The Sikhs Go to War

Story of the British in India is a remarkable one. Equipped with all the resources of a Western civilisation, they penetrated and spread all over this ancient land and left a mark on its peoples which still has not been effaced. Among the benefits they brought in their train were roads, railways, and modern transport, wealth and industry, and a vast irrigation system that made fertile agriculture for thousands of square miles on land where nothing profitable had ever grown before.

But the British also brought with them some of the worst aspects of colonialism, which were applied to such a thoughtless degree that they alienated a people who were so used to having foreign communities in their midst that they had become one of the most tolerant people on earth. The British, with their despotism, puritanism, and a superiority complex which led to an attitude of condescending pity and flippant contempt towards everything Indian, eventually became a festering sore on the body of India, which could only be healed by their departure from the land.

The story of the British in India really starts in 1600, 102 years after Vasco da Gama had discovered the ocean route around the Cape of Good Hope, thereby arousing the greed of Portugal, France, and Holland, who began a race to capture the rich Indian trade. Not to be outdone, the English East India Company joined in the rivalry, and quickly established trading posts at Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta. The history of India from that time until 1757, when Robert Clive overthrew the French and laid the foundations of the rule of the East India Company, is one of long commercial struggles between Britain and her European rivals.

The decline of British prestige started with the Anglo-Sikh Wars, which began in 1845, and did not end until 1849. These wars, which modern historians have tended to ignore, were some of the bloodiest the British ever fought in India. More significantly, although they ended in victory for the British, they did a great deal of lasting harm to Anglo-Indian relations. It was from then onwards that the Indians began to actively dislike the British presence in their country.

For the root causes of the wars, we have to go back to the year 1809, when the Sikhs still ruled a vast area of India known as the Punjab. Here, the British had to reckon with Ranjeet Singh, a powerful, despotic leader with a flair for oriental diplomacy. Of all the Indian rulers, Singh was undoubtedly the most colourful and contradictory in character.

He ruled a nation by sheer force of intellect and his courage. He was a magnificent soldier who loved and respected his warriors, but he was capable of creating a regiment of 150 pretty girls mounted on white horses and armed with miniature bows and arrows, whose only purpose was to appear on parade to amuse him.

It was this man who was to contain British expansion until his death in 1839 at the age of 59. It was not, however, a complete victory. During his rule, Singh concluded a treaty with the British in which it was agreed that they should form a protectorate south of an important river known as the Sutlej, thus curbing Singh’s own plans for expansion in that direction. In the not too far distant future, the river Sutlej was to be stained with the blood of both Sikh and British soldiers.

The two years that followed the death of Singh were ones of violence and bloodshed in the Punjab as the various contenders for the throne systematically murdered each other, either by assassination or in pitched battles.

The survivors of this bloodbath were the Maharani Jindan, her young son, Duleep Singh, and her brother Jawahir Singh, who was almost permanently drunk. In the background, there was the Khalsa, a religious and military community which had steadily grown more and more powerful over the years, and was now looking forward to the day when it could take on the British in battle. The Khalsa had now grown so powerful, in fact, that it began to have dreams of driving the British completely out of India. But it was also realistic enough to realise that if this was to be achieved, it was necessary for the seeds of mutiny to be sown throughout the Indian Army.

To this end, soldiers were sent over the border lines disguised as holy men to corrupt the troops with the promise of double pay if they would join the Sikh army. This scheme, though, was only a partial success. The Khalsa still had another problem in the shape of Jawahir Singh, who, as chief minister, had shown signs of undesirable independence by stubbornly refusing to discuss his decisions with them.

On 20th September 1845, the Khalsa formally took over control of the government. As its first act, it ordered the Maharani, her son, Jawahir Singh, and all government officials to attend the Khalsa camp outside Lahore. The scene which took place there was a horrifying one. On their arrival on the backs of elephants, they were greeted with a salute of 180 guns. Duleep Singh and his mother were escorted with great politeness and ceremony to a tent which had been prepared for them close by. Jawahir Singh’s treatment was of a different order. A command was rapped out, and a soldier went up a ladder which had been placed by Singh’s elephant, stabbed him with a bayonet, and then flung him to the ground, where he was promptly hacked to death. Later in the day, all the members of the government were slain or sent off to imprisonment.

The Maharani was allowed to take over the government, but she quickly found that she was unable to control the army which was clamouring to attack the British. In December 1845, the Sikhs finally crossed the Sutlej and invaded British territory with a force of between 20,000 and 30,000 men. In front of them lay 10,000 British soldiers who were moving forward to defend Mudki, where the first pitched battle was to take place.

Finally, the Sikh army was defeated, but these proud warriors were not crushed, and three years later, war broke out again.

What’s the matter with you! I’ve got the heavy end!”