The Fall of the Kingdom of Punjab

by Khushwant Singh

  Upper Allah, Talley Jalla.

  Jalley dey sir tey khalla.

  (In Heaven there is Allah, On earth there is Jalla. May He smack Jalla on the head with a shoe.)

  Jalla’s name, however, was immortalised. A squarish plot of open land that the Pandit owned in the heart of Amritsar came to be known after him as Jallianwala Bagh. Seventy-five years after Jalla’s death, the citizens of Amritsar gathered in this garden named after him in defiance of an order prohibiting all meetings. General Dyer dispersed the gathering with machine gun fire, killing over three hundred unarmed men, women and children. The massacre of Jallianwala Bagh was the decisive turning point in the history of India’s freedom movement because it turned the masses irrevocably against the British.

  Chapter 6

  British Plans to Annex the Punjab

  The series of blood baths left the Durbar in a state of utter exhaustion. Many princes of royal blood and contenders for a ministerial power had been murdered; some, like Lehna Singh Majithia, had fled the State, or like Fakir Azizuddin had chosen to live in comparative obscurity rather than gamble with their lives. It seemed that every one had had enough and Rani Jindan and her brother, Jawahar Singh, would be given a chance to restore the rule of law in the name of the infant King, Dalip Singh. But that was not to be so, as by then the British were ready with their plans of annexation and it was in their interest to keep the Punjab administration unstable.

  The blueprint of the invasion was prepared early in 1844. The arrival of Sir Henry Hardinge in July once again heated up the cold war which had been going on for some time. Hardinge brought his two sons with him to handle his secret correspondence. This correspondence reveals the methodical way in which aggression against the Punjab was planned and how men and munitions were moved up to their allotted places on the frontier in time for the campaigning season which began in the autumn. On 17th September Sir Henry Hardinge wrote to Ellenborough: ‘On the north-west frontier, I am in correspondence with Gough to get all our troops of horse artillery and bullocks in complete order; and we propose to send our companies of Europeans, picked men, to fill up vacancies.’ New barracks were built to house the troops. Broadfoot, whose name stank in the nostrils of the Punjabis and who had the reputation of being ‘rather too prone to war’, was nominated to replace Col. Richmond as British Agent at Ludhiana.

  The first thing Broadfoot did was to proclaim that Durbar possessions on the eastern bank of the Sutlej would be treated exactly as the possessions of the protected Chiefs of Malwa and subject to escheat on the extinction of the line of succession. The proclamation was made at a time when Dalip Singh was down with small-pox and not expected to live. The Durbar took a serious view of this decision and considered it to be a contravention of the Treaty of 1809 and the subsequent agreements, particularly regarding Annandpur and Kot Kapura near Ferozepur. To the people who did not understand legal niceties, it meant that the British had annexed the Durbar’s cis-Sutlej territories as the first step towards the annexation of the rest of the Punjab.

  An incident which took place in March 1845 showed the temper of men like Broadfoot. One Lal Singh Adalti, a magistrate in the service of the Durbar, crossed the Sutlej into Durbar territory in connection with his official work. Broadfoot, who happened to be in the vicinity, not only ordered Adalti’s party to turn back at once, but while they were getting into their boats, captured some of them and fired on others. Even Broad-foot was hard put to explain the arrest of a Lahore Judge on Lahore soil. The shot fired on this occasion was described by Campbell in his Memoirs as the ‘first shot of the Great Sikh War’. Broadfoot’s aggressive behaviour led Cunningham to record: ‘It was generally held by the English in India that Major Broadfoot’s appointment greatly increased the probabilities of a war with the Sikhs, and the impression was equally strong that had Mr. Clerk, for instance, not been removed as Agent, there would have been no war.’

  The murders of Hira Singh Dogra and Pandit Jalla gave the annexation project a sense of urgency. The British decided to keep the Punjab pot on the boil till they had assembled their forces.

  Prince Peshaura Singh, who had been living in British territory, was allowed to return to the Punjab to stake his claim against Dalip Singh. The situation at Lahore deteriorated even more rapidly than Broadfoot had envisaged. The Company’s forces were however, far from ready for a major campaign and the winter season, during which they preferred to do their fighting, was half over. In a letter dated 23rd January 1845, Hardinge apprised Ellenbourough of the state of affairs. He wrote: ‘Even if we had a case for devouring our ally in adversity, we are not ready . . . moderation will do us no harm, if in the interval the hills and the plains weaken each other; but on what plea could we attack the Punjab if this were the month of October, and we had our army in readiness?’ The letter continues: ‘Self-preservation may require the dispersion of the Sikh army, the baneful influence of such an example is the evil most to be dreaded. But exclusive of this case, how are we to justify the seizure of our friend’s territory who in our adversity assisted us to retrieve our affairs?’

