Ranjit Singh - The Lion of Punjab

Once upon a time, all of Punjab was in India. Then in 1947, the British dished out the eastern portion of the banana-split to India and the western one to Pakistan. Ever since the banana-partition, the horns of the two barasinghas (swamp deer) have remained locked over possession of greener Kashmiri pastures.

Pakistani history textbooks shed no light on Maharaja Ranjit Singh whose nineteenth century Sikh empire is an important chapter of the history of Punjab. Bless our children―lovingly named after foreign military adventurists―who are now beginning to question 'uncomfortable truths' of history to lead happier lives.

Raiders of the Indus valley civilization

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
― George Santayana (philosopher)

Around 6,500 BC there existed the Mehrgarh settlement and circa 5,500 BC appeared the Indus valley civilisation. The latter’s trading cities Taxila and Mohenjo-Daro were rediscovered in 1920 and initially named Harappan civilisation after an ancient city Harappa in Punjab. Although these cities are uninhabited now but the mighty Indus River still flows over 3,200 kilometres of Pakistani territory.

India is a Greek and Latin term for 'the country of the River Indus'. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians (people of present-day northwest India and Pakistan) as Indói', literally meaning 'the people of the Indus'.

In ancient times, Sindhu meant 'large body of water, sea, or ocean'. It was shortened to Indu (Hindus being dwellers around this river), then changed to Indos, and finally became Indus. Sindhu is mentioned 176 times in the Rigveda texts. It is a great honour for Sindh, now a province of Pakistan, to have the term 'industry' included in the dictionary.

7'-4" Porus faces shorter Alexander

Successive conquests unleashed subjugation, mass murder, slavery, and economic plunder, and created a system in which local collaborators received generous rewards while the defenders lost their wives and lives. During the reign of terror of Persian Nader Shah (1688-1747), a saying in Punjabi language went thus:

Khaada peeta lagay daa

   (Whatever you've eaten is yours)
Baqi Nadir Shahay da

   (The rest belongs to Nadir Shah)

Why did they all come to India?

Pliny the Elder (79 A.D), Marco Polo (1292 A.D) and French traveller Jean Baptiste Tavernier (1665 A.D), all recorded tales about diamond mining in India. Hence, all traders and invaders descended on India because since 800 BC the land was the only source of diamonds in the ancient world.

Read: Mangoes for Django to find out what Babur (the Mughal emperor) thought of India.

1726 saw the discovery of Brazilian mines but their supposedly inferior diamonds fetched lower prices compared with those mined at Golconda (India). Then clever Portuguese traders began shipping Brazilian diamonds to Europe through Goa and sold these as genuine Golconda diamonds to obtain better prices.

Add to this hard ‘export’ the mountains of glittering gold stolen from the treasuries of princely states and Hindu temples. All proselytizing and forced conversions to install newer gods was a cover for robbery in broad daylight.

Just like diamonds, mineral salt mined at Khewra and Kalabagh (Pakistan) is cheaply ‘exported’, packed in fancy bottles, and sold at exorbitant prices as an ‘Indian’ product fraudulently labelled: "Pure mineral salt from the foothills of the Himalayas".

Khewra-salt on the wounds

"The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history."
― German philosopher Friedrich Hegel

The rise of the Sikhs

With Aurangzeb's death in 1707, the Mughal empire in India faded after centuries of Muslim dominance. Worldly power, diamonds, gold, and salt passed into new hands.

Ranjit's birthplace (Gujranwala)

The relatively new faith of Sikhism took on a Khalsa (the pure ones) militant shape after successive Mughal emperors Jahangir and Aurangzeb killed two of their gurus, Arjun Dev (1581-1606) and Tegh Bahadur (1621-1675), for refusing to convert to Islam. A peaceful religion took on to militancy. The persecuted Sikh followers formed independent Sikh regiments (misls) headed by fierce leaders.

During the administrative chaos in Punjab, a boy was born on 13 November 1780 in village Sukerchak (between Gujjaranwala and Wazirabad); his name was Ranjit Singh Sukerchakia.

Ranjit's Waraich Jatt family had converted from Hinduism to Sikhism. His grandfather, Charat Singh, was a bandit who fought against a bigger robber named Ahmad Shah Abdali. From age ten, Ranjit fought battles alongside his father, Mahan Singh, who was a local feudal lord.

A fearsome Akali (immortal) Sikh warrior

Empire of Ranjit Singh

Successive Mughal and Afghan invasions and the British threat finally produced a Punjabi Sikh leader called Ranjit Singh.

