Ranjit Singh’s rise to power
During the contemporary period of Ranjit Singh, the area of Punjab was under the twelve misls. Among those misls the forefathers of Ranjit Singh belonged to the Sukerchakia Misl, who were also Soldiers and able administrators. Due to these abilities they became famous, the forefathers of Maharaja were able to occupy the widest part of Punjab.
In July 1799 he seized Lahore, the capital of the Punjab (now the capital of Punjab province, Pakistan). The Afghan king, Zamān Shah, confirmed Ranjit Singh as governor of the city, but in 1801 Ranjit Singh proclaimed himself maharaja of the Punjab. He had coins struck in the name of the Sikh Gurus, the revered line of Sikh leaders, and proceeded to administer the state in the name of the Sikh commonwealth. A year later he captured Amritsar (now in Punjab state, India), the most-important commercial entrepôt in northern India and sacred city of the Sikhs. Thereafter, he proceeded to subdue the smaller Sikh and Pashtun principalities that were scattered throughout the Punjab.
His later forays eastward, however, were checked by the English. By a treaty with them, signed in 1806, he agreed to expel a Maratha force that had sought refuge in the Punjab. The English then thwarted his ambition to bring together all of the Sikh territories extending up to the vicinity of Delhi. In 1809 they compelled him to sign the Treaty of Amritsar, which fixed the Sutlej River as the eastern boundary of his territories.
Ranjit Singh then turned his ambitions in other directions. In December 1809 he went to the aid of Raja Sansar Chand of Kangra in the Lesser Himalayas (in what is now western Himachal Pradesh state) and, after defeating an advancing Ghurka force, acquired Kangra for himself. In 1813 he joined a Bārakzay Afghan expedition into Kashmir. Although the Bārakzays betrayed him by keeping Kashmir for themselves, he more than settled scores with them by rescuing Shah Shojāʿ—brother of Zamān Shah, who had been deposed as Afghan king in 1803 and had fled from the Bārakzays—and by occupying the fort at Attock on the Indus River, southeast of Peshawar, the Pashtun citadel. Shah Shojāʿ was taken to Lahore and pressured into parting with the famous Koh-i-noor diamond. In the summer of 1818 Rangit Singh’s troops captured the city of Multan, and six months later they entered Peshawar. In July 1819 he finally expelled the Pashtuns from the Vale of Kashmir, and by 1820 he had consolidated his rule over the whole Punjab between the Sutlej and Indus rivers.
All Ranjit Singh’s conquests were achieved by Punjabi armies composed of Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus. His commanders were also drawn from different religious communities, as were his cabinet ministers. In 1820 Ranjit Singh began to modernize his army, using European officers—many of whom had served in the army of Napoleon I—to train the infantry and the artillery. The modernized Punjabi army fought well in campaigns in the North-West Frontier (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan, on the Afghanistan border), including quelling an uprising by tribesmen there in 1831 and repulsing an Afghan counterattack on Peshawar in 1837.
In October 1831 Ranjit Singh met with British officials regarding the disposition of Sindh province (now in southeastern Pakistan). The British, who had already begun to navigate the Indus River and were eager to keep Sindh for themselves, prevailed on Ranjit Singh to accept their plan. Ranjit Singh, however, was chagrined by the British design to put a cordon around him. He opened negotiations with the Afghans and sanctioned an expedition led by the Dogra commander Zorawar Singh that extended Ranjit Singh’s northern territories into Ladakh (a region of eastern Kashmir now in Jammu and Kashmir state, India) in 1834.
In 1838 he agreed to a treaty with the British viceroy Lord Auckland to restore Shah Shojāʿ to the Afghan throne at Kabul. In pursuance of that agreement, the British Army of the Indus entered Afghanistan from the south, while Ranjit Singh’s troops went through the Khyber Pass and took part in the victory parade in Kabul. Shortly afterward, Ranjit Singh was taken ill, and he died at Lahore in June 1839—almost exactly 40 years after he entered the city as a conqueror. In little more than six years after his death, the Sikh state he had created collapsed because of the internecine strife of rival chiefs.
Military administration of Maharaja Ranjit Singh
The military administration of Maharaja Ranjit Singh encompassed two divisions of army. One was known as Fauj-i-Am or the regular army and the other was Fauji-be-Qawaid or the irregular force. The regular army was divided into three parts namely infantry, cavalry and artillery. The creation of the infantry was a gradual process. The Sikhs looked upon service as contempt and refused to join its ranks. Maharaja Ranjit Singh persisted in his efforts and ultimately succeeded in his mission. The result was that by 1818 the inhabitants of Punjab region began to dominate the infantry. In 1822, the Maharaja employed French officers for the training of his troops. At the centre Ranjit Singh had an efficient pay office for the army.
Fauj-i-Khas or French Legion was the model brigade of the Sikh army. It was raised in 1822 by General Ventura and Allard. Its normal strength was four battalions of infantry, two regiments of cavalry and one troop of artillery comprising 24 guns. Special efforts were made for its training, discipline and equipment. The infantry section of the Brigade consisted of the Khas battalion, a Gurkha battalion and two more commanded by Dewa Singh and Sham Sota. The Cavalry portion comprised a Khas regiment and a dragoon regiment. The artillery was known as the crops of General Ilahi Baksh. Fauj-i-be-Qawaid or the irregular army was composed chiefly of horsemen. They were divided into two sections namely the Ghorchara Khas and Misaldars. The former was a single organisation and was recruited from the landed gentry. Many members were relatives of the dignitaries of the court. They supplied their own equipment and were regularly paid at first in Jagirs but later on in cash. The Misaldars comprised all the petty chiefs who were deprived of their territories and were prepared to serve under Ranjit Singh at the head of respective bands of horsemen.
Civil administration of Maharaja ranjit singh
Maharaja used to demonstrate the amazing capacity, to grasp minutiae of administrative and intuitive urge to draw talent in his organisation of Government. The administrative system which run under his authority proved beneficial, efficient and geared towards the interest of the people. But regretably it continued to hinge on his peoples, which tended to make his exercises of authority get the complexion of an absolute monarchy Maharaja had a down to earth knowledge about the state affairs and his best feature was trouble- free accessibility. He provide special facilities to owners of land, while ensuring them that ownership of land was vested with the tiller and that particular person could dig a new well. He ordered to his marching troops not to make any damage to the crops of peasant.
Due to the Secular outlook of Maharaja he provided posts to his subjects on the basis of Merit instead of religion. It was not essential for him to recruit the officers on higher ranks as Prime Minister and foreign Minister would belonged to his religion rather during his period they were from other communities. Even the close adviser of Maharaja were Muslims and it is confirmation of loyalty due to which they fought gauntly as Sikhs in Anglo – Sikh wars. Maharaja created a landmark in the History of India while recruiting ‘Mazhabis’ in his army who were distinguished as old untouchables on Hindu Society.
Maharaja’s Exceptional norms of Public demeanor and Social, moral principles were the main characteristics of Maharaja’s rule. Maharaja gave instructions to his khalsa army that they would not damage any mosque, not to insult any women and not to destroy anyone’s crop while passing through Peshawar streets, they had to keep restraint on themselves. He tried his best to follow the Guru’s injunction, “Exercise forbearance in the midst of power be humble in the midst of honour.
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