When the Mughal Empire began persecuting the Sikhs in the 1600s, this community of North Indian devotees was forced to take up arms or face extinction. Warrior Saints (Vol. 1) compellingly told the remarkable story of how they fought back to establish a powerful modern-day empire, stretching from the borders of Tibet to Afghanistan, which they then lost to the Honourable East India Company in two of its toughest 19th-century military conflicts.
Warrior Saints continues that fascinating story. The British were so impressed by the military prowess of their conquered foe - representing a curious mix of ancient Indian warfare combined with modern Napoleonic methods - they recruited Sikhs into Queen Victoria's Indian Army. Initially mobilised to protect the borders and outposts of the British Empire in distant lands including China, Ethiopia, Somaliland, Cyprus, Afghanistan, Egypt and Burma, thousands of Sikhs went on to lay down their lives in the Two World Wars. With the emergence of an independent India, the Sikhs opened a fresh chapter in the saga of their fighting tradition.
