Introduction To The Book 'The Real Ranjit Singh'

Ranjit Singh was of the stuff that legendary characters are made of, and legend has claimed him for its own. He continues to live and grow in the people's imagination, and it has been history's unceasing task to make his historical personality live up to its legendary counterpart. There was that about him which makes men more memorable than their achievements. Men's achievements date; but if there is something about the men themselves, something besides their achievements, which is worth preserving, the memory of mankind sees to it that it is preserved; and it has other means of doing so besides history. History is after all concerned primarily with events and deals with men only as they appear in the events-as counters on the chequer-board of politics and not as creatures of flesh and blood. As creatures of flesh and blood, some of them prove larger than history. Ranjit Singh was such a one.

As achievements go, Ranjit Singh's were remarkable by any standard. Heir to one of many pertty chiefdoms that had sprung up on the ruins of the Mughal Empire, he rose to be the ruler of a powerful state extending from Tibet to Sind and from the Kyhber Pass to the Sutlej. He was a rival as well as a friend and ally-both feared and respected-to the British power in India, which held sway over the rest of the sub-continent. He avenged the innumerable defeats, humiliations and depredations suffered by India over the centuries at the hands of Afghan invaders by reconquering part of the Indian territory wrested by them and, more than that, by being an arbiter in the fate of Afghanistan herself. These and other achievements of his have been recorded by historians in various ways: by some in an admiring, by others in a derogatory, and by still others-a small minority-in an impartial manner. No two accounts of them substantially agree about facts, places, persons, motives, etc. But, however they were recorded, they ceased to have more than an academic significance with the end of Sikh rule soon after Ranjit Singh's death. Since then the mist of time into which they have receded has been thickened by the mist of distance which veils a large part of their scene from the Sikhs. They have thus become mainly the concern of the professional historian. Not so the man behind them.

Ranjit Singh still lives, large as life, in the imagination of the people. He does so not only where the Sikhs now live, but also where they lived before; for the Muslim village-folk shared him as a legendary figure with the Sikhs and they have not let him depart with the latter. The image that persists of him is that of a popular king well known to his people through his frequent appearances in their midst, ready to listen to them and to redress their grievance at all times, and looking upon all his subjects, irrespective of caste and creed, with one eye. That the one eye in his case was literally so seems to have been the subject of innumerable good-natured jokes, which, it is said, he would not only ask people to repeat in his hearing, but to which he himself contributed. There are even stories of this physical defect of his having been hurled at him with impunity by common people to drive home to him some grievance which they thought he should have but had not redressed personally. It is immaterial whether these stories are true or false. They can only have gained currency because they fit in with Ranjit Singh's reputation, and he must have won that reputation by exhibiting in other ways the qualities implied in the stories. In short, Ranjit Singh's popular image is that of a kindly patriarch rather than that of a conquering hero or a mighty monarch. He was all three, but his humanity has outlived his splendour and power. Meteoric as his historical career was, the star of his fame as a man shines with a milder and steadier glow; and it has a friendly twinkle in its eye. This book is a response to that friendly twinkle-a response which has been due for a long time from the author and his family.

Three of the author's ancestors were among the men nearest to Ranjit Singh, both in his public and in his private life. Fakir Syed Azizuddin was his Foreign Minister, Fakir Syed Nuruddin his Home Minister and his personal physician, and Fakir Syed Imamuddin one of his principal administrative officers. These men helped him to establish his kingdom on a firm footing and were with him till the last. They were among his chief counsellors and assistants, not only in affairs of state but in many matters behind the scenes. They have left valuable accounts, not only of happenings in and around the court, but of Ranjit Singh's day-to-day life. They have also left documents, paintings and other mementos of the Maharaja and his court. More than all these things, they have 1eft the author a legacy of affection and admiration for the man who was Ranjit Singh. This book is an attempt to discharge as best he can the duty that has for long rested on the author's, shoulders of adding what is in his possession to the world's knowledge of that fascinating man. It is hoped that what is presented here will help in the conversion of his popular image into a full-blooded portrait, a true likeness of the man behind the events by which history remembers him.