Another historically significant event in the history of the Punjab is gradual but relentless peasants’ discontent triggered by unbearably high level of taxation imposed on agriculture by the Mughal administration in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Even at the height of Mughal glory in the reign of Emperor Akbar we witness a peasant uprising in the Sandal Bar of Punjab led by legendry folk hero Dullah Bhatti, not far away from Lahore which functioned as the capital of the empire for fourteen years during the Emperor Akbar’s stay in the metropolis in two stints.

A segment of intelligentsia believes that Akbar’s stay in Lahore was linked with the efforts to crush the rebellion. There can be a debate about Akbar’s motive and the scale of the rebellion but one thing has been proved beyond a shadow of doubt: a revolt did take place. If there was unrest during the most prosperous period of Mughal empire, one can imagine what would have happened in later times when Akbar’s policy of co-opting the locals in the state was reversed.

This very brief background is necessary to understand the subsequent peasant insurrections that rocked the Mughal rule paving the way the rise of Sikh faith and politics that changed the landscape of Punjab for all times to come. Baba Guru Nanak, a great seer, profound thinker and spiritual revolutionary, was venerated by people of diverse faiths. His peaceful socio-spiritual movement carried on by succeeding Gurus didn’t come in conflict with the Mughal regime till the fifth Guru, Arjan Dev, took over.

Guru Arjan, a great son of Lahore and compiler of the Adi Granth, fell victim to an intrigue hatched by his opponents. But its political dimension is too obvious to be ignored. In ‘Tuzk-e-Jahangiri’ Emperor Jahangir says that he wanted to ‘put an end to this falsehood’. Majid Sheikh, a well-known scholar on the history of Lahore, in his column writes: “so while in Lahore Emperor Jahangir summoned Guru Arjan and asked him to immediately convert to Islam and put an end to the Sikh faith. One account tells of Jahangir being upset that Jahangir’s brother Khusrau had also been once entertained by the Guru, a normal Punjabi courtesy to all visitors”. So Guru Arjan was imprisoned and tortured. Mian Mir, the venerated Muslim saint, defying the emperor supported the Guru in his excruciatingly painful ordeal that took his life. The Guru’s assassination proved a starting point of widening gulf between Muslims and Sikhs.

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“In a way Jahangir was the person who initiated the swing away from the liberal Akbar, which Shah Jehan nurtured and Aurangzeb took to extremes,” writes Majid Sheikh. This ‘swing away’ in fact triggered an irretrievable downward slide of Mughal rule. Execution of Guru Tegh Bahadur on the orders of Emperor Aurangzeb in Delhi proved to be an act that instead of breaking the back of the Sikhs galvanized them under the bold leadership of young Guru Gobind Singh. Now it was an open war between the declining Mughal regime and rising Sikh forces which represented the aspirations of the oppressed peasantry.

Aurangzeb committed yet another folly; he got killed Guru Gobind Singh’s sons of tender age. The policy of discrimination and exclusion adopted by Aurangzeb continued after him with two fold effect: on the one hand, it further alienated the repressed local social forces and on the other, the weakening of central authority attracted Iranian and Afghan invaders. In the aftermath of Ahmed Shah’s savage invasions, the successive governors of Lahore like their predecessors indulged in the witch hunting of zestful Sikhs. Massacre wasn’t something new for the Sikhs. They had already seen two holocausts or massacres; the lesser one (Chhota Ghalughara) and the big one (Wadda Ghalughara) perpetrated by Mughal authorities and Ahmed Shah Abdali supported by chiefs of Sirhind and Malerkotla in 1746 and 1762, respectively. A doggerel summed up the story of the Sikhs when their bitter foe Mir Mannu was the governor of Lahore (1748-1753): Mannu asaadi daatri, assin Mannu de soay/jion jion saanu wadhda, assin doon sawaye hoay (Mannu is our sickle / we are the fodder for him to mow/the more he cuts, the more we grow)”.

The things turned so nasty that there was a price on every Sikh head for a certain period. Anarchy ruled supreme in the eighteenth century. Enfeebled central authority paved the way for the rise of new socio-political forces in Punjab that wreaked havoc with the old order based on the supremacy of the rulers of foreign origins. “Bhuryan walay Rajay keetay/Mughlan zahir piyalay peetay (the ones clad in the coarse brown blankets ascended the throne/ and the Moguls drank the cups full of hemlock),” says Baba Bulleh Shah who himself witnessed the turmoil. ‘Bhuryan Walay’ were no other than the heads of Sikh bands who finally established their ‘Misals’ (protectorates) in the different regions of Punjab. The period in between the ascendency of the ‘Misals’ and Ranjit Singh’s capture of Lahore offered people nothing but political chaos, social anarchy and economic stagnation. Sikh bands, led by power intoxicated chiefs, roamed the countryside and pillaged at will which added to the sufferings of the Muslim majority that wasn’t responsible for the atrocities committed against the Sikhs. Such a confusing situation confounded both the communities. For the ordinary Sikhs, Muslim commoners became the ‘other’ simply because they shared faith with the rulers. And for the ordinary Muslims, the Sikh commoners became the ‘other’ simply because they shared their faith with the rampaging Sikh chiefs who had committed excesses against the Muslims.