History of Punjab
Introduction
The first known use of the word Punjab is in the book Tarikh-e-Sher Shah (1580), which mentions the construction of a fort by "Sher Khan of Punjab". The name is mentioned again in Ain-e-Akbari (part 1), written by Abul Fazal, who also mentions that the territory of Punjab was divided into two provinces, Lahore and Multan. Similarly in the second volume of Ain-e-Akbari, the title of a chapter includes the word Punjab in it. The Mughal King Jahangir also mentions the word Punjab in Tuzk-i-Janhageeri [Quraishee 73].
Human habitation of the Punjab, however, begins millennia before the arrival of the Mughals. The upper basin of the Indus River and the Baluchistan Plateau hosted one of the earliest human civilizations, known as the Indus valley civilization. The earliest evidence of human settlements dates as far back as 7000 BCE. The Indus valley civilization grew from small village settlements to highly refined urban life. At its height, sometime after 3000 BCE, it boasted the splendid cities of Harrapa (Near present-day Sahiwal in West Punjab) and Mohenjo Daro in the lower Indus valley. Archeological evidence indicates that the civilization declined rapidly after 1700 BCE, for reasons that are still unexplained.
Indo-Aryans
Main articles: Indo-Aryan migration, Vedic civilization
Factors in the civilization's decline likely included a change in weather patterns and unsustainable urbanization (i.e., without any rural agricultural production base). Another factor is reported to be the series of migrations by the Aryans from the northwest (roughly 1700-1500 BCE, see Indo-Iranians). The next one thousand years of the history of the Punjab and North India in general (1500 BCE up to 500 BCE) is dominated by the Indo-Aryans and the mixed population and culture that emerged from their interactions with the natives of the Indus basin.
Vedic Punjab
The Rig-Veda, the oldest book in human history, is thought to have been written in the Punjab. It embodies a literary record of the socio-cultural development of ancient Punjab (known as Sapat Sindhu) and affords us a glimpse of the life of its people. Heroic society of Vedic times was tribal rather than territorial in character where a number of families constituted a grama, a number of gramas a vis (clan) and a number of clans a Jana (tribe). The Janas led by Rajans were in constant inter-tribal warfare from which arose larger groupings of peoples under able chiefs and kings. As a result, a new political philosophy of conquest and empire grew and traced the origin of State in the exigencies of war. An important event of Rigvedic era was the Battle of Ten Kings (BTK) which was fought on the soil of Punjab on river Purusni (Ravi) between king Sudas of the Trtsu lineage of the Bharata clan and a confederation of ten tribes (Rig Veda VII.18,19, 83]. Ten tribes pitted against Sudas comprised five major Punjabi Indo-Aryan clans---the Purus, Druhyus, Anus, Turvasas, Yadus and five non-Indo-Aryan (i.e. Iranian) clans---the Pakthas, Alinas, Bhalanas, Visanins and the Sivas from north-west frontiers of ancient Punjab. King Sudas was supported by Vedic Rishi Vasishtha, while sage Viswamitra sided with the confederation of ten tribes.
Out of such-like conflicts and struggles and the conquests and the movements of the Vedic and Later Vedic age emerged the heroic society of Punjab the ideals and standards of which are embedded in the Hindu Epics, notably the Mahabharata. The society laid special stress on the value of actions and though devoted to religion, it could not tolerate the supercilious attitude of the priestly class.
Epic Punjab
The philosophy of heroism of the Epic Age in Punjab is excellently expounded in the Bhagavatagita section of the Mahabharata. The great work is synthesis of many doctrines and creeds but its core is essentially the enunciation of martial and heroic cult. Bhagavata expounds a comprehensive philosophy of heroism current in the then Punjab. It seeks to provide a philosophical foundation to a profession of arms and invests the Kshatriya or warrior with respectful position and noble status. It canonizes his professional integrity and injects an intensity of purpose into it. The philosophy was professed by the warrior communities of ancient Punjab and a countless generation of Punjabi soldiers derived their strength and inspiration from it. Bhagavata had galvanized the people of ancient Punjab into a heroic frame of mind. The Punjabis exhibited great heroism and gallantry in many memorable scenes of great battle of Kurukshetra which live for ever in the glowing descriptions of the Great Epic. The Punjabis represented by ethnic groups such as the Gandharas, Kambojas, Trigartas, Madras, Malavas, Pauravas, Bahlikas and Yaudheyas etc are stated to have sided with the Kauravas and displayed exemplary courage, power and prowess in the prolonged war. The glorious exploits of these warring communities can be seen in the accounts of the charges of the Kauravas against the Pandavas. The great epic profusely attests that the contigents of the Gandharas, Kambojas, Sauviras, Madras, Trigartas etc had always occupied key positions in the Kaurava arrays through-out the epic war (See: Historical Traditions in Ancient Punjab, 1971, pp 36-51, Dr Buddha Parkash).
Another important epic event which involved the Punjabis was the conflict between Indo-Aryan king Vishwamitra from Uttar Pradesh and sage Vasishtha from north-western parts of greater Punjab. The story is portrayed in the Bala-Kanda section of Valmiki Ramayana. The conflict is said to have sparked over the re-possession of Kamdhenu aka Savala (probably a fief) by king Vishwamitra from the Brahmana sage of the Vasishtha lineage. Rsi Vasishtha skillfully solicited the military support of the frontier Punjabi warriors consisting of eastern iranians--the Shakas, Kambojas, Pahlavas etc aided by the Himalayan soldiery of the Kiratas, Haritas and the Mlechchas. This composite army of fierce warriors from frontier Punjab had utterly ruined one Akshauni army of illustrious Vishwamitra along with his sons (Bala Kanda Ch 51-55). The Kamdhenu war seems to symbolise a struggle for supremacy between the Kshatriya forces and the priestly class of the epic era, but ironically, the warrior communities of the frontier Punjabis grievously errored in wrongly supporting the priestly class against their own Kshatriya brotherhood.
