Thread by @FriedrichPieter

Guru Tegh Bahadur (1621-1675) — The Mughal Empire’s attempt to crush the Panth reached new heights under the ninth Guru, Tegh Bahadur.

Originally named Tyag Mal, the Guru was renamed Tegh Bahadur (brave swordsman) by his father, Guru Hargobind, after proving himself on the battlefield against Shah Jahan. Like his grandfather, Guru Arjun, the ninth Guru was destined to sacrifice his life.

After the death of his father in 1644, Tegh Bahadur endured near Amritsar for twenty years before becoming Guru. During that time, his nephew Guru Har Rai (1630-1661) and then his grandnephew Guru Har Krishan (1656-1664) stewarded the Panth and Granth.

Following the first Sikh battles with the Mughals, the two groups exchanged armed conflict for an uneasy toleration.

“Although Guru Har Rai was a man of peace, he never dissolved the armed Sikh warriors who earlier were exerted by his grandfather,” explained Sikh historian Sardar Harjeet Singh.

“He always encouraged the military spirit of the Sikhs, but he never himself indulged in any direct political and armed controversy with the Mughal Empire.”

The seventh steward of Begampura, reported Macauliffe, “had been forbidden by his grandfather, Guru Hargobind, to engage in warfare."

As Sikh historian Dr. Harbans Singh stated: “Since militarism for its own sake was not their object, the Sikhs preserved the truce as long as they were left alone.”

From the origins of Guru Nanak’s Panth, the movement always gained the most in times of peace.

Yet, as it vigorously undermined exploitive and tyrannical sociopolitical systems, it was a miracle that the Panth successfully avoided extended armed conflict for so long. The Sikhs were certainly the last to want war.

Thus, under the auspices of Guru Har Rai and Guru Har Krishan, the patrons of the warm shop enjoyed a window of respite from the hounding they endured during the stewardship of Guru Arjun and Guru Hargobind.

Meanwhile, however, the Mughals maintained hawk-eyed surveillance on this growing movement. In his 1723 composition, Ibratnama, Mughal historian Muhammad Qasim Lahauri wrote:

"In old times in a particular year, there was a dervish by the name of Nanak, clothed in Reality, rooted in Knowledge, endowed with spiritual perfections, rising above physical repute and name....

.... Some generations after him, Har Rai came into the world [and became his successor]. Group upon group of people bent their necks to follow and obey him, and glorified him through a thousand ways of giving him respect and honour."

The simple-hearted who flocked to the Panth found equality and liberty, but because most were from “low born” backgrounds, they were deprived of education and basic human needs.

To successfully transform them from “worms” into free people, the movement needed time to develop deeper roots.

The institution designed by the Gurus needed infrastructure, which Tegh Bahadur was deputed to develop before stepping into the public eye as Guru. Traveling extensively, the future Guru reached out to the Mulnivasi throughout Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand, & Uttar Pradesh.

Meanwhile, reported Sikh historian Surjit Singh: “He was deeply concerned and took keen interest in social and political changes that were taking place, as an artist watches a drama in which he is to play a hero’s part.”

The most significant sociopolitical change Tegh Bahadur observed before becoming Guru was a coup d’état in Delhi.

When Emperor Shah Jahan became sick in 1657, reported Dr. Audrey Truschke, his “four sons believed their father was on the brink of death, so they seized the opportunity created by....

.... this power vacuum to determine — according to time-honored Mughal practices of force and trickery — who would be crowned the next Emperor.”

Aurangzeb (1618-1707) made war on his brothers, emerged triumphant, then “executed two of his brothers, [drove] out the third, and locked away his recovered father.”

In the midst of this ruthless power struggle, none of the ruling elite paid a thought to the needs of the common people. As the Mughal throne switched from Shah Jahan to Aurangzeb, the masses continued to live as “worms.” In the words of Abraham Eraly:

"Behind the shimmering imperial facade, there was another scene, another life — people in mud hovels, their lives barely distinct from those of animals, wretched, half-naked, half-starved, and from whom every drop of sap had been wrung out by their predatory masters, Muslim....

.... as well as Hindu. Only chieftains & amirs fattened... Under Shah Jahan, over a quarter of the gross national product of the Empire was appropriated by just 655 individuals, while the bulk of the approximately 120 million people of India lived on a dead level of poverty....

.... Famine swept the land every few years, devouring hundreds of thousands of men, and in its wake came, always and inevitably, pestilence, devouring several hundreds of thousands more. In Mughal India, the contrast between legend and reality was grotesque."

Despite the prevailing culture of violence, Aurangzeb’s coup was so cold-blooded that at least one individual at the court was outraged enough to take a stand.

As Truschke explained: “Overthrowing one’s reigning father was considered abhorrent. The chief qazi (Muslim judge) of the Mughal Empire refused to endorse Aurangzeb’s ascension.” So the Emperor hired a more subservient qazi.

In contrast, the Brahmans remained obsessed with self-aggrandizement. For instance, the royal secretary, Chandar Bhan, felt no hesitation in endorsing the usurping prince.