On 12 April 1801, the unlettered twenty-one years old Ranjit became Maharaja of Punjab. He would be remembered as the founder of the Sikh empire of Punjab (the land of 'five rivers'), or Sikh Khalsa Raj and Sarkar-i-Khalsa (government of the pure ones).

Through alliances and marriages, Ranjit brought all the Sikh regiments under his command. His Sikh empire stretched from Khyber Pass in the west to western Tibet in the east, and from Mithankot in the south to Kashmir in the north. During half a century of its existence (1799-1849), three percent militant Sikhs happily ruled over seventy-four percent Muslims and twenty-three percent Hindus.

Not just another pretty face

"You're one of a kind. Benevolent, they say. All castes and creeds under one roof. You haven't even the temper to order the death of one lowly thief."
― Francis Cotton to Ranjit Singh, 1839

Successive attacks by the Mongols (in 1221, 1241 and 1258) left Lahore a deserted city. During the Ahmad Shah Abdali period and before Ranjit Singh's reign, Lahore had already suffered a famine when it did not rain for eight years.

The Maharaja in traditional dress

Ranjit (meaning 'victor in battlefield') was short in stature, had lost sight in the left eye as an infant and possessed a face pitted with pockmarks. With his awesome bearded countenance and great military acumen he pushed armies of handsome Afghan invaders back to where they came from.

Because the Sikh religion considered 'all men equal in the sight of God', Ranjit rejected London’s Savile Row ‘bespoke’ suits, dressed simply in local attire, and wore no crown while seated on the famous Golden Throne.

After the Napoleonic wars, European mercenaries and ex-officers from Polish, Russian, Spanish, and Prussian armies headed for Punjab to seek employment. Men like Court, Ventura, Avitabile, and Allard became Generals and senior administrators in Ranjit's army.

One-fifth of the members of the Lahore Darbar nobility were the dispossessed chiefs and their dependants. In Ranjit’s court and administration, Muslims occupied plenty of important positions as two ministers, one governor, forty-one senior army officers (including two Generals) and ninety-two senior bureaucrats. Ghaus Khan, served as the head of artillery.

Ranjit's arms manufacturing in Punjab created self-sufficiency in weaponry, equipment, and munitions. He invested in infrastructure, established raw materials mines, cannon foundries, gunpowder, and arm factories.

With 120,000 men and 250 artillery pieces under his command, Ranjit did not follow the Mughal method of paying an army with local feudal levies but from the treasury.

Expansion, Sikh style

The Khalsa Sikh Empire at its peak (c.1839)

Ranjit's militarisation kept the British away throughout his rule. While the British wanted to keep the Afghans out through Ranjit, Ranjit desired to keep the British and the Afghans away from Punjab.

He married two widows and cleverly named the sons from them after successful capture of famous cities: Multana Singh, Kashmira Singh and Pashaura Singh.

Between 1806 and 1849 the Sikhs and the British signed several treaties. Through a treaty, the British astutely recognised Ranjit as the sole sovereign ruler of Punjab and agreed on River Sutlej as the eastern frontier of his realm.

Ranjit met with two British Governor Generals in 1831 and 1838. After initial hesitation in 1838, he agreed to the British idea of raising a tripartite army to put displaced ex-Afghan king Shah Shuja―living in exile in Ludhiana―back on the throne in Kabul.

Anglophile Muslims who never tired of cracking ‘Sikh jokes’ soon learnt that Ranjit outmanoeuvred the British during negotiations. Instead of the proposed Sikh expedition into Afghanistan for the sake of British interests, he made the British wage war for the benefit of the Sikhs.

Map of India (European 'invader' settlements 1501-1739)

Expansionism in the Ranjit era brought greater employment, enhanced security, reduction in violence, reopening of trade routes, promotion of greater freedom for commerce, religious freedom, lack of capital punishment, and absence of retaliation against Muslim rulers and Hindus who had earlier executed Sikh gurus.

Pul Kanjri (bridge of the nautch girl)

Of dance and dancers

Ishq na darda maut koloN
   (Love does not fear death)
TuR sooli chaRna pay jaway
   (Even if one faces the gallows)
Nanch nach kay yaar mana layNRa
   (Dance and gain a lover's approval)
BhaNwaiN kanjri banRa pay jaway

Jamia Masjid Moraan Wali, Lahore

   (Even if you must become a dancer)
― Sufi poet, Baba Bulleh Shah (1680-1757)

Ranjit Singh's love for merry company, liquor and dancers prompted him to build Punjab's own 'Taj Mahal' called Pul Moraan. This was a memorial dedicated to Moraan Sarkar.

