Hmm..

[Singh559]

I was thinking, at one point we had argueably the strongest and most advanced Raaj and Army in the world during Maharaja Ranjit Singhs time. It's quite crazy to think about because the Khalsa army was superior to the british and i think the British had the strongest (well 2nd next to the Khalsa army) army in the world at the time. Has anyone else thought about this, it's weird to think about.

[S1ngh]

Loyalty is very important and khalsa fauj of ranjit singh was very loyal to religion and their superiors. Khalsa army were paid 3X more than what british were paying to their soldiers before Anglo-Sikh wars (i read that in one book).. Ranjit Singh was a great raja but due to some of his weaknesses (like trusting dogras) we were driven down to ground by treacherous anti-sikh elements who were roped by british officials before the death of Ranjit Singh. Big fault of Ranjit Singh was that he didn't care to think what will happen to Punjab after his death...

Ranjit Singh's mother-in-law (Sada Kaur) played the main role in getting all sikh chieftains and misls together in one place to fight against invaders. It was also a fault of Ranjit Singh who later on committed a terrible mistake by doing great injustice to rani sada kaur. However, it was meant to be, but we sure had a very nice and well played modern sikh raj under ranjit singh.. (way much better than other kingdoms)..

Had our history be known to millions of sikh youth in india, i am sure that the most likely follow their forefathers' footsteps rather than following some stupid jester the joker from bollywood.

[Singh559]

Loyalty is very important and khalsa fauj of ranjit singh was very loyal to religion and their superiors. Khalsa army were paid 3X more than what british were paying to their soldiers before Anglo-Sikh wars (i read that in one book).. Ranjit Singh was a great raja but due to some of his weaknesses (like trusting dogras) we were driven down to ground by treacherous anti-sikh elements who were roped by british officials before the death of Ranjit Singh. Big fault of Ranjit Singh was that he didn't care to think what will happen to Punjab after his death...

Ranjit Singh's mother-in-law (Sada Kaur) played the main role in getting all sikh chieftains and misls together in one place to fight against invaders. It was also a fault of Ranjit Singh who later on committed a terrible mistake by doing great injustice to rani sada kaur. However, it was meant to be, but we sure had a very nice and well played modern sikh raj under ranjit singh.. (way much better than other kingdoms)..

Had our history be known to millions of sikh youth in india, i am sure that the most likely follow their forefathers' footsteps rather than following some stupid jester the joker from bollywood.

Can't agree more. I think it was a British scholar who said the Sikh army was more advanced than the British during Maharaja Ranjit Singh's rule in terms of weaponry, war intelligence and the warriors themselves.

I heard a story from my dad that Maharaja Ranjit Singh once heard about an old person who couldn't carry a large pouch of rice from Maharaja Ranjit Singhs court and the guards that were guarding the rice weren't able to help him so Maharaja Ranjit Singh put on a cloak and carried it to his house. Once the old man and Ranjit Singh got to his house the old man said, "Jawana at least tell me your name you did so much sewa for me" and Ranjit Singh took off his cloak. I think this depicted the overall Raaj well, not only was the military of the Sikhs superior i think it was much more humane and "loving" if you will.

Yeah, those few, but big mistakes cost us the raaj. I guess those are important things to keep in mind in the future.

The biggest task we face is making our own avasta (or at least myself) and then educating our brothers and sisters and let them make their own educated choice about what kind of life they want to live.

[S1ngh]

Hanjee.. True that Raja Ranjit Singh was great when it comes to social projects. Unlike the maharaja of Patiala and kapurthala (british chamchay), raja ranjit singh often visit towns in normal person disguise just to see how ppl in his kingdom are living thru. The above story that your father told is true but i heard it in bit different way but are similar.. Once raja ranjit singh was in bazaar and in disguise of normal poor sikh.. no bodyguards etc.. he was passing thru and saw old lady trying to take the heavy load but she was unable to do so. Ranjit Singh saw that and helped her by carrying her very heavy load on his back.