  The hills and the plains had begun to weaken each other almost as if to facilitate a British invasion. Gulab Singh Dogra once again defied the authority of the Durbar and in February 1845, troops had to be withdrawn from their defensive posts along the Sutlej and directed towards Jammu. The leaders of the expedition were Sham Singh Attariwala, Mewa Singh Majithia, Sultan Mahmud Khan and Fateh Singh Man. The few skirmishes the Dogras had with the Punjabi plainsmen convinced them that they could not win in a fair fight. Gulab Singh turned to duplicity. He came to the Punjabi camp with a very small escort and put his sword and shield at the feet of the Army Panches. He recapitulated the services he had rendered to Ranjit Singh and the Sikhs. Words of flattery were accompanied by lavish gifts of gold and silver and four lakhs of rupees were handed over in cash as tribute to the Durbar. The Panches forgave the Dogra and the Generals ordered the troops back to Lahore. They had not got very far from Jammu when they were ambushed and Fateh Singh Man and his chief aide, Wazir Bachna, were killed. The pack animals carrying the tribute were driven away—presumably back to Gulab Singh’s treasury.

  The Panches rushed their men back to Jammu. After an initial setback, Sham Singh Attariwala and Ranjodh Singh Majithia inflicted a severe defeat on the Dogras. Gulab Singh again made his submission. He came to the Sikh camp ‘with his hands folded and a sheet thrown round his neck as a suppliant’ and asked to be punished for his sins. He swore that he had nothing to do with the ambush, the killing of Fateh Singh Man or the looting of the treasury. The Panches again accepted Gulab Singh’s explanations and made peace with him. It was said that Gulab Singh gave a gold ring to each soldier and another 3 lakhs in cash to the Durbar. Officers and troops were lavishly entertained with wine and courtesans. Success emboldened Gulab Singh. He spoke to the men of the way Rani Jindan and her brother Jawahar Singh conducted themselves—particularly of the way they had allowed a maid-servant, Mangla, the daughter of a jheevar (water carrier) to become the go-between Jindan and Raja Lal Singh and herself became the mistress of Jawahar Singh. Gulab Singh convinced the army that it would be better for the Punjab to have Prince Peshaura Singh as Maharajah rather than Dalip Singh, and he, Gulab Singh Dogra, as Chief Minister, instead of Jawahar Singh or the Rani’s paramour Lal Singh. The Panches could not make up their minds and decided to bring Gulab Singh Dogra to Lahore—a captive who could also be King-maker.

  Gulab Singh was well received in the Durbar. He stayed in the capital for three months sowing as much dissension as he could, His star, however, remained in the descendant. He had to accept the confirmation of Jawahar Singh as Chief Minister and suffer the rise of the Attariwala family to supreme importance by virtue of the betrothal of Chattar Singh’s daughter to Maharajah Dalip Singh. Jawahar Singh used his influence to penalise the Dogra. Gulab Singh was fined Rs 68 lakhs, ordered to hand over the estates of his brother Suchet Singh and nephew Hira Singh and the lease
of the salt mines was renewed at a very much higher rate than before. Gulab Singh suffered his wings to be clipped in the knowledge that if he protested too much he might lose his life in the same way as other members of his family had lost theirs. He returned to Jammu shorn of some of his wealth but determined to teach the Durbar a lesson, even if it involved dealing with the English.

  While the pick of the Durbar’s army was engaged in the hills, the plains and the cities of Amritsar and Lahore were practically undefended, Lord Hardinge speeded up the troop movements. ‘We shall now begin to move up the additional regiments to Ferozepur, Ludhiana and Ambala, the barracks etc. being nearly ready,’ he wrote to Ellenborough on 8th March 1845. ‘As the fords deepen and the heat increases, these movements will cause no alarm; but quietly we will get the troops in their proper place.’ A fleet of flat-bottomed boats was assembled on the eastern bank of the Sutlej to form a pontoon bridge. By the middle of the summer of 1845 the boats were ready to be put in operation. Charles Hardinge, who was acting Secretary to his father, wrote to the Agent at Ludhiana explaining their purport: ‘They are of equal dimensions, each carrying a gun, two grappling irons with strong chains, and 100 men; the 60 boats would, therefore, for short distances, such as the passage of a river, carry 6,000 infantry at one trip.’ The young subaltern added words of advice to the seasoned intriguer: ‘It is not desirable that the purposes to which these boats can be applied should unnecessarily transpire.’ If questioned by the vakil of the Lahore Durbar, Broadfoot was to state that they were to be used to meet the increase of mercantile traffic on the Indus.

