The Camel Merchant of Philadelphia by Sarbpreet Singh

 Maharaja Ranjit Singh and Modern India

The rapid decline of the Sikh Empire within a decade of the demise of Maharaja Ranjit Singh is the greatest tragedy to beset India in the nineteenth century. The contribution of Ranjit Singh to modern India has not been adequately acknowledged. Two significant achievements stand out.

(1)   The Afghans, for nearly a century had made it a habit to raid the northwestern parts of India periodically to carry away loot whenever they needed revenue. Ranjit Singh not only put an end to this, but also comprehensively defeated them, seized Peshawar, and separated it from Afghanistan permanently- a state of affairs that continues to this day. Peshawar today is a part of Pakistan.

(2)   Ranjit Singh conquered Kashmir, and made it a part of his empire. He went further east, and added the Ladakh plateau, then called ‘Little Tibet’ to Kashmir. This province continues to be a part of India today.

The collapse of the Sikh empire and the annexation of Punjab had a grievous consequence on the future of India. When the sepoys rose in revolt in 1857, the East India Company drew from the highly trained Sikh soldiers to constitute the Delhi Field Force, to retake Delhi. The Field Force went on retake Lucknow, where the fighting was long drawn, and fierce. The Sikhs were ruthless in battle against the Muslim soldiers of the Oudh (Awadh) army, to avenge the brutal treatment meted out to the Sikh Gurus by the Moghul emperors of the past.

What if the Sikh empire had stayed? Would the Sepoy revolt have succeeded if the Company had not drawn on the Sikh army? These are questions for writers of alternative History.

Prior to all this, Ranjit Singh managed to unify the marauding and itinerant Sikh Misls into an almost invincible empire. The rising British military power was wary of Ranjit Singh, and bought peace by signing the Amritsar agreement which demarcated the British controlled territory, and committed both parties to the agreed boundary. This freed Ranjit Singh to consolidate his empire by unifying the numerous kingdoms in what is today Jammu, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand into his empire.

How did Ranajit Singh acquire such power? Apart from the innate fighting qualities of his men, he was shrewd enough to move with the times, to discipline and professionalize the armed forces for perhaps the first time among the kingdoms in India. To achieve this he employed European mercenaries to train his men. The defeat of Napoleon in Europe, caused an exodus of his officers from France. Several of these arrived in Punjab. They were received with generous gifts, and they served the empire with loyalty. Ranjit Singh’s court included several such foreigners. In this book, the author writes brief biographies of some of the noteworthy members of Ranjit Singh’s court.

The author also captures the sad history of the decline and fall of the Sikh empire in the last two chapters of his book. One cannot but be moved by the tragedy, caused by petty ambitions, and competing greed of lesser men and women.

The book could have been better edited. There are numerous typos, but the most significant and misleading error occurs on Page 51. The sole survivor of the first Afghan war, Dr. Brydon limps into Jalalabad, not Kandahar as stated in the book. The arrangement of the chapters could have been better. For instance the Chapter on Sada Kaur (A Woman of Substance) should have appeared before ‘The Rise of the Dogras’.

Finally about the title of the book. The quirky title may have been given to attract attention, but is actually distracting. The book is however outstanding for its cover design. The book is worth possessing in hard copy, just for the cover.