The First Anglo-Sikh War

Across the river

On 11 December 1845 the Sikh army began crossing the Sutlej near Hari ke Pattan. Two days later the Governor-General, Sir Henry Hardinge, declared war. The finest army in Asia was about to meet the largest in India.

ਜੰਗ ਹਿੰਦ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦਾ ਹੋਣ ਲੱਗਾ,
ਦੋਵੇਂ ਪਾਤਸ਼ਾਹੀ ਫੌਜਾਂ ਭਾਰੀਆਂ ਨੀ ।

Jang Hind Panjab da hon lagga, dovein patshahi faujan bhariyan ni.

“The war of Hind and Panjab has begun, and both royal armies are mighty.”

Two men with a secret

At its head rode Lal Singh, the chief minister, and Tej Singh, the commander-in-chief. Neither had been chosen by the soldiers, and both were in secret contact with the British.

Lal Singh’s letters to the British agent Captain Peter Nicolson still survive. They show him passing on the army’s movements even as it marched. The Khalsa was going to war with the enemy already reading its plans.

Mudki: the first warning

The armies first met at Mudki on 18 December, late in the afternoon. The Sikh soldiers fought hard and the British paid heavily. But Lal Singh left the field early, and as darkness fell the army pulled back. It would not be the last time.

Ferozeshah: the night the British nearly broke

Three days later, on 21 December, the British stormed the Sikh entrenchments at Ferozeshah. The Sikh gunners were superb. When night came, the British army lay out in the cold among its dead: exhausted, short of ammunition and close to breaking. Its own officers later admitted how near they had come to disaster.

ਫੇਰੂ ਸ਼ਹਿਰ ਦੇ ਹੇਠ ਜਾਂ ਖੇਤ ਰੁੱਧੇ,
ਤੋਪਾਂ ਚਲੀਆਂ ਨੀ ਵਾਂਗੂੰ ਤੋੜਿਆਂ ਦੇ ।

Pheru shehar de heth jaan khet rudhe, topan chaliyan ni vaangun toreyan de.

“When battle was joined below the town of Pheru, the cannons fired like volleys of muskets.”

At dawn the British attacked again and took the Sikh positions. Then Tej Singh arrived with fresh troops, enough to turn the battle. He held them back. And then he withdrew. Many historians, Sikh and British alike, see that morning as the moment the war was thrown away.

Baddowal and Aliwal

In January 1846 Sardar Ranjodh Singh Majithia struck the British near Baddowal and seized part of their baggage train. A week later, on 28 January, Sir Harry Smith defeated him at Aliwal. Here, at least, the Sikh commanders fought honestly, without any deal with the enemy.

ਅੱਜ ਹੋਵੇ ਸਰਕਾਰ ਤਾਂ ਮੁੱਲ ਪਾਵੇ,
ਜਿਹੜੀਆਂ ਖਾਲਸੇ ਨੇ ਤੇਗਾਂ ਮਾਰੀਆਂ ਨੀ ।

Ajj hove Sarkar tan mull pave, jihriyan Khalse ne teghan mariyan ni.

“If the Sarkar were here today, he would know the worth of the swords the Khalsa swung.”

Sobraon: the bridge

Everything came down to Sobraon. The Sikh army dug in on the British side of the Sutlej, with a single bridge of boats behind it as its only way home. On 10 February 1846 the British attacked.

Early in the fighting, Tej Singh left the field and crossed back over the river. When the British broke through, the soldiers fell back to the bridge, and it gave way. In Sikh memory it had been weakened on purpose. Thousands were killed in the fighting or swept away in the Sutlej.

ਤੇਜਾ ਸਿੰਘ ਸਰਦਾਰ ਪੁਲ ਵੱਢ ਦਿਤਾ,
ਘਰੀਂ ਨੱਸ ਨਾ ਜਾਇ ਇਹ ਫੌਜ ਸਾਰੀ,

Teja Singh sardar pul vadd dita, ghareen nass na jaye ih fauj saari.

