You may hardly have come across a Maharaja with a big empire refusing to sit on a throne or wearing a crown and abstaining from having his name struck on the coins of his empire during his four decades rule ! Maharaja Ranjit Singh( 13 November 1780 - 27 June 1839), the leader of the Sikh Empire, made such impression on the society. He fought the first war with Afghans. Fought battles and increased his power, so that his territory could be extended to the borders of China and the limits of the Afghans, with entire Multan, and the rich possessions beyond the Sutlej. When asked to be sworn in as the Maharaja, he hesitantly accepted the proposal from the Sikh Misls(sovereign states) leaders in 1801. Author V. N. Datta, while describing Ranjit Singh’s glorious reign, asserts : “But for him, Kashmir would have continued to be a part of Afghanistan. He brought under his sway, three Muslim provinces: Peshawar in the west, Multan in the south west, and Kashmir in the north. He incorporated also the numerous petty states into his kingdom.” Recapturing Attock in July 1813, which remained in hands of foreigners since Mahmud Gazni wrested it from Raja Jaipal in 1002 AD, meant the liberation of northern India from Pathan and afghan menace.
Ranjit Singh was born in Gujranwala(now in Pakistan) and died in Lahore (Pakistan). He is equally revered by Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus as well even today; in both India and Pakistan; as a great ruler who can be the role model. The ruler of a powerful state extending from Tibet to Sindh and from the Khyber pass to the Sutlej, the Maharaja preferred to abide by the values of tolerance, humility, charity and compassion that constitute Dharma. He always kept the moral and ethical imperatives preserved by the Gurus for a welfare state. Dr. Gurudarshan Singh Dhillon, a Historian of Global Sikh Studies notes : “He attributed each success to the favour of God. Royal emblems of crown or throne were conspicuous by their absence in his Durbar. When he issued the coins of his empire, he struck them not in his own name, but in the name of the Guru. The rupee and paise were called Nanakshahi.”
Contrary to Emperor Akbar giving one or two ministries to non-Muslims, most of the ministers of high responsibilities of Ranjit Singh were Hindus, Muslims and Dogras. The Prime Minister, Dhian Singh, was a Hindu Dogra. Three Muslim Ministers were Fakir Azizuddin(Foreign Affairs), Fakir Nuruddin(Home) and Fakir Imamuddin (the Custodian of the Treasury at Amritsar). He had fifteen Hindu Ministers as compared to only seven Sikh Ministers. Unfortunately, some of the men Ranjit Singh rewarded with senior positions were to betray the Sikh state after his death.
He was convince that the army, modeled on medieval lines, was no match for the forces he was anticipating to fight. Until it was modified, he could not hope to emerge victorious over regular troops like the English, whose drill and tactics he studied with infinite patience. Apart from the best native Generals such as Hari Singh Nalwa, Hukum Singh Chimi, and Desa Singh Majithia, within a few years there were dozens of Europeans of different nationalities : French, English, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, Russian, Greek, and Eurasian in the employ of the Durbar. They were given higher wages than Indians of similar rank and special conditions were imposed on them. They were directly responsible to the Maharaja. In September 2016, a bronze statue of Maharaja has been installed and unveiled at Allard Square, Sant Tropez, France. Ranjit Singh had appointed a French General Jean Franquis Allard from Saint Tropez to modernize his army and check expansion of the British rule.
The state of Maharaja was the most progressive in India. He had Europeanized his Khalsa Army but not just blindly following the west. He was not a blind imitator of the west; exactly as he was not an orthodox follower of the east. His father, Maha Singh, the Chief of Sukarchakya Misl, left him in 1792 at the head of the small confederacy and a small body of Sikh cavalry. He was twelve years old when his father died. A virulent attack of smallpox had deprived him of vision in his left eye and deeply pitted his face. Like the Emperor Akbar, he did not receive any education. On 7 July 1799, the eighteen-year-old Ranjit Singh entered Lahore with his forces, on secret invitation from the leading citizens of Lahore, who wanted to get rid of the three oppressive Sardars of loose character. His first public act after entering the capital city, Lahore, was to pay homage at the Badshahi mosque and the Wazir Khan mosque.
Of course, in future his wife, Mehtab Kaur, who could not produce an heir-apparent and his mother-in-law, Sada Kaur, joined hands with the opponents of Maharaja, but could do little harm to him. The Maharaja was a much married person having 22 Sikh, Hindu Rajput and even Muslim queens including one dancing girl, Moran or Mohran, he married against the wishes of entire community in 1802. Through his marriage to Moran, the Maharaja wanted to uplift the community of tawaifs who were social outcast. Though his Maharani was a younger wife, Jind Kaur, his favourite Muslim wife was Bibi Gulbahar Begum. Khushwant has recorded: “Although ugly himself, Ranjit Singh was a lover of beautiful things. He was surrounded himself with handsome men and beautiful women. He maintained a bevy of Kashmiri girls who dressed as soldiers and rode out with him on ceremonial occasions.” Even when he died, four of his queens and seven slave girls followed the practice of Sati and burnt themselves on his funeral pyre on 28 June 1839, despite the fact that the Sikh Gurus had condemned and denounced the man-made notion of the inferiority of women. Following demise of Ranjit Singh, Kharak Singh, the eldest of the seven Princes, was invested with the title of Maharaja. After Kharak’s death, the 5 years old youngest Prince Dalip Singh was installed as the Maharaja in 1843 with his mother, Jind Kaur, as the regent. The British took control of Punjab, got the young Maharaja converted to Christianity and successfully swallowed the Punjab Empire and took possession of the jewels and jewelry including the precious diamond Koh-i-Noor in 1849. These days both India and Pakistan are keen to get Koh-i-Noor back.
One can take pride that Ranjit Singh did not derive his title from either the Mughals or the Afghans, it was given to him by that mystic entity, the Panth Khalsaji.
Next Column : Abolition of the custom of Sati in India
( The writer is a Socio-political Historian. E-mail : [email protected] )
