The Fall of the Kingdom of Punjab Read online

  Khushwant Singh

  THE FALL OF THE KINGDOM OF THE PUNJAB

  CONTENTS

  By the Same Author

  Dedication

  Chapter 1: Nightmare in Dreamland

  Chapter 2: Death beneath the Gateway

  Chapter 3: The Ambitious Widow

  Chapter 4: The Dilettante Prince

  Chapter 5: The Punjab under the Dogras

  Chapter 6: British Plans to Annex the Punjab

  Chapter 7: First War against the English

  Chapter 8: The British Enter the Punjab

  Chapter 9: The Punjab as a British Protectorate

  Chapter 10: Bhai Maharaj Singh and the Banishment of Jindan

  Chapter 11: The Fall of the Punjab

  Postscript

  Author’s Note

  Follow Penguin

  Copyright

  By the Same Author

  ALSO BY KHUSHWANT SINGH

  Train to Pakistan

  Truth, Love and a Little Malice

  Delhi: A Novel

  The Sunset Club

  Absolute Khushwant

  Khushwantnama

  This book is dedicated to the memory of

  Sardar Bahadur Sir Teja Singh Malik, CIE,

  and his wife,

  Lady Raj Malik,

  who spent the best part of their lives

  in the service of their Gurus.

  Chapter 1

  Nightmare in Dreamland

  ‘What does the red colour stand for?’ asked Maharajah Ranjit Singh of an English cartographer who was showing him a map of Hindustan.

  ‘Your Majesty,’ replied the Englishman, ‘red indicates the extent of British possessions in the country.’

  The Maharajah scanned the map a little more carefully with his single eye and saw that the whole of India except the Punjab was painted red. He paused for a little while and then remarked to his courtiers: ‘Ek roz sab lal ho jaiga—one day it will all be red.’

  The anecdote about the map, like many other anecdotes about Ranjit Singh, was made up to illustrate the Maharajah’s prophetic vision. But in the case of the British, one did not have to be a prophet to guess that they would extend their power to the utmost geographical limits of Hindustan—if possible, even beyond. In the forty years Ranjit Singh had been Maharajah of the Punjab, he had seen the English triumph over all the other princes of India: the Nawabs of Bengal and Oudh; the Rajputs, Rohillas, Jats and Gurkhas; they had even vanquished the most powerful of all Indian powers, the Marathas, from whom they wrested the capital city of Delhi, along with the Mughal Emperor. The only independent Indian Kingdom that remained was that of the Punjab.

  The English made no secret of their designs to take the Punjab. In 1809, they had extended their frontier from the banks of the Jumna to the Sutlej, taking all the Sikh chiefs of Malwa under their protection. This was an aggressive extension of their earlier policy of considering the Jumna the western limit of their empire: it was also in flagrant disregard of the title established by Ranjit Singh who had thrice visited Malwa and been acclaimed by the Chiefs as the sovereign of all the Sikhs. Ranjit Singh had mustered his forces to resist this incursion, but then realised that he was not strong enough to fight the English and their Indian mercenaries. He had swallowed his pride and signed away Malwa.

  The English provoked Ranjit Singh over and over again. Each time he talked of fighting them but lost his nerve and agreed to terms dictated by them. They blocked his progress southwards towards Sindh and the Arabian Sea. They began to meddle in the affairs of Afghanistan and cajoled Ranjit Singh into joining them in subverting the Barakzais and placing their own puppet, Shah Shuja, on the throne of Kabul. They had been audacious enough to suggest the posting of a British Resident in Lahore. This the Maharajah had firmly refused to accept. But he must have known that it was only a matter of time.