Paninian Punjab
Panini, a famous ancient Sanskrit grammarian born in Shalātura, modern Lahur of North-West Frontier province of Pakistan, was himself a Punjabi Afghan. The great grammarian teaches us that the people of greater Punjab lived prominently by the profession of arms. The Ashtadhyayi attests numerous clans of the Punjabis and styles them as Ayudhajivin republics. Those living in the plains were called Vahikas (V.3.114-117) while those in the mountainous regions including north-east of Afghanistan were termed as Parvatiyas or the highlanders (IV.3.91). The Vahikas Sanghas included prominently the Yaudheyas (modern Joiya Rajputs/Jatts and some Kamboj), Kekeyas, Vrikas (modern Virk Jatts), Usinaras, Sibis (modern Sibia Jatts?), Kshudrakas, Malavas and the Madras clans of the Punjabis while the second class styled as Parvatiya Ayudhajivins comprised, among others the Trigartas, the Gandharan clan of Hastayanas (VI.4.174), and the Kambojan clans of Ashvayanas (IV.1.110) & Ashvakayanas (Nadadigana IV.1.90), as well as the Daradas of Chitral and Gilgit. In addition, Panini also refers to the Kshatriya monarchies of the Kuru, Gandhari, and Kamboja etc (IV.1.168-174). In fact, the entire region of greater Punjab is known to have reeked with martial people. These warrior communities followed different forms of republic constitutions as is amply attested by Ashtadhyayi. Further, the fourth century BCE Arthashastra of Kautiliya also talks of martial republics of the Punjabis and thus specifically refers to the Kshatriya Shrenis (Coroprations of warriors) of the Kambojas and some other frontier tribes as belonging to varta-Shastr-opajivin republican class (i.e. living by profession of arms and varta), while the Madrakas, Mallas and the Kurus clans of the Punjabis are styled as Raja-shabd-opajivins class (i.e living by the title of Raja) (Arthashastra 11.1.1-4). Thus, it is seen that the heroic traditions cultivated by the Punjabis in Vedic and Epic Age continued to the times of Panini and Kautaliya. History is powerful witness that these Ayudhajivin clans had offered stiff resistence to the Achaemenid rulers in sixth century and later to the Macedonian invaders in the fourth century BCE respectively.
Persian Domination
Of the sixteen great kingdoms (solas Mahajanapadas) that evolved prior to the rise of Buddhism in ancient Indian sub-continent, only the two viz. Gandhara and Kamboja lied in the north-west region commonly known as Uttarapatha. Eastern parts of ancient Gandhara and Kamboja constituted the north-western parts of ancient Panjab (Greater Panjab) which lay at the eastern edge of the great Persian Empire. Both these ancient kingdoms appear to have fallen prey to Achaemenian Dynasty of Persia during the reign of Achaemenid, Cyrus the Great (558-530 BCE), or in the first year of Darius I (521 BCE - 486 BCE). The region of upper Indus comprising the Gandhara and Kamboja formed the seventh while the lower and middle Indus comprising the Sindhu and Sauvira constituted the twentieth strapy of the Achaemenid Empire. They are reported to have contributed, respectively, 170 and 360 talents of gold dust of annual tribute to the Achaemenid rulers.
The ancient Greeks also had some knowledge of the area. Darius I appointed the Greek Scylax of Caryanda to explore the Indian Ocean from the mouth of the Indus to Suez for commercial expeditions. Scylax provided an account of his voyage in his book Peripulus. Hecataeus (500 BCE) and Herodotus (483 BCE - 431 BCE) also wrote about the Indian Satrapy of the Persians. Alexander's expeditions were documented in the works of Strabo, Ptolemy, Pliny the Elder, Arrian and others. They described a region that had several mighty rivers and was divided into four kingdoms. In Greek maps we find the mention of the "mightiest of river of all the world", called the Indos (Indus) and its tributaries of Hydaspes (Jhelum), Akesines (Chenab), Hydraotis (Ravi), Hesidros (Sutlej) and Hyphasis (Beas).
Alexander's Invasion and the Indo-Greek kingdoms
In the eighth decade of fourth century BCE, the companions of Alexander the Great did not record the names of Gandhara and/or the Kamboja and rather located a dozen small political units in their territories. This rules out the possibility of rise of Gandhara and/or Kamboja as great kingdoms in the second and third quarters of fourth century BCE. In 326 BC, most of these political units of the former Gandhara/Kamboja Mahajanapadas were conquered by Alexander.