  Another incident, this time on the southern frontier, confirmed the Durbar’s fears of English intentions towards the Punjab. A party of Durbar horsemen, who had gone in pursuit of raiders, crossed into the noman’s land between the undefined frontiers of the Punjab and the newly annexed province of Sindh. Sir Charles Napier utilised this as an excuse and ordered a whole regiment to march towards the frontier at Rojhan.

  There were many things besides the summer season which made the British hold their hand till the autumn. Durbar troops had returned from the Jammu front and it was felt that a larger force than the one assembled on the frontier would be needed for the operation. The higher pay offered by the Durbar had induced many sepoys of the Company to desert; there had been more mutinies among the Company’s Indian troops which the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Gough, had to suppress with force: he reintroduced flogging as a punishment. Although the trouble was suppressed, English officers did not have the necessary confidence in their Hindustani sepoys. In May, Broadfoot, who was the chief architect of the projected annexation, was taken ill and had to be removed to Simla. While convalescing, he fell from his horse and was put out of action for another couple of months. In June, an epidemic of cholera broke out at Lahore and rapidly spread all over the province (amongst those afflicted were Sham Singh Attariwala and Lal Singh). By July, the epidemic had spread across the Sutlej to the British cantomments in Ferozepur and Ludhiana. When the epidemic subsided, there were disturbances on the frontier caused by rival Sodhi factions at Annandpur. Another thing which made the Governor-General hold his hand was the presence of Mohan Lal Kashmiri in London. This man had been attached as Persian translator to Sir Alexander Burnes and had gone to England in connection with the probate of his late employer’s will. His special knowledge of the Afghan campaign and the state of the Punjab made him a much sought-after figure in the British capital. He was invited to speak at meetings; statesmen asked his advice; publishers commissioned him to write of his travels in the Punjab and the life of Dost Mohammed of Afghanistan. Mohan Lal warned his audiences of the danger of adopting an aggressive attitude towards the Punjabis. As Hardinge had intended to break the news of Sikh ‘aggression’ he had to wait till he knew the reaction to Mohan Lal’s speeches in the circles that mattered. Besides these extraneous factors, was the practical one of the military strength of the Durbar and its capacity of gaining allies for its defence. The only people to whom the Punjabis could now turn for aid to repel aggression were the Pathans and the Afghans. British agents got to know that the Durbar had opened negotiations with Sultan Mohammed Khan Barakzai, brother of Amir Dost Mohammed, on the basis of the transfer of Peshawar District to him in lieu of help against the British. British policy till then was either to have a subservient Punjab or to annex it outright rather than suffer it to become a Muslim State. The following two letters are illuminating. On 19th January 1845, Sir Frederick Currie wrote to Broadfoot: ‘I imagine we shall be forced to cross the Sutlej sooner or later, and you will see we are sending troops to be ready for whatever may turn up. We must not have a Mohammedan power on this side of the Attock. The Rajputs of the Hills could not hold the Punjab, and if it cannot be Sikh, it must, I suppose, be British.’

  On 4th October 1845, Broadfoot wrote to Hardinge: ‘A vigorous effort will be made to accomplish it (i.e., the transfer of Peshwar to the Afghans) before we invade or at least before we conquer, in order that it may be for us fait accompli . . . I agree with you that for us to suffer a Barakzai power at Peshawar, with us at Lahore, would be most impolitic.’

  In view of all these difficulties, the invasion had to be postponed. Meanwhile, military preparations were kept up and manoeuvres to undermine the authority of the Durbar continued unabated. A ready pawn was Prince Peshaura Singh who, as has already been stated, had been welcomed back to the Punjab.