  In his anxiety to ward off the British danger, Ranjit Singh had begun to modernise and increase his army. From 1822, a stream of European officers—French, Italian, Greek, Spanish, English and Eurasian—began to enter his service. All the major conquests had been made and there were neither new sources of revenue to pay the enormous salaries of the foreign officers and for modern weapons, nor new fields to conquer. Ranjit had on principle kept his troops in arrears of pay as it prevented desertions in time of action. After 1822, the shortage of money became chronic and it was only the iron discipline imposed by the Maharajah that prevented the troops from breaking out in open mutiny. The seeds of indiscipline had however been sown and Ranjit’s successors had to reap the bitter harvest. Soldiers began to demand that their arrears be cleared forthwith and frequently refused to fight unless they were promised rewards and higher pay. They disobeyed their officers and used violence against those they did not like. European officers, of whom more than forty were on the payrolls of the Durbar, were the first to pull out. Even those who stayed did so because of the enormous salaries they drew (Ventura Rs. 2,500 p.m. plus a jagir; Avitabile Rs. 1,666 p.m. plus a jagir). Their loyalties were not towards the Punjab State and they were more than willing to sell information to the British. Ranjit Singh had treated them as highly paid drill-sergeants and never reposed any faith in their professions of loyalty. Once when they had refused to contribute to a levy, the Maharajah had exploded: ‘German, or English, all these European haramzadas (bastards) are alike.’

  Ranjit Singh’s army comprising both the Ain regulars trained by Europeans and the Ghorchara horsemen consisted of a little under 50,000 men with nearly 300 pieces of artillery of various calibre. There were, in addition, troops which the military fief-holders—jagirdars—had to provide. The army cost the State over one crore of rupees per year, i.e., more than one-third of the State’s income. It was, however, the most powerful in Asia. To ensure their jobs, the European officers inculcated fear and hate of the English among the men (without themselves having any compunction of treating with English agents). It was not surprising that when the soldiery came to know how untrue to the Punjabi salt their Europeans had become, it developed acute xenophobia.

  Ranjit Singh’s greatest oversight was his failure to train any one of his sons to take his place. When he died on the evening of 27th June 1839, there was no one fit to step into his shoes and guide the destinies of the State. This applied not only to his sons but also to the rest of the favourites at Court whom he had raised from rustic obscurity to power, from modest means to wealth beyond their imagination.

  Ranjit Singh left seven sons behind him. Since they were born of different women they had little fraternal affection for one another. Of these sons the eldest, Kharak Singh, who was thirty-seven years old, was his father’s choice as successor. He was the least suited of the brothers, having inherited nothing from his illustrious sire except his plain looks and bad habits—particularly the love for laudanum and hard liquor. ‘Besides being a block-head, he was a worse opium-eater than his father,’ wrote the royal physician, Dr. Martin Honigberger. Kharak Singh had been brought up by servants who pandered to all his whims and was unable to develop initiative. He was easy-going but without any of the down-to-earth peasant simplicity which had endeared his father to the masses. His indolence was, however, somewhat of a blessing as he was not unwillng to leave the tedium of administration to more willing hands.

  Kharak Singh’s son, Nao Nihal Singh, possessed the qualities his father lacked: ambition, drive and a pleasant personality. At the time of his grandfather’s death, he was on the North-West Frontier, directing operations in the Afghan campaign on behalf of the Durbar. He was aware of his father’s incompetence to manage the affairs of State or control the unscrupulous pack of courtiers who surrounded him.
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br />   An equally ambitious and affable claimant to the throne was Ranjit Singh’s second son, Sher Singh. Sher Singh had made no secret of his aspirations and based his claim on being the son of Ranjit Singh’s first wedded wife, Mehtab Kaur, and was altogether better suited to be Maharajah of the Punjab. Kharak Singh refuted Sher Singh’s contentions and asserted that he (Kharak Singh) was the only legitimate son of his father: the others—Sher Singh, his twin brother Tara Singh, Kashmira Singh, Peshaura Singh, Multana Singh and the one-year-old Dalip Singh—were, according to Kharak Singh, of doubtful paternity.

  In the absence of leadership from the Royal family, the Council of Ministers and the nobility at Court assumed greater importance. Since their primary interest was to enlarge their personal estates and privileges they found it politic to play one claimant to the throne against the other. Two factions emerged soon after the death of Ranjit Singh. The more influential were the three Dogra brothers, Gulab Singh, Dhyan Singh and Suchet Singh, and Dhyan Singh’s son Hira Singh, who had been a great favourite of the late Maharajah. Although the three brothers were not always in accord, one or another member of the family managed to be in effective power at Lahore and allowed his other kinsmen to set up an almost independent Dogra kindgom in the hills of Jammu and Kashmir.

