Sikh Wars by Croix

The story begins in 1839 in the beautiful court if Lahore in India. It all started when Ranjit Singh died of a stroke during the warm, summer of 1839. When he died, the death of the great Sikh state quickly proceeded. The whole administration and court system was in chaos. Rather, Singh's army, the Khalsa army came into power and became the new law. The elected representatives managed the army but the army officers didn't like this system. The Punjabi officers were given the position of mere drill sergeants, which was way less of a powerful position than their old ones. Therefore, they went back to their homelands in Europe and America. Soon the army grew to be three times its original size but it lacked discipline and direction. Unfortunately civil war was lurking in the background because the majority of the solders were unpaid and starving. Successors to the throne were continuously murdered, finally leaving Singh's six-year- old son, Maharaja Dalip Singh to rule.
The Maharini's council consisted of Gulab Singh and two of the Brahmin generals of the Sikh army, and they planned to make negotiations with the British as they saw their state slowly deteriorating. The first Anglo-Sikh war took place on February 10, 1846 in Mudki. The Sikhs were defeated at Mudki because although they were initially gaining ground, their commanders held the reinforcements back. The betrayal of their commanders did not stop there. Loads of sand and grain were sent instead of gunpowder, leaving them at loss for weapons.
Many more battles were to come. The subsequent battle at Frozshah was a win for the Sikhs. They had killed 2,331 British troops by the first half of the day. The following battles didn't have such a positive outcome for the Sikh warriors. The Sikhs were beaten at Aliwal, Buddowal and at Sabraon. The Sikh generals kept withholding generals and eventually lead the British to victory. Finally, a treaty of surrender was signed on March 11,1846. By then, the British had taken over almost half of the Sikh kingdom. The British handsomely rewarded the unfaithful generals.
After all of this fighting, there was still more fighting to come. By now the British had taken over most of the Sikh kingdom and the Punjab lands. There arose a rebellion in a small Punjab province now know as the "Sikh rebellion." The British used this occurrence for their reason to annex the Punjab lands for the benefit of the British Empire. The first major battle after the rebellion was fought at Chillianwala on January 13,1849. Surprisingly, the British suffered from this battle. Although this was a win for the Sikhs, their future battles didn't look as victorious. The battles at Gujrat and Ramnugger were lost to the British and eventually on March 10, 1849 the Sikh army was defeated and accepted this defeat. Although the British had won, the Sikhs put up an incredible fight.

Bibliography

See B . .J. Hasrat. Anglo-Sikh Relations. 1799-1849 (1968).

"Sikh Wars." The Columbia Encyclopedia. Columbia University Prcss. Sixth Edition 2007.

"The Anglo Sikh Wars:' Search Sikhism. 2004. October 19,2007. .