They didn't mention Virks specifically, however, Lepel's Chiefs and Families of the Punjab makes several references to misldars and prominent sardars in the early Sarkar-i-Khalsa who had a history of cattle theivery, even going as far to say it was believed to be an honorable profession in a sense
Absolutely fantastic article - it’s hard to piece together coherent philosophies due to the limits on the written sources of the period, but the sources here are used extremely well and provide a coherent structure that works in parallel with American legal examples.
In the closing paragraph, one thing that comes to mind: “It is likely in the Misl era that smaller disputes were often resolved without the involvement of the sardar” - it may be useful to look into the structure of panchayats here, as these have been used for localized law across villages for time immemorial.
Definitely thinking about an in-depth look at the panchayat- what is interesting is that there were some 19th century constitutional scholars who saw connections between the panchayat and their national assemblies
Beautifully written article. Were the Virks among the predominant cattle thieves that you read?
They didn't mention Virks specifically, however, Lepel's Chiefs and Families of the Punjab makes several references to misldars and prominent sardars in the early Sarkar-i-Khalsa who had a history of cattle theivery, even going as far to say it was believed to be an honorable profession in a sense
Absolutely fantastic article - it’s hard to piece together coherent philosophies due to the limits on the written sources of the period, but the sources here are used extremely well and provide a coherent structure that works in parallel with American legal examples.
In the closing paragraph, one thing that comes to mind: “It is likely in the Misl era that smaller disputes were often resolved without the involvement of the sardar” - it may be useful to look into the structure of panchayats here, as these have been used for localized law across villages for time immemorial.
Definitely thinking about an in-depth look at the panchayat- what is interesting is that there were some 19th century constitutional scholars who saw connections between the panchayat and their national assemblies