  Opposed to the Dogras were the Sikh nobility, particularly three families related to the Royal family, the Sandhawalias, Attariwalas and Majithias. The most influential were the Sandhawalias—Lehna Singh, Ajit Singh and Attar Singh who were also connected to Kharak Singh’s wife, Chand Kaur. The Attariwala chiefs, at that time of little consequence, were Sham Singh, Chattar Singh and his sons, Sher Singh and Gulab Singh. The head of the Majithia family was the celebrated Lehna Singh, a scholarly person of somewhat retiring habits, and the young Ranjodh Singh, who was a military commander of note. Since the Dogras were Hindus, it was inevitable that the differences between them and the Sikh Sardars should assume a communal aspect. The one thing members of these factions had in common was the desire to reduce the crown to a mere cipher and become, like the Peshwas of the Marathas, the real rulers of the country. In doing so, few of them had any scruples about the methods they used to gain their ends: murder by poison or by hired assassins, betrayal of friends and relations after the most solemn vows, forging documents to discredit their rivals, and, worst of all, negotiating with the British who were then known to be planning the annexation of the Punjab.

  There were amongst the coterie of self-seekers a small number of men who refused to align themselves with either faction and continued to serve the Durbar as faithfully and honestly as circumstances permitted. Outstanding among them were the Fakir brothers, notably the eldest, Azizuddin, who was adviser on foreign affairs, and a Kashmiri Brahmin, Dina Nath, who administered the departments of revenue and finance. Men like Azizuddin and Dina Nath were content to give advice whenever it was asked for but did not try to exert their influence on the violent men who had come into power.

  Wrangling began while Ranjit Singh’s body still lay on the floor awaiting cremation. The chief courtiers foregathered in the palace and agreed unanimously that ‘no confidence could be placed in Koonwar Kharak Singh Bahadur and Koonwar Nao Nihal Singh Bahadur as regards the continuance of the estates in their possession.’ The next day after the cremation they came to the palace and again desired their heir-apparent ‘to console them (the noblemen) by a solemn oath on the Granth that the grants repectively conferred on them by the late Maharajah should be continued to them.’ The newly-rich, upstart aristocracy of the Punjab thus made the continued enjoyment of privileges and property a condition for their loyalty to the State. It was not surprising that within a few days the main preoccupation of the Royal family and the nobility became the acquisition of more property and the throne was reduced to being a footstool on which the ambitious could place their feet to climb higher.

  Maharajah Kharak Singh gave the necessary assurances and for some time assuaged the fears of the aristocracy. Relations between him and his brother Sher Singh continued to be tense for some time. Sher Singh had kept away from his dying father’s bedside because he suspected that Kharak Singh would avail of the opportunity to seize him. His first instinct was to proceed to the hills and, if possible, take over the district and fort of Kangra. He gave up the plan when he heard of his father’s death and instead repaired to his estates in Batala. He had it conveyed to the Durbar that he would not attend the obsequial ceremonies unless he was guaranteed immunity from arrest. Maharajah Kharak Singh gave his solemn pledge; Raja Suchet Singh and Jemadar Khushal Singh gave personal assurances that no harm would come to Sher Singh. The Prince came to Lahore and on the last day of the official mourning the Punjab Akhbar was able to report that there seemed to be great unanimity between all members of the Royal family. On 16th July 1839, Maharajah Kharak Singh invested his step-brother with the sonourous titles Sri Wahguru ji ke piarey, Satguru ji ke Savarey, Ujjal didar, nirmal budh, akhri arshadi, aitzadi, Bhai Sher Singhji (Beloved of God, perfected by the True Guru, radiant of face, of clear insight, the strength of our arms, the honoured one, our own brother, Sher Singh).

  The unanimity in the Durbar did not last many days. Nao Nihal Singh decided to take over the affairs of the State into his own hands. The Punjab Akhbar of 16th July 1839 (nineteen days after the death of Ranjit Singh) records: ‘Nao Nihal Singh has made all the Sardars sign a document confirming Maharajah Kharak Singh’s successor and his own mukhtari or ministership . . . he has issued orders to all Sardars at Lahore to defer the ceremony of tilak to his father till his return to Lahore, and to consider themselves responsible for the preservation of all the jewels, treasures and horses etc. left by the late Maharajah, of which he would take an account on his return. Raja Dhyan Singh was disconcerted on hearing of the purwana. The ceremony of tilak has been deferred till the month of October.’ Some of the ministers lined up behind the Prince; others, including the Sandhawalias, backed Dhyan Singh Dogra. A few, like the Fakir brothers and Raja Dina Nath, kept aloof.

