Emperor of the Five Rivers

The Life and Times of Maharajah Ranjit Singh

Mohamed Sheikh

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781786720955
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Indian & South Asian History
• Index: History

In 1801, at the age of just 20 years old, Ranjit Singh became the Maharaja of the Punjab Empire and subsequently became one of the greatest figures in the history of India. He was a fiercely brave leader, capturing the city of Lahore before becoming Maharaja and overcoming a variety of challenges during his 40-year rule, such as harsh terrain, an ethnically and religiously diverse population and strong aggressors including the British and the Afghans. Despite such challenges, Ranjit Singh was able to unite Punjab's various factions yet rule a nation that was strictly secular; the Maharaja was benevolent to his subjects no matter their ethnicity or religion and sought to promote interfaith unity through policies of equality and non-discrimination. Aside from building his own nation, Ranjit built solid strategic relations with his most challenging aggressor - the British. Through stamina and political will, he managed to establish a formal treaty between the two and secured from 1809 Britain's protection against third party attempts to conquer the Punjab. Following Ranjit Singh's death in 1839, the Empire fell into decline. Just six years later, the Punjabis attacked the British, and in 1845 they were beaten and forced to sign the Treaty of Lahore, essentially conceding control to the British.Ranjit Singh's personal characteristics and leadership skills were what held the Punjab nation together in a tumultuous period in history. Mohamed Sheikh's new account of Singh's life illustrates these characteristics and skills and illuminates the man who singlehandedly created and sustained the Empire.

1

THE FOUNDATIONS

It is a cliché that great leaders are made by the interaction of character and context. The context from which Ranjit Singh and his new state emerged was the historic Punjab – the clay that Ranjit moulded. It is with the Punjab that his story begins.

The Punjab’s rivers – ab means both water and river – make the rather beautiful shape of a leaf, with the rivers as the veins and stem. At its northern tip, the leaf curls up into the Himalayan foothills, outliers of several tangled mountain systems – the Hindu Kush, the Karakorums and many minor ranges. Up here, tiny hamlets perch on hillsides or nestle in valleys. But most of the Punjab is flat, sloping from about 1,600 feet above sea level in the north to some 230 feet in the south-west, a drop of a mere 3.5 feet per mile. Its great rivers – the Indus and the five tributaries that give the region its name: the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej – wander slowly across plains that freeze in winter and shimmer under a remorseless sun in summer, with temperatures up to 120^o Fahrenheit in the shade. The rivers, meandering in broad, sandy channels, turn arid lands hardly reached by monsoon rains into well-irrigated doabs – the ‘two-water’ flat lands between rivers. The shallow river-beds bar large ships, but locals have always used small boats. Where the water does not reach, however, is semi-desert or desert. Higher and drier parts of the doabs support only low shrubs, where camels graze, and to the south, in areas away from river water, are barren tracts of shifting sands.

Water, canals, boats and farming: the combination made the Punjab’s heartland a focus for civilisation, from the time of the Indus Valley Civilisation, the oldest in South Asia, dating back to 2000 bce. The land has always been a buffer-zone or target for conquest: the Greeks under Alexander the Great in the fourth century bce, Hindus from northern India in the fourth and fifth centuries ce, the Turkish Shahiyas in the eighth and ninth centuries, Ghaznavids and Ghurids from Afghanistan, and finally the Muslim Mughals, who ruled in north India for 300 years and gave the region its name. They made Lahore their capital, and turned the ancient highway across north India into the great 2,500km artery known as the Grand Trunk Road. Dotted with caravanserais and shaded by trees, it ran from the Northwest Frontier through Islamabad and Lahore to Amritsar and Delhi, and beyond all the way to Kolkata (Calcutta). Described by Rudyard Kipling in Kim as ‘a river of life such as exists nowhere else in the world’, it allowed the flow of people, trade and armies, and so played a major role in the events described in this book.

Once hierarchical and dominated by caste, Punjabi society became more mobile under Turkish and Mughal rule. Artisans and service-providers moved from the countryside to towns to serve the new ruling class. New methods of irrigation extended croplands and supported new towns. By the early seventeenth century, merchants from Multan and Lahore were playing a crucial role in domestic and external trade. The spinning wheel, carding-bow and improved wooden loom brought about changes in weaving. Lime mortar made possible better brick-and-stone construction. Sialkot emerged as an important centre of paper manufacture. This was no industrial revolution: artisans still worked with elementary technology in a labour-intensive system of families bound by their caste, making the Punjab famous for hand-loomed carpets, shawls, rugs, glazed tiles and pottery. Most of the region’s people worked in agriculture, as they do today; the Punjab is not only the breadbasket of Pakistan but is the most important wheat-growing region of the subcontinent.

Islamic law was introduced for the administration of justice under Turko-Afghan and Mughal rule. The Punjab already had a significant Muslim population, though by the sixteenth century many new ideas had begun to emerge or spread, such as Sufism – already widespread by the fourteenth century – and, particularly, Sikhism, which gained considerable ground among ordinary people as a new ethic that made no distinctions on the basis of birth. Its radical ideology had a special appeal for labourers, craftsmen, agriculturists, traders and shopkeepers. Their contributions enabled the Gurus to establish religious centres and new towns. The Sikh community’s financial independence and strong organisation made it something of a state within the Mughal Empire.