The Macedonian conqueror made short shrifts of the arrangements of Darius and over-running the Achaemenid Empire in 331 BCE, dashed into Afghanistan withn an army of 50,000. He invited all the chieftains of the former strapy of Gandhara to come to him and submit to his authority. Ambhi, ruler of Taxila, whose kingdom extended from the Indus to the Hydaspes (Jhelum), complied. After confirming him as Satrap, Alexander dashed against the patriotic and belligrant Kamboja highlanders of Kunar and Swat valleys known in the classical writings as Aspasios and Assakenois and in Indian texts as Ashvayana and Ashvakayana (in reference to their equestrian nature) since they had refused to submit to Alexander without giving him a fight (See: Panjab Past and Present, pp. 9-10; History of Porus, pp. 12, 38, Dr. Buddha Parkash; Histoire du Bouddhisme Indien, p 110, E. Lamotte; Political History of Ancient India; 1996, p 133, 216-17, Dr H. C. Raychaudhury; Hindu Polity, 1978, pp 121, 140, Dr K. P. Jayswal etc etc). These Ashvayan and Ashvakayan Kamboja clans offered tough resistence to the invader and had fought him to a man. When worse came to worst, even the Ashvakayan women had taken up arms and joined their fighting husbands, thus preferring "a glorious death to a life of dishonor" (Diodorus in Mcgrindle, p 370).
In a letter to his mother, Alexander described his encounters with these eastern Iranians thus: "I am involved in the land of a 'Leonine' (lion-like) and brave people, where every Foot of the ground is like a well of steel, confronting my soldier. You have brought only one son into the world, but Everyone in this land can be called an Alexander” [1] .
Thereafter, Alexander marched east to the Hydaspes, where Porus, ruler of the kingdom between the Hydaspes and Akesines (Chenab) refused to submit to Alexander's authority and the two armies fought the historic Battle of the Hydaspes River on the riverbank outside the town of Nikaia (near the modern city of Jhelum).
Porus's army fought strongly, but was no match for Alexander's. When the defiant Raja (though wounded and haviing lost his sons) was brought before Alexander, a legendary conversation took place in which Alexander inquired of Porus, "How should I treat you?", the brave Porus shot back, "The way a king treats another king." Alexander was struck by his genius and not only returned the Kingdom to Porus, but added the land lying between Akesines and Hydraotis (Ravi), whose ruler had fled. Alexander's army crossed the Hydraotis and marched east to the Hesidros (Beas), but there his troops refused to march further east, and Alexander turned back, following the Jhelum and the Indus to the Arabian Sea, and returning to Babylon.
As he had done in other lands that he occupied, Alexander established two cities in the Punjab, where he settled people from his multi-national armies, which included a majority of Greeks and Macedonians. These Indo-Greek cities and their associated kingdoms thrived long after Alexander's departure.
After Alexander's death, the eastern portion of his empire (from Syria to Punjab) was inherited by Seleucus I Nicator, the founder of the Seleucid dynasty. However the Greek empire in the east was disrupted by the ascendancy of the Bactrians. The Bactrian King Demetrius I added the Punjab to his Kingdom in the 2nd century BCE. Many of the Indo-Greeks were Buddhists. The best known of the Indo-Greek kings was Menander I, known in India as Milinda, who established an independent kingdom centered at Taxila around 160 BCE. He later moved his capital to Sagala (modern Sialkot). Menander and his a
Sakas, Kushanas, and Hephthalites
In the middle of the 2nd century BCE, the Yuezhi tribe of modern China moved westward into Central Asia, which, in turn, caused the Sakas (Scythians) to move west and south. The Northern Sakas, also known as the Indo-Scythians, moved first into Bactria, and later crossed the Hindu Kush into India, successfully wresting power from the Indo-Greeks. They were followed by the Yuezhi, who were known in India as the Kushans or Kushanas. The Kushans founded a kingdom in the first century that lasted for several centuries. Both the Indo-Scythians and the Kushans embraced Buddhism, and absorbed elements of Indo-Greek art and culture into their own. Another Central Asiatic people to make Punjab their home were the Hephthalites (White Huns), who engaged in continuous campaigns from across the Hindu Kush, finally establishing their rule in India in the 5th century.
Muslim invasions and the Shahi Kingdom
Following the birth of Islam in Arabia in the 6th century, the Muslims rose to power, replacing Persia as the major power to the west of India. In 711-713 Muslim armies conquered Sind and advanced into the southern Punjab, occupying Multan. Multan became a center of the Ismaili sect of Islam. The northern Punjab was divided into small Hindu kingdoms.
The Hindu Shahi dynasty ruled much of the Punjab, as well as western Afghanistan, from the mid-ninth to the early eleventh centuries. The Shahi Kingdom was originally based in Kabul, and later spread across the Punjab. Kabul was lost to Turkic Muslims in the tenth century, and the Shahi capital shifted to Ohind, near Attock.
In 977, the Turkic ruler Sabuktigin acceded to the throne of the small kingdom of Ghazni in central Afghanistan. In the 980s, Subuktigin conquered the Shahis, extending his rule from the Khyber Pass, to the Indus. After his death in 997, his son Mahmud assumed power in Ghazni. He expanded his father's kingdom far to the west and east through military conquest. He attacked the Punjab and northern India seventeen times during his reign, conquering the Shahi kingdom and extending his rule across the Punjab as far as the upper Yamuna. Mahmud demolished Hindu temples wherever his campaigns took him, and he also attacked the Ismailis, whom he viewed as heretics.
Mahmud's successors, known as the Ghaznavids, ruled for 157 years. Their kingdom gradually shrank in size, and was racked by bitter succession struggles. The Ghaznavids lost the western part of their kingdom (Persia) to the expanding Seljuk Turks. The Rajput kingdoms of western India reconquered the eastern Punjab and by the 1160's line of demarcation between the Ghaznavids and the Hindu kingdoms was extended to the present-day India-Pakistan boundary. The Ghorids of central Afghanistan occupied Ghazni around 1150, and the Ghaznevid capital was shifted to Lahore. Muhammad Ghori conquered the Ghaznavid kingdom, occupying Lahore in 1186-7, and later extending his kingdom past Delhi into the Ganges-Yamuna Doab.
