Introductory - Global Sikh Studies

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still persist in creating difficulties, you will have no place of honour in
the Panth, who is now going to be the ruler.’ 4
Guru Gobind Singh then sent for the hill Rajas and addressed
them as follows:
‘You adopt the ways of the Khalsa;
You have agreed to pay tribute to the Turks (Mughals);
And regard yourselves as subordinates of the Turk.
Come under the protection of the Khalsa, the banner of the
Khalsa;
Overturn the Mughal authority.
Lest you should complain afterwards that
I have discriminated against you,
I have sent for you so that you may follow the leadership of the
Khalsa.’ 5
This part of the text makes it clear that the Guru invited the hill
Rajas to join the struggle against the Mughals, but on the condition
that they accepted the objective of the Khalsa. He wanted them not
as allies, who retained their caste and feudal ideology, but asked them
first to accept the mission of the Khalsa. That is why the Guru asked
them to learn at the feet of the Khalsa (‘Tuj ko khals charni laiya’) in
order to imbibe the Khalsa ideology and, thus, come to have common
purpose and aims.
The reaction of the hill Rajas to the Guru’s proposal is quite
revealing. The replied:
‘You have welded four castes into one;
How can we dine together with the four caste?
How can you Panth get Raj?
How can goats kill a tiger?
Some do agriculture;
Some deal in merchandise;
Some are the despised castes of the foot-hill plains.
How can these wrest from us our Raj? People will laugh at this idea.
It is a preposterous idea that
the twelve high castes should join the seven low castes.’ 6