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Reviews of Books
substantial gaps in temporal coverage. The volume
skips from the early common era to the tenth century,
then again to the fifteenth, and also leaves out the crucial eighteenth century. The result is a discontinuity
that makes it more difficult for the reader to follow and
maintain the thread of change. The second notable flaw
is the lack of attention to the role of Hainan Island;
given its size and location along the eastern side of the
gulf, one would expect it to have played a significant
role. If this was not the case, then some attention to the
reasons for the omission would have been helpful. Despite these minor shortcomings, this volume is an extremely welcome addition to the still limited scholarship on this region.
GEORGE DUTTON
University of California,
Los Angeles
PURNIMA DHAVAN. When Sparrows Became Hawks: The
Making of the Sikh Warrior Tradition, 1699–1799. New
York: Oxford University Press. 2011. Pp. x, 253. $74.00.
On the (apocryphal?) Baisakhi day of 1699 when the
tenth guru of the Sikhs, Gobind Singh, is said to have
created the Khalsa, a myth was born, polyvalent in its
hermeneutic possibilities. Purnima Dhavan invokes this
myth in her book’s title with the metaphor “when sparrows became hawks.” It is constitutive of the self image
of the Sikhs as men of uncompromising masculinity: the
miraculous transformation of the Sikhs into hawks
brought about by the tenth guru. Dhavan studies the
ensuing tumultuous hundred years, when the Khalsa Jat
peasant-soldiers transformed into elite warriors, gradually and violently accumulating political power in Punjab while intermittently fighting or aligning with other
power brokers of the region: Mughals, Afghans, Rajputs, and Marathas. Dhavan mines multiple textual
sources relating to eighteenth-century Punjab in an attempt to separate myth from history, examining both
the evolving Khalsa institutions and the ambitions of
individual Khalsa chiefs that led them to stretch, negotiate, and compromise Khalsa norms.
Two aspects of Dhavan’s project stand out from earlier interpretations of this period. First, she places Punjab within the larger developments occurring in north
India, viz. similar warrior groups emerging and flexing
their political muscle and social ambition in the fluid
situation created by the Mughals in irreversible decline,
and the unprecedented growth of a military labor market. This is a refreshing perspective when set against the
inward gaze of studies focused on Sikh history exclusive
of regional or subcontinental transmutations. Second,
she examines a variety of Sikh and non-Sikh sources,
including the genres of the Rahitnama and the Gurbilas,
court histories of local chieftains, Afghan chroniclers,
and Mughal records. This diverse range of sources allows Dhavan to frame Punjab against broader political
and cultural changes.
The chapters in the book can be divided into two categories. The first set deals with the political develop-
AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW
ments in Punjab in the eighteenth century and map out
the working of individual ambitions of Sikh sardars with
the institutions of the Khalsa that enjoined collective
initiative. The second set focuses on the varied genres
of Sikh literature, illuminating the literary and cultural
traditions of their compositions, the histories of their
composers, and the logics of their sometimes inconsistent and contradictory stances.
The first set of chapters takes us through the careers
of the bairagi Banda Bahadur, the two Jassa Singhs
(Ramgarhia and Ahluwalia), and Alha Singh—the
founder of the Patiala state. Dhavan also discusses how
raiding and honor feuds often led Khalsa chiefs outside
Punjab in their effort to firm up power within the region. Dhavan shows that despite the prescriptive literature that gave injunctions to adhere to Khalsa norms,
or portrayed the struggles of the Khalsa in the language
of dharamyudh, a morally justifiable war, negotiation
and compromise were essential elements of flexibility
required as different leaders maneuvered for power.
For example, some Rahitnamas described Muslims or
Turks as the enemy, but this identification did not preclude occasional alliances of Sikhs with Mughals, Afghans, and Rajputs. This was true for the Ahluwalia
chief, the “Padshah of the Panth,” as for Alha Singh
who acquired the title of “Raja” from both Ahmad Shah
Abdali and the Khalsa. Equally important were Jat kinship ties to enhance power and the Khalsa institutions
of the gurmata emphasizing collective decisions, or the
pooling of resources to fight together. However, Dhavan notes that what remained important was the relatively egalitarian appeal of the Khalsa in contradistinction to other warrior groups where hierarchy emerged,
as among the Marathas.
Dhavan demonstrates that diversity was a constitutive element of Sikh literature. Soon after the death of
the tenth guru, the circulation of Bachitar Natak celebrated the ideal of a warrior in courtly circles, the text
woven in a language that borrowed from Puranic myths.
Sainapati’s Gursobha on the other hand, pointed to the
continuation of the less florid Sikh exegetical tradition.
Similarly the injunctions of the Rahitnamas, formulating norms for Khalsa conduct, were marked by hybridity
within the genre. The efflorescence of the hagiographic
Gurbilas literature created affective communities
around the persona and court of Gobind Singh, reconciling different groups, including the Udasis, in their
fabrication of a devotional memory of the guru.
Dhavan paints a picture of eighteenth-century Punjab through presenting micro-histories of some Khalsa
chiefs and by reading Sikh literature. Among her insights are those that underscore Sikh diversity (Khalsa
and Sikh never becoming interchangeable terms), and
the political pragmatism of the Khalsa chiefs. There are
many stories of these times that hover on the margins
in this volume but are left out. Dhavan makes a valiant
attempt to write the region into the subcontinental history of the time.
ANSHU MALHOTRA
University of Delhi
OCTOBER 2012