Despite previously praising Shah Jahan as “the earthly shadow of the divine splendorous presence,” he applauded Aurangzeb in a letter to the new Emperor:

"May your felicitous and propitious accession, which is like the onset of springtime in a garden of wealth and fortune, and likewise the cause of the opening of the gates of the hopes and desires of the world and its inhabitants, bring happiness and blessings: upon the throne....

.... of khilafat and governance and the seat of kingship and universal rule that is the asylum of kings of the seven climes and the refuge of rulers on the face of the earth; upon Your Royal Majesty the sovereign Emperor of the universe, the qibla of the world and its....

.... people, the clarion blast of whose conquest and governance has been broadcast to all four quadrants of the world, and the seed of whose justice and beneficence has been planted in all six directions of the universe; and to all of your....

.... sympathizers, well-wishers, relations, and those who pray for the good of your daily increasing Empire."

As it had been since the beginning of foreign occupation, collaboration between Mughals and Brahmans remained crucial for both to maintain their stranglehold on political and social power.

“To the end, Aurangzeb depended on non-Muslim courtiers,” wrote American historians Barbara Metcalf and Thomas Metcalf. “More than a quarter of the mansab holders [bureaucrats], along with his leading general, were Hindus."

In fact, according to Eraly, the co-rule of the combined Mughal-Brahman elite actually expanded during Aurangzeb’s reign:

Aurangzeb continued to employ Hindus in high offices.... In the second half of his reign, their percentage was higher than ever before under the Mughals — in the rank of commanders of 5000 and above, it was 32.9 percent under Aurangzeb as against fourteen....

.... percent under Akbar; among all officers of the rank of 500 and above, it was 31.6 percent under Aurangzeb as against 22.5 percent under Akbar. A Brahman, Raghunath, served for a while as Aurangzeb’s acting revenue minister, one of the highest offices in the Empire.

Like Chandar Bhan, Raghunath flourished in the Mughal court. “Raghunath Ray... had supported Aurangzeb’s effort to win the throne during the war of succession,” wrote Rajeev Kinra.

Truschke reported: “Raghunath joined a group of administrators who pledged loyalty to Aurangzeb.”64 In the early years of Aurangzeb’s reign, he appointed Raghunath as Chief Finance Minister. As Truschke wrote:

“This high position mirrored Akbar’s appointment of Todar Mal as his top finance minister one hundred years earlier.” Furthermore, François Bernier, a French physician who worked in Aurangzeb’s court and knew Raghunath, wrote that he “acts as Vizier [Prime Minister].”

Thus, under Aurangzeb, Brahmans collaborating with the Mughals were invested with the highest powers in the Empire. His reign was more beneficial to the upper-caste elite than the reigns of any of the previous Emperors.

According to Kinra: “Chandar Bhan continued to serve Aurangzeb for nearly a decade following the war of succession, and, in Raghunath’s case, it was Aurangzeb who gave him the highest promotion of all.”

Aurangzeb’s most pressing goal was, in the words of Chandar, “daily increasing” the Empire. Truschke reported: “He expanded the Mughal Empire to its greatest extent, subsuming most of the Indian subcontinent under a single Imperial power for the first time in human history.”

Above all, his legacy was one of territorial conquest and fierce intolerance towards all threats to his political power.

The Emperor made war on Muslim kingdoms in the south, on a Buddhist territory in Bengal, and on a Hindu kingdom in Assam.

“A major focus of Aurangzeb’s reign was warfare directed against other Muslims,” wrote the Metcalfs.68 “His reign was nearly as hard on Muslims as it was on Hindus,” reported Eraly.

According to Truschke: "Throughout his reign, Aurangzeb crushed rebellions, waged cold-blooded wars of expansion, and oversaw merciless sieges.... Aurangzeb was not unusual in his time in turning to violence, including of a gruesome variety, as a standard political tactic. For...

.... Aurangzeb, State violence was not only permissible but necessary and even just.... One poignant example of Aurangzeb’s violence that sits ill with many today concerns Tegh Bahadur."

Tegh Bahadur became Guru in 1664. As Lahauri wrote: “After [Guru Har Rai], Guru Tegh Bahadur... rose further in status.” The Guru began touring Punjab and soon decided to “build a new settlement” and “buy a suitable piece of land for the purpose.”

In 1665, he laid the foundation stone of a village, naming it Chak Nanaki after his mother. As it grew, the village became the City of Anandpur Sahib.

Guru Tegh Bahadur’s plan was for this new settlement to serve as the future site of the culmination of Guru Nanak’s mission to uplift the “lowest of the low” as well as....

.... the fulfillment of Guru Hargobind’s doctrine of miri/piri when his successor, Guru Gobind Singh, issued a call for the Sikhs to form a new body in 1699.

From 1664 to 1668, Guru Tegh Bahadur traveled widely throughout India to spread the message of the Adi Granth.

“In the 1660s, a young Sikh Guru, Tegh Bahadur, began a vigorous missionary campaign across northern India from the Punjab to Assam,” wrote British historian Francis Robinson.

