information and ideas such as have not been provided by any single publication before. Almost every question raided with regard to the Sikh faith or historical events have been authoritatively answered by the celebrated author, whose first-ever English translation of the entire corpus of the Sikh scripture has won him world-wide acclaim.
Though written by a man of faith, the author’s outlook especially with regard to the Hindu-Muslim-Sikh relations throughout the past 500 years would be found highly balanced and revealing.
Having been himself a participant in the fateful political drama over the past fifty years, his eyewitness account throws much fresh light on the eventful hears of the partition of India and what led to this gruesome tragedy.
The book, first published in 1979, has been brought up-to-date and its balanced judgments and the fresh information offered, may lead to a better appreciation of the Sikh situation by all concerned.
Contents
PART I
CHAPTER I
The Background
CHAPTER II
Guru Nanak
CHAPTER III
The Sources of Guru Nanak’s biography
CHAPTER IV
Guru Nanak’s Travels
CHAPTER V
Guru Nanak as a Philosopher and a Poet
CHAPTER VI
Guru Angad Dev
Guru Amar Das
Guru Ram Das
CHAPTER VII
Guru Arjun Dev
CHAPTER VIII
Socio-political conditions of India as depicted in the Adi Granth
CHAPTER IX
Bhai Gurdas and the Sikh way of life
CHAPTER X
Guru Hargobind
CHAPTER XI
Guru Hari Rai
Guru Hari Krishan
CHAPTER XII
Guru Teg Bahadur
CHAPTER XIII
Guru Gobind Singh
PART II
CHAPTER XIV
Banda Singh Bahadur
CHAPTER XV
Life-and-death Struggle
CHAPTER XVI
The Sikh bid for peoplehood (1)
CHAPTER XVII
The Sikh bid for peoplehood (2)
CHAPTER XVIII
The Misal Period
CHAPTER XIX
The Panjab as a Sovereign state
CHAPTER XX
Ranjit Singh:
An Assessment of his character and administration
CHAPTER XXI
Sunset of the Empire
CHAPTER XXII
The Anglo-Sikh wars
CHAPTER XXIII
End of the Dynasty
CHAPTER XXIV
1857
CHAPTER XXV
Revival or Regeneration?
CHAPTER XXVI
The Sikhs fight for India’s Freedom
CHAPTER XXVII
The Rise of Muslim Nationalism
CHAPTER XXVIII
The Transfer of Power
CHAPTER XXIX
The Era of Hope
CHAPTER XXX
The Troubled Decade
Appendices I-XIV
Index