Notes
PROLOGUE
On the physical side . . .: H.G. Rawlinson, India: A Short Cultural History. London, The Cresset Press, 1952 (1937), pp. 12–13.
“The coming of the Aryans was a backward step . . .”: Romila Thapar, A History of India, VOL. 1. Baltimore, Penguin, 1966, p. 34.
a hierarchy of upper and lower classes: Louis Dumont, Homo Hierarchicus. University of Chicago Press, 1970, pp. 33–4.
“for a Shudra who makes money . . .”: The Laws of Manu, trans. G. Buhler. Oxford University Press, 1886, ch. x, “Manu,” p. 129.
A hymn in the Rig Veda, the oldest of the Vedas: A.L. Basham, The Wonder that Was India. London, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1954, p. 5.
“produced a high degree of ideological . . .”: Rajni Kothari, Politics in India. Delhi, Orient Longman, 1995 (1971), p. 263.
“Indian society has been traditionally very rigid . . .”: ibid.
“a kind of tolerance” which is “only another . . .”: ibid, p. 264.
Vishnugupta Chanakya, or Kautilya, the astute Brahmin: Rawlinson, 1952, pp. 64–5.
To Kautilya is also attributed . . . Artha Sastra . . .: Romila Thapar, “The Date of Arthasastra,” in Asoka and the Decline of the Mauryas. Oxford University Press, 1961, pp. 218–25.
The increasing inclination of Chandragupta’s illustrious grandson Ashoka . . .: Thapar, 1966, p. 92.
Pushyamitra Shunga . . . persecuted Buddhists . . .: ibid., p. 93.
“Not by birth does one become an outcast . . .”: Rawlinson, 1952, p. 52.
“According to Manu, the Brahmins . . .”: Kunal Ghosh, “Buddha, Vivekananda, Ambedkar: Progression in Indian Thought.” Mainstream (English-language monthly Journal), annual no., 1977, p. 64.
“whatever Manu says is medicine”: ibid.
Brahmins, unlike other castes, did not pay taxes: K.A.N. Nizam, Politics and Society during the Early Medieval Period (2 vols). Delhi, People’s Publishing House, vol. 1, 1974, pp. 192–5.
“the rule of all the Hindu princes . . .”: Abbé J.A. Dubois, Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies. Oxford University Press, 1959 (Paris, 1826), p. 290.
“Large sections of the Mughal, and even earlier Muslim . . .”: Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund, A History of India. London, Croom Helm, 1986, pp. 136–7.
The Brahmin Rai Ranjan Patr Das was made governor of Gujarat . . .: Satish Chandra, Mughal Religious Policies: The Rajputs and the Deccans. Delhi, Vikas Publishing House, 1993, p. 77.
During Akbar’s son Jahangir’s rule, Keshav Dass Braj exercised great influence . . .: Discussion with Prof. Muzaffar Alam on 18 November 1996, Center for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Another Brahmin, Chander Bhan, was Mir Munshi . . .: ibid.
Raja Daya Bahadur and Raja Chuhela Ram Nagar . . .: Muzaffar Alam, The Crisis of Empire in Mughal North India: Awadh and the Punjab, 1707–1748. Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1986, pp. 45, 64–6.
Brahminical hold was consolidated still further in Mughal times . . .: Irfan Habib, Agrarian System of Mughal India. Bombay, Asia Publishing House, 1963, ch. 8, pp. 298–316.
Mughal rulers gave grants to temples . . .: Tarapad Mukherjee and Irfan Habib, “Akbar and the Temples of Mathura and its Environs,” Proceedings of the Forty-Eighth Session of Indian History Congress. Delhi, 1987, pp. 234–50.
“even the famous math of Sringeri . . .”: Hermann Kulke, Kings and Cults: State Formation and Legitimation in India and South-East Asia. Delhi, Manohar, 1993, pp. 49–50.
They received far more from regional Hindu kingdoms . . .: ibid, pp. 11–13. “settlement of Brahmins and the establishment of royal temples . . .”: Kulke and Rothermund, 1986, pp. 137–8.
In Eastern UP and Bihar, Mughals gave generous support to Brahmin landlords . . .: Anand A. Yang, The Limited Raj: Agrarian Relations in Colonial India, Saran District, 1793–1920. Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1989, p. 26. “his great erudition”: Stephen Henningham, Great Estate and its Landlords in Colonial India: Darbhanga, 1860–1942. Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1990, pp. 17–18.
“By relying on and supporting Mahesh Thakur . . .”: ibid, p. 8.
“the Mughal forces in the conquest of Palamau . . .”: ibid., p. 18.
“Places of pilgrimage have been destroyed . . .”: S.R. Sharma, Mughal Empire in India. Agra, Lakshmi Narain Aggarwal, 1996 (reprint), p. 627.
“to the rights and honours due to a Kshatriya”: Jadunath Sarkar, Shivaji and His Times. Calcutta, M.C. Sircar & Sons, 1961, pp. 202–3.
Brahmins from all over India let it be known . . .: André Wink, Land, Sovereignty in India: Agrarian Society and Politics under the Eighteenth-century Maratha Swarajya. Cambridge University Press, 1986, pp. 68–9.
During Shivaji’s reign . . .: ibid.
Interestingly, it was a Brahmin named Sissa who invented the game of chess: Abbé Dubois, 1959, pp. 670–1.
“What can be more ridiculous than the castles . . .”: ibid., p. 671.
Rajni Kothari is of the view . . .: Conversation with the author.
The erudite Brahmins were the obvious source of knowledge . . .: Bernard Cohn, “Notes on the History and the Study of Indian Society and Culture,” An Anthropologist Among Historians and Other Essays. Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1987, pp. 136–71.
The reports of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier . . .: ibid., p. 140.
In the same period, Abraham Roger . . .: ibid., p. 141.
The Indian Public Service Commission . . .: André Beteille, “Caste and Political Group Formation in Tamilnad,” in Rajni Kothari (ed.), Caste in Indian Politics. Delhi, Orient Longman, 1970, p. 269.
Of sixteen successful Indian candidates . . .: ibid.
Brahmins constituted 226 out of 349 Indian ICS officers . . .: List of Indian Civil Servants in the Indian Office and Burma Office List, 1947. London, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 56th ed., 1947, pp. 119–384.
“In the senior echelons of the civil service . . .”: Khushwant Singh, “Brahmin Power.” Sunday, 20–7 December, 1990, p. 19.
The Purada-Vannan, a low-caste category in South India . . .: J.R. Kamble, Rise and Awakening of the Depressed Classes in India. Delhi, National Publishing House, 1979, pp. 57–8.
“In the elaborate hierarchy of caste ranking . . .”: Robert L. Hardgrave, The Nadars of Tamilnad: The Political Culture of a Community in Change. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1969, p. 59.
“the real triumph of the caste system . . .”: Report of the Backward Classes Commission (2 vols). Delhi, Government of India, vol. 1, 1984, p. 14.
“In modern India one born of Shudra parents . . .”: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (10 vols). Calcutta, Advaita Ashrama, vol. 4, 1962, p. 470.
“condescending benevolence of the upper castes . . .”: ibid.
“Hinduism has an uncanny sense of what threatens it . . .”: Nirad Chaudhuri, Autobiography of an Unknown Indian. Bombay, Jaico Publishing House, 1963, p. 232. “While varna has all the appearance of a neat . . .”: Rajni Kothari (ed.), Caste in Indian Politics. Delhi, Orient Longman, 1995 (1970), p. 11.
