Mazhabi Sikh histories: religious belonging, labour and military service

A Sikh identity shaped against exclusion

The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism describes Mazhabi Sikhs as a community whose predecessors entered Sikh religious life from groups subjected to severe caste exclusion. Its narrative connects their participation with the Gurus’ rejection of birth-based inequality and access to congregation and shared meals. The occupational and caste names used in historical records describe an unequal social order; they are not evidence of inherited personal qualities or a prescription for work today.[1]

Bhai Jaita occupies a central place in this remembrance. The encyclopedia recounts his recovery of Guru Tegh Bahadur’s severed head and its return to the Guru’s family, followed by his later initiation as Jivan Singh. It also describes Rangreta participation in eighteenth-century Sikh fighting bands. These traditions place people marginalised by caste within the community’s central histories of devotion and sacrifice.[1]

Employment brought opportunities and limits

Harish K. Puri’s historical study shows how military recruitment altered Mazhabi status under British rule. Pioneer regiments offered employment and recognition, while their organisation preserved distinctions between recruits from different social backgrounds. The history is therefore more complicated than either complete exclusion from the army or an assumption that military service automatically removed caste inequality. Colonial praise of soldiers was itself expressed through hierarchical classifications.[2]

Puri also describes labour migration to Punjab’s canal colonies and a small number of land allotments to retired Mazhabi soldiers. Such opportunities could support changes in occupation and social standing, but they did not extend equally to everyone. Irrigation construction, settlement and military employment connected Mazhabi lives to major economic changes in western Punjab, alongside continued agricultural labour and unequal access to land.[2]

An object records a regimental transition

A brass shoulder title in London’s National Army Museum bears the initials of the Mazhbi and Ramdassia Sikh Regiment. The museum dates the regiment’s re-raising to 1941, identifies it as a successor to the 3rd Sikh Pioneers, and records its renaming as the Sikh Light Infantry in 1944. It subsequently entered independent India’s army. This small uniform object preserves a named institutional history shared with Ramdasia soldiers, rather than standing for every Mazhabi Sikh’s experience.[3]