Mughal-Sikh Wars

The Mughal-Sikh Wars were a series of escalating conflicts between the Mughal Empire and the Sikhs waged between 1628 and 1715. The causes include Sikh interference in Mughal dynastical struggles, Mughal persecution of Sikhs after initial acceptance by Emperor Akbar, and Sikh separatism and claims to worldly power by the Sikh gurus. Despite intermittent successes and a resistance noted by Mughal chroniclers for its bravery, the Sikhs were repeatedly defeated, with Guru Tegh Bahadur arrested and executed in 1675, the Sikh stronghold of Anandpur captured by the Mughals in 1704 after two sieges and Guru Gobind Singh assassinated in 1708 on orders of the Mughal governor of Sirhind, Wazir Khan. Gobind Singh's successor as military commander of the Sikhs, Banda Singh Bahadur, stormed Sirhind in 1710 and had Wazir Khan beheaded, but was defeated by Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah I in a decisive battle near Sadaura. Despite a resurgence of Sikh power after the death of Bahadur Shah and a Mughal succession struggle, the Sikhs, resorting to guerilla tactics, were driven back into the Himalayas, and in 1715 the Sikh stronghold Gurdas Nangal near Gurdaspur was captured by the Mughals after an eight-month siege. Banda Singh Bahadur and more than 700 Sikhs were captured and tortured to death.

Battles

References

Shaw, Jeffrey M.; Demy, Timothy J., eds. (2017). War and Religion: An Encyclopedia of Faith and Conflict. ABC-CLIO. pp. 574–577. ISBN 9781610695176.
Jacques, Tony (2007). Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: F-O. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 421. ISBN 9780313335365.

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