Another story is that when a boy hit ranjit singh with stone.. There was this little boy who was throwing stones at apple tree hoping to get some of em. Ranjit singh and his guards were passing thru and suddenly he got hit by a stone and his guards took the boy in custody. Ranjit Singh asked why and boy said.. i was trying to get apples front the tree and suddenly it hits you. Ranjit Singh took some coins from his pocket and gave it to him and released him. Someone near him asked for the reason and he said.. "By throwing stone at apple tree, he will get sweet fruit.... to make the point he said.. i must be better than apple tree, so i gave him few coins

Can you imagine a ruler in late 1700's and 3 decades of early 18th rule of ranjit singh, nobody ever given a death sentence? That is real crazy to think about at that time.. (British were giving ropes to anyone or everyone that stood against their ruler..)

[SevadaarEKhalsa]

We had our Akali Fauj under Gursikhs like Akali Baba Phoola Singh

Plus we had the greatest generals like Bhai Hari Singh Nalwa, Bhai Sham Singh Attariwala, etc.

Besides that he had a set of loyal Punjabi Muslims, wheter in his army or even Darbar such as Fakir Azizzudeen who was the chief minister of the kingdom.

When George Eden (1st Earl of Auckland) asked Fakir Azizuddin which of the Maharaja's eye was missing, he replied: "the Maharaja is like the sun and sun has only one eye. The splendour and luminosity of his single eye is so much that I have never dared to look at his other eye.'

It were the Dogra Rajputs of Kashmir that betrayed our Raaj. They took 75 lakhs from Lahore Treasury and bhought Jammu Kashmir for themselves. Gaddaars.

[sikha]

Maharaja Ranjit Singh managed to create unity within the panth, which led to our succes. As the british generals in the 1775 said about Sikhs, our political succes depends on our unity alone, and we would be able to conquer the borders all the way to europe (can be found in sicques tigers and thieves)

[Singh559]

I also heard that the Sikh fauj would give supplies and help rebuild the people who lost to the Sikhs?

Does anyone know exactly what the Dograys did. From my understanding they helped the British kidnap Maharaja Dalip Singh and then leaked war strategies/key data to the british. Once the British finally took Punjab over i heard they killed the Dogray because they had betrayed their own people so they couldn't trust them.

[SevadaarEKhalsa]

They replaced barood (ammunition) with retta (sand) and saron da tel (mustard oil).

[S1ngh]

Does anyone know exactly what the Dograys did. From my understanding they helped the British kidnap Maharaja Dalip Singh and then leaked war strategies/key data to the british. Once the British finally took Punjab over i heard they killed the Dogray because they had betrayed their own people so they couldn't trust them.

Dogray were given minister level positions and were sell-out to British. They were reporting all and everything to British. After death of Raja Ranjit Singh, they killed Nau Nihal Singh by throwing brick at him while he was returning from funeral of his father Raja Kharak Singh (Kharak singh was elder son of ranjit singh who died by slow poison administered by Dogras). Naunihal however survived the brick attack. British doctor reported that he is not in critical condition and left him in palace under the care taker of Dogras. Next morning when the doctor came to check on him, he found the news that Raja NauNihal Singh passed away and then he went to see his body and noticed that how his last night bandages were taken off and put hurriedly back on in poor state. He wrote in his journal that someone took his bandages off and smashed his face with heavy object.

Dogra killed Rani Jindaan's real brother (who was gursikh and very trustable) in front of jindan rani and small boy dalip singh. Dogra also created rift between Sher Singh (batala, son of ranjit singh) and Sandhawalia sardars. Sandhawalia brothers killed sher singh and because of that khalsa fauj attacked and killed two brothers. After all royal family were killed.. Gulab Singh Dogra openly made the idea in public that his son Hira Singh Dogra in now the Raja of Punjab. Sikh Noblemen came out in force and made Mahraja Dalip (5yrs old) the king of punjab. Dogra couldn't do anything but they made Hira Singh Dogra as Prime minister and later appointed their own main snitch Lal singh and Tej singh as the general of Khalsa Fauj. Both chamchay of British who sell out all battle plans to british generals and thus saw the defeat of Khalsa Fauj in all Anglo-Sikh Wars.