“all-India frame into which myriad jatis . . .”: ibid.
“a way of thought that survived . . .”: André Malraux, Antimemoirs. London, Hamish Hamilton, 1968, p. 207.
“André Malraux asked me a strange question . . .”: ibid., p. 239.
“without any serious conflict”: ibid.
1 THE GURUS OF THE FAITH, 1469–1708
“He is a blessed one . . .”: Guru Granth Sahib, trans. Gopal Singh. Delhi, Gurdas Kapur & Sons, 1962, p. 16.
“While weighing out rations one day . . .”: Harbans Singh, Guru Nanak and Origins of the Sikh Faith. Bombay, Asia Publishing House, 1969, p. 90.
“the secret of religion lay in living . . .”: Suhi, Guru Granth Sahib, p. 730.
“While [he was] at Hardwar, the Brahmins . . .”: Max Arthur Macauliffe, The Sikh Religion: Its Gurus, Sacred Writings and Authors (6 vols). Oxford University Press, vol. 1, 1909, p. 52.
In Sayyadpur . . . “Your food reeks of blood . . .”: Gopal Singh, A History of the Sikh People. Delhi, World Book Centre, 1979, p. 74.
“death was the privilege of the brave”: Wadhans, Guru Granth Sahib, p. 579. “Religion lies not in empty words”: Suhi, Guru Granth Sahib, p. 730.
“It was reserved for Nanak . . .”: Joseph Davey Cunningham, A History of the Sikhs: From the Origins of the Nation to the Battles of the Sutlej. Delhi, S. Chand & Co., 1966 (1849), p. 34.
“the four castes of Kshatriyas, Brahmins . . .”: Patwant Singh, The Golden Temple. Delhi, Time Books International, 1988, p. 37.
“A faith sustained only by doctrine . . .”: Barbara W. Tuchman, The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam. New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1984, p. 61.
“the glory of Islam consists . . .”: Fauja Singh, “Development of Sikhism under the Gurus,” in Teja Singh et al., Sikhism: Guru Nanak Quincentenary Celebration Series. Patiala, 1969, p. 12.
“had no sympathy for those who believed . . .”: ibid., p. 12.
“to institute new proceedings against him . . .”: Macauliffe, vol. 3, 1909, p. 90. “So many simple-minded Hindus . . .”: Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri (Memoirs of Jahangir), trans. Alexander Rogers, ed. Henry Beveridge. Delhi, Munshiram Manoharlal, 1968 (1926), p. 72.
“learning, valour and the discipline of war . . .”: William Foster (ed.), The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to India, 1615–1619: As Narrated in his Journal and Correspondence. Delhi, Munshiram Manoharlal, 1990 (1926), p. 247.
“Jahangir stamped out the rising . . .”: Rawlinson, 1952, p. 321.
He had two of his son’s principal supporters . . .: ibid., pp. 321–2.
“I ordered them to produce him . . .”: Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, 1968, pp. 72–3.
“I bear all this torture to set an example . . .”: Macauliffe, vol. 3, 1909, p. 94. “the execution of the accursed kafir . . .”: letter from Sheikh Ahmad Sirhindi, no. 193 in Maktubat-i-Imam Rabbani (3 vols). Lahore, Noor Company, 1964. “The event marked the fulfilment . . .”: Harbans Singh, The Heritage of the Sikhs. Delhi, Manohar, 1985 (1964), p. 50.
“Not to mourn or indulge in unmanly lamentations . . .”: Macauliffe, vol. 3, 1909, p. 99.
“sit fully armed on his throne . . .”: ibid.
“The Guru’s imprisonment does not seem to have . . .”: Indubhusan Banerjee, Evolution of the Khalsa: The Foundation of the Sikh Panth (2 vols). Calcutta, A. Mukherjee & Co., vol. 1, 1972 (1946), p. 14.
“the Guru had 800 horses in his stables . . .”: Mohsin Fani, Dabistan-i-Mazahab. For sections relating to Sikhs see Makhiz-i-Tawarikh Sikhan, compiled by Ganda Singh, Amritsar, 1949, p. 277.
“Though successful in his first struggle . . .”: W.L. M’Gregor, The History of the Sikhs (2 vols). Patiala, vol. 1, 1970 (1847), p. 59.
“I am not a king . . .”: Macauliffe, vol. 4, 1909, p. 305.
“to fix his thoughts on God . . .”: ibid., p. 308.
“His Majesty, eager to establish Islam . . .”: Saqi Mustad Khan, Maasir-i-Alamgir (A History of the Emperor Aurangzeb-Alamgir, 1650–1707), trans. Jadunath Sarkar. Delhi, Munshiram Manoharlal, 1986 (1947), pp. 51–2.
“Iftikhar Khan . . . was using force to convert . . .”: P.N.K. Bamzai, A History of Kashmir: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day. Delhi, Metropolitan Book Co., 1962, p. 554.
“fettered and detained . . .”: Ganda Singh, “The Martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur,” in The Panjab Past and Present (pp. 103–14). Patiala, October 1988, p. 113.
“The Prophet of Mecca who founded your Religion . . .”: Duncan Greenlees, The Gospel of the Guru Granth Sahib. Madras, Theosophical Publishing House, 1952, p. 87.
“he resolved upon awakening his followers . . .”: Cunningham, 1969, p. 60.
“When Guru Gobind Singh inaugurated . . .”: Edmund Candler, The Mantle of the East. London, William Blackwood & Sons, 1910, pp. 120–1.
“sharp-featured, tall and wiry man . . .”: Gopal Singh, 1979, p. 263n.
“All military commanders . . .”: Akbarat-i-Darbari-Mualla. London, Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 1: 1677–1695.
“barber-made civilizations”: Puran Singh, Guru Gobind Singh: Reflections and Offerings. Chandigarh, The Guru Gobind Singh Foundation, 1966, p. 38.
“The orchard of the Sikh faith . . .”: Vars of Bhai Gurdas, Var 26, pauri 25.
“the good and benefit of all . . .”: Kapur Singh, Parasharprasna or The Baisakhi of Guru Gobind Singh: An Exposition of Sikhism. Jullundar (Punjab), Hind Publishers, 1959, p. 47.
“You are the sons of Nanak . . .”: Harbans Singh, Guru Gobind Singh. Delhi, Sterling Publishers, 1979, pp. 46–7.
“an aristocracy dedicated and consciously trained . . .”: Kapur Singh, 1959, p. 45.
“Guru Gobind Singh clearly seemed to believe . . .”: ibid., p. 46.
“The Guru [has] established a new sect . . .”: Harbans Singh, 1979, p. 58.
“Many Muslims, who considered Guru Gobind Singh . . .”: Harpreet Brar, “Guru Gobind Singh’s Relations with Aurangzeb” (pp. 17–33), The Panjab Past and Present. Patiala, April 1983, p. 19.
“Your name does not become you, Aurangzeb . . .”: trans. from Persian by the author, Kapur Singh, 1959, p. 40, n.27.
“You are accustomed to conduct your statecraft . . .”: ibid., p. 38.
“He alone is a cultured man . . .”: ibid., p. 38.
