The Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms

The Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms (V&A Publications) by Susan Stronge was first produced to accompany an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1999, which marked the 300th anniversary of the formation of the sacred Sikh brotherhood of the Khalsa by examining the remarkable cultural history of the Sikh kingdoms of the Panjab in the 19th century. But if you missed the exhibition, this hefty and lavishly illustrated tome gives a thorough introduction to Sikh history, culture and art. Sikhism is about 500 years old, founded by Guru Nanak after his revelation of the divine as one infinite and singular reality (Ik On Kar - the quintessential form of Sikh metaphysics and ethics) and refined by succeeding gurus. Kindness, social cohesiveness and divine unity - and a shunning of meaningless ritual - define the creed, and there are now about 30 million Sikhs in the world, of whom 20 million live in India and significant numbers in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. Susan Stronge has gathered together an impressive array of contributors from museum curators to military historians. Their articles cover the religion itself, and the story of its key religious building, the golden temple at Amritsar. Military history ('when all other means have failed, it is righteous to draw the sword' said Guru Gobind Singh, and for centuries the Sikhs fought hard against Mogul oppression), art and textiles and courtly customs are also examined, as are some key 19th-century figures and, unavoidably, the relationship with Britain and the European perspective on the Panjab. Though many of the artefacts of the 19th century were modelled on traditional styles centuries older, the modern world also intruded on the Panjab, and there is a fascinating chapter of photographs from the Panjab in the 1850s and 1860s. The author Susan Stronge is a curator in the Indian and South-East Asian Department at the V&A museum, and has written prolifically about the jewellery and other decorative arts of northern India from the 16th to the 19th centuries. This book is viewed as the definitive guide to Sikh arts and is highly recommended to those with an interest in Sikh arts.

The Sikh Army, 1799-1849 (Men-at-arms)

The Sikh Army 1799-1849 (Men-at-arms) (Osprey details the Sikh wars 1845-46 and 1848-49 that saw the British Army pitted against its most formidable enemy in the whole history of British India, and perhaps of the whole expansionist phase of the 19th century British Empire. The Sikh Army created by Maharaja Ranjit Singh from the 1820s was inspired by its warrior faith, but organised, drilled, uniformed, and armed in Western style. Its artillery was unrivalled in Asia, and by the 1840s the Sikhs had 50,000-70,000 regular troops and similar numbers of irregulars. Although the British were victorious, they suffered huge casualties, and the major pitched battles of the wars more closely resembled Waterloo than the actions typically fought in this theatre. It could also be argued that the Sikh's lost because of the betrayal at the hands of the Dogra brothers that negotiated with the British and other allies of the British, whom without the British would have found hard to have any gains against the Sikhs. The author Ian Heath is a highly respected author and has written a number of Osprey titles, including Men-at-Arms volumes 89: 'Byzantine Armies 886-1118', 287: 'Byzantine Armies 1118-1461' and 275: 'The Taiping Rebellion 1851-66'. He is currently working on a five-volume project covering the armies of 19th-century Asia. Ian lives and works in Cambridgeshire, UK. The book has been illustrated by Michael Perry who has worked for 22 years as a sculptor/designer at Games Workshop and 16 years for the historical figure company, Wargames Foundry, along with his twin brother Alan.