ADMINISTRATION OF RANJIT SINGH

The only system of government known to the Indian subcontinent at that time was despotism. Ranjit Singh had neither the necessary intellectual training for the inclination to make bold innovations in the system of government. The Maharaja was the embodiment of all civil and political authority in the state. Ranjit Singh however was a benevolent despot and looked to the welfare of the people. He considered himself as a servant of the Khalsa or the Sikh Commonwealth and acted in the name of the Khalsa. He even designated his government ‘Sarkar-i-Khalsaji’ and struck coins in the name of Guru Nanak and Guru Govind Singh.

Although the Maharaja was the pivot of the administration yet there was a Council of Ministers to help him in the task of administration. He divided the kingdom into provinces, each under a Nazim. A province was further sub divided into districts, each under the charge of a Kardar. At the village level the Panchayats functioned effectively.

Land revenue and justice – The main source of income of the state was land revenue which was collected with great severity. The state demand was fixed between 33% and 40% depending on the fertility and richness of the soil. Sir Lepel Griffin is correct in his judgment when he says that the Maharaja ‘squeezed out the unhappy peasant every rupee that he could be made to disgorge’ but took care not ‘to kill the goose that lay the golden egg’. The Maharaja was anxious to safeguard the interests of the peasantry and issued instructions to the marching armies not to destroy standing crops or damage them in anyway. To the sons of the peasantry, the Sikh army provided ample opportunities for employment.

The administration of justice was rough and ready. There was no hierarchy of courts as we find today. The administration of justice was more of a local than a national concern. The local officers decided cases according to local custom. The Adalat-i-ala was set up at Lahore which probably heard appeals from the district and provincial courts. Excessive fines were imposed on the criminals, of course depending on the means of the offenders. Even the most heinous crime could be foreign in return for money payment. Justice was thus looked upon as a source of income to the state.

Military administration – Ranjit Singh gave maximum care to the maintenance of an efficient army. If he had built a kingdom out of atoms with the help of armed strength, a strong army was necessary to maintain its frontiers. Besides, faced with enemies on all sides, an efficient army was a necessity. Ranjit Singh’s genius was best displayed in the organization of an excellent fighting army.

Ranjit Singh realized the essential weakness of Indian armies. Irregular levies poorly equipped and without proper training could hardly meet the challenges of the times. The Maharaja decided to build an army on the pattern of the army of the Company and recruited French officers to drill and discipline the troopers. Due emphasis was laid on the organization of the artillery department. Workshops were set up at Lahore and Amritsar for the casting of heavy guns and the manufacture of shot and power. Ranjit Singh adopted the system of ‘Mahadari’ or monthly payment of salaries to soldiers and officers and gave care to the equipment and mobilization aspects of the army.

A model army or Fauj-i-Khas was raised in 1822 by General Ventura and Allard. The special brigade had its own emblem and used French words of command in drill. The normal strength of this Model Army consisted of 4 battalions of infantry, 3 regiments of cavalry besides the artillery wing. Ilahi Baksh headed the artillery department of Fauj-i-Khas.

A special feature of Ranjit Singh’s army was the employment of Europeans in the service of the state. At one time there were 39 foreign officers drawn from different nationalities of the world, namely, Frenchmen, Germans, Americans, Greeks, Spaniards, Russians, Scotch, Englishmen and Anglo Indians. The Maharaja gave these European officers all types of inducements to settle in Punjab. Outstanding among these European officers were Ventura, Allard, Court, Gardner, Avitable. General Ventura headed the infantry department of Fauj-i-Khas, Allard was in charge of cavalry, while Court and Gardner reorganized the artillery department. These European officers rose to high positions in the civil administration for e.g., General Ventura was for sometime Governor of Duajat and Avitable became governor of Peshawar in 1837.

It has been estimated that I 1835 the strength of Ranjit Singh’s army stood at 75,000 which included about 35,000 regularly trained, disciplined and equipped troops. Ranjit Singh’s army proved an effective fighting force which got the better of the Afghans, the Gorkhas and the Dogras and even baffled the British in the two sikh wars.

Estimate of Ranjit Singh

Ranjit Singh stands out as fascinating personality I Indian history. Though ugly in physical appearance (Baron Hugel described him as the most ugly and unprepossessing man he saw throughout the Punjab), Ranjit Singh had an impressive personality. Fakir Aziz-ud-din, the Foreign Minister of Ranjit Singh, on an inquiry from an English officer as to which eye of the Maharaja was blind, replied: ‘The splendour of his face is such that I have never been able to look close enough to discover’.

