The history of the Sikh Panth is marked by moments when spiritual vision and political destiny converged. Few concepts embody this union more completely than the Khalsa and the proclamation “Raj Karega Khalsa.” Rooted in the revolutionary transformation initiated by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699, these ideas have resonated across centuries — as theological affirmations, rallying cries, and political realities.
The word “Khalsa” does occur in Sri Guru Granth Sahib in the Bani of Bhagat Kabir .It appears in Rag Sorath, where Kabir uses it in the sense of pure or liberated from worldly entanglements:
ਕਹੁ ਕਬੀਰ ਜਨ ਭਏ ਖਾਲਸੇ ਪ੍ਰੇਮ ਭਗਤਿ ਜਿਹ ਜਾਨੀ ॥੪॥੩॥ ( ਅੰਗ ੬੫੫)
Kaho Kabeer jan bha-é khaalsé parém bhagat jih jaanee. ||4||3||
(Says Kabir, those humble people become pure - they become Khalsa -who know the Lord's loving devotional worship. ||4||3||)
Here, Khalsa means the pure one — spiritually cleansed, free from vice and inner conflict. This is a personal, mystical definition, very different from its later collective-political identity under Guru Gobind Singh, yet it provides a spiritual root for the later Khalsa ideal.
The term Khālsā comes from Persian administrative vocabulary, where it denoted land or revenue directly under the control of the sovereign (māl-i khālsā), free from the claims of intermediaries (jāgīrdār). In Mughal revenue manuals, khalsa signified crown property managed by the imperial treasury (dīwān-i khālsā).
Guru Gobind Singh’s appropriation of the term, however, was transformative. In his own words recorded in the Sarbloh Granth:
ਖ਼ਾਲਸਾ ਮੇਰੋ ਰੂਪ ਹੈ ਖਾਸ, ਖ਼ਾਲਸੇ ਮਹਿ ਹੌਂ ਕਰੋਂ ਨਿਵਾਸ।
Khalsa mero roop hai khaas, khalse meh hau karo nivaas.
The Tenth Guru declared, “Khalsa is my own special form,” affirming:“It is by their grace that I am exalted; without them, I am as insignificant as millions of others” (Dasam Granth ).
This was the Guru Khalsa, the Guru Panth—a profound spiritual concept and unique contribution of Sikhism to world religious thought. Nowhere else is the Guru’s light vested in a collective body, with the grace of the Guru’s Word shaping the moral character of an entire community. The Guru-form of the Khalsa is defined neither by number, attire, place, nor historical sequence, but by the united, fearless, exalted consciousness of the Sarbat Khalsa, merged with the spiritual inspiration of Gurbani.
This eternal, formless Sangat received Guruship at Chamkaur, where five Sikhs, embodying perfect harmony with the Guru’s Word, represented the path of divine absorption . All who follow this path form the Panth; the Khalsa becomes Guru only through such spiritual attainment.
The Khalsa recognized by Guru Gobind Singh was the timeless fellowship of sanctified warriors. With it, he covenanted that so long as the Khalsa preserves purity of conduct, Guruship will remain; if it adopts alien ways, the bond will break:
As long as the Khalsa remains distinct,
I shall grant it my full glory.
When it adopts Brahminical ways,
I shall withdraw my trust.
Thus, the Khalsa, infused with lofty spiritual vision, was shaped by Guru Gobind Singh through enlightened awareness, equanimity, mystical experience, and moral purity—his vision realized in history as the Guru Panth.
The “Raj Karega Khalsa” couplet embodies the Khalsa Panth’s luminous principle of sovereignty. However, some self-serving Sikhs distort Sikh tenets for personal fame and political gain, even promoting the false notion that religion and politics should be separated. For politically subjugated Sikhs, this truth often appeared unpalatable.