The Punjab’s long-established mixed population has bequeathed a rich cultural tradition of dance, music, folk ballads and a literature dating back to the Islamic poetry of Attar, a thirteenth-century follower of Sufism. But it also included an astonishing variety of different groups, divided by clan, religion and ethnicity. The Punjab in the decades before Ranjit Singh unified it was a patchwork of small clan-ruled areas known as misls, all with their own traditions and interests. To persuade and force such diverse entities into a single state was one of Ranjit’s greatest achievements.

The Punjab between 1849 and 1947 was forcibly absorbed into British-ruled India. After partition in 1947, massive population changes swiftly occurred between newly formed India and Pakistan. Some 10 million people crossed over to what they hoped was the relative safety of a religious majority, most of them in the Punjab: over 5 million Muslims moved to the western Punjab, now in Pakistan, while nearly 4.5 million Hindus and Sikhs moved eastwards. Violence erupted on both sides of the border. About a million human beings died in the Punjab alone, with countless more innocent people injured. Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who had endeavoured to create a united country in which people were not discriminated against because of their religion, would surely have wept bitter tears had he known what would happen in the Punjab just over a century after his death.

Today, the old Punjab is divided between Pakistan and India, the Pakistani share being three times the Indian. The populations are very different. Almost all of the 86 million people in Pakistan’s province are Muslims. By contrast, in the three Indian states most of the 24 million is Sikh (50–60 per cent) or Hindu. So in the Punjab as a whole, Sikhs are in a minority, as they were in Ranjit Singh’s time, a fact that recalls the scale of his achievement.

The Punjab’s location and history of incursions led to the rise of the great religion that was central to Ranjit Singh’s life. By 1500, Muslim invaders had in the course of 500 years converted about half the population of the Punjab to Islam, while the other half remained Hindus. Of course, many of those invaders had not been concerned solely with the Punjab. They were after an even greater prize: India, or Hindustan, whose disunity made it irresistible to predators. It was virtually inevitable that invaders from the west would ravage the lush and fertile Punjab on their way. Yet the Punjabi people were not blameless. They remained chronically unable to unite to keep foreigners out. Bands of them might unite against any one set of invaders, but such unity always collapsed once the invaders had gone.

In the late 1400s a young man called Nanak ruminated upon the inadequacies of his fellow Punjabis. What on earth could be done to bring the timeless sequence of invasion, plunder and death to an end and so give Punjabis a happier life? Nanak could see no way in which Muslims and Hindus could be brought together by appeals to reason and common-sense. Such appeals had been made many times but had always fallen on stony ground. The people needed something more.

He found his answer in his own religious outlook. Although brought up as a Hindu, he was attracted by the Sufi branch of Islam, whose disciples believed in converting infidels by persuasion not force. Nanak decided to focus on what Muslims and Hindus in the Punjab had in common: they shared the same land, and the same – often deplorable – conditions. In 1499, when he was aged 30, Nanak came up with what was probably the only possible answer: a new creed, Sikhism, with elements drawn from both the other two religions. He became Sikhism’s first Guru, meaning teacher or master.

There are many points on which Sikhs and Muslims agree. Both groups believe in one God, Waheguru and Allah, and oppose idolatry. In Islam, the Prophet Mohamed (Peace Be Upon Him) bequeathed his followers the Qur’an and His way of life; Sikhism has a holy book known as the Granth. The Gurus encourage acts of charity, as does the tradition of zakat for Muslims. Worshippers remove their shoes and cover their head on entering mosques and Sikh temples, gurudware, and both sets of worshippers sit on the floor. Marriages in both Islam and Sikhism are supposed to take place only with the consent of both the boy and the girl. The mool mantra – the ‘main chant’ or ‘root verse’ of the Granth, said to be the first composition uttered by Nanak upon his enlightenment – equates with the Muslims’ Kalima (‘There is No God but Allah, and the Prophet Mohamed is his Messenger’), and some of the sayings in the mool mantra would be believed by Muslims as well as Sikhs.

Sikhism and Hinduism, too, have points in common. Both religions see Om as a sacred word; it is commonly used at the beginning of their mantras or sacred invocations. In Sikhism, as Khushwant Singh, one of Ranjit’s biographers, has written, ‘the concept of Om, which is somewhat elusive in Hinduism, is crystallised in Sikh theology and is given a status of symbol – the symbol of God. The singularity of God is expressed in the saying Ek Onkaar (There is one God).’ ¹ Both religions believe in the existence of the soul and its rebirth in different bodies. They have as their final aim the liberation of the soul from the bondage of matter or Moksha. They both adhere to the law of karma, or the law of cause and effect. They regard vegetarianism as virtuous. Sikhs celebrate Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. The surname ‘Singh’ was also found among Hindu Rajputs. It has been argued that the Sikh kirpan (dagger) was adopted from the Rajput martial tradition. The turban was a common headdress of Indians and was not exclusively Sikh.

