Sikh Army

“ The shattered remnant of the Sikh army retired and halted near Lahore, ready to lay down their arms. Within the short period of sixty days from the time when the Sikhs crossed the Sutlej so confident of victory, the British force, far inferior in numbers of men and guns, but superior in everything which makes for success, had defeated the flower of the great Khalsa in four well-fought-out pitched battles and wrested from them in action 220 guns, while only 14,000 of that derelict army now remained in the field. ”

“ The Sikh army was known to be superior in every way to any army we had yet met in India, both in training and in material. There were a considerable number of foreign officers in the employ of the Sikhs, and the men had a high reputation, which they maintain to this day, of being equal to the best material of which any army, whether European or Asiatic, can boast. ”

“ For two-and-twenty hours, from three o'clock on the afternoon of the 21st till one o'clock after mid-day of the 22d, the combat—unremitted, as we have seen, even beneath the shade of night—endured, and deepened as it endured, having raged with appalling fury in its very termination. The intrenched Sikh camp was literally a fortress, occupied by a great army not untutored in European discipline, and protected by enormous batteries of heavy ordnance, which were served so rapidly, and pointed so truly, as to elicit the unqualified admiration of the victims of their efficiency. ”

“ In the breathless chase which followed across the plains of the Punjab to the frontier mountain-wall, the Sikh military power was destroyed for ever. On the 12th of March, 1849, General Gilbert received the submission of the entire Sikh army at Rawal Pindi, together with the last forty-one of the 160 Sikh cannon captured by the British during the war. ”

“ The Sikhs fought, as is their wont, with consummate gallantry, and the Afghan Horse on our right made a gallant effort to retrieve the fortunes of the day. They were met in an equally gallant manner by the Scinde Horse, supported by the 9th Lancers, and on this flank being uncovered the horse artillery galloped up and enfiladed the Sikh entrenchments. "By half-past twelve," writes Sir Charles Gough, who, as a subaltern, took part in the campaign, "the whole Sikh army was in full flight. ”

“ The Sikhs, finding that Sir Harry was about to out-flank them, suddenly changed their position, and drew up along a ridge with their right flanking the village of Aliwal, and their left resting on their own entrenched camp. With the extraordinary agility and rapidity of action which characterized the Sikhs throughout their engagements with the army of the Sutlej, the centre division of the Khalsa troops instantly threw up entrenchments, behind which they hastily placed their strong artillery, and opened a murderous fire upon the British. ”

“ On the other hand, should the Sikh army be successful, they must look to the Ranee in authority at Lahore for numerous requisites to be supplied for the army in the progress of the campaign, and in case of success how faithfully they would have been supplied. ”

“ They fought on the defensive and were badly beaten; the 9th, 3rd, and 14th British cavalry Regiments, and the 10th, 29th, 60th, and 61st line Regiments shared in the last fight against the Sikhs, as did the European Regiments of the Bombay and Bengal armies. Though said to be 34,000 men strong, with an Afghan detachment of 1500 men and 59 guns, the Sikhs’ army, as such, ceased to be, and its guns, camp equipage, and baggage became the spoil of the victors. “God has given you the victory,” was the despairing cry of many a dying Sikh. ”

“ Such is the state of affairs at the present moment, and although my conviction is strong that the Sikh army will be deterred from acts of aggression, on account of the state of our military preparation, yet it is by no means impossible that we may be forced at any moment into war, and that operations, on a very extended scale, may be immediately necessary. ”

“ When no reply was given to the repeated demand for explanation, while active military preparations were continued at Lahore, the Governor-General considered it necessary to order the advance of troops towards the frontier, to reinforce the frontier posts.
The Sikh army has now, without a shadow of provocation, invaded the British territories. ”

