Afghan–Sikh Wars

Afghan-Sikh Wars
Top: Sikh Empire after the Afghan-Sikh Wars. Includes Multan, Kashmir, Khyber Pass, and Peshawar Bottom: Afghan Durrani Empire in 1747 before the Afghan-Sikh Wars.
Date First Phase: November 1751 – May 1765 Second Phase: December 1766 – 1799 Third Phase: 1800 – 1839 Location Punjab, Kashmir, Haryana, Pakistan and Afghanistan Result First Phase: Afghans driven from country; Lahore taken by Sikhs[1] Second Phase: Afghan campaign cut short, return home[2] Third Phase: Kashmir annexed by the Sikh Empire in 1819 after the Battle of Shopian[3]
Belligerents
Durrani Empire (1751–1823) Emirate of Afghanistan (1823–1837) Afghan tribesmen (1751–1837)	Khalsa (1751–1837) Dal Khalsa (1748–1765) Misldar Army (1765–1800) Sikh Empire (1800–1839) Sikh Khalsa Army (1799–1837)
Commanders and leaders
Ahmad Shah Durrani Timur Shah Durrani Mir Mannu Shah Zaman Fateh Khan Dost Muhammad Khan Nawab Muzaffar Khan  † Azim Khan Syed Akbar Shah  † Sultan Mohammad Shah Akbar Khan	Akali Baba Deep Singh  † Nawab Kapur Singh Sardar Jassa Singh Ahluwalia Sardar Jassa Singh Ramgharia Sardar Hari Singh Bhangi Sardar Charat Singh Sardar Maha Singh Baba Ala Singh Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab Misr Diwan Chand Jarnail Sardar Hari Singh Nalwa  † Sher Singh Sandhanwalia Kanwar Nau Nihal Singh Sardar Sham Singh Sardar Chattar Singh Sardar Sher Singh Kharak Singh Mahan Singh Mirpuri Akali Phula Singh  † Akali Sadhu Singh  † Akali Naina Singh Sardar Lehna Singh Sardar Ranjodh Singh Jean-Francois Allard Jean-Baptiste Ventura Claude Auguste Court

The Afghan–Sikh wars were a series of wars between the Islamic Durrani Empire (centred in present-day Afghanistan), and the Sikh Empire (located in the Punjab region). The conflict had its origins stemming from the days of the Dal Khalsa.

Background[]

The Sikh Confederacy had effectively achieved independence from the Mughal Empire in 1716, and expanded at its expense in the following decades, despite the Chhota Ghallughara. The Afsharid Persian emperor Nader Shah's invasion of the Mughal Empire (1738–40) dealt a heavy blow to the Mughals, but after Nader Shah's death in 1747, the Durrani Empire (roughly covering modern Afghanistan and Pakistan) declared its independence from Persia. Four years later, this new Afghan state came into conflict with the Sikh alliance.

First Phase[]

In 1748, Ahmad Shad Durrani invades, sacks and occupies Lahore.^[4] Establishing a governor over Lahore, Ahmad marched his army east taking more territory.^[4] The Sikhs would retake Lahore only to lose it to the Afghans by 12 April 1752.^[4]

Ahmad raids India in 1757, and at Battle of Amritsar, his son Timur Durrani, is defeated by the Sikhs.^[4] By February 1758, the Durrani governor of Lahore, General Jahan Khan, is defeated by the Sikhs.^[4]

Second Phase[]

In 1766, Ahmad Shah Durrani, again invaded India, taking Lahore without a fight.^[2] The Sikhs withdraw, resorting to guerrilla warfare against the Afghans.^[2] Ahmad marched on to Amritsar, massacring the population and destroying the city,^[2] however his campaign was short-lived.^[2] Faced with unpaid troops and internal strife back home in Kandahar, Ahmad was forced to march back to Afghanistan.^[2] Ahmad Shah died in 1772, and by 1799, Sikhs were back in possession of Lahore.^[5]

Third Phase[]

Battle of Attock[]

In 1813, after demanding the return of the fort at Attock, the Durrani prime minister Wazir Fateh Khan besieged Attock.^[6] A Punjabi relief force arrived and for three months the two armies faced each other, neither side moving.^[6] As the heat from summer started to affect the armies, Dewan Mokham Chand marched his army to block the Afghans from getting water from the river.^[6] Without water the Afghan troops began to suffer dehydration, so they launched attack after attack towards the river, but were unable to break through.^[6] Chand, realizing the Afghans were weakened, charged his cavalry at the Afghans who broke and ran, losing two thousand men.^[6]

