The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c7.s14.3

c7.s14.3

In the Deccan the bulwark of Hindu independence was built up by Śivāji the Great (1627-1680), the Frederick the Great of India, in his empire of the Marathas. This was continued during the eighteenth century under the Peshwas or ministers (1714-1818). Fragments of Maratha states still exist more or less as "feudatories" of Great Britain. The second great reaction against political Islam manifested itself almost simultaneously in the militant nationalism of the Sikhs in the Punjab. From Guru Govind (1675-1708), organizer of the Khalsa polity, down to Ranjit Singh (1780-1839), monarch of a united Punjab including Kāśmīr, nay, down to 1849, it was the Hindus (Sikhs) who held Northern and North-western India. It is worth while to emphasise that Ranjit Singh, the contemporary of the Bengali Rammohun Roy (1772-1833), was the sovereign ruler of a powerful state.