Lehal Library

Preface E ver since its publication in 1849, Captain Joseph Davey Cunningham's History of the Sikhs has been considered the standard work on the religion and history of the Sikhs. Since then extensive research has been done on different aspects of Sikh history: large portions of their scriptures have been translated; records bearing on the building of the Sikh church and community have been unearthed; the founding of an independent Punjabi state under Sikh auspices and its collapse after the death of Ranjit Singh have been explained. However, no attempt has been made to revise Cunningham's work in the light of these later researches; nor, what is more surprising, has any one undertaken to continue Cunningham's narrative beyond the end of the First Sikh War and the partial annexation of the Punjab by the British in 1846. This work is the first attempt to tell the story of the Sikhs from their inception to the present day. h is based on the study of original documents in,Gurmukhi, Persian, and English, available in the archives and libraries of India, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. lt also gives an account of the Sikh communities scattered in different parts of the world-Great Britain, the United States, Canada, China, Malaya States, Burma, and South and East Africa-and of the way they are facing the challenge of modem times in alien surroundings.