The Lahore Durbar, 1839–1849

Ranjit Singh died in 1839. In the decade that followed, the throne passed from Kharak Singh to Nau Nihal Singh, to Chand Kaur, to Sher Singh, and finally to the child Duleep Singh with his mother Jind Kaur as regent. The army’s councils became a political force in their own right. The Dogra brothers and the Sandhanwalia sardars were rivals, and the rivalry ended in murders.

Two wars with the British followed, in 1845–46 and 1848–49. The state was annexed in 1849 and Duleep Singh was pensioned off.

What is contested

Who failed the state. The standard villains in older accounts are Lal Singh and Tej Singh. Gulab Singh’s part is argued both ways. This entry does not assign blame, because the sources we read do not settle it.

Counsel

A sovereign state was not conquered from outside until it had been hollowed out from within. Factions at court spend the sovereign’s authority on one another until nothing is left to defend. For one person, the lesson is smaller and the same: the people around you will fight over you, and the fight will cost you more than any outsider’s attack.

Verification

The general arc is well established (Wikipedia, 'Sikh Empire'; 'Battle of Sobraon'): rapid succession after Ranjit Singh's death in 1839, the rise of army councils, the rivalry of the Dogra and Sandhanwalia factions, two Anglo-Sikh wars, annexation on 2 April 1849. The role of Gulab Singh Dogra in the first Anglo-Sikh war is genuinely contested: one school of Punjab historians condemns him as a traitor, while others (see Bawa Satinder Singh's 1971 article in Modern Asian Studies and David Smith's review) treat him as a pragmatist with his own grievances. We did not read the primary evidence and do not adjudicate.