Sovereign Silks: The Agency And Authority of Women in the Sikh Empire (1799–1849)

This paper explores the socio-political status and executive influence of women within the Sikh Empire under Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his successors. While traditional historiography often categorizes the 19th-century Punjab as a purely patriarchal martial state, this study argues that Sikh women—specifically the Sardarnis and Maharanis—leveraged religious egalitarianism and the "Misl" (confederacy) system to exercise significant agency. By examining the lives of figures such as Mai Sada Kaur and Maharani Jind Kaur, this research demonstrates that women were architects of diplomacy, military strategy, and anti-colonial resistance. The paper further analyzes how the transition to British colonial rule systematically dismantled these traditional power structures, reframing the "active" Sikh woman as a domestic subject.