“Do not wantonly spill the blood . . . I have no faith . . .”: Ganda Singh, “Guru Gobind Singh: The Last Phase,” The Panjab Past and Present (pp. 1–14). Patiala, April 1983, p. 2.
“The whole of the Zafarnamah . . .”: Hira Lall Chopra, “Zafar nameh,” The Sikh Review. Calcutta, February 1997, p. 25.
“When we arrive at Kahlur, the entire Khalsa . . .”: Ganda Singh, April 1983, p. 7.
“Wherever there are five Sikhs . . .”: Macauliffe, vol. 5, 1909, pp. 243–4.
2 RETRIBUTION AND CONSOLIDATION, 1708–1799
“pools of blood flowed . . .”: Ganda Singh, Life of Banda Singh Bahadur. Patiala, Punjabi University, 1990 (1935), pp. 33–4.
“A will was created in the ordinary masses . . .”: Teja Singh and Ganda Singh, A Short History of the Sikhs. Patiala, Punjabi University, vol. 1, 1989, p. 102.
“The example set by Banda Singh . . .”: ibid.
“Of all instances of cruelty . . .”: James Browne, “History of the Origin and Progress of the Sikhs,” in Ganda Singh (ed.), Early European Accounts of the Sikhs. Calcutta, Indian Studies, 1962 (reprint), p. 28.
“not a man of the army of Islam . . .”: Khafi Khan, Muntakhab-ul-Lubab, in H.M. Elliot and J. Dowson (eds.), The History of India As Told By Its Own Historians. Allahabad, Kitab Mahal, vol. 7, 1972 (reprint), p. 415.
“after the occupation of Sirhind . . .”: “Akhbar-I-Darbar-I-Mualla: Mughal Court News Relating to the Punjab, AD 1707–1718,” Panjab Past and Present. Patiala, October 1984, p. 19.
“to kill the worshippers of Nanak . . .”: ibid. (10 December 1710), p. 6.
“despite the anti-Sikh and anti-Hindu measures . . .”: ibid. (10 December 1710 and 28 April 1711), pp. 19–20.
“There was no nobleman daring enough . . .”: ibid., pp. 5–6.
“a popular rising, such as that . . .”: Ganda Singh, 1990, p. 104.
“Degh O Tegh O Fateh . . .”: William Irvine, The Later Mughals. Delhi, Oriental Reprint, 1971 (1922), p. 110.
“the number of the dead and dying . . .”: Khafi Khan, 1972, pp. 669–70.
Lohgarh was besieged by over 60,000 imperial troops: Ganda Singh, 1990, p. 115.
“It matters not where the dog has fled . . .”: Irvine, 1971, pp. 116–17.
“calling upon them to join him . . .”: Ganda Singh, 1990, pp. 126–7.
The Sikhs killed their commanders . . .: ibid., p. 135.
“to expel Banda from Sadhaura . . .”: ibid., p. 153.
“that sect of mean and detestable Sikhs”: ibid., p. 159. Farrukh Siyar directed that every Sikh . . .: George Forster, A Journey from Bengal to England (2 vols). Patiala, Punjabi University, 1970 (1808), pp. 312–13. “chopped heads of the Sikhs . . .”: “Akhbar-I-Darbar-I-Mualla . . .”: 1984, p. 141.
Banda stood his ground . . .: Ganda Singh, 1990, p. 165.
“the infidels fought so fiercely . . .”: Khafi Khan, 1972, p. 456.
“the brave and daring deeds of the infernal Sikhs . . .”: Ganda Singh, 1990, p. 168.
“stuffed with hay and mounted on spears . . .”: Khafi Khan, 1972, p. 457.
“cortège of half-dead prisoners and bleeding heads”: Ganda Singh, 1990, p. 176.
“were marched to Delhi . . .”: Cunningham, 1966, p. 79.
“nearly two thousand heads [of executed Sikhs] . . .”: Khafi Khan, 1972, p. 457. “Every day a hundred brave men perished . . .”: William Irvine, “Political History of the Sikhs,” The Asiatic Quarterly, January–April 1894, pp. 420–31 and “Guru Gobind Singh and Bandah,” Journal of the Asiatic Society, January–April 1894, pp. 112–43.
“1,000 swords, 278 shields, 173 bows . . .”: Irvine, 1971, p. 315.
“Nadir Shah is said to have questioned . . .”: W.L. M’Gregor, 1970, p. 115.
“With a force of 2,000 strong . . .”: Harbans Singh, 1985, p. 130.
“It amounted to the establishment . . .”: ibid., p. 130.
had the bellies of Sikhs ripped open . . .: Haqiqat-i-Bina-o-uruj-Firqa-i-Sikhan (Persian), MS, History Dept., Punjabi University, Patiala, trans. Indubhusan Banerjee. Calcutta, Indian Historical Quarterly, vol. xviii, 1942, p. 13.
imprisoning, starving and torturing even Sikh women and children to death: Bhagat Singh, A History of the Sikh Misals. Patiala, Punjabi University, 1993, p. 36.
“exceedingly well cultivated, populous and rich”: Col. A.L.H. Polier, “An Account of the Sikhs” in Ganda Singh (ed.), 1962, p. 62.
“large revenues of the extensive and fertile territories . . .”: Forster, 1970, p. 336. “state of high cultivation”: Ganda Singh (ed.), 1962, p. 17.
“in no country, perhaps . . .”: John Malcolm, Sketch of the Sikhs: Their Origin, Customs and Manners. Chandigarh, Vinay Publications, 1981 (reprint), pp. 100–1. Sardar Milkha Singh (Thepuria) expanded . . .: Ganesh Das, Char Bagh-i-Punjab, ed. and trans. J.S. Grewal and I. Banga, Early Nineteenth Century Punjab. Amritsar, Guru Nanak Dev University, 1975, p. 42.
“Gujranwala under Charat Singh Sukerchakia . . .”: ibid., p. 105.
“In all contemporary records, mostly in Persian . . .”: Hari Ram Gupta, History of the Sikhs (6 vols). Delhi, Munshiram Manoharlal, vol. 2, 1978, pp. 255–6. “the Sikhs had now established their rule . . .”: quoted in Harbans Singh, 1985, p. 143.
“the stream of immigration of needy adventurers . . .”: Hari Ram Gupta, vol. 4, 1982, p. 512.
“that a strong army of 60,000 Sikhs . . .”: ibid., p. 433.
the Sikhs, numbering about 20,000 horsemen . . .: ibid., p. 439.
“impossible . . . as the Shah was not prepared . . .”: ibid., p. 440.
“defeat the Marathas”: ibid., p. 442.
“if the Sikhs would not allow him . . .”: ibid., p. 442.
When after his fifth invasion Timur Shah wished to place his son . . .: ibid., p. 447.
“The Sikhs, whom he had known from his childhood . . .”: ibid., p. 455.
“presents of precious commodities . . .”: ibid., p. 487.
“Sahib Singh, the Patiala Sardar . . .”: ibid., p. 468.
“I am a Zamindar”: ibid., p. 476.
“Sahib Singh received these letters . . .”: ibid., p. 492.
“Guru Gobind Singh, in several battles . . .”: Bhagat Singh, 1994, p. 55.
“In the year 1707 when Aurung-Zebe died . . .”: George Forster, “Observations on the Sikhs,” in Ganda Singh (ed.), 1962, p. 86.