“Sardar Tej Singh cut down the bridge, so that this whole army could not run off home.”

The general in white

One man would not leave. Sardar Sham Singh Attariwala was in his sixties and had retired years before, but he came back because the army had no leader it could trust. That morning he dressed in white and rode a white horse, so every soldier could see him.

As the lines broke, he rode among the men and rallied them, and then he led a final charge into the British ranks. He died there, on the bank of the Sutlej. To the Sikhs he became the true hero of the war.

ਸ਼ਾਮ ਸਿੰਘ ਸਰਦਾਰ ਅਟਾਰੀ ਵਾਲੇ,
ਮਾਰ ਸ਼ਸਤ੍ਰੀਂ ਜੋੜ ਵਿਛੋੜ ਸੁੱਟੇ ।

Sham Singh sardar Attari vale, maar shastreen jor vichhor sutte.

“Sardar Sham Singh of Attari struck with his weapons and broke their ranks apart.”

ਜਿਨ੍ਹਾਂ ਭੈਣਾਂ ਨੂੰ ਵੀਰ ਨਾ ਮਿਲੇ ਮੁੜ ਕੇ,
ਪਈਆਂ ਰੋਂਦੀਆਂ ਫਿਰਨ ਵਿਚਾਰੀਆਂ ਨੀ ।

Jinhan bhainan nu veer na mile mur ke, paiyan rondiyan phiran vichariyan ni.

“Sisters whose brothers never came home wander weeping, poor souls.”

The price of peace

The Treaty of Lahore of 9 March 1846 took the rich Jalandhar Doab and demanded one and a half crore rupees. The army was cut to 20,000 infantry and 12,000 cavalry. British troops marched into Lahore and stayed.

The Durbar could not pay, so the British took Kashmir instead. One week later, under the Treaty of Amritsar, they sold it to Gulab Singh of Jammu for seventy-five lakh rupees. He had sat out the war and dealt with both sides. Kashmir was his reward.

The guns had stopped, but the British now stood inside Lahore. And the person they feared most in Panjab was not a general at all. It was the Maharaja’s mother.

The first war in dates

Honour that outlived the battle

The British won the war, but they came away with deep respect for the men they had fought. Their own officers wrote admiringly of the Khalsa’s discipline and gunnery, and within a few years Sikh soldiers were among the most sought-after in the world, a reputation they carried to every continent in the generations that followed.

Sardar Sham Singh Attariwala has never been forgotten. In his village of Attari, near Amritsar, families gather every year in February to honour the old general in white who rode out to lead the Khalsa when it needed him most.

Did you know? Sardar Sham Singh Attariwala was also family to the royal house: his daughter, Bibi Nanaki, was married to Kanwar Nau Nihal Singh, the grandson of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

Up next · Part 3 of 4 Multan to Gujrat and the annexation, 1846–1849 The British take over Lahore and set out to silence Maharani Jind Kaur. Then a spark at Multan sets Panjab alight, and the Khalsa rides out one last time. Read part 3 →

Missed the last one? Part 1: After the Lion of Panjab, 1839–1845

Sources and further reading

• Shah Mohammad, Jangnama Singhan te Firangian (c. 1846). Panjabi text as given on Panjabi Wikisource
• SikhCoins.in: The Sikh Empire
• Sohan Singh Seetal, ਸਿੱਖ ਰਾਜ ਕਿਵੇਂ ਗਿਆ (Sikh Raj Kiven Gia), in English as How Fell the Sikh Kingdom (1970)
• Khushwant Singh, How the Sikhs Lost Their Kingdom (1996)
• Joseph Davy Cunningham, A History of the Sikhs (1849)
• Major Evans Bell, The Annexation of the Punjaub and the Maharajah Duleep Singh (1882)
• SikhCoins.in: The Fall of the Sikh Empire