Baghel Singh in Delhi and the gurdwaras of Delhi

Who: Baghel Singh, leader of the Karorsinghia misl, and the Dal Khalsa; and the Mughal emperor Shah Alam II.

What: Baghel Singh succeeded Karora Singh as Karorsinghia chief and rose from the village of Jhabal, in Amritsar district. Since the Sikh conquest of Sirhind in 1764 he had pushed east: in February 1764 a Sikh body crossed the Yamuna and took Saharanpur, and in 1775 he crossed it again and his men looted villages around the site of present New Delhi. On 11 March 1783 the Sikhs entered the Red Fort and occupied the Diwan-i-Am. Shah Alam II made a settlement with them. Baghel Singh could raise gurdwaras on Sikh historical sites in the city, and could realise six annas in the rupee, 37.5 per cent, of Delhi's octroi duties. Other accounts say the Dal Khalsa under Jassa Singh Ahluwalia and Jassa Singh Ramgarhia was also in Delhi.

Baghel Singh stayed at Sabzi Mandi with 4,000 troops and took charge of the police station in Chandni Chowk. In eight months, from April to November 1783, he located seven sites tied to the Gurus and raised shrines on them: Sis Ganj, where Guru Tegh Bahadur was beheaded in Chandni Chowk; Rakab Ganj, near modern Parliament House, where Bhai Lakhi Shah burned his own house to cremate the Guru's body; Bangla Sahib and Bala Sahib, for Guru Har Krishan; and Majnu ka Tilla, Moti Bagh and Teliwara. One account says an elderly Muslim woman pointed out the exact spot of the execution.

Where: Delhi: the Red Fort, Sabzi Mandi and Chandni Chowk.

Why it mattered: The Sikhs, whose Guru had been martyred in Delhi in 1675 and whose Shaheeds had been paraded there in 1716, now held shrines in the Mughal capital by the emperor's own leave. Several of them are among the Delhi gurdwaras that the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee runs today. Sources count seven to ten shrines.