3 EMPIRE OF THE SIKHS, 1801–1839
“Napoleonic in the suddenness of its rise . . .”: Lepel Griffin, Ranjit Singh. Delhi, S. Chand & Co., 1967 (1911), p. 1.
“so great a reputation . . .”: Syad Muhammad Latif, History of the Punjab. New Delhi, Eurasia Publishing House, 1964 (1889), p. 345.
“The moment he sat on horseback . . .”: K.S. Duggal, Ranjit Singh: A Secular Sikh Sovereign. Delhi, Abhinav Publications, 1989, p. 47.
“Behold, grandson of Ahmed Shah . . .”: Harbans Singh, 1985, p. 145.
“presents would be delivered . . .”: H.R. Gupta, 1982, p. 464.
“The wisdom and energy of this extraordinary woman . . .”: Latif, 1964, p. 346.
“My largesse, my victories . . .”: K.S. Duggal, 1989, p. 62.
“God intended that I look upon all religions . . .”: ibid., p. 128.
“based on kinship and political friendship . . .”: Narendre K. Sinha, Ranjit Singh. Calcutta, A. Mukherjee & Co., 1960 (1933), p. 15.
“the high-spirited Sada Kaur . . .”: Latif, 1964, p. 424.
“While those of the royal blood . . .”: H.M.L. Lawrence, Adventures of an Officer in the Punjab (2 vols). Patiala, Languages Department, vol. 1, 1970 (1883), pp. 30–1.
“embraced Ala Singh [of Patiala] and bestowed . . .”: Griffin, 1967, p. 75.
“ultimately shaped British policy towards the cis-Sutlej region”: Bikrama Jit Hasrat, Anglo-Sikh Relations, 1799–1849. Hoshiarpur (Punjab), V.V. Research Institute, 1968, p. 59.
“that if protection were granted . . .”: ibid., p. 61.
“When the British became masters of Delhi . . .”: ibid., p. 60.
“Puttealeh, Jeend, Kheytul . . .:” ibid., p. 61.
“cold and servile formalists”: J.W. Kaye, Life and Correspondence of Major General Sir John Malcolm (2 vols), London, vol. 1, 1754, p. 367.
“growing thoughtful of late”: Victor Kiernan, Metcalfe’s Mission to Lahore (1808– 1809). Lahore, Punjab Government Record Office, Monograph No. 21, 1943, p. 1.
“were sent away with courteous words . . .”: ibid.
“not conscious that behind the bold, bad barons . . .”: ibid.
“that in the Punjab one of the Sikh Chiefs . . .”: ibid.
“the fear of French intrigue . . .”: R.R. Sethi, The Lahore Durbar in the Light of the Correspondence of Sir C.M. Wade. Simla, Punjab Government Record Office Publication, Monograph No. 1, 1950, p. 4.
“the negotiations with Ranjit Singh . . .”: Kiernan, 1943, p. 6.
“A stripling from the fifth form at Eton . . .”: John W. Kaye, Lives of Indian Officers (3 vols). London, Strahan and Co., vol. 2, 1869, p. 88.
“an ambitious, restless and warlike character . . .”: M.L. Ahluwalia, Looking Across India’s North Western Frontiers. Delhi, Hemkunt Publishers, 1990, p. 203.
“In this wild encampment the bogey of Napoleon . . .”: Kiernan, 1943, p. 15. “on the run”: p. 19, ibid.
“so very restless and unsteady . . .”: ibid., p. 25.
“labours at this moment under the most cruel anxiety . . .”: ibid. “imperturbable forbearance and scrupulous non-intervention”: Sethi, 1950, pp. 3–4.
“could not resist the conviction . . .”: Hasrat, 1968, pp. 80–1.
“troops would advance with or without . . .”: Report: The Mission of Charles Metcalfe at Lahore, 18 August 1810. London, Home/Misc./511, India Office Library.
“the British Government would not admit . . .”: ibid.
“did not judge it expedient to acquaint the Rajah . . .”: Report . . ., p. 1810.
“perpetual friendship”: Sayad Abdul Qadir, “Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s Relations With the English” (pp. 154–72) in Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s First Death Centenary Memorial. Patiala, Languages Department, 1970 (1939), p. 159.
“more troops than are necessary . . .”: ibid.
“nor commit or suffer any encroachments . . .”: ibid.
“departure from the rules of friendship”: ibid.
“weakness lay in the fact that it forever . . .”: ibid.
“tantamount to a confession of defeat . . .”: ibid., p. 160.
“The whole map will be red one day”: Gurmukh Nihal Singh, “A note on the Policy of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Towards the British” (p.173–6), in Ganda Singh (ed.), Maharaja Ranjit Singh, 1970, p. 176.
“his whole conduct showed that . . .”: Lawrence, 1970, pp. 32–3.
“Mr. Metcalfe certainly believed him to be so”: Griffin, 1967, p. 181.
“the great sagacity and shrewdness . . .”: ibid.
“in his footsteps . . .”: ibid., p. 176.
“Was it the same as the Samantik Mani . . .”: Iradj Amini, Koh-i-noor. Delhi, Roli Books, 1994, p. 10.
“every appraiser has estimated its value . . .”: ibid., p. 27.
the Emperors Aurangzeb . . .: Griffin, 1967, p. 188.
“Coins were struck, inscriptions were issued in his name . . .”: K.K. Khullar,
Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Delhi, Hem Publishers, 1980, p. 62.
“Your excellency will reap the fruits of the alliance . . .”: ibid., p. 41.
Dost Muhammad, who seized the opportunity of asking the English . . .: Ganda Singh, “Maharaja Ranjit Singh” (pp. 12–45), in Ganda Singh (ed.), 1970, p. 44.
“the friendship of the Maharaja was valued more by Auckland . . .”: ibid.
“Ranjit Singh has hitherto derived nothing but advantage . . .”: G. Nihal Singh, ibid., p. 163.
“we are now beginning to prescribe limits to his power”: ibid.
“spurious mission”: Bikrama Jit Hasrat, Life and Times of Ranjit Singh.
Hoshiarpur (Punjab), V. Vedic Research Institute, 1977, p. 144.
Geographical and Military Memoirs: Alexander Burnes, A Geographical and Military Memoir on the Indus and Its Tributary from the Sea to Lahore. London, 1829.
“by the extension of British commerce . . .”: Cunningham, 1966, p. 175.
“the Government of India is bound by the . . .”: R.R. Sethi, The Mighty and the Shrewd Maharaja. Delhi, S. Chand & Co., 1960, p. 136.
“Kashmir, Kabul, Sind, Ludhiana and the cis-Sutlej . . .”: Harbans Singh (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Sikhism (3 vols). Patiala, Punjabi University, vol. 2, 1996, p. 8. “not to yield to the demands of the English . . .”: Cunningham, 1966, p. 185.
“could scarcely be expected to resign . . .”: ibid., p. 196.
“he should be protected from Sikh attacks . . .”: Hasrat, 1977, p. 161.
“made a detailed appraisal of the Sikhs’ military power . . .”: Harbans Singh
(ed.), vol. 2, 1996, p. 9.
“a young British Officer prepared during Sir Henry’s visit . . .”: ibid.
“he formed an estimate of the force . . .”: Cunningham, 1966, p. 193.
“the prospect of a war with the Sikhs . . .”: ibid.
“died of a broken heart”: ibid., p. iv.
“It has been usual to attribute the superiority of the Sikh army . . .”: ibid., p. 153.
