Ranjit Singh

Ranjit Singh was the founder of the Sikh Empire in the Punjab. He united competing Sikh misls, captured Lahore, expanded across the Punjab and built a disciplined army while balancing relations with Afghans, local rulers and the British.

Ranjit Singh captured Lahore in 1799 and was proclaimed maharaja in 1801, gradually bringing much of the Punjab under a centralised Sikh monarchy. He combined Sikh, Muslim and Hindu officials in government and employed European officers to modernise sections of his army. His death in 1839 was followed by succession struggles that weakened the state and helped create the conditions for the Anglo-Sikh wars.

Lawrence James’ Raj also follows Indian rulers and confederacies that resisted or negotiated with the Company, including Tipu Sultan and Ranjit Singh, before annexation and reform under Dalhousie helped create the tensions that erupted in the rebellion of 1857. Amarpal Singh’s The First Anglo-Sikh War reconstructs the crisis that followed the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and brought the Sikh Empire into war with the East India Company in December 1845. Additional non-fiction treatment of Ranjit Singh comes from Captivating History’s The Sikh Wars, Captivating History’s History of the Sikhs, and Amarpal Singh’s The Second Anglo-Sikh War.