Its earliest reference appears in Karni Nama, linked to Guru Nanak’s dialogue with Qazi Ruknuddin at Mecca, but most historians affirm it was spoken by Guru Gobind Singh . Bhai Nand Lal Goya (1633–1713), a distinguished Persian poet in Guru Gobind Singh’s court, is credited with recording the earliest known articulation of “Raj Karega Khalsa” in his Tankhahnama (also called Nasihatnama). Composed as a dialogue with the Guru, this rehatnama blends moral instruction with a prophetic vision of Khalsa sovereignty.
The celebrated dohra reads:
“Raj Karega Khalsa, Aaki Rahe Na Koye.
Khwar Hoe Sab Milenge, Bache Sharan Jo Hoe.”
(The Khalsa shall rule; no enemy shall remain. Defeated foes will gather, and those who seek refuge shall be saved.)
Here, “Raj” signifies not mere temporal power but the triumph of justice, unity, and divine order. By presenting it as the Guru’s own words, Nand Lal gave the phrase spiritual legitimacy. Over time, it entered the Sikh Ardas, becoming a central affirmation of faith and destiny. Bhai Nand Lal’s poetic framing thus transformed “Raj Karega Khalsa” from prophecy into an enduring ideal — a spiritual promise that has inspired the Panth for over centuries.
Popularized by Baba Banda Singh Bahadur, a key figure in Sikh military victories (1709-1715), this couplet served as an enduring source of inspiration for Sikhs facing adversity in the eighteenth century. Today, it resonates in the concluding ardas, a formal Sikh prayer. The term 'Khalsa' denotes the pure, collective Sikh community initiated by Guru Gobind Singh. The couplet encapsulates the dynamic optimism of the Sikh ethos, embodying Chardi Kalã. It fortifies the Sikh belief that the Khalsa will eventually govern their ancestral land and culture, echoing the historical reign of Mahārājā Ranjit Singh in the early nineteenth century.
Contemporary Persian chroniclers, though often critical of the Sikh movement, recorded its rapid transformation. The Mughal historian Ghulam Muhammad in Fatuhat Namah-i-Samadi noted that
فتوحات نامهٔ صمدی (Fatuhat Namah-i-Samadi, c. 1705)
"گفتند که خالصه راجه میکند، و به نام نانک و گوبند سکه زدند."
They proclaimed that the Khalsa shall rule (Khalsa rāje mīkunad), and they struck coins in the name of Nanak and Gobind.”
In the words of the Zafarnamah (1706), Guru Gobind Singh’s Persian letter to Aurangzeb:
شهنشاه دین و دنیا تویی
Shahanshah-e-din-o-duniya tu-ee
(The True King is the Sovereign of religion and the world.)
The phrase “Raj Karega Khalsa” — now integral to the ardās — does not appear in Guru Gobind Singh’s surviving autobiographical works but emerges in the early 18th century in oral tradition and varan (ballads) of the Nihang Singhs. Its earliest meaning was not a blueprint for empire but a prophecy of the triumph of righteousness: the victory of the Khalsa’s moral and spiritual order. This vision had antecedents in Guru Nanak’s ideal of Halemi Raj (a gentle, just rule), as expressed in Guru Granth Sahib (p. 74):
ਸਭ ਸੁਖਾਲੀ ਵੁਠੀਆ ਇਹੁ ਹੋਆ ਹਲੇਮੀ ਰਾਜੁ ਜੀਉ ॥ ੧੩ ।। (ਅੰਗ ੭੪)
Sabh sukhaalee vuthee aa ih ho aa halémee raaj jeeo. ||13||
(Let all abide in peace, under this Benevolent Rule. ||13||)
Persian sources from the period of persecution interpret the slogan through the lens of insurgency. In Ibrat Namah (c. 1710), Mirza Muhammad Harisi writes of the Khalsa’s defiance after Banda Singh Bahadur’s victories:
عبرت نامه (Ibrat Namah, c. 1710)
"گوبند، تمیزاتِ ذات و طبقه را برانداخت، پیروان خود را خالصه خواند و ایشان را به یک طریقت بست و به مقاومت ظلم ملزم ساخت."
