India Under British Rule from the Foundation of the East India Company

by James Talboys Wheeler

Sikh invasion, November, 1845.

§6. The British government was taken utterly by surprise. There was no warning whatever, and the enemy was estimated to number 100,000 men with 150 large guns. Ferozpore, the frontier station of the British army on the north-west, was held by a British force of 10,000 men. The Sikhs might have overwhelmed Ferozpore, and marched on to Delhi and Agra before the main army could have taken the field. Fortunately for the British the Sikh generals were cowards and traitors, thinking of nothing but themselves. The British force at Ferozpore moved out and offered them battle, but they shrank from a collision. They divided the Sikh army into two bodies: one stopped to watch Ferozpore, whilst the other entrenched a camp a few miles off at Ferozshahar.

Moodki, December.

Sir Henry Hardinge and Sir Hugh Gough were soon moving to the frontier with a British army. On the 18th of December a battle was fought at Moodki. The Sikh general fled at the outset, but the Sikh soldiers opened fire with a rapidity and precision which for a while staggered the British. At last the British gained a victory, but it was not decisive.

Ferozshahar.

Two days after Moodki, the British attacked the Sikh force at Ferozshahar. They met with a resistance which they never expected. The Sikhs were again deserted by their general, but fought with the reckless bravery of zealots; and Sir Hugh Gough charged up to the muzzles of their guns with cold steel before he could carry their batteries. Night came on, and the firing ceased. During the darkness there was an uproar in the enemy's camp, and it turned out that the Sikh soldiers were plundering their own treasury—the military chest which their general had left behind in his hasty flight from the field. Next morning the battle was renewed, but the Sikhs had lost their enthusiasm, and were soon in full retreat to the Sutlej.

Aliwal and Sobraon, 1846.

Early in 1846 the Sikh army recrossed the Sutlej by a bridge of boats. Sir Harry Smith defeated one force at Aliwal, but the main army of the Khalsa was strongly entrenched at Sobraon. In February Hardinge and Gough advanced to storm the entrenchment. Then followed the hardest and bloodiest battle which the British had hitherto fought in India. The Sikhs fought with the desperation of despair, but were slowly beaten back by the fiery resolution of the British. At last they retreated to the Sutlej, and thousands were drowned in the river. Their general had fled on the morning of the battle, and had broken down the bridge to prevent their return to the Punjab.

Mixed government, Sikh and British.

Thus ended the first Sikh war. The British army marched in triumph to Lahore, and Sir Henry Hardinge, now Lord Hardinge, began to settle the future government of the Punjab. He was unwilling to annex the country, for the British nation was already jealous of the territorial possessions of the East India Company. He dared not withdraw the British army lest the army of the Khalsa should spring again into life and sweep away the Sikh régime. He tried a compromise. He recognised the infant, the queen-mother and her minister, as de facto rulers of the Punjab. He reduced the army of the Khalsa to a third of its former strength. He annexed the frontier province on the north, known as the Julinder Doab, and he demanded a subsidy of a million and a-half sterling towards the expenses of the war.