The Last Sunset

Captain Amarinder Singh

Description

A comprehensive history of the Lahore Durbar, the glorious reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his exemplary organizational skills that led to forming of the formidable Sikh army and the fiercely fought Anglo Sikh wars. The Last Sunset: The Rise and Fall of the Lahore Durbar recreates history of the Sikh empire and its unforgettable ruler, Maharaja Ranjit Singh of the Shukarchakia dynasty. An outstanding military commander, he created the Sikh Khalsa Army organized and armed in Western style, acknowledged as the best in undivided India in the nineteenth century. Ranjit Singh’s death in 1839 and the subsequent decline of the Lahore Durbar, gave British the opportunity to stake their claim in the region till now fiercely guarded by Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s army. Captain Amarinder Singh chronicles in detail the two Anglo-Sikh wars of 1845 and 1848. The battles, high in casualties on both the sides led to the fall of Khalsa and the state was finally annexed with Maharaja Duleep Singh, the youngest son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh put under the protection of the Crown and deported to England.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Maharajá
• Sijismo
• Pakistán
• South Asia
• Punjab
• Maharaja
• Military
• Sikh
• Kings
• History
• Asia
• Pakistan
• Royal
• War
• India
• Râja
• Lahore
• Penjab
• Sikhisme

Informations

• Publié par: Roli Books
• Date de parution: 10 août 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9788174369116
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

THE LAST SUNSET

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Lotus Collection
© Amarinder Singh, 2010
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the publisher.
First published in hardback in February 2010 This paperback edition first published in 2011
The Lotus Collection An imprint of Roli Books Pvt. Ltd M-75, Greater Kailash II Market, New Delhi 110 048 Phone: ++91 (011) 40682000 Fax: ++91 (011) 2921 7185 E-mail: [e-mail] Website: www.rolibooks.com Also at Bangalore, Chennai, Jaipur, Mumbai & Varanasi
Cover Design: Supriya Saran Cover Painting: Michael Perry Pre-press: Jyoti Dey
ISBN: 978-81-7436-565-1

Contents
List of Annexures
Acknowledgements
Declaration
Introduction
Prologue
The Lion of Lahore
The Evolution of the Army
The Decline of the Lahore Durbar 1839-45
The First Sikh War 1845-46
Multan 1848-49
The Second Sikh War 1848-49
Epilogue
Annexures
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index

LIST OF ANNEXURES




Sr
Title
I
The Treaty with Lahore of 1809
II
The Proclamation of Protection of Cis-Sutlej States against Lahore (1809)
III
The Proclamation of Protection to Cis- Sutlej States Against One Another (1811)
IV
The Indus Navigation Treaty of 1832
V
The Declaration of War of 1845
VI
General Order by the Right Hon. the Governor General of India
VII
From His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief to the Right Hon. Sir Henry Hardinge, GCB, Governor General of India, & C.
VIII
The First Treaty with Lahore of 1846
IX
Treaty between the British Government and Maharajah Gholab Singh, concluded at Umritsir on 16 March 1846
X
The Second Treaty with Lahore of 1846
XI
The Proclamation. Lahore, 22 July 1848
XII
The Proclamation by the Resident at Lahore, 18 November 1848
XIII
The detailed statement of the numerical strength of corps engaged in several actions during the Punjab campaign
XIV
Regiments involved in the Sikh wars
XV
Memorandum by Mr Charles Wood and the Council of India, 21 March 1860
XVI
Family trees of the principal families of the Lahore Durbar and those associated with it

