The Rise and Fall of Khalsa Raj
The capture and brutal execution of Baba Banda in 1716 had left Singh Bahadur the Sikhs without a leader. They were unable to form an effective combination and lived, to a great extent, the life of scattered and persecuted outlaws. Nadir Shah and Ahmed Shah Abdali could not establish independent Sovereign State in Punjab, as the army of the Khalsa in the meantime had revived and the reconstruction of the Sikh common-wealth had begun in right earnest. Everyone owed a fervent allegiance to the Khalsa and each Chief felt not only a general readiness to assist his neighbour’s schemes of conquest for the good of the Khalsa, but also for the sake of a legitimate share in the spoils. Firstly, Malwa became subject to the Phulkia Misl, which recognized as its head the Raja of Patiala who held this title from Ahmed Shah Abdali. North of the satluj and right upto the Chenab now in Pakisian, the Bhangis. Ramgarhias and Ahluwalias were roughly recognized as the leading confederacies of the great Sikh body. At the close of the 18th century, despite the loose organisation of the whole general body, the leaders of the various sections of Khalsa had acquired among them something like complete predominance over the greater part of the Punjab.
When the 19th century was just opening, the young Ranjit Singh of the Sukerchakya Misl, was already proving himself one of the most astute and pushing of the Sardars. Then some 18 years only, he had given cause to the people to realise that, with his one eye, he could see far more quickly and surely than any of his contemporaries with a pair of them. Supported by the friendship of Sardar Fateh Singh Ahluwalia, who later formed the Kapurthala State, Ranjit Singh firmly established himself at Lahore and, by the year 1808, seemed likely to bring the entire Sikh body under his sway, having obtained the title of Maharaja. When the Maharaja began to assume the place of the Sikh Chief Par excellence, the machinery of his Sikh confederacy was by no means of the best, but the material on which he had to work was of very fine quality. Any effective fighting machine must have a single controlling head, whereas the Sikh doctrines of brotherhood and equality made every chief kick at the very idea of subordination. So the chiefs had their followers, but every Chief was reluctant to own a superior. Hence, in order to raise the armed Sikhs into a formidable state, it was imperative that they be induced to recognise some one head. It was also absolutely necessary that any man seeking such recognition for himself must show that he had a longer head and a stronger arm than any rival.
Ranjit Singh possessed precisely the necessary qualities. His power in battle was beyond question, the vigour and shrewdness of his judgement were conspicuous, and his promptitude of action was obvious. He struck a note to which the heart of the Sikh people vibrated, by proclaiming himself always as the true servant of Guru Gobind Singh, the Tenth Master, and acting always in the name of his Guru and to the glory of the Khalsa. By his conduct and means, he won recognition, until by degree the Maharaja of Lahore had consolidated the Punjab into a well-knit kingdom. He possessed in a very high degree one particular kingly quality not usually conspicuous in oriental monarchs; he always knew exactly how far he could go. In fact, his one eye would measure within a fraction of an inch all that he could take and all that he could keep. The progress of his arms was steady and stubbon, but each step was part of his large design, and he made each step secure before he took the next, never challenging an enemy till he felt that the chances of a contest would be in his favour. Rajput princes, Pathans, Sials, Tiwana Maliks, Chatthas and Awans were still remnants of the crumbling Kabul Empire Principalities of Bahawalpur, Multan, Bannu, Peshawar and Hazara etc. were also independent. Determined as he was to bring all these territories and hetrogenous groups under one effective and manly Government, slowly and steadily, one by one, through love and war, here and there marked by diplomacy or expediency, he did a singular service in successfully subduing not only the non-Sikh Chiefs but also almost all the rival Sikh Chiefs and forming an independent sovereign kingdom-of the Punjab. So he began life as a Lahore Chieftain and ended it the lord of all the lands north and west of the Satluj, from Multan to Peshawar, and from Peshawar to Jammu. The Maharaja also prudently studied the ways of the English, and applied the knowledge which he obtained. He supplemented that by employing able European officers - Allard, Ventura, Avitabile and others who had earned in the school of the Napoleonic wars, and the result was that the Sikh army was the most efficient, the hardest to overcome, that the English had ever faced in India. Really, if Ranjit Singh had not born, we must confess, the Punjab would have neither attracted any notice in the World nor would the Sikhs have been counted anywhere in the comity of the nations.
