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(Relevance: Maharaja Ranjit Singh is one of the most important personalities of modern India. His contribution to establishing a unified Sikh empire is important from a UPSC Prelims perspective. UPSC has already asked questions about the Anglo-Sikh wars, making it an important topic. )

November 13 marks the birth anniversary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab. He was born on November 13, 1780 in Gujranwala, now in Pakistan, and ruled Punjab for almost four decades (1801-39). At the time of his death, he was the only sovereign leader left in India, all others having come under the control of the East India Company in some way or the other.

1. In 1799, Ranjit Singh established a unified Sikh empire after conquering Lahore. He overthrew powerful chieftains who had divided the territory into Misls. He was given the title Lion of Punjab (Sher-e-Punjab) because he stemmed the tide of Afghan invaders in Lahore, which remained his capital until his death.

2. Ranjit Singh’s trans-regional empire spread over several states. His empire included the former Mughal provinces of Lahore and Multan besides part of Kabul and the entire Peshawar. The boundaries of his state went up to Ladakh — Zorawar Singh, a general from Jammu, had conquered Ladakh in Ranjit Singh’s name — in the northeast, Khyber pass in the northwest, and up to Panjnad in the south where the five rivers of Punjab fell into the Indus. During his regime, Punjab was a land of six rivers, the sixth being the Indus.

3. Ranjit Singh struck a careful balance between his role as a faithful Sikh ruler and his desire to act as friend and protector of his empire’s Muslim and Hindu people. He thus embarked on a public campaign to restore Sikh temples – most notably rebuilding the Harmandir Sahib, the Golden Temple, at Amritsar in marble (1809) and gold (1830) – while also donating a tonne of gold to plate the Hindu Kashi Vishwanath temple to Lord Shiva in Varanasi.

4. He patronised Hindu temples, Muslim mosques, and Sufi shrines, and in a nod to Hindu sensibilities banned the slaughter of cows. In his lands, forced conversions were largely unheard of, and even his Muslim and Hindu wives were freely allowed to practice their faiths.

Treaty of Amritsar

5. Ranjit Singh decided he needed to beat the British at their own game, and, in a highly unusual step for an Indian ruler of the time, began to modernise his army along the line of European armies. To do this, he actually hired French and Italian mercenaries who had fought for Napoleon until the mighty French General’s defeat in 1815.

6. The new Fauj-i-khas (‘special army’) brigade was led by friends and comrades-in-arms, General Jean-Baptiste Ventura and General Jean-Francois Allard, who were given generous annual salaries of about Rs 30,000 each. They were later joined by Auguste Court and Paolo Avitabile. These generals settled down in Lahore, and adapted to Indian culture, marrying Indian wives, employing court artists and so on.  In 2016, the town of St Tropez unveiled the maharaja’s bronze statue as a mark of respect.

In 2020, a poll conducted by BBC World Histories Magazine named Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the founder of the Sikh Empire, as the “Greatest Leader of All Time”, in which Winston Churchill was also a contender.

 

1. Immediately after Ranjit Singh’s death in 1839, the British East India Company began to bolster its military presence in regions adjacent to Punjab. Inevitably, conflict arose between the Khalsa (the Sikh army) and the British, leading to the Anglo-Sikh Wars. The first Anglo-Sikh War occurred from late 1845 to early 1846. This conflict led to the defeat and partial subjugation of the Sikh empire, resulting in the cession of Jammu and Kashmir as a separate princely state under British suzerainty.

2. The Company inflicted a decisive and final defeat on Sikhs in 1849, after which 10-year-old Maharaja Duleep Singh became a pensioner of the British, and was exiled to London for the rest of his life, where, strangely enough, he became a favourite of Queen Victoria’s! A special acquisition for the British was the Koh-i-Noor diamond, which as we all know very well, still adorns the British crown today.

 

(Source: Explained: The enduring legacy of Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab, Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s European connection, Who are the Dogras )

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