Before Moraan married Ranjit and became Maharani Sahiba, the Kashmiri girl danced for him at a place between Lahore and Amritsar aptly named Pul Kanjri (dancer's bridge). Kanjri is a mutation of Persian word Kanchani (means dipped in gold and fully blossomed.

This inter-faith marriage greatly upset the Sikh orthodoxy who flogged Ranjit in public for the blasphemy but he remained determined to improve Kashmir-Punjab relations.

At Moraan's request, he built her a house in Bazaar Chowk Chakla (Lohari Gate, Lahore) and a mosque that became known as Masjid-e-Tawaifan (literally: dancer's mosque; later renamed Jamia Masjid Moraan Wali in 1998). Do appreciate how the word ‘bai’ (lady, courtesan) became ‘mai’ (old woman).

Some allege that Ranjit roamed around Lahore sitting atop an elephant with Moraan. He shocked the population by fondling her in public and angered the Muslims when he did the same—for the want of a better place—atop the minaret of Wazir Khan's mosque.

While Ranjit had no coins struck in his own name, he did so for Moraan to bestow greater privilege, power and respect; he also had gold medals for his courtiers minted in France.All that wining, dining and womanising took its toll on Ranjit's health. When the Maharaja complained and exposed his privates to French naturalist Victor Jacquemont, he wrote an historic account:

"Ranjit had advanced chronic syphilis and found it difficult to even urinate with a swollen urethra.

 Ranjit in Lahore

The qasaabs (butchers) attacked Lahore repeatedly. Some accounts mention that Lahoris themselves invited Ranjit Singh to conquer Lahore. He camped in the Baradari of Wazeer Khan and entered the city through the Lohari Gate.

Prominent citizens opened the gate at what is now Punjab Public Library and presented to him the keys of the city. This 'dacoit of Gujjaranwalla' would soon subdue three reigning dacoits of Lahore after firing cannons at the Lahore Fort from the minarets of the Badshahi mosque.

Certain accounts claim that Lahoris were sick of the Sikh bandits Lehna Singh, Sobha Singh and Gujjar Singh who robbed them of possessions, women, and money. When Lahoris left their homes, they hid the women and children inside small secret rooms of courtyard wells. Each woman had a dagger with which to commit suicide in case the Sikhs came.

The deliberately made narrow lanes of the walled-city of Lahore allowed only a lone horse-mounted Sikh attacker could enter. The roofs of all the houses were joined at the top to facilitate escape.

Another narrative claims that Maan Singh was a much-feared robber whom Ranjit subdued bravely, pardoned and made a General in the army.

What happened to the mosques?

Although the Sikhs led by Ranjit Singh never razed enemies' places of worship to the ground, Lahore's Badshahi Mosque was desecrated through conversion to an ammunition store and horse stable. They stripped bricks and marbles off two thousand buildings. Most of the mosques faced neglect, and the azaan (Muslim call to prayer) was not allowed in Kashmir for a long time and heavy taxation turned into oppression.

Badshahi Mosque (Lahore)

Lahore's Moti Masjid (Pearl Mosque) was converted into Moti Mandir (Pearl Temple) by the Sikh army, and Sunehri Mosque was converted into a Sikh Gurdwara.

Lahore's Begum Shahi Mosque was also used as a gunpowder factory, earning it the nickname Barood-khana Wali Masjid (Gunpowder Mosque). When Muslims protested, Ranjit restored the mosques to them.

Randjiit Sing Baadour (by Alfred de Dreux)

After conquering Amritsar, Ranjit ordered that its Sikh Temple be adorned with copper and gold foil, hence the name Golden Temple. Since good quality marble was scarce, he ordered slabs ripped out from Lahore's Shalimar Gardens.

Mughal Empress Nur Jahan's mausoleum in Lahore too was allegedly left in ruins when the Sikhs stripped off its marble and precious stones. Someone was so obsessed with the legend of Nur Jahan that he had the coffin removed to inspect the body. The skeleton so disappointed him that he ordered it thrown to the dogs and the wolves (or in river Ravi).

Obviously the Sikhs disagree with some of these stories and claim that the first act of the Maharaja after his arrival at Lahore was to offer prayer at the Badshahi Masjid.