Accusing Ranjit Singh of treachery, Fateh Khan set off from Kashmir at the head of 15,000 cavalry^[7] in April 1813 and invested Attock Fort.^[8] At the same time Ranjit Singh rushed Dewan Mokham Chand and Karam Chand Chahal from Burhan with a force of cavalry, artillery, and a battalion of infantry to meet the Afghans.^[9]

Dewan Mokham Chand Nayyar encamped 8 miles (13 km) from the Afghan camp,^[10] unwilling to risk a decisive engagement, although both sides engaged in numerous skirmishes and took losses. On 12 July 1813, the Afghans' supplies were exhausted and Dewan Mokham Chand Nayyar marched 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from Attock to Haidaru, on the banks of the Indus River, to offer battle. On 13 July 1813, Dewan Mokham Chand Nayyar split the cavalry into four divisions, giving command of one division to Hari Singh Nalwa and taking command of one division himself. The lone battalion of infantry formed an infantry square protecting the artillery, with Gouse Khan commanding the artillery.^[9] The Afghans took up positions opposite the Sikhs, with a portion of their cavalry under the command of Dost Mohammad Khan.

Fateh Khan opened the battle by sending his Pathans on a cavalry charge which was repulsed by heavy fire from the Sikh artillery.^[9] The Afghans rallied under Dost Mohammad Khan, who led the Ghazis on another cavalry charge which threw one wing of the Sikh army into disarray and captured some artillery.^[8] When it appeared the Sikhs had lost the battle, Dewan Mokham Chand led a cavalry charge atop a war elephant that repulsed the Afghans "at all points",^[10] and routed the remaining Afghan troops.^[11] Fateh Khan, fearing his brother, Dost Mohammad Khan, had died, escaped to Kabul and the Sikhs captured the Afghan camp, including the lost artillery pieces.^[12]

Two months after the victory at Attock, Ranjit Singh launched a campaign to take Kashmir from the Durrani Empire.^[13] A late Autumn start postponed the campaign until the next spring.^[13] By June, an army of 30,000 men under the command of Ram Dyal, grandson of Dewan Mokham Chand, marched toward Baramulla, with a pincer attack of 20,000 men led by Ranjit Singh marching to Poonch.^[13]

Ranjit's force was delayed by torrential rains, while Ram Dyal's army took the fortress of Baramulla on 20 July 1814.^[13] When Dyal's army reached Shupaiyan, the governor of Kashmir, Azim Khan blocked his advance.^[14] Fighting a delaying action, Dyal waited on a reinforcement of 5,000 men from Ranjit.^[15] These reinforcements were forced to a standstill by Afghan snipers.^[15]

Ranjit Singh's force made little progress.^[15] Faced with a scorched earth from the fleeing populace, food supplies became a major issue for his army, followed by a cholera outbreak.^[15] Meanwhile, Ram Dyal, who was entrenched near Srinagar, received a proposal from Azim Khan for a negotiated peace and was able to extricate himself from a difficult situation.^[15] Ranjit Singh's campaign ended in failure.^[15]

Amritsar, Lahore, and other large cities across the Sikh Empire were illuminated for two months afterwards in rejoicing over the victory.^[16] After his defeat at Attock, Fateh Khan fought off an attempt by Ali Shah, the ruler of Persia, and his son Ali Mirza to capture the Durrani province of Herat, which left their newly captured province of Kashmir open to attack.^[17]

Siege of Multan[]

In early January the Sikh force began their campaign with the capture of Nawab Muzaffar Khan's forts at Muzaffargarh and Khangarh. In February, the Sikh force under Kharak Singh reached Multan and ordered Muzaffar to pay the large tribute he owed and to surrender the fort, but Muzaffar refused. The Sikh forces won an engagement near the city but were unable to capture Muzaffar before he retreated into the fort. The Sikh army asked for more artillery and Ranjit Singh sent them the Zamzama and other large artillery pieces, which commenced fire on the walls of the fort. In early June, Sadhu Singh and a small band of other Akalis attacked the fort walls and discovered a breach in the wall. As they ran in to battle the unaware garrison the larger Sikh army was alerted and entered the fort through the breach. Muzaffar and his sons attempted a sortie to defend the fort but were killed in the battle.

