Introductory - Global Sikh Studies

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culottes.’ 32 The Gironde succeeded in persuading the Assembly to
disband the ‘revolutionary’ commune that had usurped authority on
the eve of the August revolution. 33 The Jacobins, who came nearest to
an alliance with the common people, were also predoiminantly bons
bourgeois. 34 When the sand-culottes reacted against the sharp rise in
the prices of good and consumer goods and invaded the shops, the
City Council, the Jacobin Club and the parties in the Convention all
joined in denouncing this infringement of the sacred rights of
property. 35 Finally, the sans-culottes were politically silenced by purging
and converting the commune into a Robespierrist stronghold and by
disbanding the Parisain arme revolutionnairre. Robesipierre’s own fall
from power was in no small measure due to the wage-earners hostility
he had earned and the apathy of the san-culottes whom he had alienated
by his policies. 36
It was on the strength of the pressure and intervention of the
Fourth Estate that the Third Estate succeeded in wresting political
power from the King and the other two orders and in establishing the
Bourgeois Republic. Had the plebian masses been conscious that their
salvation lay in capturing political power and keeping it in their own
hands, and that ultimate power lay within their easy reach, they would
not have wasted their revolutionary zeal in saving this Assembly and
that Convention, or in pinning their faith in bourgeois leaders and
parties. But, throughout the French Revolution, the people of the Fourth
Estate were preoccupied with comparatively minor issues like wage
hikes, control of the prices of bread and consumer goods, the extension
of franchise, etc. Not even once the acquisition of political power in
their own hands was made a primary issue.
As against all this, there was never any doubt in the mind of the
Khalsa about its plebian mission, and that the mission was to be fulfilled
by them by capturing power in its own hands by a direct armed
struggle. 36a
The predominantly plebian composition of the Khalsa has
already been noted (Chap. XII). Those of the higher castes who
joined the Khalsa did so after accepting the Khalsa ideology;
because they had to take vows to this effect at the time of the
baptism ceremony. And nobody could be admitted without