1. Shukarchakia

2. Nalwa

3. Jind

4. Sandhanwalia

5. Attari

6. Majithia

7. The Jammu Family

Acknowledgements
I wish to thank a large number of institutions and people who made this book possible.
Her Majesty the Queen’s archives at Windsor and the India Office Library whose help was most invaluable. I am most grateful to Major General G.S. Malhi VSM, General Officer Commanding the 1st Armoured Division, for his personal interest in getting the maps of the First and Second Anglo-Sikh wars prepared. To the former vice-chancellor of the Punjabi University at Patiala, Sardar Swaran Singh Boparai who put at my disposal all the books and documents in the university library, and his former registrar, Sardar Parm Bakhshish Singh, earlier head of the department of Punjab Historical Studies, who willingly answered all the questions I put to him, as did the grand old man of Sikh history, Dr Kirpal Singh, whose enthusiasm is always infectious and who answered all my questions from memory, and in turn offered many suggestions.
The archives at Kathmandu of the Nepal government, that pointed mein the right direction for information on the twelve-year stay of MaharaniJinda in Nepal and to G.S. Aujla, IPS, the then principal of the PoliceTraining Academy at Phillaur who loaned me a large number of booksfrom their excellent library which were most useful. To the Imperial Hotel,Delhi for use of the photographs of Sardar Hari Singh Nalwa and SardarSham Singh Attari. To Major Amardeep Singh, formerly of my regiment,the old Ludhiana Sikhs, and Navneet Sharma who were consistentlyavailable to me to resolve issues as they appeared.
To Michael Perry for the painting of Mortal Combat for the cover, and to Ken Hunt for all the wonderful paintings of the Lahore Durbar Army. To David Mathews, general manager at the Wildflower Hall Hotel in Mashobra, Simla, who sent me photographs from the Oberoi Collection of the Indian Army of the period, on display at his hotel.
To Patricia Pugh for her assistance at the time of editing the manuscript and to Ian Bottomley, Tara Pugh and Shoma Choudhury, without whom this book would not have appeared as it does.
And finally, to my former private secretary, when I was chief minister of Punjab, M.P. Singh PCS, who arranged to get me books and documents from the various libraries and archives of Punjab for me to take notes, and to Nirmaljit Singh Kalsi, IAS, the then secretary Information and Technology, who painstakingly facilitated many of the pictures in the book. To them all I offer my grateful thanks.

Declaration
T he Lahore Durbar had two principal cities, Lahore and Amritsar.
The Fakir Khana Museum at Lahore, houses the most comprehensive collection of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s memorabilia, documents of his period and paintings. As with any museum that wishes to preserve and expand its collection, it has to constantly look to its resources. With the cost of such items and service constantly on the rise, money becomes the major constraint.
At Amritsar, the name that personifies service is that of the late Bhagat Puran Singh’s ‘Pingalwara’ (a sanatorium for 1200 terminally ill people, who are unable to afford medical treatment).
The Last Sunset will be released, apart from in India, at Lahore, Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s capital, and in other countries where Punjabis are settled in large numbers.
The proceeds of this book, in both India and Pakistan, will go to their respective institutions, and that from other countries, will be divided between the two as my humble contribution in helping preserve the memory of the great Ranjit Singh in the cities he loved.

THE LAHORE FORT DURING THE SIKH PERIOD 1801-1849


Introduction
§ eldom in history does a man make so great an impact upon the events of his time that, 168 years after his death, he is still being written, spoken and conjectured about as if those events were recent happenings.
Such a man was Ranjit Singh, the maharaja of Lahore. Though illiterate, he was a highly perceptive man. His great intelligence and will to go on learning till his dying day, made him one of the ablest rulers and military commanders in the history of the Punjab and, indeed, of India.
I have sometimes been asked why I have chosen to write this study about a man and his times of whom so much has already been written by very competent men and women in countless books, by military men in their autobiographies or historians covering the more mundane business of government and the national events of a certain period. While autobiography often makes for an absorbing and enjoyable read, the authors, sometimes, have their noses too close to the windowpane to see things in their true perspective. Some autobiographies are written under the pressure of personal prejudice, and thus fail to give an accurate, broad-based, in-depth account of events surrounding the experiences of the authors. As for written history, this is, all too often, written in a monotonous, dry as dust style with which it has, sadly, now become synonymous, making people shy away from it. I have attempted to write about the military aspects of a fascinating period, factual in every respect, I believe, and without prejudice, to produce a story – a human story – to which, I hope, lay readers too, will be attracted.
History seeks to record events as they actually occurred. However, students will find that military biographers, and even historians, are divided down the middle over the story of the years I have covered about events in the Punjab and the activities of the Lahore Durbar.
Contemporary historians, writing while the game was still in progress, bat openly for their own sides. Later historians are, perhaps, more objective, writing with a tongue-in-cheek subtlety which tends to favour their own. This behaviour is inevitable when events have changed the hist