Joseph Davey Cunningham (1812–1851)

There is a burgeoning wave in India which caustically and offhandedly dismisses European accounts of Indic history on the grounds that they are false literary attempts at Europeanization of the indigenous populaces.

As laughable as the above canard is, it unfortunately has found much leeway in Indian academia given that Indian society fights to come to terms with itself and modernity. After all, in pre-European India myth was the sole foundational stone on which history was established. While the Sikh Gurus inculcated a new literary tradition based on intelligence and observation the fact that the Sikhs had to battle for their survival against the Hindu-Muslim combine post-Guru era disallowed them fro substantially focusing on growing their unique literary heritage.

Cunningham's interaction with the Sikhs originated in 1837 when he served as assistant to Colonel Claude Wade the British political agent appointed to the Sikh Empire under Maharajah Ranjit Singh. An engineer by experience but retaining enough inquisitiveness, Cunningham like many other of his colleagues began recording their observations based on their interactions with specific host communities. For Cunningham, these were the Sikhs.

While his prose is antiquated, given that over two centuries have elapsed since he first put pen to paper, Cunningham's history based on observation allows him to sift fact from fiction without much effort though he commits the occasional gaffe. His analysis of the differences between the Gurus and the Bhagats; the reason behind the inculcation of Bhagat Bani in the Guru Granth Sahib and rare insight into the early life of Nawab Kapur Singh evince a strong and balanced approach to authentically recounting the past. On the other hand his disability to comprehend the prejudiced regression of Banda Singh's historical image and other facets of Sikh history make his history a chronicle carefully approached.

Cunningham wrote when the Western world clashed with the Sikhs. Witness to conspiracies and subterfuges at the highest level of the British East India Company Hierarchy, Cunningham exposed and evidenced the barefaced inhumane schemes of Hardinge and the Hindu Dogra trio to bring about the fall of Sikh sovereignty. This uncompromising stance on the truth cost him his employment and reputation. He finally died heartbroken at the fate which had befallen the Sikhs.

The tragedy of the Sikhs speaks across the ages in Cunningham's A History Of The Sikhs.… (plus d'informations)