In the previous post, we have read about William Bentinck: First Governor-General of India. Now, in this post, we shall read about the next Governor-General of India ie Lord Dalhousie, who beautified the British Empire in the Indian Subcontinent.
Lord Dalhousie
Lord Dalhousie arrived in India with two objectives, to the strengthened British economy and the British Empire in India. British economy reached its peak during the time of Lord Dalhousie. So, it started the era of investment in the Indian Subcontinent.
India became the priority investment center for British investors. So, to have access to a large area of Indian Subcontinent, Lord Dalhousie started the Doctrine of Lapse. Actually, he was of the opinion that to have economic stability political stability was necessary so he wanted to have direct access to the Indian state.
Doctrine of Lapse
Under the Doctrine of Lapse, the local states which lacked natural heir and successors were taken away by the EIC. The victims of this policy were Satara, Jhansi, Lucknow, Sambalpur, etc. In this policy of annexation, the two exceptions were Oudh and Punjab.
The last ruler of Oudh Province was Wajid Ali Shah. During his reign, EIC took Oudh under its direct control. The mal-administration was the reason for the annexation of the Oudh state. But, EIC has to do very struggle to conquer Punjab state.
Punjab State
Punjab, the land of wealth and part of the Northern path (Uttarapatha) and slum neighbor Afghanistan. Therefore, whenever the center in India becomes weak, Punjab becomes the victim of foreign invasion. The situation became worst with the coming of Mahmud of Ghazni because the new invaders bearing the flag of Islam started atrocities in the name of the conversion.
This continuous exploitation of Punjab possibly created a sense of self-consciousness and the story started from the Sikh Gurus. The first Sikh Guru was Guru Nanak Dev. Guru Nanak Dev laid the foundation of Sikhism.
Sikh Gurus
There were total ten Sikh Gurus,
- Guru Nanak Dev emphasized the concept of Sikh which means every moment of life gives a message.
- The next Guru, Guru Angad Dev gave Gurumukhi Script in which the Sikh text Adi Granth is written.
- Guru Amardas decided the social norms for the Sikh community.
- The next Guru, Guru Ramdas laid the foundation of Harmandir Sahib Gurudwara, which is Golden Temple of Amritsar.
- The second phase of Sikhism started from Guru Arjun Dev. He gave the Adi Granth or Guru Granth Sahib. But Jahangir the Mughal Emperor killed the Guru Arjun Dev.
- So, the killing of Guru Arjun Dev led to the anger in the Sikh community. So, the next Guru, Guru Hargobind formed Akal Takht and created the Sikh Militia.
- After Guru Hargobind, Guru Harrai, Guru Har Kishan, had good relations with Mughals. But this story again changed when the next Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur came into the scene.
- Guru Tegh Bahadur was ninth Sikh Guru. During this period, Mughal Governor Iftikhar Khan started forcefully conversion in Punjab state. So, Guru Tegh Bahadur stood up against this. Aurangzeb killed Guru Tegh Bahadur.
- So, the next Guru, Guru Gobind Singh gave the new name to the Sikh militia and it was called Khalsa. Khalsa was a purely military organization.
So, from Guru Nanak Dev to Guru Gobind Singh, Sikhism emerged as a separate religion. But the story changed after the death of Guru Gobind Singh and the coming of Banda Bahadur.
We will discuss Banda Bahadur and Punjab under Ranjit Singh in the upcoming post.
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