Jihad against the infidels

Syed Ahmad Barelvi, a fiery Wahhabi preacher from Bareilly in Hindustan, tried to stir rebellion against Ranjit Singh. He gradually replaced local leaders who opposed his ultra-orthodox Islamic ideas with pliable religious leaders (ulema). Together they worked to establish a Muslim stronghold on the north-west frontier in the Peshawar valley.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh (seated in the middle)

Syed declared jihad on the British colonialists and the ruling Sikhs but his call fell on the deaf ears of Punjabi Muslims. The Pashtuns responded but when the Yusufzais withdrew support, Syed Ahmed met a violent end at Balakot in 1831. The Sikh army beheaded him and hunted down his agents.

The clashes between him and the Sikhs took place at Akora Khattak. Oddly, it is the same place where the recently assassinated Maulana Sami-ul-Haq (Pakistani senator and ‘spiritual father of the Taliban’) had his Darul Uloom Haqqania headquarters.

"I'm innocent. I've been framed by government agencies for opposing official policies".
― Maulana Sami-ul-Haq while resigning as a Senator and denying any links with Madam Tahira, a 35-year-old former dancer, who ran a brothel in Islamabad

Ranjit Singh: an alternative view

It has been claimed that journalist Khushwant Singh created legends about Ranjit and turned him into a fairy-tale Maharaja with all good traits of a just ruler.

Other accounts insist that Ranjit Singh was liberal in extending state patronage to Sikh, Hindu and Muslim institutions. Nearly seven percent of the state revenue went to religious institutions. The following Muslim shrines received state patronage:

1) Data Darbar and Mian Mir (Lahore)

2) Hazratbal and Shah Hamdan (Kashmir)
3) Pir Mitha (Wazirabad)
4) Sakhi Sarwar (Dera Ghazi Khan)

A pupil gets the 'murgha' punishment 

Ranjit apparently supported prominent families such as the Syeds in Multan, Peshawar and Bannu, and the descendants of Shah Farid in Pakpattan and Bahauddin Zikriya in Multan.

Ranjit’s simple judicial system suited the social and political environment of Punjab. Panchayats (peoples' courts) made decisions in accordance with established customs to settle disputes in rural areas while Qazis (judges) decided cases of Muslims in accordance with Shariah laws. If there were appeals against the decisions of administrators and ministers, Ranjit himself heard these, imposing fines instead of meting out capital punishment.

The reason why many pro-British and Muslim accounts tend to be harsh on Ranjit is because like nationalist Tipu Sultan, Ranjit too was a certified thorn in the British side. Certain truths however remain:

1) Ranjit united the Sikhs under the Khalsa banner and created an empire 

2) He kept the Afghan raiders and the British colonists at bay
3) He was called Sher-e-Punjab (‘Lion of Punjab’) for his liberal patronage and multi-racial rule over Punjab for thirty-eight years

Ranjit Singh's Darbar (circa 1850)

Decline and fall of the Sikh empire

Ranjit's administrative skills and the opulence of the Durbar of Lahore created envy in the hearts of distant enemies and nearby British.

Ranjit's third wife Maharani Jind Kaur's alleged influence over the Darbar created schisms amongst the noblemen and further weakened the Sikh rule. When unhappy feudal Sikhs demanded tax cuts and the army Generals fatter salaries, they ended up conspiring with the British who arranged for a weak throne to fall like a ripe apple into waiting hands.

Power struggle

Ranjit's son, Duleep Singh, was born in 1838 to Maharani Jind Kaur. She could not retain control of the throne for her very young son, Duleep. No sooner was the five-year old declared Maharaja, conspiracies, bribery, British greed for trading concessions and attacks on the Sikhs increased.

Soon thereafter, a suspicious power-struggle ensued in which Kharak Singh was poisoned, Kharak's son Nau Nehal Singh died in a strange accident, and Sher Singh too was poisoned. Within six years, the Sikh kingdom became a sumptuous dinner for the British.

After Ranjit Singh's death, a British Resident Officer based at Lahore controlled all affairs; he ensured that young Duleep Singh remained a Maharaja only in name.

The plot sickens

"Bole so nihal, Sat Sri Akal"
(Shout aloud in ecstasy, True is the Great Timeless One)
― Tenth guru, Guru Gobind Singh

In 1830, Singh acquired the Koh-e-Noor diamond. He served as its keeper for nine years by hiding the real jewel in a secret chamber beneath his summer palace and instead wearing a copy on his wrist.

In 1839, the British Knights Templars plotted to take the diamond from Singh realizing that his successors did not share Singh's determination to protect it.

The English Queen will not return the Koh-e-Noor

 During a feast at the Maharaja's palace, General Francis Cotton poisoned Ranjit.  As the assassin Arbaaz Mir tried to prevent Ranjit from drinking more of his tea, Cotton blamed the assassin and the guards chased after Mir.

