Warrior Saints: Three Centuries of the Sikh Military Tradition [Hardcover]

Published to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Sikh Brotherhood, this is a collection of over 100 images depicting Sikh prowess in war - photographs covering the last 150 years, together with early prints and paintings. Quotes from the Sikh gurus and from allies and foes of the Sikh soldiers, detailed captions and a brief commentary trace the spiritual and ethical origins of the Sikh call-to-arms, the martyrdoms and conflict of the Mogul period, the founding of the Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh, the Anglo-Sikh wars, and the contributions of Sikhs in both World Wars and more recent international conflicts.

Amandeep S. Madra and Parmjit Singh trace the spiritual and ethical origins of the Sikh call-to-arms, from the martyrdom and conflict of the Mughal period, which led to the founding of the Khalsa, to the Afghan and Persian invasions. They describe the rise of the Sikh kingdoms and the British Raj and the subsequent Anglo-Sikh wars and document the contributions of Sikhs in both World Wars and in more recent international conflicts. This commentary is complemented by contemporary quotations from the Sikh Gurus and from allies and foes of the Sikh soldiers, while detailed captions add narrative and human detail to the broader history.

Amandeep Singh Madra has worked on numerous Sikh projects around the world, on television, the internet and the 1999 exhibition Arts of the Sikh Kingdom at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. He is currently working on a pictorial history of the Sikh diaspora.

Parmjit Singh is an independent researcher, specializing in the Sikh military tradition. He is currently collaborating on several projects looking at aspects of the unique Akali Nihang Sikhs.

Both are independent researchers based in London. For many years they have been actively preserving and presenting the rich sources of Sikh history that exist in archives, museum, libraries and private collections. This work has taken them around the world where they have documented and catalogued many collections and now act as advisors to museums and libraries. They have participated in numerous Sikh projects through the years with considerable involvement in the excellently received Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum. They have also acted in a consultative capacity to many Sikh heritage programs around the world. They have previously won Arts council funding to create a mobile exhibition of photographs and paintings which has toured 23 locations in the last two years. Most notably the exhibition spent 3 months at Leicester City Museums and Art Galleries and has also toured areas more accessible to Sikhs

From Preface

The reputation of the Sikh soldier as one of the world's finest has its origins in the creation of the Khalsa in 1699 by Guru Gobind Singh. The Khalsa, meaning, literally "purified ones, the Guru's own", are the Sikh men and women who choose to publicly affirm their commitment to their faith by taking Khandee di Pahul, the baptism or initiation by double-edged sword. Three hundred years ago, Guru Gobind Singh's dramatic founding of the Khalsa was attended by tens of thousands of Punjabi farmers, traders, artisans, untouchables, and trained warriors who became the brothers and sisters of an unprecedented people's army of India.

The original Khalsa initiates were never "belly-soldiers", or mercenaries; soldiering was part of their spiritual make-up as defenders of religious freedom for all faiths at a time when the Mughal rulers of India were engaging in forcible and brutal conversions to Islam. 'To uphold right in every place and destroy sin and evil; that right may triumph, that good may live and tyranny be uprooted from the land' Guru Gobind Singh said. With this, he set out to 'teach the sparrow how to hunt the hawk and one man to have the courage to fight a legion'. What the Guru succeeded in doing was to convert the Sikhs from humble peasantry of the Punjab into some of the greatest and most noble warriors in world history.

This collection of rare and unpublished images endeavours to celebrate the heroic Sikh tradition and its history over the last three centuries. Within this work, there are examples of individual bravery, of undying loyalty, of courage and dedication to duty, which have elicited praise even from enemies. Included in this collection are rare images of Akali Sikhs (the descendants of the original Sikh army), images depicting the centuries-old partnership between the British and the Sikhs, and photographs documenting the relatively unsung role of Sikh soldiers during the two World Wars.

This book is a celebration of this unparalleled and matchless tradition. The images and quotes have been selected to show the generations of Sikhs who have sacrificed so much, including their lives, in virtually every field of battle, not just in their ancestral home of Punjab, but in Europe and the Pacific Rim. The images have been chosen to demonstrate the honest innocence and anonymity of these generations of Sikhs who have fought and died in a declaration of their faith.

Recent political events may not seem to represent the worth of the Sikh military tradition that this work celebrates. However, it would have been incomplete had we not included some mention of the significant happenings in Punjab since the 1980s.