Post by Ivan Kolev on Jun 16, 2017 0:24:38 GMT
With summer comes a renewal in activity. I apologize for my long absentia, but I had two AP Exams in May and finals this month. With them winding down, however, I will be slightly more active. Anyhow, time for my first presentation on...I think anywhere in Asia (Damn thats sad), but specifically Ranjit Singh and the Sikh Empire.
Top: Sikh Empire at its greatest extent
Middle: The Harmandir Sahib/Golden Temple
Bottom: Maharajah Ranjit Singh
First, some background. The region that would become the Sikh Empire was the Punjab, split between Northern India and Northeastern Pakistan. Hinduism dominated the region until the 10th century A.D, when Islam penetrated the region by way of the Afghans under the commander Mahmud of Ghazni. Islam in the region was further solidified as a major religion in Punjab due to the rise of the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire, but Hinduism still retained a large number of followers in the region. This led to the mixture, or syncretization, of Islam and Hinduism in the region, which ultimately led to the foundation of Sikhism by Guru Nanak in 1499. Sikhism retained aspects of both Islam and Hinduism, such as the concept of monotheism being taken from Islam and the concept of reincarnation being borrowed from Hinduism. This mixture of the two most popular religions in the region helped lead to the religion gaining numerous converts in Punjab, quickly becoming a major religion in the area as well. Sikhism flourished in the early reign of the Mughal Empire in Punjab, but as the empire declined, the Empire began organized slaughters of the Sikh population, resulting in the killing of many of its leaders like the third Guru. After Mughal power in the region declined, a power vacuum was formed in Punjab. This vacuum was filled by the Sikh Confederacy, a confederation of Sikh Misls (Autonomous states within the Confederacy which could fight amongst each other but were obligated to fight together if stipulated) and the Pashtun dominated Durrani Empire. The Durranis were not tolerant of the Sikhs, and led many massacres against the Sikhs, notably the Sikh Holocaust of 1746, which saw 7,000 Sikhs slaughtered in Lahore, and the Sikh Holocaust of 1762, which saw up to 30,000 Sikhs killed. Numerous others were also enslaved. These systematic purges led to the Sikhs becoming skilled in self defensive warfare, called Shastar Vidiya, aimed at protecting themselves from foreign attackers. This was also around the time when carrying the Kirpan, a dagger which Sikhs carry on them for self defense, became mandatory religious doctrine. The Sikh Confederacy had little chance of defeating the Durrani Empire, and so raids and slaughter by the Afghans became commonplace throughout much of the Punjab. It was in this environment that Ranjit Singh was born.
Ranjit Singh, born Buddh Singh, was born on November 13th, 1780 in the Sukkarchakkia Misl which was the most powerful Sikh misl in the region. Buddh Singh was renamed 'Ranjit' by his father after his father defeated an Afghan army led by Pir Muhammed. Ranjit Singh had a troubled childhood at the start of his life. At age 12, he contracted smallpox, and, while surviving, he became blind in his left eye. He never received formal education and could only basically read or write. At age 12, his father died, making Ranjit the ruler of the Sukerchakia Misl. At age 13, he was almost assassinated by Hashmat Khan, who was then killed by Singh. At 18, his mother died. During the 12 years he had with his father, he learned how to be skilled on horseback and how to fire a rifle, and his mother taught him how to manage the affairs of state.
In 1797, crisis came to the Sikh Confederacy. The Afghan ruler Shah Zaman sent General Shahanchi Khan and 12,000 troops to annex the Misls of Punjab into his empire. Further greatening the crisis was the fact that some of the 12 Sikh Misls, like the Phulkias and Bhangi Misls, defected from the Confederacy and aided Zaman instead, and the Sunni Kasur Misl provided valuable information regarding the Sikh Confederate forces to Shahanchi. Shahanchi launched his first strike against a region controlled by the Sukkarchakkia Misl led by Singh. Singh's army knew the terrain incredibly well, and were able to completely route the Afghan army and win a decisive battle, even killing Shahanchi. This battle made him famous throughout the Punjab. Ranjit Singh was 17 at the time. The following year, Shah Zaman sent in another army with aid of the forces of the Bhangi Misl to take the key city of Lahore. Singh allowed them to take the city, and subsequently surrounded the city and burned all crops surrounding the city, preventing food stuffs and resources from entering the city's occupiers. The Afghan army and the leaders of the Bhangi Misl were able to successfully break through the Sikh lines and retreat back to Afghanistan, but the forces of the Bhangi Misl remained trapped. The Sikhs surrounded the city for a year until Singh gathered an army of 50,000 men in 1799, and then marched into Lahore with celebration from the Hindus and Muslims in the city alike. Lahore was the first major conquest of Ranjit Singh. In 1800, the ruler of the city of Jammu in Kashmir surrendered to the Singh, and on April 12th, 1801, Ranjit Singh was proclaimed Maharaja (Essentially King) of Punjab by the religious figure Sahib Singh Bedi.