The Delhi Sultanate and Mughal empire
After Muhammad's death in 1206, his general Qutb-ud-din Aybak took control of Muhummad's Indian empire, including Afghanistan, the Punjab, and northern India. Qutb-ud-din moved his capital of the empire from Ghazni to Lahore, and, after becoming Sultan, to Delhi; the empire he founded was called the Sultanate of Delhi. His successors were known as the Mamluk or Slave dynasty, and ruled from his death in 1210 to 1290. The Mongols, who had conquered Muhammad Ghori's former possessions in Central Asia, continued to encroach on the Sultanate's northwest frontier in the thirteenth century. The Mongols conquered Afghanistan, and from there raided the Punjab and northwestern India. Lahore was sacked in 1241, and the Mongols and Sultans contested for control of the Punjab for much of the thirteenth century. The Khilji dynasty replaced the Mamluks in 1290. The rule of Khiljis was briefly disrupted by successful raids by the Mongols, who marched to Delhi twice during Alauddin Khilji's rule. The Tughluqids succeeded the Khiljis in 1320. Timur, who ruled a Central Asian empire from Samarkand, sacked Delhi in 1398-99, and reduced the Sultanate to a small kingdom surrounding Delhi. Two Afghan dynasties took control of the Sultanate after the Tughluqids; The Sayyids from 1414 to 1479, and the Lodhis from 1479 to until 1526. The Lodhis recovered control of some of the Sultanate's lost territories, including the Punjab. Babur, a descendant of the Mongol Khans who ruled a kingdom in Afghanistan, defeated the last Sultan of Delhi at the First battle of Panipat in 1526 and founded the Mughal Empire.
The Mughal empire persisted for several centuries until it was severely weakened in the eighteenth century by the attacks of the Marathas and the 1739 sack of Delhi by the Persian Nadir Shah. As Mughal power weakened, Afghan rulers took control of the empire's northwestern provinces, including the Punjab and Sind. The eighteenth century also saw the rise of the Sikhs in the Punjab.
The Rise of Sikh Power
The Punjab presented a picture of chaos and confusion when Ranjit Singh took the control of Sukerchakias misal. The edifice of Ahmad Shah's empire in India had crumbled. Afghanistan was dismembered. Peshawar and Kashmir though under the suzerainty of Afghanistan had attained de facto independence. The Barakzais were now masters of these lands. Attock was ruled by Wazrikhels and Jhang lay at the feet of Sials. The Pathans ruled Kasur. Multan had thrown off the yoke and Nawab Muzaffar Khan was now ruler.
Both Punjab and Sind had been under Afghan rule since 1757 when Ahmad Shah Abdali was granted suzerainty over these provinces. However, the Sikhs were now a rising power in Punjab. Taimur Khan, a local Governor, was able to expell the Sikhs from Amritsar and raze the fort of Ram Rauni. His control was short-lived, however, and the Sikh misal joined to defeat Taimur Shah and his Chief minister Jalal Khan. The Afghans were forced to retreat and Lahore was occupied by the Sikhs in 1758. Jassa Singh Ahluwalia proclaimed the Sikh's sovereignty and assumed leadership, striking coins to commemorate his victory.
While Ahmad Shah Abdali was engaged in a campaign against the Marathas at Panipat in 1761, Jassa Singh Ahluwalia plundered Sirhind and Dialpur, seized towns in the Ferozepur district, and took possession of Jagraon and Kot Isa Khan on the opposite bank of the Sutlej. He captured Hoshiarpur and Naraingarh in Ambala and levied tribute from the chief of Kapurthala. He then marched towards Jhang. The Sial chief offered stout resistance. However, when Ahmad Shah left in February 1761, Jassa Singh Ahluwalia again attacked Sirhind and extended his territory as far as Tarn Taran. When he crossed the Bias and captured Sultanpur in 1762, Ahmad Shah again appeared and a fierce battle took place. The ensuing holocaust was called Ghalughara. Following the rout of Sikh forces, Jassa Singh fled to the Kangra hills. After the departure of Ahmad Shah Abdali, Jassa Singh Ahluwali again attacked Sirhind, razing it and killiing the Afghan Governor Zen Khan. This was a great victory for the Sikhs who now ruled all of the territory around the Sirhind. Jassa Singh immediately paid a visit to Hari Mandir Saheb at Amritsar, making amends and restoring the temple which had been defiled by Ahmad Shah through the slaughter of cows in its precincts.
Ahmad Shah died in June 1773. After his death the power of the Afghans declined in the Punjab. Taimur Shah ascended the throne at Kabul. By then the Misls were well established in the Punjab. They controlled territory as far as Saharnpur in the east, Attock in the west, Kangra Jammu in the north and Multan in the south. Efforts were made by Afghan rulers to dislodge the Sikhs from their citadels. Taimur Shah attacked Multan and defeated the Bhangis. The Bhangi Sardars, Lehna Singh, and Sobha Singh were driven out of Lahore in 1767 by the Abdali, but soon reoccupied it. They remained in power in Lahore until 1793 - the year when Shah Zaman acceded to the throne of Kabul.
The first attempt at conquest by Shah Zaman was in 1793. He came to Hassan Abdal from which he sent an army of 7000 cavalry under Ahmad Shah Shahnachi but the Sikhs routed them. It was a great setback to Shah Zaman, but in 1795 he reorganized forces and again attacked Hassan Abdal, This time he snatched Rohtas from the Sukerchikias, whose leader was Ranjit Singh. Singh suffered at Shah Zaman's hands but did not lose courage. However, Shah Zaman had to return to Kabul as an invasion of his country from the west was apprehended. When he returned, Ranjit Singh dislodged the Afghans from Rohtas.
