When Sparrows Became Hawks The Making of the Sikh Warrior Tradition, 1699-1799 [Hardcover]

Challenging the commonly accepted belief that the distinctive rituals, ceremonies, and cultural practices associated with the Khalsa were formed during the lifetime of the Tenth and last Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh, Purnima Dhavan reveals how such markers of Khalsa identity evolved slowly over the course of the eighteenth century. By focusing on the long-overlooked experiences of peasant communities, she traces the multiple perspectives and debates that eventually coalesced to create a composite Khalsa culture by 1799.

When Sparrows Became Hawks incorporates and analyzes Sikh normative religious literature created during this period by reading it in the larger context of sources such as news reports, court histories, and other primary sources that show how actual practices were shaped in response to religious reforms. Recovering the agency of the peasants who dominated this community, Dhavan demonstrates how a dynamic process of debates, collaboration, and conflict among Sikh peasants, scholars, and chiefs transformed Sikh practices and shaped a new martial community.

1. Introduction: The Origins of the Khalsa
2. Early Narratives of the Last Guru and the Creation of the Khalsa
3. (Re)making the Khalsa, 1708-48
4. The Making of a Sikh Sardar: Two Jassa Singhs and the Place of Sikhs in the Eighteenth-Century Military Labor Market
5. Rereading Alha Singh: Rebel, Raja, and Sikh Sardar
6. From Peasant Soldier to Elite Warrior: Raiding, Honor Feuds, and the Transformation of Khalsa Identity
7. Devotion and Its Discontents: The Affective Communities of Gurbilas Texts
8. Conclusion
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

Built on a close reading of Punjabi and Farsi sources, Purnima Dhavan's narrative of eighteenth-century Sikh history begins with Guru Gobind Singh and the inauguration of the Khalsa and goes on to examine three important but relatively little studied Sikh leaders of the period. This timely and readable book will be immelCn