Upon becoming Maharaja, Ranjit Singh further consolidated the power of his new Empire by continuing on his conquests. In 1802, Ranjit Singh took control of the holy city of Amritsar from the Bhangi Misl. He prayed at the Harmandir Sahib, which had been mostly destroyed by the Afghan army. He pledged to rebuild it. In 1807, Ranjit Singh annexed the Kasur Misl after a month of war, which was a thorn in the Sikh's side for decades. In 1813, Singh defeated 15,000 Durrani troops with only 10,000 at the Battle of Attock, marking the first Sikh victory against the Durrani Empire. In 1818, Singh conquered the important city of Multan from Afghan forces, effectively ejecting Afghan forces from Punjab. In 1819, all of Kashmir came under the rule of the Sikh Empire after Singh defeated the local Sunni rulers in the region. In 1819, the Afghan ruler of the province of Peshawar, on the modern Afghan-Pakistan border, Dost Mohammed accepted Sikh sovereignty. This was the first time in 800 years that any Indian state, Muslim, Hindu or Sikh alike, had taken Peshawar. In 1834, 25,000 Afghans attempted to reassert control over the Punjab, but Singh easily defeated these forces now that he had established complete hegemony over the region.
Singh was a great military leader, but he was also a great ruler domestically. Lahore was made the capital where his imperial court and palace were located. He was open to western reform, obtaining western weapons like rifles and artillery, and introducing better military training to his troops. A major reform was centralizing the military. Under the Mughals, military forces were paid by local lords, and this continued until Singh's reign. This led to military forces not feeling as loyal to the state and instead feeling more loyal to the local government they belonged to. When Singh came to power, he abolished the old Mughal system and paid his military forces directly from the state treasury. Singh was mostly tolerant of religious groups within his empire, giving equal rights to all peoples within the state. Anyone could enlist into the military, including outsiders like Europeans such as Jean Francois Allard. He did cause controversy, however, as he would convert religious structures like mosques into ammo depots and weapon factories. The Begum Shahi Mosque in Lahore became nicknamed the "Gunpowder Mosque". He would never destroy places of worship like mosques or Hindu temples, however, and Muslims, Hindus, European Christians, and Sikhs were all a part of his Royal Court. Traders and merchants had free reign in the empire with no government restrictions or tariffs, allowing for trade to flourish in the empire, making it incredibly rich. Possibly Singh's greatest achievements was the rebuilding of the Harmandir Sahib. The Harmandir Sahib was destroyed by the Afghan army during the Afghan-Sikh Wars, and Singh promised to rebuild it when he reconquered Amritsar in 1801. He rebuilt it using marble and gold, giving the Harmandir Sahib the nickname 'The Golden Temple", and supported Sikh designers and artists in their creation of majestic and decorative tapestries in the Temple.
Singh did have two major flaws, however:
1. He did not abolish the Jagirs military system established by the Mughals. The Jagirs system was a political system where rich individuals could pay tribute to the ruler and then gain administrative control of a region with the power to force civilians to pay tax. These leaders would have their own independent militias which would often harass civilians and serve as the leaders own personal army. This led to disruption with trade, which also led to conflict with the British as British merchants would often be harassed. This also hampered complete centralization of power in Lahore.
2. He did not name a direct heir to the throne. Singh had twenty different wives with numerous children. This led directly to a succession crisis upon his death in 1839, with one of his sons becoming emperor, but then being assassinated, and the same pattern would rinse and repeat until the empire's total collapse in 1849.
During Singh's reign, his empire established friendly relations with the British Empire to the South. Singh understood that the British had aspirations of colonizing all of India and so decided that having good relations with them was a necessity. In 1806, he made an agreement with the British that the border between British India and the Sikh Empire would be at the Sutlej River, and Singh coordinated with the British East India Company's forces against Afghanistan in British efforts to install a British puppet government in 1838. Singh also allowed British troops to move through Sikh territory into Afghanistan in the First Anglo-Afghan War of 1839-1842. In exchange, Singh obtained modern weapons and supplies. Numerous trade agreements were also signed between them.
On June 27th, 1838, Ranjit Singh died in the Royal palace in Lahore. He went from a 12 year old who had had smallpox with a dead father to the ruler of arguably one of the greatest and most important empires in Indian history. He united the Sikh people from a loose confederation of warring and betraying Misls which were terrorized by the Afghans to a strong empire which resisted both Afghan conquest and British imperialism during his reign. He allowed Sikhism to flourish, making the early 1800's Sikhism's Golden Ages, and further established Sikh military tradition and prowess, which would continue to this day as the Sikhs are considered some of the best fighters in India.