A man with a powerful message had no alternative but to spread the word himself. Nanak, who mastered Punjabi, Sanskrit and Persian, travelled all over India and beyond. He spoke before Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Muslims in temples and mosques and at pilgrimage sites. One place he visited in 1514 was the north-central Indian town of Gorakhmata, the abode of the devotees of Guru Gorakhnath, the eleventh–twelfth-century teacher of yoga. Here, Guru Nanak so impressed his listeners that Gorakhmata was thereafter renamed as Nanakmatta, and remains a place of pilgrimage today.²

Mecca, by contrast, was a long way from the Indian subcontinent. When Nanak arrived after his 2,000-mile journey he was so exhausted that he collapsed into sleep with his feet pointed towards the Holy Shrine. Jiwan, the night watchman, spotted this act of sacrilege and upbraided him, but once it was known that he was the legendary Guru, other pilgrims and holy men gathered at the scene. Again, Nanak’s transparent sincerity won converts to his code of humility, prayer and truthful living.

Wherever he went he spoke out against empty religious rituals, the caste system and the sacrifice of widows (sati), and preached other tenets. Naturally, this could have offended followers of different faiths but he was careful not to actually ask his listeners to follow him. Rather, he stressed the ideals of equality, universality and social commitment. All men and women could join his path as equals. They then worshipped together in congregations (sangat) and ate simple food together (langar). Nanak taught that all spiritual and ethical norms and values were equally applicable to them.

Guru Nanak practised what he preached. He continued to attend Hindu services but when he visited Mecca he was accompanied by Bhai Mardana, a Muslim musician, and visited mosques. Naturally, he was up against enormous forces of resistance – adherents of a religion do not lightly abandon it, and those who do can find their liberty or even their lives abruptly ended. Religious conservatism is not easily overcome. And because Nanak lived in an age when news travelled at walking pace, many Punjabis would not hear of him for many years. But the magic of his new faith and its inviting nature enabled him to prevail.

Despite his ascetic lifestyle and the solitary nature of the task he set himself, Guru Nanak was a householder who married and had children. However, he eventually concluded that neither of his sons was capable of succeeding to his sort of life. Instead, Nanak chose a man called Bhai Lehna who had come to stay with him, who became known as Guru Angad.

Crucially for the development of Sikhism, by installing one of his followers as the Guru in his lifetime Nanak made the position of the Guru and the disciple interchangeable. This development led to Sikhism being established not just by Nanak and Angad but by further Gurus over the next 239 years (1469–1708). These teachers’ main purpose was to promote the spiritual and moral well-being of their followers by setting an exceptional example of how to live a worthy life. They aimed to renew Sikh teachings, free minds from bigotry and superstitions, dogmas and rituals, and emphasise simplicity. Each succeeding Guru reinforced and extended the message, each one wove his own strands into the religious web (see box, pp 16–17).

Despite their meeting points, Sikhism does differ from Hinduism and Islam in various ways. Sikhs do not worship demi-gods, a man marries only one wife and all human beings are equal. Women are seen as equal not just in marriage but in all aspects of life. Sikhs are discouraged from fasting, from other forms of bodily suffering and from undertaking pilgrimages. Importantly, while devoting themselves to Sikhism, they do not regard their religion as inherently superior to any other. The teachings both help bind the people to a strict code and – in Ranjit Singh’s time – morally empowered the Khalsa soldiers who developed into a determined body of men. Notably, the encouragement of equality meant that the Punjab was one part of India where the peasantry and lower castes were able to achieve political power.

The Sikh insistence on the equality of women is of particular significance, a truly remarkable position for any religion in any part of the world to adopt in the sixteenth century. Guru Nanak appreciated the unifying role of women in society and his historic role as the first Guru enabled him not only to work for their emancipation but to bind his successors to the same policy. Sikh scriptures categorically state that men and women together make society a composite, well-balanced whole, with each having a significant contribution to make. Marriage was viewed as a sacred bond between two equal partners, not merely a physical union of two individuals. The arrangement whereby, upon marriage, a man was given the name ‘Singh’ and a woman ‘Kaur’ was of immense significance to a woman, who was thus recognised as an individual who need not take her husband’s name after marriage.

These egalitarian beliefs were applied from the start. Guru Nanak claimed Bibi Nanaki, his elder sister, as his inspiration and mentor. She supported him in his life’s mission and became the first person he initiated into Sikhism. Guru Amar Das enhanced women’s lives at a strategic level within the embryonic Punjabi state when he established 22 administrative uni...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Plates
• Principal Characters
• Introduction
• 1. The Foundations
• 2. Ranjit’s Early Years and Entry into Power
• 3. Reaching Out Beyond Lahore
• 4. Enter the British
• 5. The Second Decade
• 6. At the Midpoint: The Flourishing State
• 7. Secularism and Tales of the Hero
• 8. The Third Decade
• 9. A Grand Summit of Equals and Ranjit’s Nobles
• 10. Afghan and British Provocation
• 11. Fateful Conclusion with the British
• 12. Vicious Aftermath
• Conclusion
• Postscript: Maharaja Duleep Singh
• Notes
• Bibliography