Singh's health quickly deteriorated. His granddaughter, Pyara Kaur, rushed to his aid and revealed that the Koh-e-Noor was in her possession. He implored:

"Take the Syamantaka Mani (Koh-i-Noor diamond) and go. Far from here. They will come for you. All of you. Your uncles will not have the strength to hold the empire together. The Punjab may fall, but we may still protect India herself. Go. And never return."
―Singh's last words to his granddaughter Pyara Kaur, 1839

Syamantaka Muni was a powerful 'piece of Eden' and the mythological blessed stone of Hindu mythology that possessed magical powers.

Kashmir for sale

Ranjit Singh died in 1839. In 1846, after the Sikh defeat in the First Anglo-Sikh War, the Treaty of Lahore forced the Sikhs to surrender valuable regions and pay an indemnity of fifteen million Rupees. Failure to immediately pay this large sum resulted in surrendering Kashmir, Hazara and all the forts, territories, rights and interests in the hill countries situated between the Rivers Beas and Indus to the British East India Company.

The Treaty of Amritsar allowed the pro-British Raja of Jammu (Gulab Singh Dogra) to purchase Kashmir from the East India Company for a payment of 7.5 million Rupees and be granted the title Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir.

Genealogy of Ranjit Singh

Read: Ranjit Singh's Kashmir Extensionism and Britain's Role

Samadhi of Ranjit Singh

"Truth is the highest virtue, but higher still is truthful living".
― Guru Nanak (founder of Sikhism, 1469–1539)

These days clear blue skies, with a visible horizon is an impossibility due to atmospheric pollution. There was a time when River Ravi's emerald green waters flowed next to the Lahore Fort. So clear was the atmosphere that one could see the snow-covered mountains of Kashmir. Then Ravi changed her course and with this changed many fortunes.

Ranjit Singh's Samadhi (Lahore)

I had the good fortune of attending the Sikh Vaisakhi mela inside Gurdwara Dera Sahib where Guru Arjun Dev, died in 1606. Situated in the same building is Ranjit Singh's mausoleum at the foot of the Badshahi Mosque opposite the Lahore Fort.

At the mela I met with a British-Indian Sikh dressed in turquoise from turban to toe. Sipping doodh-patti, we sat in a small room discussing politics and religion. In the hall behind us, pious reciters read aloud the Guru Granth Sahib. While huge crowds surrounded the Guru's grave there was gloom and loneliness around Ranjit's Singh's tomb located on the upper floor.

With typical Sikh candidness this dignitary expressed distaste for Indian repression of the Sikhs, 'great love for Pakistan, the land of our ancestors and gurus', and disdain for 'Mughal, Afghan and British invaders whom the Sikhs both served and opposed militantly'.

Ranjit Singh breathed his last on the night of 27 June 1839. We sat at the very spot where they cremated the Maharaja: Gurdwara Dera Sahib. Its construction was started by his eldest son from the second wife, Kharak Singh, and completed by his youngest son from the third wife, Duleep Singh, in 1848.

Smaller urns surrounding the Maharaja's funerary urn contained the ashes of four sati queens and seven concubines who immolated themselves on the pyre.

Men jealous of Ranjit's virility claim he had more than he needed: twenty wives and dozens of mistresses. Then there are those who imagine themselves modern Maharajas and lament; “They do not make wives like that anymore!”


COMING SOON (in two parts): 
Duleep Singh - The Last Maharaja Of Lahore

Duleep Singh - The Fall Of The Rebel Prince

©Tahir Gul Hasan, 2019

Reference books & photo credits

A Short Biography of Syed Muhammad Latif (pages 346-497)
History of the Panjab (Syad Muhammad Latif)

Ranjit's birthplace (Gujranwala) photo by Tipoo Fawwad

Acknowledgement
If I were to list all the references the old-fashioned away right here, this article would be twice its current size. If I were to list all the references the old-fashioned away right here, this article would be twice its current size. Included in the text are some web links (URLs). Just click on the words in blue colour and you will reach those other pages that contain either the text used (after laborious editing) or more information. I visited hundreds of web sites while researching for material on Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Omissions, if any, were unintentional. I thank those from whom obtaining permission to use some images was either impossible or who did not respond to my requests.

DISCLAIMER

No one must misconstrue the information presented here about any charachter as disinformation or insults. The information here was meticulously-collected and cross-checked from numerous sources on the internet (without the use of proxy servers in Pakistan). Please email your suggestions (with believable references) if you feel something requires correction.

e-4 (grammar, 1849/1839 dates, new photos’: 24-04-19)