{"id":11677,"date":"2011-09-07T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-07T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/ranjit-singh-lion-of-punjab-achievemen\/"},"modified":"2024-12-09T21:21:34","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T15:51:34","slug":"ranjit-singh-lion-of-punjab-achievemen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/ranjit-singh-lion-of-punjab-achievemen\/","title":{"rendered":"RANJIT SINGH: Lion of Punjab: Achievement and Legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/p>\n
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\nTHE UNDISCOVERED INDIA WITH<\/b><\/div>\n
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\nDIGITAL
\nDNA OF INDIA<\/b><\/div>\n
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\nof<\/b><\/div>\n
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\neBOOKS  eARTICLES PHOTOS <\/b><\/div>\n
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\nOUR LATEST TITLE:<\/b><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nRANJIT SINGH: Lion of Punjab: Achievement and
\nLegacy<\/b><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\neBook
\nby<\/b><\/div>\n
\nRODERICK
\nMATTHEWS<\/b><\/div>\n
\n
<\/b><\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nAs British rule spread across the Indian
\nsubcontinent in the first years of the nineteenth century, one area in the
\nnorth-west remained apart, independent and untroubled by the new empire
\nbuilders. In 1803 General Lake captured Delhi for the British, but he then
\nhalted on the line of the Jamuna river, uncertain how to proceed. The Marathas
\nto the south and south-west were still unconquered, and the Punjab, lying
\nbeyond the Jamuna, was an open territory containing a problematic geography of
\nhills and rivers, inhabited by a highly heterogeneous mix of peoples, all of
\nwhom were inured to armed struggle. There were Sikhs, Rajputs and Pathans in
\nthe centre, with hill tribes, Gurkhas, Sindis and Afghans all around its edges.
\nThere was no good reason to push on, and the Punjab remained unmolested. In the
\nyears immediately prior to the British arrival one man had arisen from the
\nreligious and ethnic crucible of the Punjab. Ranjit Singh, a local petty
\nchieftain of Jat farming stock, had climbed steadily to a position of
\nunchallenged personal authority over the central area of the Punjab, setting
\nhimself up in Lahore and declaring himself Maharaja in 1801. He was to go on,
\nover the next thirty-eight years, to build a dominion that abutted China,
\nAfghanistan, Sind (still then independent) and British India. This was a man
\nwho truly filled a power vacuum, largely by his own merits as a campaigner,
\ndiplomat and ruler. It was his instinctive ability to understand the currency
\nof power that first gave Ranjit Singh his hegemony and then allowed him to keep
\nit for four decades during some of the most turbulent times in South Asian
\nhistory, throughout which he remained sandwiched between the formidable and
\nacquisitive might of the British to his south and east, and the unstable and
\ndeadly world of Afghan politics to his north and west. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThis eBook examines how he came to build
\nsuch a successful state in such a dangerous corner of the world, and how his
\nsuccessors proved unable to sustain his work, swiftly losing the autonomy he
\nhad bequeathed to them.<\/div>\n
\n  <\/div>\n
\nRODERICK MATTHEWS<\/b>,
\nHistorian, Obtained a First from Balliol College, Oxford in Modern History.
\nStudied Medieval History under Maurice Keen. Studied Tudor and Stuart History
\nunder Christopher Hill, Master of Balliol College. Studied European History
\nunder Colin Lucas, later Master of Balliol College and Vice-Chancellor of
\nOxford University. Studied Imperial History under Professor Paul Longford,
\nRector of Lincoln College.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DISCOVER THE UNDISCOVERED INDIA WITH IDEAINDIA.COM DIGITAL DNA OF INDIA ePublisher of eBOOKS  eARTICLES PHOTOS and other digital content on INDIA and SOUTH ASIA OUR LATEST TITLE: RANJIT SINGH: Lion of Punjab: Achievement and Legacy eBook by RODERICK MATTHEWS As British rule spread across the Indian subcontinent in the first years of the nineteenth century, one area in the north-west remained apart, independent and untroubled by the new empire builders. In 1803 General Lake captured Delhi for the British, but he then halted on the line of the Jamuna river, uncertain how to proceed. The Marathas to the south and <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82,1,66],"tags":[1879],"class_list":["post-11677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration","category-update","category-useful-informations","tag-update","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11677"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70837,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11677\/revisions\/70837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}