Kinlore
1799–1839

Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the Sikh Empire

Ranjit Singh takes Lahore in 1799 and builds a powerful Punjabi kingdom, the only time Sikhs have ruled a state of their own.

  • Ranjit Singh — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  • The Sikhs of the Punjab (The New Cambridge History of India, revised edition) — J. S. Grewal, Cambridge University Press (1998)
  • A History of the Sikhs (2 vols, 2nd edition) — Khushwant Singh, Oxford University Press (2004)
  • Golden Temple — Encyclopaedia Britannica

Well established empirepoliticsidentityculture

Part of the story of Sikhism and Pakistan.

The one-eyed boy who took Lahore

Ranjit Singh was born in 1780 into the Sukerchakia misl, one of the Sikh confederacies that divided Punjab after the collapse of Mughal power. Smallpox left him with one eye and a pockmarked face, and he never learned to read. But he became the most gifted Punjabi leader of his age.

  • Ranjit Singh — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  • A History of the Sikhs (2 vols, 2nd edition) — Khushwant Singh, Oxford University Press (2004)
In 1799, aged 19, he took Lahore, the old capital of the province, and in 1801 was proclaimed Maharaja of Punjab. Over the next thirty years he absorbed the other misls and pushed his frontiers to Multan (1818), Kashmir (1819) and Peshawar (1834), building a kingdom between British India and Afghanistan.
  • Ranjit Singh — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  • The Sikhs of the Punjab (The New Cambridge History of India, revised edition) — J. S. Grewal, Cambridge University Press (1998)

A Punjabi kingdom

His government was called the Sarkar-i-Khalsa, and his coins were struck in the Gurus’ names, not his own. Yet Sikhs were a minority of his subjects, perhaps around a tenth, and the state was strikingly mixed. The Fakir brothers, Muslims, were among his closest advisers; Hindu Dogra brothers from Jammu held great power; his army was trained by veterans of Napoleon’s wars, such as Jean-Baptiste Ventura and Jean-François Allard, and became one of the strongest in Asia.

  • The Sikhs of the Punjab (The New Cambridge History of India, revised edition) — J. S. Grewal, Cambridge University Press (1998)
  • Ranjit Singh — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  • A History of the Sikhs (2 vols, 2nd edition) — Khushwant Singh, Oxford University Press (2004)
Sikh memory celebrates his tolerance; historians add that he was also a ruthless conqueror, and that some mosques, including Lahore’s Badshahi Mosque, were used for military purposes in his time.
  • The Sikhs of the Punjab (The New Cambridge History of India, revised edition) — J. S. Grewal, Cambridge University Press (1998)
  • The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies — Pashaura Singh and Louis E. Fenech (eds.), Oxford University Press (2014)

He lavished wealth on Sikh shrines, above all covering the upper Harmandir Sahib in gilded copper, which made it the “Golden Temple”. He also rebuilt the gurdwaras at Nankana Sahib and elsewhere, and acquired the Koh-i-Noor diamond from the fugitive Afghan ruler Shah Shuja.

The fall

Ranjit Singh signed a treaty with the British in 1809 that fixed the Sutlej river as the boundary, and kept the peace with them all his life. When he died in 1839, his kingdom fell into chaos: within six years, three of his successors and several leading ministers were murdered, and real power passed to the army.

  • The Sikhs of the Punjab (The New Cambridge History of India, revised edition) — J. S. Grewal, Cambridge University Press (1998)
  • A History of the Sikhs (2 vols, 2nd edition) — Khushwant Singh, Oxford University Press (2004)
The result was war with Britain, the Anglo-Sikh Wars, and the loss of the kingdom in 1849.

For Sikhs today, Ranjit Singh is remembered warmly as the “Lion of Punjab” (Sher-e-Punjab), and his rule is part of why many think of Punjab as their homeland and of Sikh sovereignty as something real, not just a dream. His samadhi, his funerary monument, stands in Lahore, now in Pakistan, beside the Gurdwara Dera Sahib.

  • Ranjit Singh — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  • The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies — Pashaura Singh and Louis E. Fenech (eds.), Oxford University Press (2014)

How it's seen
Sikh memory

A golden age of Sikh sovereignty, the Sarkar-i-Khalsa, under a just, generous and tolerant ruler who employed Muslims, Hindus and Europeans alike and never passed a death sentence, as the tradition often says.

  • A History of the Sikhs (2 vols, 2nd edition) — Khushwant Singh, Oxford University Press (2004)
  • The Sikhs of the Punjab (The New Cambridge History of India, revised edition) — J. S. Grewal, Cambridge University Press (1998)

Historians

A strong, pragmatic monarchy rather than a religious state: Ranjit Singh ruled a population that was mostly Muslim, relied on Hindu and Muslim ministers and European officers, and used force freely in conquest. Some Muslim sites were desecrated or repurposed under his rule, which is remembered differently in Pakistan.

  • The Sikhs of the Punjab (The New Cambridge History of India, revised edition) — J. S. Grewal, Cambridge University Press (1998)
  • Ranjit Singh — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  • The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies — Pashaura Singh and Louis E. Fenech (eds.), Oxford University Press (2014)

Why it matters today

Sikhism

For many Sikhs, Ranjit Singh's kingdom is proof that Sikhs once ruled with justice and tolerance, and its loss to the British is still felt. His gilding of the Harmandir Sahib gave it the name "Golden Temple", and his samadhi in Lahore draws Sikh pilgrims from India and the diaspora. Talk of a Sikh homeland, from moderate autonomy to Khalistan, often looks back to this era.

Pakistan

Ranjit Singh's capital was Lahore, and his samadhi stands beside the Badshahi Mosque and Lahore Fort. Pakistani Punjab has in recent years restored his statue and heritage sites, partly to welcome Sikh pilgrims, though memories of Sikh rule over a mostly Muslim population, including the use of the Badshahi Mosque as a stable and arsenal, remain mixed.