Top: Sikh Empire at its greatest extent
Middle: The Harmandir Sahib/Golden Temple
Bottom: Maharajah Ranjit Singh
First, some background. The region that would become the Sikh Empire was the Punjab, split between Northern India and Northeastern Pakistan. Hinduism dominated the region until the 10th century A.D, when Islam penetrated the region by way of the Afghans under the commander Mahmud of Ghazni. Islam in the region was further solidified as a major religion in Punjab due to the rise of the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire, but Hinduism still retained a large number of followers in the region. This led to the mixture, or syncretization, of Islam and Hinduism in the region, which ultimately led to the foundation of Sikhism by Guru Nanak in 1499. Sikhism retained aspects of both Islam and Hinduism, such as the concept of monotheism being taken from Islam and the concept of reincarnation being borrowed from Hinduism. This mixture of the two most popular religions in the region helped lead to the religion gaining numerous converts in Punjab, quickly becoming a major religion in the area as well. Sikhism flourished in the early reign of the Mughal Empire in Punjab, but as the empire declined, the Empire began organized slaughters of the Sikh population, resulting in the killing of many of its leaders like the third Guru. After Mughal power in the region declined, a power vacuum was formed in Punjab. This vacuum was filled by the Sikh Confederacy, a confederation of Sikh Misls (Autonomous states within the Confederacy which could fight amongst each other but were obligated to fight together if stipulated) and the Pashtun dominated Durrani Empire. The Durranis were not tolerant of the Sikhs, and led many massacres against the Sikhs, notably the Sikh Holocaust of 1746, which saw 7,000 Sikhs slaughtered in Lahore, and the Sikh Holocaust of 1762, which saw up to 30,000 Sikhs killed. Numerous others were also enslaved. These systematic purges led to the Sikhs becoming skilled in self defensive warfare, called Shastar Vidiya, aimed at protecting themselves from foreign attackers. This was also around the time when carrying the Kirpan, a dagger which Sikhs carry on them for self defense, became mandatory religious doctrine. The Sikh Confederacy had little chance of defeating the Durrani Empire, and so raids and slaughter by the Afghans became commonplace throughout much of the Punjab. It was in this environment that Ranjit Singh was born.
Ranjit Singh, born Buddh Singh, was born on November 13th, 1780 in the Sukkarchakkia Misl which was the most powerful Sikh misl in the region. Buddh Singh was renamed 'Ranjit' by his father after his father defeated an Afghan army led by Pir Muhammed. Ranjit Singh had a troubled childhood at the start of his life. At age 12, he contracted smallpox, and, while surviving, he became blind in his left eye. He never received formal education and could only basically read or write. At age 12, his father died, making Ranjit the ruler of the Sukerchakia Misl. At age 13, he was almost assassinated by Hashmat Khan, who was then killed by Singh. At 18, his mother died. During the 12 years he had with his father, he learned how to be skilled on horseback and how to fire a rifle, and his mother taught him how to manage the affairs of state.
In 1797, crisis came to the Sikh Confederacy. The Afghan ruler Shah Zaman sent General Shahanchi Khan and 12,000 troops to annex the Misls of Punjab into his empire. Further greatening the crisis was the fact that some of the 12 Sikh Misls, like the Phulkias and Bhangi Misls, defected from the Confederacy and aided Zaman instead, and the Sunni Kasur Misl provided valuable information regarding the Sikh Confederate forces to Shahanchi. Shahanchi launched his first strike against a region controlled by the Sukkarchakkia Misl led by Singh. Singh's army knew the terrain incredibly well, and were able to completely route the Afghan army and win a decisive battle, even killing Shahanchi. This battle made him famous throughout the Punjab. Ranjit Singh was 17 at the time. The following year, Shah Zaman sent in another army with aid of the forces of the Bhangi Misl to take the key city of Lahore. Singh allowed them to take the city, and subsequently surrounded the city and burned all crops surrounding the city, preventing food stuffs and resources from entering the city's occupiers. The Afghan army and the leaders of the Bhangi Misl were able to successfully break through the Sikh lines and retreat back to Afghanistan, but the forces of the Bhangi Misl remained trapped. The Sikhs surrounded the city for a year until Singh gathered an army of 50,000 men in 1799, and then marched into Lahore with celebration from the Hindus and Muslims in the city alike. Lahore was the first major conquest of Ranjit Singh. In 1800, the ruler of the city of Jammu in Kashmir surrendered to the Singh, and on April 12th, 1801, Ranjit Singh was proclaimed Maharaja (Essentially King) of Punjab by the religious figure Sahib Singh Bedi.
