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A Saga of Sacrifice & Struggle |
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Maharaja Ranjit Singh Who Ruled His People's Hearts By
K. K.
Khullar
During my visit to Pakistan in 1983 I was pleasantly surprised to find that the people there regarded Ranjit Singh as "their" king in whose reign Punjab regained its lost glory. The guide at Lahore Fort described Ranjit Singh as the bravest and the most benevolent king of the 19th century. He said that the Punjab peasantry still remembered the king in whose rule the strong were just and the weak secure. A book entitled "The Real Ranjit Singh" by a Pakistani historian, Syed Fakeer Waheeduddin, the great grandson of Fakeer Azizuddin, Maharaja's Foreign Minister, brings out the secular character of the Maharaja giving very intimate facts based on family records and archives. According to the book the Maharaja is fondly remembered by one and all, not only by people who once lived there but also by those who still reside there. Even during his conquests he was regarded more as a liberator than a conqueror as at Peshawar, Multan or Kashmir. Wherever the soldiers of Ranjit Singh went they were treated as friends, not foes. Maharaja's standing orders to his armies were that during their movement, no religious place, no religious book, no place of learning, no standing crop was to be destroyed and no woman dishonoured. Capital
punishment
was
abolished.
"Never
was
so
large
an
empire
built
with
so
little
criminality",
says
Princep.
The
Maharaja
is
not
known
to have
taken
anybody's
life
although
his
own
life
was
attempted
at
more than
once.
His
special
care
for
the 'Kisan'
(farmer)
and
the 'Jawan'
(soldier)
made
Punjab
a
very
livable
place.
The
result
was
that
people
from
Delhi,
UP
and
Rajasthan
came
and
settled
in
Punjab.
George
Keene,
a very
keen
observer
of
the
Punjab
scene,
states:
"In
hundreds
and
in thousands
the
orderly
crowds
stream
on.
Not a
bough
is
broken
of a wayside
tree,
not a
rude
remark
to a
woman".
Writing
sixty
years
after
the
Maharaja's
death,
Griffin
said:
"
His
name
is a
household
word
in the
province.
His
portrait
is
preserved
in
the
castle
and
in
the
cottage
alike."
Jacquemont,
the
French
botanist
who
came
from
Paris
to
Punjab
in search
of
roses
and
who
met
the
Maharaja,
said,
"His
conversation
is a nightmare.
He
passes
from
one
subject
to
another
with
the
speed
of a tornado.
He
remembers
by
heart
the
names
of
all
the
villages
of
his empire,
the
village
heads,
the
cash
crops,
the
flora
and
the
fauna."
He was
a
modern
mind
unfettered
by
nationalities,
religion
and
faiths,
an internationalist
who
looked
much
beyond
his
frontiers. Maharaja
Ranjit
Singh
was
one
of
those
rare
rulers
who
remained
humane
even
on
the
battlefield.
He
possessed
an
informal
yet a
disciplined
mind,
with
a
hilarious
yet
an
equable
temperament,
humorous
yet
not given
to
levity.
A man
of
unusual
presence
of
mind
and
exceptional
balance,
he
could
surprise
even
the
wittiest
Westerner.
When
Dr.
Joseph
Wolffe asked
the
Punjab
ruler what was the easiest way to reach God, the shrewd king replied: "By immediately concluding an alliance with the East India Company!" His retorts were gentle, his humour pungent. A son of the soil, his humour was an integral part of the Punjabi character. Like all Punjabis he loved the banter and burlesque, yet suffered no fools. When his Muslim wife formerly a courtesan, asked him where he was when the God Almighty was distributing beauty, the Maharaja twinkled his only eye and said: "I had gone in search of a kingdom." And what a great kingdom he established. During his 40-year rule there was not a single communal riot in his kingdom, no forced conversion, no second-class citizenry, no disrespect to a shrine or a mosque. On the other hand he donated several mounds of gold for the Vishwanath Temple at Benares and Saraswati Mandir at Kurukshetra. He gave liberal grants to mosques and the Madarsas (Muslim schools). He was a far-sighted man who made many Punjabis learn English. He established the first printing press in Gurmukhi (Punjabi language script) at Lahore. He respected talent and asked the Punjabi traders to go abroad and trade with other nations. He thus freed Punjab from the slavery of eight centuries, brought peace and prosperity to the land of five rivers. The ravaged fields smiled once again, Punjab once again became the cherished "golden sparrow". Maharaja Ranjit Singh had a tender heart. He released the young cub, which he had caged with care. Asked why he said: "The lioness, the cub's mother, had been crying and wailing throughout the night. I could not bear the cries of a mother." Nobody could shoot a sailing swan or hurt a singing nightingale. With the onset of Monsoon he would order a 102-gun salute to the rising moon. No king anywhere had done it before or ever since. The Indian Prince of Hyderabad, the Nizam, extended his hand of friendship to him and sent enormous gifts. The Kings of Nepal, Burma, the Czar of Russia and the Emperor of France wanted their embassies to be established at Lahore. When Fakeer Azizuddin, Maharaja's emissary, was asked by Lord Auckland at Simla which of the Maharaja's eyes was missing", he replied: "The Maharaja is like the Sun. Sun has only one eye. The splendour and the luminosity of his single eye is so much that I have never dared to look at the other eye!" Lord Auckland was so pleased with the reply that he gave his wristwatch to Maharaja's emissary as a present. No wonder that when he fell seriously ill in the summer of 1839 there were continuous prayers, non-stop recitations in the temples, the mosques and the Gurudwaras for the recovery of their own 'Badshah' (King). On 27th June, 1839, he breathed his last. He died 159 years ago. But he is still the ruler of the mind of Punjab, nay the whole of India. The author, a historian, is a freelance writer. Source: India Perspective More
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