Satnam Singh is a senior consultant to Danish authorities and has worked professionally for more than a decade to prevent political extremism and honor-related violence against women.

In eighteenth-century Mughal India, warrior groups across the subcontinent rose in rebellion, causing great political disruptions to the existing order. During this period, the Sikh community transformed from a relatively insignificant religious minority to an elevated position of kingship and empire. Under the leadership of Guru Gobind Singh, Sikh elites and peasants began to align themselves with discourses of power and authority, and within a few decades Khalsa warriors conquered some of the wealthiest provinces of the Mughal and Afghan empires.

In this book, Satnam Singh argues that the Sikhs' increasing self-assertion was not simply a reaction to Mughal persecution but also a result of an active program initiated by the Guru to pursue larger visions of scholarship, conquest, and political sovereignty. Using a vast trove of understudied court literature, Singh shows how Sikhs grappled with Indo-Islamic traditions to forge their own ideas of governance and kingship with the aim to establish an independent Sikh polity. The Road to Empire offers an impressive intellectual history of the early modern Sikh world.

Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Significant Events
Introduction: Power, Literature, and Political Ideas
PART I. INTELLECTUAL AND INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXTS
1. Sikh Tradition and Rajniti
2. The Anandpur Library
3. Oceans of Knowledge
4. Institutional Context of the Dasam Granth Sahib
PART II. POLITICIZATION OF THE SIKH CHARACTER
5. Teaching Statesmanship through Fables and Erotic Stories
6. Balancing Lofty Ideals and Pragmatism
7. The Guru's Political Objectives
PART III. POLITICAL SOVEREIGNTY OF THE KHALSA
8. Combining Rajniti and Rahit
9. From Translators to Political Thinkers
PART IV. ROAD TO KINGSHIP AND EMPIRE
10. The Sikh Raj of Anandpur (ca. 1684-1704)
11. The Khalsa's Raj around Mukhlispur (ca. 1710-1716)
12. Punjab under the Rule of Khalsa Rajas (1765-1799)
Conclusion: The Political Education of Khalsa Sikhs
Appendix: Literature in the Anandpur Library
Notes
Glossary
References
Index