  On the night of 14th July 1845, Prince Peshaura Singh led a band of seven desperadoes into the fort of Attock and bluffed its entire garrison into laying down their arms. From Attock, he proclaimed his accession to the throne and exhorted the peasants of the neighbouring country to declare their allegiance to him. He opened negotiations with the Barakzais and also offered them Peshawar in exchange for help in taking Lahore. The story of the way the Prince seized Attock made him into a hero. ‘True son of Ranjit Singh,’ said the peasants and the soldiers. Courtiers found another trump card to play against the triumvirate of Jindan, Jawahar Singh and Dalip Singh. Gulab Singh Dogra utilised the situation to secure permission to return to Jammu.

  The troops sent out to crush the revolt were not only reluctant to fight but were inclined to bring the Prince to Lahore to replace Dalip Singh and the coterie which surrounded him. The commanders of the punitive expedition, Chattar Singh Attariwala and Fateh Khan Tiwana, pretended to share the sentiments of the troops and pleaded with Peshaura Singh not to fight them. The Prince accepted the assurances given to him and evacuated the fort. The Lahore force greeted the Prince with a salute of guns and both Attariwala and Tiwana paid their homage to him. The convoy started on its way back to the capital.

  Twenty miles from Attock Peshaura Singh agreed to break journey to hunt for wild pig which abounded in the country; the troops were ordered to continue their march homewards. When the Prince was without his personal bodyguard and was relaxing after a strenuous morning of pig-sticking, he was seized and taken back to Attock. He was strangled to death, and his limbs cut up and thrown in the Indus that ran below the ramparts. Chattar Singh Attariwala made his way towards the Jammu hills; Fateh Khan Tiwana went to Dera Ismail Khan. These men had connived at the murder of prince Peshaura Singh and were handsomely rewarded by Wazir Jawahar Singh. The Army had once again been duped and made an instrument of intrigue by factions in the Durbar.

  When the news of the murder of Prince Peshaura Singh spread, the citizens and soldiers were in a very dark mood. The Panches deliberated in the cantonment at Mian Mir and after prolonged discussion decided that the Army should take over the administration. The Panches began to issue orders in the name of the Khalsa Panth under the seal Akhal Sahai—’the Lord is our helper’. They ordered Jawahar Singh, Rani Jindan and Dalip Singh to appear before an army tribunal and explain the death of Prince Peshaura Singh.

  Jawahar Singh ignored the summons. He had the gates of the fort shut and posted Col. Gardner’s battalion inside to guard the palace. The troops surrounded the fort and aske
d the minister to submit to the orders of the Panchayat.

  Rani Jindan tried to win over the men by appealing to their sense of patriotism. The British, she said, were on the banks of the Sutlej ready to invade their country. She sent Fakir Nuruddin, Dina Nath and Attar Singh Kalianwala to plead with the men. The Panches detained two of the emissaries and sent the Fakir back with the message that if the gates were not opened within twenty-four hours and Jawahar Singh handed over for trial, the artillery would blast them with gunfire. Jawahar Singh made a desperate attempt to evade justice. He offered a bribe of Rs. 50,000 to the guards to let him escape. An officer took the bribe; a common soldier refused and promptly arrested Jawahar Singh in the name of the Khalsa Panth.

  Lt. Col. Gardner, who was an eye-witness, described the scene that followed in dramatic detail:

  ‘On September 21, 1845, Jawahir Singh was summoned before the army. He came out on an elephant, holding in his arms his nephew, the young Maharajah Dhulip Singh, the last survivor of the line of Ranjit Singh. The Maharani Jindan accompanied him on another elephant. Jawahir Singh had an escort of 400 horsemen, and two elephant-loads of rupees with which to tempt the army. As soon as the cavalcade left the fort an ominous salute ran along the immense line of the army—180 guns were fired. A roll-call was beat, and not a man of that great host was absent. So terribly stern was their discipline that, after the salute had died away, not a sound was to be heard but the trampling of the feet of the royal cavalcade.

  ‘Dhulip Singh was received with royal honours: his mother, the Maharani Jindan, in miserable terror for her brother, was seated on her golden hauda, dressed in white Sikh clothes and closely veiled. As soon as the procession reached the middle of the line one man came forward and cried out, “Stop”, and at his single voice the whole procession paused. A tremor ran through the host: many expected a rescue on the part of the French brigade; but not a man stirred. The great Panch (Military Council) was still sitting on the right of the line. Four battalions were now ordered to the front, and removed Jawahir Singh’s escort to a distance. Then another battalion marched up and surrounded the elephants of the royal personages. Ten of the Council then came forward; the Rani’s elephant was ordered to kneel down, and she herself was escorted to a small but beautiful tent prepared for her close by.