Introductory - Global Sikh Studies

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Singh Sabha movement merely resurrected the old tradition in this
respect and did not reconstruct it.
(b) Egalitarian Character
All that has been said in the preceding section applies with greater
force to the Sikh tradition which shows the egalitarian character of
the Sikh movement. To establish an egalitarian Panth was a much
more difficult task and a vital departure from the caste society than
the creation of a mere separate entity. The egalitarian character of the
movement is also vouchsafed by evidence from non-Sikh sources
(Chapter XI and XVI), and it cover, of course, automatically its separate
identity from the caste society.
(c) Militarization
The militarization of the Sikh movement is a fact of history
which has got to be explained. It was not only a militarization, but a
militarization for a revolutionary plebian purpose. All that we ask in
this respect is that the evidence of the Sikh tradition and the other
that we have advanced in support of our thesis should be weighed
against the evidence on which alternative hypotheses are built
(Appendix A). The fact of the militarization for a revolutionary purpose
cannot be wished away on the plea of insufficiency of historical
evidence. The choice from the alternatives open to us has got to be
made.
(d) Plebian Political Objectives and Character
The plebian political objectives of the Sikh movement could
not obviously be born out of the caste society or of the foreign classdominated
Muslim polity. In fact, the capturing of the political power
by the plebian was nowhere on the agenda of the world at that time.
The near-contemporary evidence of Koer Singh records that Guru
Gobind Singh bestowed sovereignty on the Khalsa, and the laterrecorded
evidence of Gurbilas Chevin Patshahi, Rehatnamas, and
Bhangu is no less valuable; because it incorporates a tradition which
could only be the Sikhs’ own. Bhangu’s ‘Prachin Panth Parkash’ is an
invaluable piece of history. He relates that genuine Sikh old tradition
about the separate identity of the Panth, its egalitarian character, and