For this treachery, Dogray were awarded huge payment and were given Kashmir region by british and they later on became Raja of Kashmir until the independence of India in 1947. They bought kashmir for Rs. 50 Lakh from British (all money, precious items were stolen from Ranjit singh Toshakhana by Dogray and british).

Rani Jindan kaur was separated from Raja Dalip Singh... Dalip singh was then converted into Christianity and kept in Calcutta... Nepal gave space/house to rani jindan (nepali royal family had very good relations with Sikhs).. Rani jindan went blind and when dalip singh along with british officials went to see rani jindan.. she touched his face and then got really shocked and cried when she found out that he is mona... Anyway, later on dalip singh was taken to uk and then became close to royal family.. Queen victoria loved him very much as noted by many historians and was her favority prince.. However lateron dalip singh unsuccessfully tried to get his kingdom back with the help of russia but he died in france.. (His caretaker was British spy and was reporting all of his moves to british).

Terrible time sikhs went thru after the death of ranjit singh..

[Singh559]

Dogray were given minister level positions and were sell-out to British. They were reporting all and everything to British. After death of Raja Ranjit Singh, they killed Nau Nihal Singh by throwing brick at him while he was returning from funeral of his father Raja Kharak Singh (Kharak singh was elder son of ranjit singh who died by slow poison administered by Dogras). Naunihal however survived the brick attack. British doctor reported that he is not in critical condition and left him in palace under the care taker of Dogras. Next morning when the doctor came to check on him, he found the news that Raja NauNihal Singh passed away and then he went to see his body and noticed that how his last night bandages were taken off and put hurriedly back on in poor state. He wrote in his journal that someone took his bandages off and smashed his face with heavy object.

Dogra killed Rani Jindaan's real brother (who was gursikh and very trustable) in front of jindan rani and small boy dalip singh. Dogra also created rift between Sher Singh (batala, son of ranjit singh) and Sandhawalia sardars. They killed sher singh and later on order of dogras they attacked sandhawali brothers and killed them. After all royal family were killed.. Gulab Singh Dogra openly made the idea in public that his son Hira Singh Dogra in now the Raja of Punjab. Sikh Noblemen came out in force and made Mahraja Dalip (5yrs old) the king of punjab. Dogra couldn't do anything but they made Hira Singh Dogra as Prime minister and later appointed their own main snitch Lal singh and Tej singh as the general of Khalsa Fauj. Both chamchay of British who sell out all battle plans to british generals and thus saw the defeat of Khalsa Fauj in all Anglo-Sikh Wars.

For this treachery, Dogray were awarded huge payment and were given Kashmir region by british and they later on became Raja of Kashmir until the independence of India in 1947. They bought kashmir for Rs. 50 Lakh from British (all money, precious items were stolen from Ranjit singh Toshakhana by Dogray and british).

Rani Jindan kaur was separated from Raja Dalip Singh... Dalip singh was then converted into Christianity and kept in Calcutta... Nepal gave space/house to rani jindan (nepali royal family had very good relations with Sikhs).. Rani jindan went blind and when dalip singh along with british officials went to see rani jindan.. she touched his face and then got really shocked and cried when she found out that he is mona... Anyway, later on dalip singh was taken to uk and then became close to royal family.. Queen victoria loves him very much as noted by many historians.. However dalip singh unsuccessfully tried to get his kingdom back with the help of russia but he died in france.. (His caretaker was British spy and was reporting all of his moves to british).

Terrible time sikhs went thru after the death of ranjit singh..

Waheguru, that's pretty gut wrenching to read the details. thanks