With all abilities of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the great Punjab State, which he had constructed, was left by his death on June 27, 1839, in the common condition of oriental kingdoms when a brilliant chief had left for his heavenly abode. The passing away of that patriotic indomitable warrior completely darkened the firmament of the kingdom. He left no successor capable of controlling the turbulent elements which had been held in check under his vigorous government. He had sadly made Dogra brothers all powerfül and reared up from childhood, Hira Singh Dogra, who assumed a position more prominent even that of his father and the princes of the royal blood.
Kharak Singh was accepted as his father’s successor; but the control exercised over him by a favourite, Chet Singh Bajwa, made Dhian Singh Dogra uneasy and even unsatisfactory to the heir apparent, Kanwar Nau Nihal Singh. Both made common cause and, with the active support of Gulab Singh Dogra and others, they put the Bajwa Sardar to death in the immediate presence, and despite the entreaties of Maharaja Kharak Singh on the night intervening 8/9 October 1839, and virtually established the Kanwar as Chiefof the State with Dhian Singh Dogra as the Prime Minister. Kanwar Nau Nihal Singh soon found to his discomfiture that the power of the Dogra brothers was too great to be swallowed and was then bent on breaking it. Maharaja Kharak Singh had died on November 5, 1840 and Nau Nihal Singh became the Maharaja of Punjab but, on the very day of accession, he also met with a fatal accident which the Dogra Prime Minister had deliberately designed so as to put Sher Singh on the vacant throne with ease and certainty.
Maharani Chand Kaur, widow of Maharaja Kharak Singh and mother of Nau Nihal Singh, asserted her right to the position of Regent in the name of a hypothetical unborn son of Nau Nihal Singh and with the support of Sandhanwalia Sardars,she was so appointed for a few months. Hardly two months had passed, Dhian Singh Dogra, in active connivance with his brother, brought Sher Singh, second son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, from Batala and after a short but stage managed battle, he was declared the Maharaja, and Maharani Chand Kaur was unceremoniously deposed. Dhian Singh Dogra, in criminal conspiracy with Maharaja Sher Singh, however, got Maharani Chand Kaur first poisoned and then got stoned to death from the hands of her maid-servants. To remove the last obstacle, the pregnancy of the Rani of Nau-Nihal Singh was also got aborted. Sandhanwalias naturally turned arch-enemies of Sher Singh, Dhian Singh Dogra and their kins.
The Sandhanwalia Sardars had then mutually determined to eliminate the Maharaja and the Dogra Prime Minister who had played havoc with the Sikh Kingdom. As planned, Ajit Singh Sandhanwalia thrusted bullets in the chest of Maharaja Sher Singh in open Darbar and simultaneously Lehna Singh Sandhanwalia also cut down the head of Kanwar Partap Singh with Kirpan in the nearby garden on September 15, 1843. Then, outwitting the Dogra Prime Minister, he was also shot dead on the same day in the Lahore Fort, but Hira Singh Dogra immediately took the aid of the army, by clandestine manner, and both the Sandhanwalias were also traced and brutally butchered to death in forty eight hours inside the Fort. Here ended the first phase of the Blood-bath after Ranjit Singh’
Five years old Maharaja Dalip Singh was then placed on the thorny throne with Hira Singh Dogra as his Pime Minister but, Kanwar Kashmira Singh and Kanwar Pashaura Singh, other sons of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, abetted and aided by Gulab Singh Dogra, attacked the army of the Lahore Darbar, only to be repulsed. Subsequently, Misr Jalla, the tutor of Hira Singh Dogra, established a reign of terror in the kingdom of the Sikhs. He even insolently threatened and grossly abused Maharani Jindan, the mother and Regent of the Maharaja. further threatening her to be thrown in the prison. Attar Singh Kalianwala, once the Chief Justice of Lahore during the reign of Maharaja Sher Singh, taking his seat near the Misr in the Darbar was contemptuously required to sit at distance from him. Maharani Jindan had also complained that she and her son (Maharaja) were virtual captives in the hands of the Dogra duo and the child Maharaja was not allowed to be present in the Darbar, while Hira Singh Dogra and Misr Jalla alone transacted state business. Hira Singh Dogra then ordered for the confinement of even Sardar Jawahar Singh Aulakh, the brotherof Maharani Jindan, in his own house and prepared a plan to seize hin. The Khalsa army could not digest these acts of grave huumiliations and soon woke up from sBumber and, on December 21, 1844, they gave them hot chase for several miles and fell upon Hira Singh Dogra, Misr Jalla and other, Dogras taking flight towards Jammu, loaded with jewellery, cash and ornaments on elephants and thoroughly cut them into pieces. The severed heads of the Dogra Raja, Misr Jalla and two others, set on spear-heads were first hung upon a tree branch outside Lahori Gate and later at other Gates of Lahore. Then the head of Misr Jalla was dragged and exposed through the cities of Lahore and Amritsar, and thrown on a heap of rubbish and filth where the irritated passers by spat on it, by hurling the filthiest abuse, and was later given to dogs.
