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Guru Govind Singh. Banda Bahadur established the Sikh rule and administration over the
territory between the Sutlej and the Jamuna. He was captured in 1715 and executed a
year later in 1716.
In the eighteenth century, between 1756 and 1800, the Sikhs organised themselves into
jathas and later into 12 misls or groups. A misl was a political unit under a chief to
whom the members of the group remained loyal. They were united under a grand army
called dal khalsa. It used to meet at Amritsar at the time of Baisakhi and Diwali. At this
meeting, collective decisions were taken. These decisions were known as “resolutions
of the gurmatas (Guru)”. The Sikhs had also introduced a system of rakhi. This offered
protection to cultivators on the payment of a tax of one-fifth of the produce in the field.
Guru Govind Singh had introduced the institution of Khalsa in 1699. The destiny of the
Khalsa was to rule. It was summed up in an apt slogan, “raj karega khalsa” or the Sikh will
rule. They had successfully resisted the invasion of Ahmad Shah Abdali who had seized
the province of Punjab and the Sarkar of Sirhind from the Mughals. It has already been
stated earlier that in the time of Banda Bahadur, the Khalsa had declared their sovereign
rule by issuing its own coins. These coins were issued again in 1765.
Sikhs had been united under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. He was the chief of Sukerchakia Misl
and became the chief of all Sikhs west of Sutlej. Under Ranjit Singh, the Sikhs succeeded
in forming a Sikh state in Punjab. He established his capital at Lahore in 1799. They were
serious contenders for supremacy.
Now I Know :
With the decline of the Mughal power, several regional independent state emerged in India.
The Mughal Empire declined under the Later Mughals who ruled from 1707 to 1857.
Some rulers who held watan jagirs, like Maharaja Ajit Singh of Jodhpur and Sawai Raja Jai Singh of Amber freed
themselves from Mughal control and established their own states. Sawai Raja Jai Singh founded the city of Jaipur.
The old Mughal provinces included Hyderabad under the Nizams, Awadh and Bengal under the Nawabs.
The revenue collection rights in Awadh were given to the highest bidders and the collectors were known as ijaradars.
The Jats were a hardy tribe. They grew powerful under their leaders Rajaram, Churaman and Badan Singh. Suraj
Mal established the first Jat kingdom.
In Bengal because of oppression, the zamindars were forced to borrow money from bankers and moneylenders to pay
rent. These bankers and money lenders also had relations with the company as well as the Nawabs.
The Sikhs had been transformed into a political community and Guru Govind Singh had introduced the military
institution of Khalsa. It guided the sikhs towards establishing their own rule.
Ahmad Shah Abdali with allies like Rohilkhand and Awadh, easily defeated the Marathas in Panipat in 1761.
Failure to win the support of local powers, unsuitable military techniques and disunity among the chiefs were the
main reasons for the failure of the Marathas.
(Assessment of Learning Outcome)
A. Tick () the correct option :
1. Which of the following rulers was not one of the Later Mughals?
(a) Aurangzeb (b) Farrukhsiyar
(c) Bahadur Shah I (d) Nadir Shah
88 Social Studies-7