Surjit Singh wrote: “The Guru undertook tours to strengthen the links with the sangats [congregations] functioning in the eastern regions of the country whom he had personally observed during his earlier tour in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.”

He also toured Assam, Bengal, and Tripura. During his travels, reported Punjabi historian Mohindar Pal Kohli: "The Guru caused many tanks and wells to be dug for public use, preached to the people, quite irrespective of caste and creed, to abstain from violence and....

.... thieving, to live in peace with their neighbors, and love all human beings. These measures, coupled with his saintliness, greatly contributed to their welfare as well as moral spiritual awakening. They began to....

.... flock to him for comfort and solace and for worldly as well as spiritual advancement, and to embrace his faith voluntarily."

As Guru Tegh Bahadur traversed vast swathes of India, his teachings and his concern for social welfare captivated the simple-hearted. The Guru was laying the groundwork for a bigger calling which his son would carry out.

The warm shop which disturbed Aurangzeb’s grandfather, Jahangir, was more heavily trafficked than ever before. Not only was traffic flowing, but the “simple-hearted” flocking to this shop were now armed.

“Large numbers of Jats, the largest cultivating group of the region, were converted, as were some Muslims,” wrote Robinson. “Aurangzeb did not approve.”74 Consequently, the grandson of Jahangir sought to destroy the grandson of Guru Arjun.

“One of this Guru’s crimes, in the Emperor’s eyes, may have been the style of address adopted by his disciples, who had begun to call their leader Sacha Padshah or the True King,” wrote Scottish historian William Irvine in 1904.

Like his predecessors, Guru Tegh Bahadur followed “God’s path” by seeking the company of the “low born.” Thus, he fulfilled the teaching of Guru Arjun: “He who deems himself as of the lowly, shall be esteemed as the highest of the high.”

Aurangzeb’s arrogance distanced the people, who were instead drawn to Guru Tegh Bahadur’s humility. His followers, who realized that a ruler is only legitimate if he has the voluntary consent of the governed, identified the Guru as their “true king.”

Furthermore, the Sikhs were developing a totally separate society. For instance, they were creating their own economic system — a closed economy in which the community was becoming self-sufficient. In 1788, Lieutenant Colonel James Browne of the British East India Company wrote:

"His followers conceived a... veneration for him, and used among themselves to call him the true King; he, on his part, whatever he received in presents, or offerings, from his disciples or the Sikhs in general, he laid out in provisions, which he....

.... publicly distributed to all who chose to receive them; this brought great numbers to participate of his bounty."

Instead of being dependent on the Central State for their sustenance, the Sikhs were becoming independent by providing for themselves.

This did not escape the attention of the ruling elites, however, who were keenly aware of the Guru’s strident message and his swift organization of the Panth.

The rapid growth of the Sikhs and the economic support they voluntarily showered upon their Guru aroused the envy of the Mughals, as Lahauri reported:

"Because of the effect of the attention and pleasing ways of acceptance of that accepted one, the inclinations of the people and the flow of worldly things [towards him], such as petty items and valuables, money and goods, elephants and horses, did not decrease. Instead of....

.... himself [doing so], his followers from time to time claimed sovereignty for him.... [Aurangzeb], owing to his own passionate nature and regard for royal power, did not like such meaningless tumult."

Guru Tegh Bahadur’s followers “claimed sovereignty for him,” noted Lahauri, proving the Mughals understood he was being called Sacha Padshah. “This title was readily capable of a twofold interpretation,” explained Irvine.

“It might be applied as the occasion served in a spiritual or a literal sense. Its use was extremely likely to provoke the mistrust of a ruler even less suspicious by nature than [Aurangzeb].”

In his 1707 memoir, Tarikh-i Dilkusha, Bhimsen Saxena (an upper-caste Hindu general in Aurangzeb’s service) corroborated Irvine’s conclusion:

"Nanak wrote books in the praise and assertion of the unity of God. Gradually, it happened that in every country he appointed deputies, so that they might guide people to his religion. Now it has been seen and heard that no country, city, township, and village is without....

.... people believing in him.... Many took to the path of rebellion, such as Tegh Bahadur, by name, who lived in the mountains near Sirhind; he got himself called King (Padshah), and a large body of people gathered around him."

Although the liberated Sikhs bore arms as the right of free people, they were not waging an armed rebellion. “Thousands of people... swarmed round the Guru, but they cannot be taken as soldiers of revolt,” reported Surjit Singh.

“No contemporary record shows that there was any outbreak of revolt on the part of the Sikhs, although under the impact of the Guru's preachings, the process of mass awakening had set in.”

The masses were behaving independently. Guru Arjun was viewed by Jahangir as garbed in the attire of both a saint and a king. His son, Guru Hargobind, established an official doctrine of unity between miri and piri — a harmony between spiritual and kingly powers.

Sikhs were, as many have worded it, saints and soldiers. They embraced a doctrine of the universal nobility of the common person.

The doctrine conceptualized a person who, because he himself can be both priest and king, need not be subjugated to the whims of anyone else who assumes those titles to dictate to others. In short, the Sikhs practiced peace through strength. This disturbed tyrants.