“battalions were a formidable body of troops . . .”: Ganda Singh, “Maharaja Ranjit Singh as others saw him,” in Gandha Singh (ed.), 1970, P. 240.
“in equipment, in steadiness and in precision . . .”: Khullar, 1980, p. 81.
“whenever noticed, their work seems to have had the result . . .”: Jean-Marie
Lafont, French Administrators of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Delhi, National Book Shop, 1988 (rev. ed.), p. 2.
for fear of the medical effect . . .: ibid., p. 104.
“had been in the bodyguards of Prince Eugene . . .”: ibid., p. 9.
“have no religious prejudices . . .”: Khullar, 1980, p. 81.
“that Ranjit Singh’s soundness of mind and body . . .”: ibid., p. 201.
“in which were the strongest sauces . . .”: Khushwant Singh, Ranjit Singh,
Maharaja of the Punjab. Delhi, Orient Longman, 1985 (1962), p. 214.
“the following morning my spirits were exceedingly depressed”: ibid.
“But so deep and sincere were the feelings of respect . . .”: William G. Osborne, The Court and Camp of Ranjeet Singh. Delhi, Heritage Publishers, 1973 (1840), p. 219.
“the un-Sikh title of Maharaja”: Kapur Singh, 1959, p. 359.
“he was sabotaging the very basis of the Sikh polity . . .”: ibid.
“It is the self-respect, the awareness . . .”: ibid., p. 366.
“was a creation of the Khalsa arms . . .”: ibid., pp. 362–3.
“In pursuance of this policy of his . . .”: ibid., p. 362.
“embarked upon a conspiracy to destroy the entire line of Ranjit Singh’s descendants . . .”: ibid., p. 363.
4 GRIEVOUS BETRAYALS, 1839–1849
“‘barbarians’ pressing at its borders”: Umberto Eco, Travels in Hyper Reality.
New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985, p. 74.
“not necessarily uncultivated . . . new customs, new views . . .”: ibid.
“barbarians may burst in with violence . . .”: ibid.
“had nothing to attract or attack”: Hasrat, 1977, p. 215.
“intolerant of the English . . .”: ibid., p. 217.
Sher Singh was favoured by the British: Cunningham, 1966, p. 211.
drawing the Governor-General’s attention . . .: Sita Ram Kohli, Sunset of the Sikh Empire. Delhi, Orient Longman, 1967, p. 11.
“our dear friend”: Emily Eden, Up the Country. London, Curzon Press, 1978 (1930), p. 22.
“foolish Kurruck Singh . . . it is just possible his dear fat head . . .”: ibid.
“It was suspected by the royal physicians . . .”: Hasrat, 1977, p. 216.
“the discretion of a statesman . . .”: ibid.
“Kharak Singh’s rule appeared unpromising”: Hasrat, 1968, p. 187.
“the drift of Court politics . . .”: ibid.
“I proved to them that they might be effectively removed”: ibid., p. 189.
“Clerk gave encouragement to rival parties . . .”: ibid.
“required for the complete subjugation of the Punjab . . .”: Harbans Singh, 1985, p. 197.
“we need such men as the Raja . . .”: ibid., p. 198.
“paved the way for the eventual enslavement . . .”: Kapur Singh, 1959, p. 362.
The maids are said to have poisoned her . . .: Hasrat, 1977, p. 221, n.2.
“Sher Singh’s accession was unattended by any acts of violence . . .”: Hasrat, 1968, p. 201.
“while he did not write to me . . .”: ibid., p. 199.
“I am always a little surprised at your warlike tone . . .”: Bikrama Jit Hasrat, The Punjab Papers (1836–1849). Hoshiarpur (Punjab), V.V. Research Institute, 1970, p. 45.
“I thought that Clerk made a false step . . .”: ibid.
“Teja Singh, an insignificant Brahmin . . .”: Kapur Singh, 1959, p. 362.
“it was soon apparent that Gulab Singh . . .”: Cunningham, 1966, p. 221.
“as a most likely instrument of British policy . . .”: Harbans Singh, 1985, p. 198.
“troublesome ambitions”: Cunningham, 1966, p. 221.
“carried off the accumulated treasures of Ranjit Singh . . .”: Latif, 1964, pp. 506–7.
misappropriated the revenues . . .: Harbans Singh, vol. 2, 1996, p. 121.
“We can only consider our relations with Lahore . . .”: Hasrat, 1970, p. 72.
“In the hills Gulob Singh has succeeded in raising a religious war . . .”: ibid., pp. 78–9.
“even if we had a case for devouring an ally . . .”: ibid., p. 83.
“how are we to justify the seizure of a friend’s territory . . .”: ibid.
“we have 200,000 men pretty well up for defensive objects . . .”: ibid., p. 79.
“the prime mover, by many considered the cause of this [the First Sikh] war”: Kohli, 1967, p. 103 n.2.
“I will not fail to make him [Hardinge] acquainted . . .”: ibid.
“to declare the cis-Sutlej possessions . . .”: Cunningham, 1966, pp. 252–3.
“Broadfoot is in his element on the frontier”: Hasrat, 1968, p. 253.
“British suzerainty over his cis-Sutlej possessions . . .”: Kohli, 1967, p. 103.
“was wholly unjustifiable”: ibid., p. 104.
“would have turned out to be the first shot of the great Sikh war”: ibid.
“every act of Major Broadfoot was considered . . .”: Cunningham, 1966, pp. 254–5.
“Had the shrewd committees of the [Sikh] army . . .”: ibid., pp. 257–8.
“had not come to gain a victory over the British . . .”: Kohli, 1967, p. 106.
“the necessity of leaving the easy prey . . .”: Cunningham, 1966, p. 263.
“the fame of the Khalsa [could be] exalted . . .”: ibid.
An assurance to the British . . .: Kohli, 1967, p. 106.
“would almost certainly have fallen . . .”: Donald Featherstone, At Them with the Bayonet: The First Sikh War. London, Jarrolds, 1968, p. 46.
“less than two thousand infantry . . .”: Cunningham, 1966, p. 265.
“the success of the English was not so complete . . .”: ibid.
“the whole action was unsatisfactory and unduly costly”: Featherstone, 1968, p. 66.
“wisely determined to effect a junction . . .”: Cunningham, 1966, p. 265.
“the confident English had at last got the field . . .”: ibid., p. 266.
“On that memorable night the English were hardly masters . . .”: ibid., p. 267.
“was one of gloom . . .”: Khushwant Singh, The Fall of the Kingdom of Punjab. Delhi, Orient Longman, 1962, p. 99.
“The wearied and famished English . . .”: Cunningham, 1966, p. 267.
“when the fate of India trembled in the balance”: Featherstone, 1968, p. 90.
“at daybreak on the 22nd . . .”: ibid., p. 101.
“India has been saved by a miracle”: ibid.
“the most warlike [men] in India”: ibid., p. 97.
“his largely untouched force . . .”: ibid., p. 101.
“The Sikh leader had only to continue to fire . . .”: ibid., p. 99.
“we are astonished at the numbers . . .”: ibid., p. 105.
“claims that it is possible that their casualties . . .”: ibid., p. 66.
“not very far removed from failure”: ibid., p. 132.
“the Governor-General issued a proclamation . . .”: ibid., p. 116.
“Even our Peninsular heroes say . . .”: ibid., p. 128.