Upon becoming Maharaja, Ranjit Singh further consolidated the power of his new Empire by continuing on his conquests. In 1802, Ranjit Singh took control of the holy city of Amritsar from the Bhangi Misl. He prayed at the Harmandir Sahib, which had been mostly destroyed by the Afghan army. He pledged to rebuild it. In 1807, Ranjit Singh annexed the Kasur Misl after a month of war, which was a thorn in the Sikh's side for decades. In 1813, Singh defeated 15,000 Durrani troops with only 10,000 at the Battle of Attock, marking the first Sikh victory against the Durrani Empire. In 1818, Singh conquered the important city of Multan from Afghan forces, effectively ejecting Afghan forces from Punjab. In 1819, all of Kashmir came under the rule of the Sikh Empire after Singh defeated the local Sunni rulers in the region. In 1819, the Afghan ruler of the province of Peshawar, on the modern Afghan-Pakistan border, Dost Mohammed accepted Sikh sovereignty. This was the first time in 800 years that any Indian state, Muslim, Hindu or Sikh alike, had taken Peshawar. In 1834, 25,000 Afghans attempted to reassert control over the Punjab, but Singh easily defeated these forces now that he had established complete hegemony over the region.
Singh was a great military leader, but he was also a great ruler domestically. Lahore was made the capital where his imperial court and palace were located. He was open to western reform, obtaining western weapons like rifles and artillery, and introducing better military training to his troops. A major reform was centralizing the military. Under the Mughals, military forces were paid by local lords, and this continued until Singh's reign. This led to military forces not feeling as loyal to the state and instead feeling more loyal to the local government they belonged to. When Singh came to power, he abolished the old Mughal system and paid his military forces directly from the state treasury. Singh was mostly tolerant of religious groups within his empire, giving equal rights to all peoples within the state. Anyone could enlist into the military, including outsiders like Europeans such as Jean Francois Allard. He did cause controversy, however, as he would convert religious structures like mosques into ammo depots and weapon factories. The Begum Shahi Mosque in Lahore became nicknamed the "Gunpowder Mosque". He would never destroy places of worship like mosques or Hindu temples, however, and Muslims, Hindus, European Christians, and Sikhs were all a part of his Royal Court. Traders and merchants had free reign in the empire with no government restrictions or tariffs, allowing for trade to flourish in the empire, making it incredibly rich. Possibly Singh's greatest achievements was the rebuilding of the Harmandir Sahib. The Harmandir Sahib was destroyed by the Afghan army during the Afghan-Sikh Wars, and Singh promised to rebuild it when he reconquered Amritsar in 1801. He rebuilt it using marble and gold, giving the Harmandir Sahib the nickname 'The Golden Temple", and supported Sikh designers and artists in their creation of majestic and decorative tapestries in the Temple.
Singh did have two major flaws, however:
1. He did not abolish the Jagirs military system established by the Mughals. The Jagirs system was a political system where rich individuals could pay tribute to the ruler and then gain administrative control of a region with the power to force civilians to pay tax. These leaders would have their own independent militias which would often harass civilians and serve as the leaders own personal army. This led to disruption with trade, which also led to conflict with the British as British merchants would often be harassed. This also hampered complete centralization of power in Lahore.
2. He did not name a direct heir to the throne. Singh had twenty different wives with numerous children. This led directly to a succession crisis upon his death in 1839, with one of his sons becoming emperor, but then being assassinated, and the same pattern would rinse and repeat until the empire's total collapse in 1849.
During Singh's reign, his empire established friendly relations with the British Empire to the South. Singh understood that the British had aspirations of colonizing all of India and so decided that having good relations with them was a necessity. In 1806, he made an agreement with the British that the border between British India and the Sikh Empire would be at the Sutlej River, and Singh coordinated with the British East India Company's forces against Afghanistan in British efforts to install a British puppet government in 1838. Singh also allowed British troops to move through Sikh territory into Afghanistan in the First Anglo-Afghan War of 1839-1842. In exchange, Singh obtained modern weapons and supplies. Numerous trade agreements were also signed between them.
On June 27th, 1838, Ranjit Singh died in the Royal palace in Lahore. He went from a 12 year old who had had smallpox with a dead father to the ruler of arguably one of the greatest and most important empires in Indian history. He united the Sikh people from a loose confederation of warring and betraying Misls which were terrorized by the Afghans to a strong empire which resisted both Afghan conquest and British imperialism during his reign. He allowed Sikhism to flourish, making the early 1800's Sikhism's Golden Ages, and further established Sikh military tradition and prowess, which would continue to this day as the Sikhs are considered some of the best fighters in India.