Shah Zaman did not sit idle. In 1796 he crossed the Indus for the third time and planned to capture Delhi. His ambition knew no bounds. By now he had raised an Afghan army of 3000 men. He was confident a large number of Indians would join him. Nawab of Kasur had already assured him help. Sahib Singh of Patiala betrayed his countrymen and declared his intentions of helping Shah Zaman. Shah Zaman was also assured of help by the Rohillas, Wazir of Oudh, and Tipu Sultan of Mysore. The news of Shah Zaman's invasion spread quickly and people began fleeing to the hills for safety. Heads of Misals, though bound to give protection to the people as they were collecting Rakhi tax from them, were the first to leave the people in lurch. By December Shah Zaman occupied territory up to Jhelum. When he reached Gujarat, Sahib Singh Bhangi panicked and left the place.
Next Shah Zaman marched on the territory of Ranjit Singh. Singh was alert and raised an army of 5000 horsemen. However, they were inadequately armed with only spears and muskets. The Afghans were equipped with heavy artillery. Ranjit Singh foresaw a strong, united fight against the invaders as he came to Amritsar. A congregation of Sarbat Khlasa was called and many Sikh sardars answered the call. There was general agreement that Shah Zaman's army should be allowed to enter the Punjab and that the Sikhs should retire to the hills.
Forces were reorganized under the command of Ranjit Singh and they marched towards Lahore. They gave the Afghans a crushing defeat in several villages and surrounded the city of Lahore. Sorties were made into the city at night in which they would kill a few Afghan soldiers and then leave under cover of darkness. Following this tactic they were able to dislodge Afghans from several places.
In 1797 Shah Zaman suddenly left for Afghansistan as his brother Mahmud had revolted. Shahanchi khan remained at Lahore with a sizeable army. The Sikhs followed Shah Zaman to Jhelum and snatched many goods from him. In returning, the Sikhs were attacked by the army of Shahnachi khan near Ram Nagar. The Sikhs routed his army. It was the first major achievement of Ranjit Singh. He became the hero of the land of Five Rivers and his reputation spread far and wide.
Again in 1798 Shah Zaman attacked Punjab to avenge the defeat of 1797. The Sikh people took refuge in the hills. A Sarbat Khalsa was again called and Sada Kaur persuaded the Sikhs to fight once again to the last man. This time even Muslims were not spared by Shah Zaman's forces and he won Gujarat easily. Sada Kaur roused the Sikhs sense of national honour. If they were to again leave Amritsar, she would command the forces against the Afghans. She said that an Afghani soldier was no match for a Sikh soldier. In battle they would acquit themselves, and, by the grace of Sat Guru, would be successful.
The Afghans plundered the towns and villages as they had vowed and declared that they would exterminate the Sikhs. However, it was the Muslims who suffered most as the Hindus and Sikhs had already left for the hills. The Muslims had thought that they would not be touched but their hopes were dashed and their provisions forcibly taken from them by the Afghans.
Shah Zaman requested that Raja Sansar Chand of Kangra refuse to give food or shelter to the Sikhs. This was agreed. Shah Zaman attacked Lahore and the Sikhs, surrounded as they were on all sides, had to fight a grim battle. The Afghans occupied Lahore in November 1798 and planned to attack Amritsar. Ranjit Singh collected his men and faced Shah's forces about eight kilometres from Amritsar. They were well-matched and the Afghans were, at last, forced to retire. Humiliated, they fled towards Lahore. Ranjit Singh pursued them and surrounded Lahore. Afghan supply lines were cut, crops were burnt and other provisions plundered so that they did not fall into Afghan's hands. It was a humiliating defeat for the Afghans. Nizam-ud.din of Kasur attacked the Sikhs near Shahdara on the banks of the Ravi, but his forces were no match for the Sikhs. Here too, it was the Muslims who suffered the most. The retreating Afghans and Nizam-ud-din forces plundered the town, antagonizing the local people.
The Afghans struggled hard to dislodge the Sikhs but in vain. The Sikh cordon was so strong that it was impossible for the Afghans to break it and proceed towards Delhi. Ranjit Singh terrorized the Afghans. The moment Zaman Shah left, Ranjit Singh pursued his forces and caught them unawares near Gujranwala. They were chased further up to Jhelum. Many Afghans were put to death and their weapons and supplies taken. The rest fled for their lives. Shah Zaman was overthrown by his brother and was blinded. He became a helpless creature, who, twelve years later, came to the Punjab to seek refuge in Ranjit Singh's darbar. Singh was now ruler of the land.
Ranjit Singh combined with Sahib Singh of Gujrat (Punjab) and Milkha Singh Pindiwala and a large Sikh force. They fell upon the Afghan garrison while Shah Zaman was still in vicinity of Khyber Pass. The Afghan forces fled north after having been routed by the Sikhs, leaving behind their dead, including the Afghan deputy, at Gujarat." (Bikramjit Hasrat, Life and times of Ranjit Singh, p.36)
By this time the people of the country had become aware of the rising strength of Ranjit Singh. He was the most popular leader of the Punjab and was planning to enter Lahore. Victims of oppression, the people of Lahore were favorably disposed towards Singh who they saw as a potential liberator. Muslims joined Hindu and Sikh residents of Lahore in making an appeal to Singh to free them from the tyrannical rule.