“ On the 28th of January the Major-General determined to attack the Sikhs under Runjoor Singh in their strong position at Aliwal, and the result was a splendid victory. Runjoor Singh's camp, with all his baggage, ammunition, and stores, fell into the hands of the victors, and the left wing of the Sikh army was thus almost completely disorganised.
Her Majesty's FIFTY-THIRD, and the thirtieth native infantry, formed the third brigade, under Brigadier Wilson, and were opposed upon the left to the "Aieen" troops, called Avitabiles, [12] when the conflict was fiercely raging. ”

“ When it is considered that with a disparity of force of three to one, independent of artillery, the Sikh army was discomfited, and the enemy was driven back to his capital to seek for safety and peace, the British Nation must be sensible that an over-ruling Power aided their cause, and gave strength where numbers were deficient ”

“ THE SIKH It has often been said that the Indian Army has kept Sikhism alive. War is a conserver of the Khalsa, peace a dissolvent. When one understands how this is so, one has grasped what Sikhism has done for the followers of the faith, and why the Sikh is different in habit and thought from his Hindu and Muhammadan neighbour, though in most cases he derives from the same stock.
The Sikhs are a community, not a race. The son of a Sikh is not himself a Sikh until he has taken the pahul, the ceremony by which he is admitted into the Khalsa, the community of the faithful. ”

“ A happy consequence of our wars with the Sikhs was that we learned their great value as soldiers when mutual respect was won by valour in the field. After the first war some Sikh regiments were raised for our service, and after the annexation Sikhs were freely enlisted in the Frontier Force, and also in some regiments of the Bengal army, where they were not, however, welcomed by the Brahman fraternity, who resented intrusion on their own preserves as tending to break up their solidarity. ”

“ No one understands better than Your Excellency the value of a Sikh soldier, and we feel very grateful that the military authorities recognize the necessity of requiring every Sikh recruit to be baptized according to the Sikh religion before admission to the Army—a practice which makes the Sikhs more true and faithful, and which preserves the existence of a very useful community. The Sikhs are said to be born soldiers, but they undoubtedly make very good citizens in time of peace also. ”

“ The fidelity of the Sikhs had long been suspected. It was now considered by no means an impossible event, that the march of our army, worn, sick, and incumbered, through the Punjab, would offer a temptation too strong to be resisted by the mutinous Sikh soldiery, whose real feeling had betrayed itself early in the year at Peshawur. ”

“ The reader may easily conclude that the Sikhs, seeing our additional troops, guns and stores moving up to the army, did not remain idle, for they had a great game at stake, being no less than the future fate of a kingdom. They were buoyed up by their success at Buddiwal; the whole army under Tej Singh had re-crossed the Sutlej. The bridge-head, which secured so important an advantage, was enlarged; and, in the very face of the British army, they unremittingly carried on their warlike preparations. ”

“ When roving in the Afghan border, he was captured by the Sikhs. Ranjit Singh, appreciating his talents, told him, "I will make you Governor of Gujrat, and give you 3000 rupees a-month. If you behave well I will increase your salary; if not, I will cut off your nose."
Enlistment in the trained Sikh army was quite voluntary, and once the objection to the changes introduced was overcome, the service was very popular, the men being picked from large numbers of candidates, which rendered the army capable of expansion in an emergency. ”

“ The publication of orders, in which it was considered that services performed by the Sikhs were referred to in exaggerated terms as compared with the purely British, produced for the time being one effect to which allusion may here be made. “Why,” said a very intelligent officer of that nationality, who was well known to most of us in cantonments, “you admit yourselves that we saved India for you; if we can do that for you foreigners, why should we not take the country for ourselves?” At the very time he spoke there were 82,000 Sikh troops in British employ. ”

“ In these both British and Sikhs fought with the utmost gallantry. But, since 1849, the brave Sikhs have been loyal British subjects, and have fought on our side not only in the Indian Mutiny, but in Abyssinia, Afghanistan, China, Burma, Somaliland, and Tibet. At the present time, the Indian Army includes thirteen Sikh battalions, and there are one or more Sikh squadrons in each of the cavalry regiments, as well as a company or two in each of the infantry battalions. ”