Jawahar Smgh Aulakh, brother of Maharani Jindan, then became the Prime Minister but Kanwar Pashaura Singh again unfurled the standard of rebellion and, at one stage, the unruly troops proclaimed him as the Master of the state but the Kanwar himself back-tracked, desiring only the supreme command of the army; however the situation soon turned against him and he quietly retired to his Jagir. Shortly thereafter, due to the intrigues of Gulab Singh Dogra, the Kanwar again raised the banner of revolt and marched towards Lahore. Now Jawahar Singh Aulakh got the Kanwar cut into pieces in the Fort of Attock where he was detained but this treacherous murder of the Kanwar, the son of the Lion of the Punjab, greatly excited the army, and this third Prime Minister was hacked to pieces in the immediate presence of his sister. Maharani Jindan, and nephew, Maharaja Dalip Singh besides thousands of troops and public on September 21, 1845. His body was cremated outside Masti Gate of Lahore in a garden. Misr Lal Singh and Misr Tej Singh then became the Prime Minister and the Commander-in-Chief of the army respectively who, during the first Anglo-Sikh-War, 1845-46, also played the role of arch traitors though the Sikhs had fought bravely. General Thackwell himself wrote:
It is due to the Sikhs to say that they fought bravely, for though defeated and broken. they never ran, but fought with their talwars to the last and I witnessed several acts ot great bravery in some of their Sirdars and men”.
Shah Mohammad, the bard, imortalized the heroic stand of the men of Shan Singh Attariwala at Sobraon, thus:
They sequeezed the blood out of the whites, as one sequeezes Juice out of a lemon, if only Ranjit Singh were there, he would have been proud to see how the Khalsa weilded their swords”
The Sikhs lost Jammu and Kashmir to Gulab Singh Dogra, the Jammu Fox, who got the best honey out of the Sikh Darbar’s honeycomb, by his treacherous acts and designs Henry Lawrence had written to Gulab Singh Dogra:
“Raja Sahib, Dear Friend
Receive my regards and let it be known to you that I want to say a word which will be to your utmost good. So, I hope you will manage to hear it personally. Do this please and do it without delay. I hope, you will remember me with your friendly letter.
Henry Lawrence”
The successive treaties Virtually sealed the fate of Maharani Jindan, Maharaja Dalip Singh as well as the Sikh Kingdom. Eight years child Maharaja was brutally snatched from the hands of Maharani Jindan, who was deposed as Regent without a trial, even without a mock trial in August 1847 and was first detained in the forts of Lahore and Sheikhupura: then confined at Benaras (Varanasi) in Uttar Pradesh from where she was removed and detained in the high security Fort of Chunar, close to the border of Bihar, in strict surveillance. Continuing her struggle singlehandedly, for securing independence all through, she managed to escape dramatically from the clutches of the enemy to Nepal to wage a determined war on the British.2 Thus the maddening game of mean intrigues, deep conspiracies, ingenous plots and counter plots, inspired by the East India Company, with their attendant evils of calculated stabbing, horrible murders and assassinations went on increasing in volume and gaining in momentum till the whole of the Darbar came within the whirlpool of those fateful schemes and, one by one perished. Here ended the second phase of the history.
Then started the last game. The plan was to annex the Kingdom to the British East India Company soon. Letter No. 111(1849) by “Economist” opened up the mind and intentions of the enemy: “With our outposts at the mouths of the passes (in these hills) it is absolutely and definitely impossible that any power can obtain entrance-whereas, on the Sutlej, we have no defence and the slightest alarm must be signal for a preliminary contest a Punjab War or a Kabul expedition.” These historical events, most of them tragic, unravel the sad events which led the Punjab, like the rest of India, to be painted red on the political map of the country within ten years after the Lion of the Punjab had closed his second eye, and also the long painful and tortuous life of not only the unfortunate dethroned ‘Maharaja Dalip Singh Bahadur’ but also of his progeny, that continued, even after the year 1893, till his last surviving child, Bamba Dalip Singh (Bamba Sutherland) breathed her last at 104-A Model Town Lahore (Pakistan) on March 10, 1957.
Note: For full articles, refer to Author's Book: Lahore Darbar and Rani Jindan (2006)
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