A History of the Sikhs
From the Origin of the Nation to the Battles of the Sutlej

A comprehensive history of the Sikhs written by a British colonial official who had lived among them for eight years.

Joseph Davey Cunningham (Author)

9781108064569, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 June 2011

478 pages, 2 maps 1 table
21.6 x 14 x 2.7 cm, 0.6 kg

Joseph Davey Cunningham (1812–1851) joined the East India Company's army thanks to the patronage of Sir Walter Scott. He became the assistant to Colonel Claud Wade, a political agent on the Sikh frontier, in 1837, and spent eight years in various political roles living among the Sikh in the Punjab. While writing a report in 1844 for the government, he decided to undertake the history of the Sikhs, and received encouragement for the project from his father, Scottish poet and author Allan Cunningham. He spent four years on the book, and while it established his reputation as a historian of India, it also destroyed his career as a colonial official: he fell foul of the Army in India for his revelation of supposedly secret negotiations with Sikh leaders, and allegations of corruption, during the First Anglo-Sikh War of 1845–1846.

Preface
1. The country and people
2. Old Indian creeds. Modern reforms, and the teaching of Nânuk. Up to AD 1529
3. The Sikh Gooroos or teachers, and the modification of Sikhism under Govind. AD 1529–1716
4. The establishment of Sikh independence. AD 1716–1764
5. From the independence of the Sikhs to the ascendancy of Runjeet Singh and the alliance with the English. 1765–1808–9
6. From the supremacy of Runjeet Singh to the reduction of Mooltân, Cashmeer, and Peshawur. 1809–1823–24
7. From the acquisition of Mooltân, Cashmeer, and Peshawur to the death of Runjeet Singh. 1824–1839
8. From the death of Muharaja Runjeet Singh to the death of Vuzeer Jowâhir Singh. 1839–1845
9. The war with the English. 1845–46
Appendices.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]