Introductory - Global Sikh Studies

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Jahangir and his suborinates in the last nine months of the Guru’s life
and not earlier by Akbar or his Administration? Akbar had liberal views
on religious matters, but he could not have been less alive to any
potential threat to his political authority.
There is no basis for presuming that the Jats were armed but the
Khatris were not. Ibbeston writes : ‘The Khatris occupies a different
position among the people of the Punjab from that of other mercantile
castes. Superior to them in physique, in manlines and in energy, he is
not, like them, a mere shopkeeper, but a direct representative of the
Kshatriya of Manu’. It is true that the Khatris of the present times
have taken more to trade. ‘They are not usually military in their
character, but are quite capable of using the sword, when necessary’
Nothing prevented the Khatris from bearing arms in the earlier
troubled times we are dealing with. When the Taruna Dal branch of
the Khalsa Dal was reorganized into five divisions, two of these were
headed by Khartis and one by a Ranghreta.
Nor was Guru Hargobind’s decision to arm the Sikhs taken
casually or accidently. In the first place, it was done under the specific
instructions of Guru Arjan. Secondly, at the very time of his
installation as Guru, it is he, who directed Bhai Buddha to amend the
ceremony followed on such occasions and adorn him with two swords
of Meeree and Peeree, signifying the blending of religious and temporal
authority. It was not customary for the Sangat to suggest changes or
innovate ceremonies, much less radical departures such as this certainly
was. He followed this up by founding the ‘Akaal Takht’, a seat of
temporal authority as distinct from the place of worship alone, and
set up two flags fluttering before it, one distinctly signifying religious
and the other temporal authority. Such steps amounted to the
declaration of a parallel government and marked an open change in
the external character of the movement. Here we have the indisputable
authority of Bhai Gurdas, the Guru’s contemporary, that far from
persuading the Guru to take these steps, there were grumbling among
the Sikhs against the line taken by the Guru. Even Bhai Buddha, chief
among the Sikhs and himself a Jat, initially argued against it with the
Guru. There is no mention, whatsoever, that the other Jats among the