The Sikh People's War 1699-1768 Arjan Dass Malik The present study seeks to show that ever since its inception in1699, the Khalsa movement possessed some of the majorcharacteristics of a popular resistance movement, and that itfurther acquired all the characteristics of guerilla warfare in thepost-Banda Bahadur period, 1716-68. It makes a small effort towardsformulation of an Indian theory of peoples war, and provides theIndian students of guerilla warfare with a historical example oftheir own. Further it strives to show that the objective of RajKhalsa which Guru Gobind Singh had placed before his Sikhs wasfairly borad and capable of flexible interpretation. No doubt itwas religious zeal which initially provided the accent anduncompromising style to Sikh struggle, the class nature of theKhalsa movement became fairly articulate when it progressivelyembraced socio-economic goals under Banda Bahadur. Inmid-eighteenth century, when the Sikhs were unceasingly fightingfor the twin objective of evicting the Mughals from the Panjab andpreventing Afghan domination over it, their struggle acquired thenature and content of a popular Panjabi resistance movement whichenjoyed active support of both the Hindus and the Muslims.