“ (Guru) Gobind (Singh), having abolished the distinctions of caste, called his disciples Khalsa, placing them under a single discipline and binding them to resist tyranny.”
After Guru Gobind Singh’s passing in 1708, the Khalsa endured brutal repression under Mughal and Afghan governors. The Persian Tarikh-i-Muzaffari describes the Sikhs as “tribes who rule not from thrones but from saddles,” highlighting their mobile guerrilla warfare. Yet the prophetic note of “Raj Karega Khalsa” persisted. In Sri Gur Panth Prakash (c. 1841), Rattan Singh Bhangu narrates how this faith in ultimate sovereignty gave the Khalsa courage during their chhota and vada ghalughara (lesser and greater massacres of 1746 and 1762).
By the late 18th century, the Sikh misls (confederacies) established territorial control across Punjab, culminating in the coronation of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1801. While Ranjit Singh styled himself Sarkar-i-Khalsa, his court chronicles in Persian, such as Umdat-ut-Tawarikh by Sohan Lal Suri, document a multi-religious administration, blending the Khalsa ideal with pragmatic governance.
With the fall of the Sikh kingdom in 1849, “Raj Karega Khalsa” became a symbol of lost sovereignty and a spiritual vow of resurgence. It figured prominently in the Singh Sabha reform movement and the Akali struggle for gurdwara control (1919–1925). British intelligence reports, such as those compiled in the Punjab Intelligence Branch Diaries, noted its role as a “watchword of Sikh militancy.”
In the post-independence period, interpretations of “Raj Karega Khalsa” diverged — some seeing it as a spiritual aspiration, others as a call for political autonomy. Yet in the congregational ardās, it continues to signal the faith that the Khalsa’s ideals will prevail over oppression.
The Khalsa, as conceived by Guru Gobind Singh, was both a spiritual fraternity and a sovereign ideal. “Raj Karega Khalsa” has journeyed from prophecy to political reality and back to a transnational spiritual hope. Its endurance owes much to its dual foundation in miri-piri — the inseparable union of temporal responsibility and spiritual authority.
The Khalsa’s raj was never meant as tyranny, but as the realization of divine justice on earth — a vision that remains as compelling in the 21st century as it was on the banks of the Sutlej in 1699. Amidst the severe persecutions under Bahadur Shah and Farrukhsiyar, when imperial edicts sought the extermination of the Sikhs, the Dohira — “The Khalsa shall rule; none shall remain in defiance.
The hungry shall be fed; the homeless shall find refuge” — emerged as a rallying affirmation of faith. Recited in defiance of tyranny, it embodied the Khalsa’s conviction in the transience of oppression, the inevitability of justice, and the realization of a divinely ordained sovereignty. By Banda Singh Bahadur’s victory at Sirhind, the verse had gained wide acceptance. At that time, Sikh political consciousness was rising amid Mughal campaigns to annihilate them, when being a Sikh was seen as rebellion. Despite persecution, daily recitation of this couplet in Ardas reflected the community’s chardi kala (high spirits), self-confidence, and resolve.
The verse declares that the Khalsa shall remain free and sovereign, and ultimately all will acknowledge this truth, however bitter it may seem. While it has been traditionally repeated in daily Ardas since Guru Gobind Singh’s time, colonial and modern state-aligned leaders have at times tried to obscure or reinterpret it, reducing its meaning to moral governance by the virtuous, and denying its political dimension. Such deliberate separation of Sikh faith from politics, driven by vested interests, is more insidious than historic Mughal repression, for it undermines the very foundations of Sikh sovereignty.
The “Raj Karega Khalsa” couplet, rooted in Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s vision, unites spiritual discipline with political sovereignty, affirming that religion and statehood are inseparable. Its continuous recitation reflects the Khalsa’s enduring mission—expanding beyond any single era. Historically, it inspired political consciousness, unity, and courage in struggles from battles to social reform. In the face of modern opportunism and division, the Panth must act with vigilance and solidarity, for without sovereignty religion cannot survive, and without religion sovereignty is hollow.
