Death Of Maharaja Ranjit Singh
When Ranjit Singh died in 1837 at the age of fifty nine, he was the undisputed ruler of a compact Kingdom. He left in Punjab, an army which was capable of fighting the British on equal terms. He could dodge and confound the British envoy Metcalfe who had come to parley with him, and dismiss the Maratha chief Jaswant Rao Holkar as Pucca Haramzada, (Great Rascal). He drove back the Afghans across the Indus, into the mountains, and stemmed for all time to come tide of the Afghan marauders pouring into Northern India and committing arson, pillage and slaughter.
Provinces of Ranjit Singh
But for him, Kashmir would have continued to be a part of Afghanistan. He brought under his sway, three Muslim provinces: Peshawar in the west; Multan in the south west; and Kashmir in the north. He incorporated also the numerous petty states into his kingdom. It was only the growth of British power and its strength in India that prevented the Sikhs from succeeding the Mughals as the controlling authority in India but it is a speculation whether they would have succeeded in this venture.
Extraordinary Mind
Ranjit Singh had a questioning mind. He was deeply interested in the how and why of things. His was not a philosophical or speculative mind. He thought in plain terms and simplified even the most complex problems. This extraordinary understanding of human affairs he acquired by mediating over his own experiences through the steps and slips of life. In other words, his experiences were the foundation of his own life. He never ceased learning from others, due to his restless curiosity.
In words of Victor Jacquemont, the French traveller
Victor Jacquemont, the French traveller, who met Ranjit Singh in Lahore wrote that the "Maharaja's conversations were like a nightmare. Jacquemont wrote, "He asked a hundred thousand questions of me, about India and the British, Europe, Napoleon Bonaparte, the world in general and the next, hell, paradise, the soul, God, the devil and myriad of others of the same kind. In 1812 he rode with the British Commander David Ochterlony to inspect the drill of the English Company, in the style in which they would behave in the field of battle and he admired their performance. He employed French and Italian Generals to train his army on western model. That is why both his infantry and artillery were unrivalled for steadiness.
He Could not Resist
Ranjit Singh had, doubtless, all the wildness and irregularity of an ardent and in-disciplined sensualist. Wine and women he could not resist, and he believed that the only way to resist their temptation was to yield. He would indulge in riotous career of self-indulgence, drinking and reveling in the company of women with reckless abandon and he let himself go. He was used to taking laudanum almost daily.
Passion
Ranjit Singh's passion for collecting guns and horses for the army amounted almost to insanity. He would never miss an opportunity of obtaining a gun, and would even storm a fort to seize it. For acquiring the celebrated horse Leili, he embroiled himself in a tedious war with a neighbouring province, which cost him upwards of thirty thousand pounds.
What kind of a Kingdom did Ranjit Singh establish?
What kind of a Kingdom did Ranjit Singh establish? Was it a military monarchy? Monarchy was the only form of government in India for centuries, and the Sikhs, in spite of their attachment to democratic ideals, could not think of representative government. Ranjit Singh refused to sit on the throne. His name was never inscribed on the coin. He kept the army under control, and never used it as an instrument of tyranny. He set up a Sikh state in the sense that the ruler was Sikh who held power in the name of the Khalsa, and the army was predominantly Sikh. His was indeed a heterogenous state based on harmony of religious faiths, and cooperation of communities with a rapport with the common man. There was no dictatorship of one community over other. He told Faqir Aziz ud Din, `God intended me to look all religions with one eye, that is why he took away the light from the other'.
By any standards, Ranjit Singh was statesman who out of anarchy and chaos had created order and stability and made Punjab a power to reckon with. There were also a glimmering of Punjab Nationalism. His task was enormous, his time was short, and his unworthy successes were a lot of trembling paltrooms lacking in political instinct who destroyed all the things he had build with political sagacity and will.
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