Sikh kingdom was once most secular and leading: scholar

The Sikh kingdom during the times of Maharja Ranjit Singh was most secular and forward-looking, Pakistani scholar of Sikh history Fakir Syed Aijazuddin today recalled.
Aijazuddin, who was former principal of Lahore's historic Aitchison College and a former minister of culture, gave an account of Punjab under the Sikh emperor Maharaja Ranjit Singh and how the period saw the emerging of unified kingdom, during an interaction with the students of Khalsa college here.
His book, "The Resourceful Fakirs", traces the history of this period in an original and intriguing way, through the careers of three Muslim brothers of Fakir family who were courtiers at the Sikh Darbar of Lahore, he said.

Khalsa College Principal Dr Daljit Singh described the interaction as highly useful peep into the history and honoured him during the seminar.
Fakir also asked the students that pieces of 'living history' in the shape of historic buildings should be preserved, and asked them to visit historic places to study their relevance to the past and present.