A petition was written and was signed by Mian Ashak Muhammad, Mian Mukkam Din, Mohammad Tahir, Mohammad Bakar, Hakim Rai, and Bhai Gurbaksh Singh. It was addressed to Ranjit singh, requesting him to free them from the Bhangi sardars. They begged Singh to liberate Lahore as soon as possible. He mobilised an Army of 25,000 and marched towards Lahore on July 6, 1799.
It was a last day of Muharram when a big procession was to be held in the town in the memory of the two grandsons of the Prophet Muhammad who had been martyred on the battlefield. It was expected that the Bhangi sardars would also participate in the procession and mourn with their Shia brethren. By the time procession was over Ranjit Singh had reached the outskirts of city.
In the early morning of July 7 1799, Ranjit Singh's men took up their positions. Guns glistened and bugles were sounded. Rani Sada Kaur stood outside Delhi Gate and Ranjit Singh proceeded towards Anarkali. Ranjit Singh rode along the walls of the city setting mines. The wall was breached. This created panic and confusion. Mukkam Din, who was one of the signatories to the petition made a proclamation, accompanied by drumbeats, stating that he had taken over the town and was now in charge. He ordered the city gates to be opened. Ranjit Singh entered the city with his troops through the Lahori Gate. Sada Kaur and a detachment of cavalry entered through Delhi gate. Before the Bhangi sardars realized it, a part of the citadel had been occupied without resistance. Sahib Singh and Mohar Singh left the city and sought protection. Chet Singh was left to either to fight to defend the town or flee. He shut himself in Hazuri Bagh with 500 men. Ranjit Singh's cavalry surrounded Hazuri Bagh. Chet Singh surrendered and was given permission to leave the city along with his family.
Ranjit Singh was now well-entrenched. Immediately after taking possession of the city, he paid a visit to Badshahi Mosque. This gesture increased his prestige in the eyes of people. He won the hearts of his subjects, Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh alike. It was July 7, 1799 when the victorious Ranjit Singh entered Lahore.
Ranjit Singh ultimately acquired a kingdom in the Punjab which stretched from the Sutlej River in the east to Peshawar in the west, and from the junction of the Sutlej and the Indus in the south to Ladakh in the north. Ranjit died in 1839, and a succession struggle ensued. Two of his successor maharajas were assassinated by 1843.
The British in Punjab
By 1845 the British had moved 32,000 troops to the Sutlej frontier, ostensibly to secure their northernmost possessions against the succession struggles in the Punjab. In late 1845, British and Sikh troops engaged near Ferozepur, beginning the First Anglo-Sikh War. The war ended the following year, and the territory between the Sutlej and the Beas was ceded to Britain, along with Kashmir, which was sold to Gulab Singh, who ruled Kashmir as a British vassal.
As a condition of the peace treaty, some British troops, along with a resident political agent and other officials, were left in the Punjab to oversee the regency of Maharaja Dhalip Singh, a minor. The Sikh army was reduced greatly in size. In 1848, out-of-work Sikh troops in Multan revolted, and a British official was killed. Within a few months, the unrest had spread throughout the Punjab, and British troops once again invaded. The British prevailed in the Second Anglo-Sikh War, and under the Treaty of Lahore in 1849, the Punjab was annexed by the British East India Company, and Dhalip Singh was pensioned off. The Punjab became a province of British India, although a number of small states, most notably Patiala, retained local rulers who recognized British sovereignty.
In every way, the Punjab was Britain's most important asset in colonial India. Its political and geographic predominance gave Britain a base from which to project its power over more than 500 princely states that made up India. Punjab gave the British its native soldier class that became the backbone of the Empire. Lahore became a center of learning and culture even under British rule, and Rawalpindi became an important Army installation. By enroping the elite of Punjab's Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus, the British projected control over the lives of the wider masses throughout the whole country.
The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre of 1919 occurred in Amritsar. The wanton murder of hundreds of unarmed men and women created a major, mass fury against Europeans. Martial law was imposed all over the province, but the bloodshed only catalyzed the whole country and the freedom movement. In 1930, the Indian National Congress proclaimed national independence from Lahore. These two major events made Punjab a centerstage in the national struggle for independence, as the British brutality and mindless murder at the Bagh brought home the point that the British could play no role in Indian life, and the 1930 Proclamation made a single, radical idea a universal goal of all Indians of different regions, religions and creeds. But the 1940 Lahore Resolution of the Muslim League to work for Pakistan, made Punjab the centerstage of a different, bloodier and dirtier struggle.
In 1946, massive communal tensions and violence erupted between the majority Muslims of Punjab, and the Hindu and Sikh minorities. The League attacked the government of Unionist Punjabi Muslims, Sikh Akalis and the Congress, and led to its downfall. Unwilling to be cowed down, Sikhs and Hindus counter-attacked and the resulting bloodshed left the province in great disorder. Both Congress and League leaders agreed to partition Punjab upon religious lines, a precursor to the wider partition of the country. Although it was the League's demand that the whole Punjab should join a new Muslim state, the Congress thus rescued the Hindu and Sikh majority areas of the East by agreeing to timely partition.
The British Punjab province, which includes present-day Punjab province of Pakistan, and the Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh, was partitioned in 1947 between the newly-independent states of India and Pakistan.
The Punjab of India and Pakistan
In terms of area, Pakistan obtained roughly 70% of the Punjab in 1947, including most of the population, which was Muslim. More than 10 million Hindus and Sikhs were forced to leave Pakistani Punjab due to fierce communal violence and pressures from the new Islamic state's government. The population transfer took place on frightening levels, leaving a small number of Muslims in East, Indian Punjab, and some miserly numbers of Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistani Punjab.