Ranjit Singh was loved by the people of Punjab, Hindus and Muslims alike. If Ranjit Singh looked upon the Sikhs as his colleagues and co-religionists, he respected learned men of other religions also. Once the Maharaja wiped off the dust from the feet of a Muslim mendicant with his long grey beard.

Lepel Griffin calls Ranjit Singh ‘the beau ideal of a soldier – strong, spare, active, courageous and enduring’. Brave like a lion, Ranjit Singh led his armies and often fought in the forefront like a common soldier. He was thoroughly conversant with the various arts of war. He always planned his campaigns well in advance. While leading his campaigns against the tribesmen of the North West frontier region, he always engaged the tribesmen in the plains and took care not to follow them in their hills. Victor Jacquement, a French visitor to the court of Ranjit Singh, compares Ranjit Singh with Napoleon Bonaparte. True, Ranjit Singh used Machiavellian methods, the policy of ‘force and fraud’ to gain his ends, but he was never cruel and blood thirsty. Rather, he treated the vanquished with kindness and consideration.

According to Baron Von Hugel: ‘The sole aim of Ranjit Singh is the preservation and extension of his unlimited power and though his ambitious mind considered all means perfectly allowable to this end he has never wantonly imbued his hands in blood. Never perhaps was so large an empire founded by one man with so little criminality’.

As a ruler Ranjit Singh showed deep solicitude for the welfare of the people. He took adequate care to safeguard the interests of the common man against official oppression. It is said that a box was affixed outside his palace in which his subjects could lodge their complaints. The key of this box was personally kept by the Maharaja. He also paid personal visits to various parts of the country to acquaint himself with the actual state of affairs. Men of all communicates enjoyed the benefits of his mild and merciful administration. Faqir Aziz-ud-din, a Muslim, was his foreign Minister and was greatly trusted by the Maharaja. Jamadar Khushal Singh, the Dogra brothers, Teja Singh occupied very high positions in the Lahore Darbar. Dhian Singh Dogra was the Prime Minister and enjoyed the title of ‘Raja’. Above all, Ranjit Singh gave to the people of Punjab the blessings of peace, the like of which they had not seen in the past hundred years.

It is difficult to regard Ranjit Singh as a constructive statesman. The kingdom he had so assiduously built up disintegrated within a decade of his death, and the Maharaja himself cannot escape the responsibility for that. He had so greatly concentrated all administration in his hands that his disappearance from the scene caused not a ‘vacancy’ but a ‘void’ and the entire structure began to crumble. Besides, Ranjit Singh failed to subordinate the army to the civil authority. So long as he lived, his personal influence kept the army under control, but after his death, the army got out of control, but after his death, the army got out of control, dabbled in politics and reduced the civil government to a mere non-entity. Again, unlike Shivaji, Ranjit Singh did not breathe into the hearts of the people any sentiment that could keep them together after his death. Perhaps Shivaji’s successors were as incapable as Ranjit Singh’s successors, but the History of Maharashtra after the death of Shivaji is quite different from the history of Punjab after the Maharaja’s death. Nowhere is Ranjit Singh’s short sightedness more apparent than in his dealings with the English. Realizing full well that the English were throwing a cordon round his kingdom and fully cognizant of British expansionist designs he bided his time and avoided a conflict. On several occasions, he thought of going to war with the British, but his courage always failed him. The Maharaja left the inevitable task of fighting with the English to his weak and incompetent successors.

Notwithstanding his short-sighted policy Ranjit Singh occupies a high place in Indian history. The memory of this hero is still cherished by the people of Punjab. Summing up the achievements of Ranjit Singh Cunningham writes: ‘Ranjit Singh found the Punjab a warring confederacy, a prey to the factions of its chiefs, pressed by the Afghans and the Marathas, and ready to submit to English supremacy. He consolidated the numerous petty states into a kingdom, he wrestled from Kabul the fairest of its provinces and he gave the potent English no cause of interference’.  He rolled back the tide of invasion from the northwest and extended his sway up to the Northwestern Khyber Pass. Above all, he left behind a tradition of strength, and it is here that history enthuses posterity.