  Dhyan Singh Dogra restrained the impetuous Nao Nihal from upsetting the carefully balanced apple-cart. He accepted the Prince’s right to make major policy decisions and agreed to play the role of Chief Counsellor. At first, Maharajah Kharak Singh accepted this arrangement without demur. But later he came under the influence of one Chet Singh Bajwa, who was related to him through his wife and had been manager of his personal estates. Bajwa persuaded Kharak Singh to give up his dissolute ways, and take his duties as a monarch more seriously. He thus made Kharak Singh conscious of the usurpation of the royal prerogative. Tension grew between the Maharajah and Chet Singh Bajwa on one side and Prince Nao Nihal Singh and Dhyan Singh Dogra on the other. Kharak Singh made a feeble effort to put his son and the Dogra Chief Minister in their places but it was obvious to all concerned that the initiative came from Chet Singh Bajwa who, in Punjabi parlance, was resting his gun on the Maharajah’s shoulder to fire at the people he did not like. For a short while Bajwa succeeded in becoming the power behind the throne. He had the Dogra guard removed from the fort, forbade Dhyan Singh (who had been Chamberlain—Deodhidar) and his son Hira Singh access to the Maharajah’s apartments. Power turned Bajwa’s mind and he became intolerably arrogant. Prince Nao Nihal Singh resented Bajwa’s ascendancy as fiercely as did the Dogras, but was engaged in prosecuting the campaign against the Afghans. Gulab Singh Dogra retired to his estate in Jammu and busied himself in consolidating his hold on the hill areas.

  The discord between the ministers became an open scandal and disloyal elements began to take advantage of the situation. Mian Rattan Chand and his son Prithi Chand captured several forts in the hills around Nagrota. This uprising was easily quelled by Lehna Singh Majithia, who defeated the Rajputs and brought Rattan Chand and Prithi Chand in chains to Lahore. Prince Nao Nihal Singh’s presence at the frontier put new zest into his troops. Till then General Ventura and Captain Wade, who were accompanying the Punjabis, had spent much of their energies quarrelling with ea
ch other and had been unable to make any headway against the tribesmen. Prince Nao Nihal Singh took charge of the situation. He appointed Colonel Sheikh Bassawan to take over command and ordered him to advance. Within a few days, the Punjabis forced their way through the Khyber Pass and captured Ali Masjid. They marched on to Kabul which had fallen on 9th August 1839.

  By the end of August 1839, both Prince Nao Nihal Singh and Gulab Singh Dogra were back in Lahore. Wrangling began all over again. The Prince had it conveyed to the Maharajah that it was the considered opinion of all the advisers that Bajwa should be dismissed. The Maharajah not only ignored the advice but made Bajwa’s approval a condition precedent for the grant of new jagirs. The Punjab Akhbar of 25th September 1839 states: ‘The Maharajah demanded the reason of Bhais Ram Singh and Gobind Ram’s absence. Raja Suchet Singh replied that it was due to the enmity which existed between them and Chet Singh.’ Kharak Singh was very angry. He ordered a heavier guard around the palace and warned Chet Singh’s regiment to be on the watch at all times with their muskets loaded. He refused to grant his son permission to retire on a jagir he wanted. The Prince also spoke in anger. ‘I care little about the jagir. My care is for the welfare of the state. Let Raja Dhyan Singh remain, but Sardar Chet Singh’s interference with any of the affairs of the State is highly improper.’

  Prince Nao Nihal Singh decided to take the decisive step. He sounded Mr. Clerk, who was acting as British Agent at Ludhiana in the absence of Col. Wade, and being assured that the British would not create difficulties (Clerk had counselled patience) quietly assumed the functions of the ruler. The Lahore newswriter recorded: ‘Nao Nihal Singh holds Durbar twice a day at which hundreds of the first in rank and most respectable attend.’

  Kharak Singh tried to retrieve the situation by suggesting that Bajwa and Dhyan Singh Dogra act in concert and persuaded Bajwa to throw himself at the mercy of the Prince. Dhyan Singh refused to collaborate and Nao Nihal remained adamant. Bajwa realised his days were numbered. He could not trust his body-guards and was afraid to leave the side of the Maharajah. Even that did not save him.