“under a tempest of shot and shell . . .”: ibid., p. 129.
“they knelt to receive the dashing charge of the British Lancers . . .”: Kohli, 1967, p. 112.
“the latter refer with staggering frankness . . .”: Hasrat, 1968, p. 284.
“[Hardinge] knew that time was pressing . . .”: Featherstone, 1968, pp. 134–5.
“The Sikhs, seeing their right had been broken into . . .”: ibid., p. 143.
“Teja Singh . . . fled soon after the first assault . . .”: Hasrat, 1968, p. 282.
“that the Sikh army should be attacked by the English . . .”: Cunningham, 1966, p. 279.
“effectually protecting the British provinces . . .”: Featherstone, 1968, p. 153.
“that the Maharaja . . .”: Hasrat, 1968, p. 286.
“In consideration of the services . . .”: ibid., p. 382.
“the British Government transfers . . .”: ibid., p. 384.
“Half a million, the total expenses of the war to the E.I. Co.”: ibid., p. 287.
“From a financial point of view . . .”: Featherstone, 1968, p. 162.
“Golab Singh’s neutrality was most valuable . . .”: Hasrat, 1968, p. 289.
“wild outbursts . . . overstrung”: ibid., pp. 324, 332.
“exact a national reparation . . . a heavy one”: ibid., p. 306.
“suspicious little autocrat . . . a state of perpetual excitement”: ibid., pp. 318–19.
“ready disposition to believe in conspiracies . . .”: ibid.
“we have without hesitation resolved that Punjab . . .”: ibid., p. 321.
“I have drawn the sword . . .”: ibid., p. 323.
“eyebrows were raised at his [Dalhousie’s] determination . . .”: ibid.
“appears to have been in some doubt . . .”: Hugh Cook, The Sikh Wars. Delhi, Thompson Press, 1975, pp. 141–2.
“Our acts require no explanation”: Hasrat, 1970, p. 147.
“a sad affair with distressing results”: Hasrat, 1968, p. 328.
“reserve salutes for real victories which this is not”: ibid.
“it is no wonder that all confidence in Lord Gough . . .”: ibid., p. 332.
“. . . advancing British infantrymen were mowed down . . .”: ibid., pp. 335–6.
“from within the jungle the guns opened . . .”: ibid.
“a large body of Sikhs surrounded . . .”: ibid., p. 337.
“we have gained a victory like that of the ancients . . .”: ibid.
“subjugation without the name”: ibid., p. 339.
“the preservation of our own power . . .”: Hasrat, 1970, p. 189.
“Never perhaps had the British amassed . . .”: Hasrat, 1968, p. 344.
“Fordyce’s battery, which came up against the heavy Sikh guns . . .”: Cook, 1975, p. 187.
“the Sikhs fought desperately and held out to the last man . . .”: ibid., p. 188.
“observers who watched the surrender . . .”: ibid., p. 192.
“that the British Empire was God’s gift . . .”: ibid., p. 203.
“that the Sikhs had risen in rebellion . . .”: ibid.
“I do not recollect any subject has fallen . . .”: Hasrat, 1968, p. 351.
“The Sikh Army fought valiantly and stubbornly . . .”: Featherstone, 1968, p. x.
“I earnestly hope that your future life . . .”: E. Dalhousie Login, Lady Login’s Recollections. Patiala, Languages Dept., Punjab, 1970 (reprint), p. 95.
“Politically, we could desire nothing better . . .”: Hasrat, 1968, p. 359.
5 FROM ANNEXATION TO PARTITION, 1849–1947
“had been other than they were . . .”: Tuchman, 1984, p. 231.
“despite the deceitfulness of courtiers . . .”: Harbans Singh, 1985, p. 211.
“No nation has ever produced a military history . . .”: Barbara W. Tuchman, Sand Against the Wind: Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–45. London, Macmillan, 1971, p. 436.
“The Punjab was conquered by the British . . .”: R.C. Majumdar, The Sepoy Mutiny and the Revolt of 1857. Calcutta, Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay, 1963 (1953), p. 408.
“who are supposed to have sacrificed their all . . .”: ibid.
“It is difficult to resist . . .”: ibid.
“transformed the endless waste and scrub . . .”: Ian Talbot, Punjab and the Raj: 1849–1947. Delhi, Manohar, 1988, pp. 39–40.
“By the 1920s Punjab produced a tenth . . .”: ibid., p. 39.
“a class of persons, Indian in blood . . .”: H.R. Mehta, A History of the Growth and Development of Western Education in the Punjab, 1846–1884. Patiala, Languages Dept., Punjab, 1971, p. 24.
“To whom our attention at first was specially directed”: quoted in Harbans Singh, 1985, p. 229.
“First decisive battle for India’s freedom won . . .”: Ganda Singh (ed.), Some Confidential Papers of the Akali Movement. Amritsar, S.G.P.C., 1965, p. 11.
“mobility, enterprise and opportunity”: in Hugh Johnston, “Patterns of Sikh Migration to Canada, 1900–1960” (pp. 296–313) in Joseph T. O’Connell, Milton Israel and Williard G. Oxtoby (eds.), Sikh History and Religion in the Twentieth Century. Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Toronto, 1988, p. 299.
in 1904, for example, Indian wheat exports to Great Britain . . .: Hugh Johnston, ibid., p. 298.
“Probably the first Sikhs to see British Columbia . . .”: Sarjeet Singh Jagpal, Becoming Canadians: Pioneer Sikhs in their Own Words. Madeira Park, BC, Canada, Harbour Publishing, 1994, p. 18.
“all the combined prejudices of both the British . . .”: Anthony Read and David Fisher, The Proudest Day: India’s Long Road to Independence. London, Jonathan Cape, 1997, p. 169.
“suffered from arteriosclerosis . . . heat stroke . . .”: ibid.
“a succession of sporting accidents . . .”: ibid., pp. 169–70.
“Q: When you got into the Bagh what did you do?”: extract from Hunter Committee Report, quoted in Raja Ram, The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. Chandigarh, Punjabi University, 1969, pp. 131–2.
“In the crush, the steel-jacketed bullets . . .”: Read and Fisher, 1997, p. 8.
“to strike terror . . . throughout the Punjab”: Raja Ram, 1969, p. 133.
“I realized then, more vividly . . .”: Jawaharlal Nehru, India and the World. Essays. London, George Allen & Unwin, 1936, p. 147.
“In Iran, the party was able to raise an Indian Independence Army”: “Ghadr Movement” (pp. 60–6), in Harbans Singh, vol. I, 1996, p. 66.
“Nanakji had noble aims . . .”: Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Satyarth Prakash (The Light of Truth), trans. Ganga Prasad. Allahabad, The Kala Press, 1956, p. 522.
182 “Just as idol-worshippers have set up their shop . . .”: ibid., p. 525.
“Mahdi of Islam and the Messiah of Christianity”: Kenneth W. Jones, “Communalism in the Punjab: The Arya Samaj Contribution” (pp. 39–54), Journal of Asian Studies, vol. 27, American Association of Asian Studies, 1968, p. 46.
“The Samaj provided an ideology of militant Hinduism . . .”: ibid., p. 52.
“Within the present struggle between Indian communities . . .”: quoted in K.L. Tuteja, “The Punjab Hindu Sabha and Communal Politics, 1906–1923,” in Indu Banga (ed.), Five Punjabi Centuries: Polity, Economy, Society and Culture, c.1500–1900. Delhi, Manohar, 1997, p. 132.
