Cosmopolitanism, millenarianism, and Sikhism in a Persianate India: Some motifs in recent historiography

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article, divided into two parts, explores the ramifications of Eaton's India in the Persianate Age for salient topics in Sikh historiography. The first part defines Eaton's arguments and expands on facets of the Persianate dispensation, drawing out relevant features of his biography and previous works. Secularity and universality as well as the approaches adopted to break from reified notions of religious community are underscored. The second part focuses on violence, militancy, and millenarianism in moments of crisis in early Sikh history. The article develops the dialectic of social levels and, in doing so, invokes Clio, the muse of historians.