“ Constant fighting and an iron discipline had kept the Sikhs in order during the lifetime of Ranjit Singh, but after his death the army became unmanageable.
The history of the Sikh War is too well known to need more than passing reference. The troops of the Khalsa were defeated after a series of hard-fought battles, in which they showed soldierly qualities of the highest order. In the decade which followed the conquest of the Punjab, the British Government, impressed with the fighting capacity of their former opponents, determined to employ them as soldiers in their own army. ”

“ This was about twelve o'clock in the day, when the officers were in the mess tent at tiffin. Two young officers of the 16th Native Grenadiers overheard the order: "You are brigadier for to-morrow; the army will march early in the morning to attack the Sikhs, who are known to be ten miles off." They were still discussing the glorious prospect of an encounter with the Sikhs, when orders arrived in camp for "all hands to turn out," Major Broadfoot having received intelligence that the Sikhs were near. ”

“ They were as well armed as the British, and could bring on the ground a preponderating force of men and guns; an initial victory would certainly be theirs, and then they would be joined by the Sikh states across the Sutlej. Such were their boasts. The glamour was soon dispelled. Only the iron hand of a Ranjit Singh could then have saved them from rushing to their ruin, but there was no one of such a calibre among them now. The chief sardars had gained affluence and lost moral force; the army was venal ”

“ A large part of the money spent on the army finds its way to the Punjabi villages, which, with what also comes from well-paid foreign service, are being steadily enriched, for the Sikh is too fond of his own country to settle abroad. All that can be saved goes to the homes. They do not waste money on the occasion of domestic ceremonies, as in other priest-ridden parts of India. ”

“ The Sikhs are to disband their present army and organize a new one, which is not to exceed 32,000 men, 20,000 of which shall be infantry; and furthermore, we compel them to pay to the British government 22 lakhs of rupees, or £220,000 sterling per annum. Next, a deep conspiracy is discovered at Lahore, and two British officers are murdered at Mooltan. The Sikhs, under Moolraj, Chutter Singh and Shere Singh, raise [Pg 201] large armies. The Maharannee is at the bottom of this conspiracy. We send troops in December, 1848, and take Mooltan in February, 1849. ”

“ Trained from childhood to the profession of arms, every Sikh is by the tenets of his religion a soldier, not even excepting the priesthood; nay, these church militants were the most intolerant and unmanageable—the noisiest and worst soldiers in the army.
[56] Thirty-six pieces of cannon were all that could be scraped together by the residue of the Sikh forces, and these were the guns which had been used to man the batteries on the right bank. ”

“ One of the most instructive facts brought to light during the wars of the mutiny, was the ardour with which some of the natives of India joined in waging battle with others. During the first and second Sikh wars, the sepoys of the Bengal native army unquestionably fought heroically against the Sikhs, winning battles in a way that excited the admiration of their British officers. ”

“ Four years afterwards, they were followed by Generals Court and Avitabile. It was to these officers that the Sikh chief owed the highly efficient state of his army, which consisted of a well disciplined body of 50,000 men, besides 100,000 Irregulars. ”

“ But the Major was not literally accurate in saying that the P. M. is the backbone of the Indian Army. The Sikhs would have something to say to that, for 214 companies of infantry, including the class regiments, and forty squadrons of cavalry, are recruited entirely from the Khalsa, besides a large proportion of sappers and miners, and half the mountain batteries. The Gurkhas contribute twenty battalions of foot, but they serve only in the infantry. Taking infantry, cavalry, artillery and sappers, the P. M. in point of numbers is an easy second to the Sikh. ”

“ The Raja of Jhind was the first in the field, declaring that he would abide by the British, under whom he had lived happily for fifty years. He cleared the road for the English troops advancing on Delhi. The Maharaja of Patiala supplied 5000 men, and held the line of communication between the Punjab and the British army before Delhi for a distance of 120 miles. The Raja of Nabha, with 800 of his men, occupied for us the fort of Ludhiana and escorted the siege-train to Delhi. The petty Sikh chiefs complained of it as a grievance if they were not called on for our service. ”