It is safe to assume that anyone with an even rudimentary interest in the study of the Punjab has heard of Malerkotla, one of only two towns within the present-day state whose majority population is Muslim (the other being Qadian). Malerkotla's fame, based on its lack of religious and communal strife, is in one telling traced back to Nawab Sher Muhammad Khan, its early eighteenth-century governor. Tradition claims that the nawab appealed to Emperor Aurangzeb to spare the lives of the two young sons of Guru Gobind Singh (the tenth Sikh Guru) who had been captured by imperial forces in 1704 or 1705. This courageous, albeit unsuccessful, attempt, today known as the haah da naara or Cry for Justice, inspired the guru to bless the town—a blessing that, tradition maintains, spared Malerkotla the many catastrophes that have befallen northern India since that day. In another telling, Malerkotla's peace derives from...

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