“inspired by a genuine sympathy for the interest and welfare of India . . .”: R.C. Majumdar, History of the Freedom Movement in India (3 vols). Calcutta, Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay, vol. 1, 1962, p. 389.
“A safety-valve for the escape of great and growing forces . . .”: ibid., p. 392.
“was brought into existence as an instrument . . .”: ibid., p. 393.
“Swarajya [freedom] is my birthright . . .”: Stanley A. Wolpert, Tilak and Gokhale: Revolution and Reform in the Making of Modern India. Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1961, p. 191.
“necessary that for the peace of India . . .”: Stanley A. Wolpert, India. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1991, p. 60.
“Hinduism is of higher worth than other religions”: Wolpert, 1961, p. 136.
“partiality for Gujarati and Hindustani”: quoted in D.G. Tendulkar, Mahatma: Life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (8 vols). Bombay: V.K. Jhaveri and D.G. Tendulkar, vol. 1, 1951, p. 195.
“the use of English in a Gujarati gathering”: ibid.
“He bowed but rarely to populist symbols . . .”: Eqbal Ahmad, “Jinnah in a class of his own,” The Dawn (English-language daily), Lahore, 11 June 1995.
“the Ulema [Islamic theologians and expounders of the law] in their overwhelming majority . . .”: ibid., “The betrayed promise,” ibid., 18 June 1995. “his loyalty to the Muslim League . . .”: Sarojini Naidu, “A Pen Portrait,” in Sarojini Naidu (ed.), Mohammed Ali Jinnah: An Ambassador of Unity; His Speeches & Writings, 1912–1917. Madras, Ganesh & Co., 1918, p. 11.
186 “the powers which are going to be assumed . . .”: M. Rafique Afzal (ed.), Speeches and Statements of the Qaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Lahore, University of Punjab, 1966, p. 85.
“sought to curtail the liberty . . .”: Majumdar, vol. 3, 1963, p. 2.
“speedy trial of offences by a Special Court . . .”: ibid.
“India has got to keep her head cool . . .”: “Interview with the Press,” The Bombay Chronicle (English-language daily), Bombay, 17 November 1919.
“I can imagine no form of resistance . . .”: Gandhi to Jinnah, 28 June 1919, The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (100 vols). Ahmedabad, Navjivan Trust, vol. 15, 1965, pp. 398–9.
“secure complete Swaraj [self-rule] for India . . .”: M.R. Jayakar, The Story of My Life (2 vols). Bombay, Asia Publishing House, vol. 1, 1958, p. 405.
“If by ‘new life’ you mean your methods and your programme . . .”: M.H. Saiyad, M.A. Jinnah. Lahore, S.M. Ashraf, 1945, pp. 264–5.
“Let Muslims look upon Ram as their hero . . .”: Tapan Basu, Pradip Datta et al., Khaki Shorts and Sa fron Flags. Delhi, Orient Longman, 1993, p. 12.
“lower-caste assertion . . . twin dangers . . .”: Sumit Sarkar, “Indian Nationalism and the Politics of Hindutva” (pp. 270–94), in David Ludden (ed.), Making India Hindu. Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1996, p. 288.
“Conflicts between various communities . . .”: Basu and Datta, et al., 1993, p. 14.
“the one silver lining in the cloudy sky . . .”: ibid., p. 23.
“The real winner was British imperialism”: Sumit Sarkar, Modern India: 1885– 1947. Delhi, Macmillan, 1986 (1983), p. 237.
“The Montford reforms had broadened the franchise . . .”: ibid., p. 235.
“In neither case was it even bona fide communalism . . .”: Gyanendra Pandey, The Construction of Communalism in Colonial North India. Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1990, pp. 240–1.
“Believe me there is no progress for India . . .”: Afzal, 1966, p. 295.
“Yes, we Hindus are a Nation by ourselves . . .”: “The Presidential Address by V.D. Savarkar” at the Nagpur session of Hindu Mahasabha, December 1938 (pp. 317–35), in N.N. Mitra (ed.), The Indian Annual Register, July–December, 1938. Calcutta, The Annual Register Office, 1938, pp. 328–9.
“there is no doubt that we have been . . .”: Sarkar, 1986, p. 356.
“Lala’s proposal was a decisive step . . .”: Kirpal Singh, The Partition of the Punjab. Patiala, Punjabi University, 1989 (1962), p. 10.
“most anxious that the Sikhs . . . You will have a Cabinet . . .”: Sardar Hardit Singh Malik, “Khalistan: Let us keep our cool—1,” The Indian Express (English-language daily), Delhi, 12 November 1981.
“I agree . . . This is how I will deal with you . . .”: ibid.
“I went and saw U.N. Sen . . .”: ibid.
“we arrived to find that the havoc in the small town was . . .”: Alan Campbell-Johnson, Mission with Mountbatten. London, Robert Hale, 1952, p. 79.
“It cannot be an accident that those districts . . .”: “J.P. Narain’s statement to the press on Punjab disturbances,” The Pioneer (English-language daily), Lucknow, 22 March 1947.
“one must appreciate that the Sikhs had been driven . . .”: V.P. Menon, The Transfer of Power in India. Bombay, Orient Longman, 1957, pp. 432–3.
“a division of the Punjab into two provinces . . .”: Resolution of the All-India Congress Working Committee, 6–8 March 1947 (pp. 117–19), in Mitra (ed.), The Indian Annual Register, 1947, January–June, pp. 118–19.
“Violence escalated after the Congress Resolution . . .”: Ajit Bhattacharjea, Countdown to Partition: The Final Days. Delhi, HarperCollins, 1997, p. xxiv.
“It has been difficult to explain to you the Resolution . . .”: Leonard Mosley, The Last Days of the British Raj. London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1961, p. 100. “the combination of all these various elements . . .”: Jamil-ud-din Ahmad (ed.), Some Recent Speeches and Writings of Mr. Jinnah. Lahore, S. Muhammed Ashraf, 1942, p. 5.
“to effect the transference of power into responsible Indian hands . . .”: “Indian Policy Statement of 20 February 1947” (pp. 773–5), in Nicholas Mansergh (ed.), The Transfer of Power, 1942–47 (12 vols). London, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, vol. 9, 1980, p. 774.
“entrusted with the most sensitive . . .”: Bhattacharjea, 1997, p. 59.
“the responsibility of dealing with . . .”: ibid., p. 100.
“from the administrative point of view . . .”: “Viceroy’s Personal Report No. 17; 16 August 1947” (pp. 757–83), in Mansergh (ed.), vol. 12, 1983, p. 760.
“been obvious all along that the later . . .”: ibid.
“short tenure of the Viceroyalty . . .”: ibid., p. 731.
“I believe your outstanding ability . . .”: ibid., p. 727.
“Situation here is generally explosive . . .”: ibid., vol. 11, 1982, p. 942.
6 VIOLENCE AND VENALITY, 1947 TO THE PRESENT
“for two months afterwards . . .”: Rawlinson, 1937, p. 240.
“I confess I did rejoice at the opportunity . . .: cited in Patwant Singh, Of Dreams and Demons: An Indian Memoir. London, Gerald Duckworth, 1994, p. 13.
