Dynamics of Society and Culture During the Khalsa Raj (1765-1849)

Preface The present work deals with the socio-cultural life of the people of Punjab during the period from AD 1765 to 1849. This period is significant in the history of the Punjab. It was a period of the decline of Mughal-Afghan rule and the emergence of the Sikhs as the sovereign rulers. They emerged as the rulers of Punjab entirely on the strength of their own arms and presaged the building up of a kingdom under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Several scholars have focused on the political, administrative and economic history of the period. In the 1920s and the 1930s Sita Ram Kohli's Maharaja Ranjit Singh and G.L. Chopra's, Punjab as a Sovereign State were published. During the post-independence period Fauja Singh's Military System of the Sikhs, J.S. Grewal's Maharaja Ranjit Singh, B.J. Hasrat's Life and Times of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Indu Banga's, Agrarian System of the Sikhs, Radha Sharma's, Peasantry and the State and Veena Sachdeva's, Polity and Economy of the Punjab during the Late Eighteenth Century are important contribution to comprehend these aspects of the history of Punjab. Some of these works do refer to the society and culture of the Punjab during this period but it is not their major concern.

**Contents and Sample Pages**