Treachery helped British take Punjab

Chandigarh, December 9

Noted historian on the Anglo-Sikh wars Dr Amarpal Singh Sidhu today said the British got control of Punjab due to treachery from within the Khalsa Army. The Sikh kingdom was handed to the British “on a platter”, he said.

Talking to The Tribune, UK-based Sidhu said there wouldn’t have been any Pakistan had the Sikh Kingdom — Punjab was then an independent country — flourished after the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (in 1839). The Anglo-Sikh wars (fought post-Ranjit Singh’s death) defined the course of history of Punjab, enabling the British Empire to embed itself in India for the next 100 years. Sidhu earlier moderated a session on “Two Battles for survival — Feroz Shah 1845 and Chillianwala 1849” here.

Lt General TS Shergill (retd), a senior adviser to Punjab CM and whose ancestors were part of the Khalsa Army, said: “There were attempts from within elements of the state to cut the Khalsa down to size.” Raising further questions, Lt Gen Shergill said Lal Singh, a general of the Khalsa Army, decamped and went off to Ludhiana and eventually the British restarted their attacks.

Tej Singh, another general, arrived with 50,000 men, fired a few rounds of cannon and then, strangely, moved to Ferozepur. “Sikh victory was lost because the commander himself had vanished,” General Shergill said, adding Tej Singh could have thwarted the British force attack.

Describing Maharaja Ranjit Singh as a visionary war strategist, Lt Gen Shergill said he expanded his cavalry-dominated army to include artillery and infantry.

The East India Company got a window of opportunity to take on Punjab after the death of Ranjit Singh and realised that there was no effective second line of succession as “nothing grows under a banyan tree”, said Shergill, citing infighting amongst the successors, greed, urge to loot and plunder as key factors. — TNS