One economist recently put Punjab’s current share . . .: G.S. Bhalla, “Political Economy since Independence,” in Indu Banga (ed.), 1997, p. 377.
“nationalism and sub-nationalism . . .”: Report of Linguistic Provinces Commission 1948. Delhi, Government of India, 1948, p. 31.
“mainly linguistic considerations . . .”: ibid., p. 34.
“a grave risk, but one that had to be taken . . .”: ibid., p. 35.
“oneness of language may be one of the factors . . .”: ibid.
“mutual conflicts which would jeopardise . . .”: Report of the Linguistic Provinces Committee. Delhi, All-India Congress Committee, 1949, p. 15.
“we are clearly of the opinion . . .”: ibid., p. 16.
“to concede the Akali demand would mean . . .”: Indira Gandhi, My Truth. Delhi, Vision Books, 1982 (1981), p. 117.
“Lal Bahadur Shastri continued the policy . . .”: ibid.
“There has been a growth in sub-nationalism . . .”: Commission on Centre-State Relations, Report: Part 1 (Sarkaria Commission). Nasik (Maharashtra), Government of India Press, 1983, pp. 15–16.
“The Shiromani Akali Dal realises that India . . .”: R.S. Narula, “Anandpur Saheb Resolution,” in Patwant Singh and Harji Malik (eds.), Punjab: The Fatal Miscalculation. Delhi, published by Patwant Singh, 1985, p. 64.
“the principle of state . . .”: ibid., p. 66.
“recast the constitutional structure . . .”: ibid., p. 67.
“The only way to save the country . . .”: ibid., p. 77.
“Needless to say this would not only upset . . .”: editorial, The Hindustan Times (English-language daily). Delhi, 31 October 1978.
“By turning the Punjab issue into a Hindu-Sikh confrontation . . .”: Rajni Kothari, “Electoral Politics and the Rise of Communalism,” in Patwant Singh (ed.), 1985, p. 84.
the loss of 5,000 civilian lives: J.S. Grewal, The Sikhs of the Punjab, The New Cambridge History of India. Cambridge University Press, 1990, p. 227; citing Chand Joshi, Bhindranwale: Myth and Reality, p. 161.
“Later, defendants No. 11 to 13 . . . folded hands . . . After making a heap . . .”: plaint to the Delhi High Court. This information is courtesy of Supreme Court lawyer Harvinder Singh Phoolka, New Delhi.
“They broke down the door and entered the house . . .”: ibid. “We divided ourselves into two groups . . . They continued to attack . . .”: ibid.
“The people who are responsible for withdrawing the army . . .”: letter from lawyer H.S. Phoolka to the Chief Minister of Delhi, dated 13 April 1996.
“remained behind the scenes . . . and tried for murder . . .”: ibid.
“for three horrific nights and four days . . .”: John Fraser, “Sifting the Ashes of India’s shame,” in Patwant Singh (ed.), 1985, pp. 203–4.
“hardly had the country recovered . . .”: ibid., p. 206.
“The mosaic of India’s varied people . . .”: Report of the Citizen’s Commission: Delhi, 31 October–4 November, 1984. Delhi, Tata Press, 1985, p. 7.
“suggest preventive corrective and retributive action . . .”: ibid., p. 29.
“The incredible and abysmal failure . . .”: ibid., pp. 29–30.
“Most of the affidavits in favour of the accused . . .”: Report of Advisory Committee to the Chief Minister of Delhi. Delhi, The Sikh Forum, 1994, p. 5.
“the Delhi Police far from trying to disperse the mob . . .”: 1984 Carnage in Delhi: A Report on the Aftermath. Delhi, People’s Union for Democratic Rights, 1992, p. 9.
“disclosed that [another committee’s] file . . .”: ibid.
“anticipatory bail while the CBI team . . .”: ibid.
“the lie has become not just a moral category . . .”: Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Oak and the Calf: Sketches of Literary Life in the Soviet Union. London, Collins and Harvill Press, 1980, p. 533.
“Gurdev Singh Kaunke was a hard-liner . . .”: Inderjit Singh Jaijee, Politics of Genocide: Punjab, 1984–1994. Chandigarh, Baba Publishers, 1995, p. 88.
“On 29 August 1991, S.S.P. Sumedh Singh Saini . . .”: ibid., p. 94.
“On the afternoon of 21 August 1989 . . .”: ibid., pp. 123–4.
“Until it becomes fully normal for scholars . . .”: Cynthia Keppley-Mahmood, Fighting for Faith and Nation: Dialogues with Sikh Militants. Philadelphia, University of Pennyslvania Press, 1996, pp. 272–3.
“My parents were very much hurt by the attack . . .”: ibid., pp. 167, 170.
“In its central philosophical conception . . .”: ibid., p. 185.
“A Sikh later hanged for the murder . . .”: ibid., p. 24.
“The same ‘saints’ who uphold with valour . . .”: ibid., p. 20.
“It would be too easy to say that . . .”: ibid., p. 281.
“The availability of the administration . . .”: Padam Rosha, “The Dharma of Policemen.” Unpublished paper.
“the seeds of fascism lie in . . .”: ibid.
“a myth has been built, and it is currently . . .”: Girilal Jain, “What Ails the Sikh Community?” The Times of India. Delhi, 11 August 1986.
“Out of 2,175 Indian martyrs for freedom . . .”: Rajinder Puri, Recovery of India. Delhi, Har-Anand Publications, 1992, p. 99.
“Clearly the Sikhs, and for that matter . . .”: ibid., p. 100.
“from which date VC’s . . .”: letter dated 19 December 1996 from the Victoria and George Cross Association, London.
“they were different . . . grievances were manufactured . . .”: Ram Swarup, “The Hindu-Sikh Cleavage,” The Times of India. Delhi, 20 December 1984.
“Liberals who opposed military action . . .”: Kewal Varma, “Genesis of Sikh Alienation” (pp. 8–22), Mainstream (English-language journal). Delhi, 1 September 1984, p. 19.
“leftists, particularly in the Communist Party of India . . .”: Dipankar Gupta,
“The Communalising of Punjab 1980–1985,” in Patwant Singh (ed.), 1985, p. 213. “The latest judgement by the Punjab and Haryana High Court . . .”: editorial, The Pioneer (English-language daily). Delhi, 8 January 1998.
“a culture is being built up which denigrates . . .”: Padam Rosha, loc. cit.
“the use of force by the State . . .”: ibid.
“churn your stomach . . .”: editorial, The Sikh Review (English-language monthly). Calcutta, January 1998, p. 4.
“It is the freedom to disagree that is freedom of speech”: I.F. Stone, The Trial of Socrates. New York, Anchor Books, 1989, p. 213.
“prosecution of ideas . . . We must not be angry with honest men”: ibid., p. 222.
“the Right-wing movement for Hindutva . . .”: Gyanendra Pandey, “The Civilized and the Barbarian: The ‘new’ politics of late twentieth century India and the world,” in G. Pandey (ed.), Hindus and Others: The Question of Identity in India Today. Delhi, Viking, 1993, p. 2.
“the undisguised violence of these propositions . . .”: ibid.
“against distorted and unIndian . . .”: ibid., p. 9.
“The greatest danger posed by the Right-wing movements . . .”: ibid., p. 20.
“Charity was practised by the members . . .”: Patwant Singh, Gurdwaras in India and around the World. New Delhi, Himalayan Books, 1992, p. 131.