The siege of Multan ended significant Afghan influence in the Peshawar region and led to multiple Sikh attempts at capturing and the final capture of Peshawar.^[18]

Battle of Shopian[]

The battle took place in the Shopian region in the Kashmir region. This battle included the 1819 Kashmir expedition, which led to Kashmir being annexed to the Sikh Empire.^[19]

When the Sikh army entered the city of Srinagar after the battle, Prince Kharak Singh guaranteed the personal safety of every citizen and ensured the city was not plundered. The peaceful capture of Srinagar was important as Srinagar, besides having a large Shawl-making industry, was also the center of trade between Panjab, Tibet, Iskardo, and Ladakh.^[20]

After taking Srinagar, the Sikh army faced no major opposition in conquering Kashmir. However, when Ranjit Singh installed , the son of Dewan Mokham Chand, as the new governor of Kashmir, he also sent a "large body of troops" with him to ensure tribute from strongholds within Kashmir that might attempt to resist Sikh rule.^[21] The capture of Kashmir set the boundaries and borders of the Sikh Empire with Tibet. The conquest of Kashmir marked an "extensive addition" to the Sikh Empire and "significantly" increased the empire's revenue and landmass.^[20]

Battle of Nowshera[]

The Battle of Nowshera wasn't fought by the Durranis, but by a Pashtun force with support of the Durranis. This was the 4th battle in the third Afghan–Sikh war.^[22] This battle led to the Peshawar Valley annexed by the Sikh Empire.

Swiftly securing Nowshera, Ranjit Singh's forces captured Peshawar and reached Jamrud itself. Destroying the remains of Durrani power, they reduced Peshawar to ruins and secured the Khyber Pass so no Durrani reinforcements could threaten them again.^[23]

The tribesman of Khattaks and Yousafzais suffered enormous casualties due to the Sikh artillery and the seeming betrayal by the Muhammadzai Sardars led to a lack of trust in the Durranis' word from then onwards.

Azim Khan's retreat has never been explained fully, some say he believed his brother had returned to recapture Peshawar at the behest of the Sikhs, others attribute his retreat to cowardice or fear of being cut off by the ferocious Sikh attack. He did not recover from the shock of the defeat and died shortly after the battle.^[23]

Ranjit Singh's victory was to mark the highpoint of his campaigns, his empire now stretched from the Khyber Pass to the west, to the north Kashmir and to the south Multan.^{[24][23][25] [26]}

Battle of Jamrud[]

The Battle of Jamrud was the fifth and foremost battle within the third Afghan–Sikh war. The result of the battle is disputed amongst historians. Some contend the failure of the Afghans to take the fort and the city of Peshawar or town of Jamrud as a victory for the Sikhs. On the other hand, some state that the killing of Hari Singh Nalwa resulted in an Afghan victory. James Norris, Professor of Political Science at Texas A&M International University, states that the battle's outcome was inconclusive.

See also[]

• Battles fought by Sikhs
• Pashtun tribes

Notes[]

References[]

Sources[]

• Chopra, Gulshan Lall (1928), The Panjab as a Sovereign State, Lahore: Uttar Chand Kapur and Sons
• Dupree, Louis (1980). Afghanistan. Princeton University Press.
• Glover, William J. (2008). Making Lahore Modern: Constructing and Imagining a Colonial City. University of Minnesota Press.
• Grewal, J.S. (1990). The Sikhs of the Punjab. Cambridge University Press. p. 91. ISBN 0-521-63764-3. Retrieved 15 April 2014.
• Griffin, Lepel Henry (1892). Ranjit Singh. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Jaques, Tony (2006). Dictionary of Battles and Sieges: A-E. Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-33537-2.
• Lansford, Tom (2017). Afghanistan at War: From the 18th-Century Durrani Dynasty to the 21st Century. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781598847604.
• M'Gregor, William Lewis (1846). The history of the Sikhs; containing the lives of the Gooroos; the history of the independent Sirdars, or Missuls, and the life of the great founder of the Sikh monarchy, Maharajah Runjeet Singh. London: J. Madden.
• Mehta, Jaswant Lal (2005). Advanced Study in the History of Modern India 1707-1813. New Dawn Press, Inc.
• Prakash, Om (2002). Encyclopaedic History of Indian Freedom Movement. Anmol Publications. ISBN 978-81-261-0938-8.
• Singh, Khushwant (1999). A History of the Sikhs. 1, 1469–1839. Oxford University Press.
• Prinsep, Henry Thoby; Prinsep, James (1846), History of the Punjab: And of the Rise, Progress, and Present Condition of the Sect and Nation of the Sikhs (Volume II), Wm. H. Allen and Co., ISBN 978-1-142-34278-4