Khalsa Cum Sub-Continental Coalitions.

[13Mirch]

Forget the marathas. No discussion about the Khalsa raj and coalitions is complete without mentioning the French. The Sikh raj had no closer freind than France. The French influence was strong and growing stronger by the day. Heck, even our greatest hero of recent times is named after a French army rank : Jarnail. The King of France, Louis Phillipe, in his letter sent from the place of Versailles to the Sikh raj said : "Although long distances and oceans part the kingdoms of the Panjab from that of France, this is no bar to the love that binds

our hearts together."

In the last days of Ranjit Singh plans were under way to bound the two nations together even closer. I have no doubt that if Ranjit Singh had not unexpectadly died France and the Khalsa Raj would have formed a coalition to invade British India to the south. Thats what France wanted and all indications show the Sikhs did too in the end.

Forget the marathas. No discussion about the Khalsa raj and coalitions is complete without mentioning the French. The Sikh raj had no closer freind than France. The French influence was strong and growing stronger by the day. Heck, even our greatest hero of recent times is named after a French army rank : Jarnail. The King of France, Louis Phillipe, in his letter sent from the place of Versailles to the Sikh raj said : "Although long distances and oceans part the kingdoms of the Panjab from that of France, this is no bar to the love that binds

our hearts together."

In the last days of Ranjit Singh plans were under way to bound the two nations together even closer. I have no doubt that if Ranjit Singh had not unexpectadly died France and the Khalsa Raj would have formed a coalition to invade British India to the south. Thats what France wanted and all indications show the Sikhs did too in the end.

I am not doubting you but are there any sources which depict this relationship?? There must be a whole anthology of Maharajah Ranjit Singh's letters lying somewhere. If found it can be revolutinary in changing perspectives and criticisms held on the Khalsa empire of the said century.

[13Mirch]

W already possess evidence of the Khalsa empire's connection with Russia, China and even America but this French component is worthy of separate consideration.

[13Mirch]

There is also a letter the Maharajah addressed to Queen Victoria stating that the Khalsa is the rightful overlord of Punjab, as Akal-roop Guru Gobind Singh Ji granted it sovereignty over the said religion. Can this letter be accessed online??? It is only now we are infiltrating the inner corridors of the immensly psychological Lahore polity. Already I have addressed a few queries on this forum which remain unanswered. Maybe these letters can answer them??? Especially the role of Tarna Dal during this period. By the way is 'Jarnail' an indigenous corruption of the French term for general??? I investigated today and discovered that it is not a specific French term.

[Jonny101]

Forget the marathas. No discussion about the Khalsa raj and coalitions is complete without mentioning the French. The Sikh raj had no closer freind than France. The French influence was strong and growing stronger by the day. Heck, even our greatest hero of recent times is named after a French army rank : Jarnail. The King of France, Louis Phillipe, in his letter sent from the place of Versailles to the Sikh raj said : "Although long distances and oceans part the kingdoms of the Panjab from that of France, this is no bar to the love that binds

our hearts together."

In the last days of Ranjit Singh plans were under way to bound the two nations together even closer. I have no doubt that if Ranjit Singh had not unexpectadly died France and the Khalsa Raj would have formed a coalition to invade British India to the south. Thats what France wanted and all indications show the Sikhs did too in the end.

The French were a good empire to forge relations with. They were a super power at the time rivaling the British. That is why Tipu Sultan in South India also tried to forge relations with the French. He realized the danger the British posed when no one else in India did. He tried his best to make an alliance with the French against the British, he even invited the Afghans to invade India in order to make an alliance with them against the British. The Brits realized the danger Tipu Sultan could pose, so they in turn convinced the Marathas and Nizam of Hyderabad to invade and destroy Tipu's power in Mysore. Once Tipu was finished, the British then finished off the Marathas and turned the Hyderabad state into a British protectorate. The British were way too crafty for anyone in the Sub continent to handle.

During Maharaja Ranjit Singh's time, the only other independent states other than Punjab were Sindh and Nepal. Maharaja should have come to some kind of understanding with these two states and formed a strategic defensive front against the British.

[LegalSingh]

. By the way is 'Jarnail' an indigenous corruption of the French term for general??? I investigated today and discovered that it is not a specific French term.

Oh it is indeed 13mirch, and so is the common Sikh name of Karnail' (taken from the French for colonel).

Its actually extremely interesting from a linguistics and history of language point of view. You see the substuting of the 'l' for an 'r' and the subsequently shifting back to it again does a nice job of summarizing the history of old French to middle French to modern French. Indeed not just French, this phenonema was common to the main 3 romamce languages of French, Spanish and Italian.

Starting at the beginning then, old Italian carried on with the latin term of 'colonello' for the officer we know in English as colonel. The original latin tells us what that officer was and did as we recognise the word 'column'.....i.e he was a line commander. I don't know why but during the late 1500's, 1600's and 1700's the Spanish language experienced a shift of the letter 'l' in words and so colonell became 'coronel'. France followed suit and the word in French changed to 'coronaille' (pronounced Karnail) . During the 1600's the British started using the word for the first time and although they spelt it the old way i.e with the 'l' (colonel) it is noticable how the English pronounciation shows respect to the word in vogue among the French at that time i.e Kernal. Not long after, for modern French, the French actually go back to basics and shift back to colonelle. But, you can be sure that the French officers in the Khalsa army were using the 'r' in both general and colonel.....i.e generaille was pronounced 'Jarnail' and colonaille was prounounced 'Karnail'. Over the last 100 years 2 of the most common first names among Sikhs.

[isingh1699]

No discussion about the Khalsa raj and coalitions is complete without mentioning the French.

Great point Legal Singh Veerji.

Of course Sardar Baghel Singh was an Amritdhari whose life you are obviously familar with + in whom 100% of the Panth has so much pride in, given that he had no other affiliation other than the Khalsa Panth + resolute faith in one God alone.

[Jonny101]

Good info written by Legal Singh Jee. Never knew about the history of famous Sikh names like Jarnail and Karnail.

For Sant Jee, no other name other than Jarnail would have suited him better. He was indeed the Jarnail of the Sikh nation.