Mughal-Sikh Wars


The following is a list of battles between the Mughals and Sikhs.

Background

Between the 7th and 11th centuries, Islamic armies conducted several campaigns into the Hindu-dominated Indian subcontinent, making conquests limited to present-day Pakistan and the Punjab. From the 12th through the 16th century, however, Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent were more successful and saw the emergence of Islamic states over Hindu-majority populations. In the early 16th century, one such state was the Mughal Empire, founded by the successful king Babur in northern India. Meanwhile, in the later 15th century in the Punjab, Sikhism had been proclaimed by Guru Nanak as a new monotheistic religion that rejected both Hinduism and Islam, and rapidly gained followers. Perceiving the growth of the Sikhs as a threat, the Mughal authorities began to persecute them, and in 1606 Sikh leader Guru Arjan was executed by Mughal emperor Jahangir, apparently for helping prince Khusrau. Sikhism split into two movements: one led by Guru Arjan's son Guru Hargobind began to regard Guru Arjan as a martyr, became more political and militaristic, and started organising armed rebellions against the Mughals; the other led by Guru Arjan's older brother Prithi Chand focused on peace and nonviolence, and rejected uprisings.

Wars

The tenth and the last guru of Sikhs Guru Gobind Singh organised themselves in jathas, who would see their first battle in 1621. After several decades, small Sikh states known as misls combined to form the Sikh Confederacy in 1716, that jointly fought against Mughal power. In 1735, the jathas would be combined into a single army, the Dal Khalsa. Though successes varied, the Sikhs contributed to the decline of the Mughal Empire during the first half of the 18th century. By the 1750s, the neighbouring northwestern Islamic Durrani Empire and the southern Hindu Maratha Empire had all but destroyed the Mughal Empire, which retained a small territory around Delhi.

Battles

Guru Hargobind

  1. Battle of Rohilla
  2. Battle of Kartarpur
  3. Battle of Amritsar
  4. Battle of Lahira.
  5. Battle for Maham.

    Guru Gobind Singh

  6. Battle of Bhangani
  7. Battle of Guler
  8. Battle of Nadaun
  9. Battle of Basoli
  10. Battle of Anandpur
  11. First Battle of Anandpur
  12. Second Battle of Anandpur
  13. Battle of Nirmohgarh
  14. Battle of Sarsa
  15. Battle of Chamkaur
  16. Battle of Muktsar

    Banda Singh Bahadur

  17. Battle of Sonepat
  18. Battle of Samana
  19. Battle of Chappar Chiri
  20. Siege of Sirhind
  21. Battle of Sadhaura
  22. Battle of Rahon
  23. Battle of Lohgarh
  24. Battle of Jammu
  25. Battle of Jalalabad
  26. Siege of Gurdaspur or Battle of Gurdas Nangal

    Baghel Singh

  27. Battle of Delhi