Some controversial decisions of the Radcliffe boundary commissions exacerbated the crisis. The Gurdaspur region in the northern point of the province adjoining Kashmir was given to India, despite a distinct Muslim majority. Large populations of Sikhs and Hindus were left stranded in Rawalpindi, Lahore and Faisalabad, surrounded by heavily Muslim Pakistan. Bloodthirsty mobs attacked departing Hindus and Sikhs, who despite arriving exhausted in mind and soul to safety in India, immediately launched themselves upon the departing Muslims. Sikhs and Hindus who saw the atrocities upon their compatriots coming in from Pakistan gave no quarter to the Muslims of the region, whether they intended to go to Pakistan or not. Over 1 million people were killed indiscrminately and with medieval brutality. Women were raped and murdered, children massacred and the elderly brutalized. Whole villages and neighborhoods, temples and mosques were razed to the ground. No Sikh or Hindu could walk in safety in Lahore, once the capital of Ranjit Singh's independent Punjab, and no Muslim could walk freely in Amritsar or Delhi, the former seat of the Mughal Empire.
Many of the Sikhs and Hindus entering India moved to the city of Delhi, giving it a strongly Punjabi color. Since the years of partition, many Muslims have returned to the Punjab, and a large population of Muslims inhabits Delhi.
The frightening exodus tore away from the proud Sikhs the cities of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala and Faisalabad, core to their history and culture. Ranjit Singh, the famed Sikh king, lies at rest in a grave in Lahore, heart of Muslim Punjab. The Sikhs were the chief land-holders of the West Punjab, forced to desert their family holdings for measly sums or none at all in a matter of days. Worst-hit by the partition of Punjab and India, the Sikhs re-grouped in India's Punjab. Having had no position of control as a minority in pre-partition Punjab, they were unable to prevent it or obtain a better deal from the Governments of Pakistan and India. Now they were determined to obtain political control. Led by Master Tara Singh, the religious leadership and many activist Sikhs sought a Punjabi-speaking, Sikh-majority state in the Indian Union. Although it began on stormy notes in 1947 and 1948, the movement was largely peaceful. It was however opposed by the Government and mainstream India due to an extreme aversion to divisions based on religion and language.
Punjab of Pakistan became the most dominant province of the new state. It became, and still is the bread basket, the cultural heartland and the most politically powerful province. Most of Pakistan's military, police and political offices are filled by Punjabis. The great city of Lahore is the cultural, educational and sports capital of Pakistan; its second-largest city, though hailed in importance greater than the capital Islamabad or the commercial and population center, Karachi, owing to its spiritual importance to Punjabi Pakistanis. It is almost uniformly Punjabi and Muslim. Most of Pakistan's sportsmen in cricket, field hockey and squash (a sport it singularly dominates) come from Lahore! However, is only a few miles from the international boundary with India. Major cities like Rawalpindi and Sialkot are also located at extreme proximity to the Indian boundary. Through the 1960s and 1970s, major industries, educational institutions and urbanization swept the cities and towns of Punjab. Punjabis make 50-55% of Pakistan's people. Their political power remains undisputed; other ethnic groups in Pakistan accuse the Punjabis of strong bias and neglect of non-Punjabi areas and non-Punjabi national assets.
In 1965, a fierce war broke out between India and Pakistan over the disputed region of Kashmir, but owing to the treacherous geography of the state, and the open nature of hostilities, the fiercest fighting took place in Punjab. At a region called the Assal Uttar (Real North), thousands of Pakistani and Indian tanks fought terrifying battles. Thousands of men lost their lives, and while the Pakistani army made a few gains, the Indian forces by the end directly threatened the great city of Lahore with mortar and artillery fire. Owing to the extreme proximity of Pakistan's most important city to the border, the Pakistani army concentrates its forces and strengths to the maximum in this thin stretch of land. In 1971 again, fierce tank battles, air battles and artillery assaults tore away this thin stretch of land.
In 1966, owing to the tremendous bravery shown by thousands of Sikh officers and soldiers in the Indian Army, the Government divided the Punjab into a Sikh-majority state of the same name, and Hindu-majority Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Sikhs, however, still form only about 60% of the population.
In the 1970s, the Green Revolution swept India. Punjab's agricultural production trebled, and so did the prosperity of its people. For such a small state to be called the bread-basket for a country of more than a billion people, is like a goldfish being classified a leviathan. Industrialization swept the state and the state remains the ones of the economic leaders of the entire country. Punjabi culture also predominates the national art, media, music and film industries. Punjabis, especially Sikhs, form a major part of the Armed Services. Punjab, being a frontline and focal-point state upon the border with Pakistan, is also a major area of extreme strategic security importance.
In the early 1980s, a small group of Sikh fundamentalists sought the Punjabi state to be made independent of India. Led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a young priest, small bands of militants began attacking not only policemen and government officials, but Hindu civilians and Sikhs who opposed their views. Daylight robberies, massacres and assassinations and bombings spread terror across the state. Holed up in the Holy Golden Temple in Amritsar, Bhindranwale broadcast and published his radical views and young fundamentalists carried out terrible missions. Bhindranwale was supported by rich Sikhs outside India and by arms suppliers from Pakistan. A vast majority of Sikhs in the Punjab and outside it did not support such an idea at all, but the religious and political leadership, and prominent Sikhs could not outrightly disown Bhindranwale, for he was too big a threat to their own position.
