Introduction

This brief chapter introduces key figures from the ruling dynasty of the nineteenth-century Sikh Empire. It discusses how Maharajah Ranjit Singh, its founding father, has long occupied a central, glorified position in history-writing about this former northern Indian kingdom. It argues how such simplified narrativization has hampered our understanding of the roles played by his female relations and children in the running of the Sikh Empire; alongside the impact of wider cultural and political dynamics that shaped its fortunes in the period between the kingdom’s rise and fall, from 1799 to 1849. The chapter outlines core goals of the book: to reach a more detailed and nuanced understanding of the world of the Sikh Empire and its broader connections to South Asian and global royal history, by setting Ranjit Singh and his empire within the wider context of his family; as well as within the regional politics of the new, expanding powers of late eighteenth and early nineteenth century India.

The Boy-King, the Rebel Queen and the British Empire

This chapter focuses on the discursive and active power struggles at the heart of the Sikh Empire in the precarious years between the First Anglo-Sikh Wars and the final subjection of Punjabi independence to British rule in March 1849. Building on the previous chapter, it brings to light the gendered tensions at the centre of both British and Punjabi challenges posed to the leadership of Maharani Jind Kaur, mother and regent for the infant Maharajah Duleep Singh. It unravels the ramifications of direct colonial interference into the Lahore government imposed by the Resident, Henry Montgomery Lawrence; the impact of which compounded and exacerbated internal problems that had already weakened the ruling dynasty’s grip on power following the succession struggle between Maharani Chand Kaur and Prince Sher Singh. It provides a new series of arguments about the cultural and imperial politics that contributed to the destabilization of the ruling dynasty’s power and the eventual fall of the kingdom.

After the Lion

This chapter begins delving into the politics surrounding and embedded into the historiography concerning the fall of the Sikh Empire. It particularly focuses on deconstructing narratives about Ranjit Singh’s death and how historically pivotal this event is thought to have been in leading to the internal problems and eventual collapse of the kingdom in the decade between 1839 and 1849. Instead, the chapter argues for greater attention to be paid to the gendered and colonial politics influencing the British and European writings on the Punjab’s royal elite and the kingdom’s affairs during this crucial period. Such sources have considerably constituted the basis of subsequent histories and biographies about Ranjit Singh and his family, but have rarely been critically interrogated for their internal debates and biases. This chapter instead attempts to piece together a political history of such colonial writings on the Punjab – together with drawing upon a range of less-studied Persian, Punjabi and Sanskrit courtly sources – to resurrect a vista of the world of Ranjit Singh’s heirs, as they sought to maintain the independence of their kingdom into the 1830s.

New Dynasty, New Empire

This chapter breaks with many common biographical narratives about Ranjit Singh’s pivotal role in the making of the Sikh Empire. Instead of focusing solely on the ‘great man’ himself, it looks more closely at the ‘family’ behind the Sukerchakia misl. It considers the key roles played by his maternal and paternal kin, his in-laws, his many wives and his children in the consolidation and representation of the kingdom created out of the territories of the former Sukerchakia strongholds. It is further argued that, in their shift from misl to empire, Ranjit Singh and his family engaged in a form of ‘dynastic colonialism’: using military conquests, marital alliances and patronage of arts and architecture to lay claim to land and power throughout the Punjab, as a newly-constituted royal elite. It considers the strategies employed by the new Maharajah and the diverse members of his family to legitimise and safeguard their power in the face of rival regional powers and the proclaimed egalitarianism of the Khalsa community; in addition to managing internal tensions within the growing royal family.

Conclusion

This short concluding chapter reflects on the book’s key themes and arguments about the nature of the rise and fall of the Sikh Empire and its ruling family. It contextualises this short-lived kingdom within an evaluation of the creative and dynamic period in which they rose to power and were ambitiously able to project themselves into an innovative class of royal elites. It reinforces a central argument of the book: that monarchies and royalty deserve greater attention and scrutiny from modern historians, since their lived experiences and socio-political impacts clearly belie more Whiggish narratives about their supposedly declining importance during the nineteenth and even twentieth centuries.

To Be a Sikh King

This chapter provides a sense of the political, cultural and intellectual context in which Ranjit Singh was able to claim the title of ‘Maharajah’. It examines the development of ‘Sikh’ ideas about monarchy, power and rulership that first emerged within the earliest writings of the first Sikh ‘master’, Guru Nanak, in the fifteenth century; whilst considering how attempts to practically interpret and set into action such ideas also evolved within the changing world of the Punjab, leading up to the early years of Ranjit Singh’s reign. This chapter draws upon recent scholarly research that has re-evaluated the dynamics between the Sikhs and the Mughal imperial dynasty, and about the emergence of the Khalsa and Sikh sardars as powers in their own right across eighteenth-century Punjab: studies that casts doubt on earlier scholarly contentions about the ‘republican’ nature of the Khalsa. It thereby aims to outline ideas of Sikh kingship that may have inspired and legitimised Ranjit Singh’s rise to power as a self-styled monarch by the turn of the nineteenth century.

All the World’s a Stage

This chapter studies the diplomatic endeavours of Ranjit Singh and his family. It argues that the long-term development of a ‘friendship’ between the Punjabi royals and the East India Company formed another key aspect of the political strategy behind the making of the Sikh Empire forged by the former Sukerchakia misl. It examines how the nature of Anglo-Punjabi diplomacy was deeply influenced by the cultural norms of northern Indian politics, which placed notions of kinship and izzat (honour) at their heart, and which were in turn re-shaped by the new class of Sikh royalty that emerged from the eighteenth century onwards. This chapter discusses how Ranjit Singh ambitiously deployed his sons and wives as ambassadorial figures, and sought to bind senior British officials in close ties with his immediate family, to ensure that the strategic alliance he formed with the Company would remain steadfast for the future. The Maharajah’s goal was nothing short of projecting the name and fame of his kingdom onto a global royal stage.