Forced by a chaotic situation in the all-important border state, the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi authorized an Army take-over of the Golden Temple area. In Operation Bluestar, executed in 1984, thousands of Indian soldiers raided the Temple to flush out thousands of militants holed up in it. Although the Army took special care to avoid harming the main temple area, for the militants were hiding in the adjacent dormitories, some damage did occur to the temple. The Army commander, happened to be a Sikh himself. The militants were killed or arrested, but the Operation cost the lives of thousands of soldiers and many civilians.
The incredibly messy and bloody operation invited major criticism of the Gandhi government. But special outrage now broke lose in the mainstream of Sikh society, which had so far been unwilling to endorse Bhindranwale. Outraged young Sikhs spread disorder around the Punjab and in Delhi. In October 1984, just two months after Bluestar, Indira Gandhi's own two Sikh bodyguards murdered her. The Sikh Army commander was similarly assassinated.
Bloodthirsty mobs took to the streets of Delhi following Gandhi's murder. For the first time in history, Hindus and Sikhs fueded against each other. More than 5,000 Sikhs were brutally murdered by Hindu mobs, and Hindus were attacked in Punjab and some Sikh-dominated areas.
The Government acted quickly, imposing martial law in the disturbed areas. Over the next three years, tough police action destroyed the insurgency, and fresh political overtures in the early 1990s did much to calm the state. Although some political suspicion still remains, Sikhs and Hindus have healed their common wounds and bridged the divides. The Sikh fundamentalists have either been driven out of the country or reduced to the margins of politics.
The 1990s brought much prosperity to India's Punjab. In 2004, Dr. Manmohan Singh became the country's first Sikh Prime Minister. Operation Bluestar, however, remains a topic of great controversy and bitterness in many parts of society.
The Wagah border post, is the chief crossing point between India and Pakistan. The Samjhauta (Understanding) Express runs between Atari, in Indian Punjab, to Lahore in Pakistan, as does the Delhi-Lahore bus. The Government of Pakistan allows small numbers of Sikhs to visit religious sites in Pakistani Punjab, and allowed 3,000 Pakistani Sikhs to cross over recently, at the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Khalsa.
Punjab History Timeline
500,000 Years: Pre-historic and Proto-historic existance of early mankind
2500 - 1500 B.C.: Harappa Culture
2500 - 700 B.C.: Rigvedic Aryan Civilization
599 B.C.: Jainism
567 - 487 B.C.: Budha
550 B.C - 600 A.D.: Budhism remained prevelent
550 - 515 B.C.: Persian Invasion to west of Indus River
326 B.C.: Alexander's Invasion
322 - 298 B.C.: Chandra Gupta Maurya Period
273 - 232 B.C.: Ashoka's Period
125 - 160 B.C.: Rise of the Sakas (Scythians known as Jat ancestors)
2 B.C.: Beginning of Rule of the Sakas.
45 - 180 A.D.: Rule of the Kushanas
320 - 550 A.D.: Gupta Empire
500 A.D.: Huns Invasion
510 - 650 A.D.: Vardhanas Era
647 - 1192 A.D.: Rajput Period
713 - 1300 A.D.: Muslim Invaders (Turks and Arabs) famous invaders like Mahmud Gori and Mahmud Ghazni
8th Century A.D.: Arabs capture Sind and Multan
1450 - 1700 A.D.: Mughal Rulers
1469 - 1539 A.D.: Guru Nanak Dev Ji (1st Sikh Guru)
1539 - 1675 A.D.: Period of 8 Sikh Gurus from Guru Angad Dev Ji to Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji
1675 - 1708 A.D.: Guru Gobind Singh Ji (10th Sikh Guru)
1699 A.D.: Birth of the Khalsa
1708 - 1715 A.D.: Conquests of Banda Bahadur
1716 - 1759 A.D.: Sikh struggle against Moghul Governors
1739 A.D.: Invasion of Nadir Shah
1748 -1769 A.D.: Ahmed Shah Abdali's nine invasions
1762 A.D.: 2nd Holocaust (Ghalughara) from Ahmed Shah's 6th invasion
1764 - 1799 A.D.: Rule of the Sikh Misls
1799 - 1839 A.D.: Rule by Maharaja Ranjit Singh
1849 A.D.: Annexation of Punjab
1849 - 1947 A.D.: British Rule
1947 A.D.: Partition of India thus Punjab into 2 parts the Eastern part became the Indian Punjab and the Western part the Pakistan Punjab
1966 A.D.: Punjab in India divided into 3 parts on Linguistic basis
(Haryana, Himachal and Punjabi suba the present Punjab)
1984 A.D.: Operation Blue Star and its aftermath
References
- The evolution of Heroic Tradition in Ancient Panjab, 1971, Dr Buddha Parkash.
- Social and Political Movements in ancient Panjab, Delhi, 1962, Dr Buddha Parkash.
- History of Porus, Patiala, Dr Buddha Parkash.
- History of the Panjab, Patiala, 1976, Dr Fauja Singh, Dr L. M. Joshi (Ed).
- [Quraishee 73] Punjabi Adab De Kahani, Abdul Hafeez Quraishee, Azeez Book Depot, Lahore, 1973.
- [Chopra 77] The Punjab as a sovereign state, Gulshan Lal Chopra, Al-Biruni, Lahore, 1977.
- Dr. Mohammed Ufzal, Lahore University.
- Historie du Bouddhisme Indien, E Lamotte.
- Political History of Ancient India, 1996, Dr H. C. Raychaudhury, Dr B. N. Mukerjee.