My dear college-day friend Tariq Chaudhry, better known as TC, belongs to Dinga in Gujrat. Whenever we visited him, we had to drive past the Chillianwala Bagh war memorial and cemetery of nearly 1,000 British soldiers, the largest number killed in a single battle in the entire colonial period.

Khushwant Singh in his classic History of the Sikhs – Vol 2 wrote: “Chillianwala was the worst defeat suffered by the British since their occupation of India”. This battle was fought in January 1849, and amazingly within three months the entire Lahore Darbar collapsed. The Lahore Darbar Army, the finest in the whole of undivided India, simply disintegrated. As a veteran soldier then famously commented: “Aaj Ranjit Singh marr gaya” (Today Ranjit Singh died). Just why did the Lahore Darbar collapse when its army could take on the finest opposition? This is a question that many scholars have tried to answer. To add to this there is the question that just why did the Lahore Darbar collapse. The answer lies in the personal enmities that different Sikh sardars had among themselves in their quest for power. This quest for power invariably leads to corruption, and massive corruption at that. Before the battle we see that in different encounters the Lahore Army generals all undertook suspicious moves while their men fought like tigers. One example is the Battle of Sobraon (February 1846).

Documents of the East India Company being fed battle information by a Sikh general can be read in Sir Harry Smith’s autobiography, as well as Amarpal Singh Sidhu’s The Second Anglo-Sikh War.

Here one character stands out, and that was Sardar Tej Singh, the commander-in-chief of the Lahore Darbar Army. He betrayed his own army at every step. At one point, he blew up a critical bridge abandoning over a thousand soldiers to be butchered by the British. This one step led to the defeat of the last big battle in the First Anglo-Sikh War. This despicable army general was to form the committee that signed away the Koh-i-Noor diamond to the British Queen, for which he was made the Raja of Sialkot. It was because of this appointment that the people of Sialkot coined the famous saying about Sialkotis. Here it must be pointed out that almost every betraying Sikh general was allotted huge tracts of land and given positions of great importance. This land ‘allotment’ strategy is, sadly, still followed.

Even today the offsprings of these ‘traitors’ are known as Nawabs and Rajas in both India and Pakistan. For that matter a lot of Muslims who betrayed their own people have benefitted the most, with a lot of them settling abroad with massive wealth. But back to Chillianwala. In this battle which was a British attempt to prevent two huge Sikh armies from joining to attack the EIC forces near Lahore. These were the armies from Attock and Taxila and those of Multan, who had revolted.

Once the fierce battles were over the British had suffered almost 1,000 losses while the British put the Lahore Darbar armies’ losses at almost 4,000. The exact figures are vague. Once both withdrew both claimed victory. The British were then provided critical information by Lal Singh and Tej Singh, which led the British to manage to divide the Punjab army. They were then to meet at nearby Gujrat, where solely because of Lahore Darbar betrayals the forces were disarmed and most of them killed.

As we study different descriptions of the Lahore Darbar and East India Company battles, we see that at every stage it is the army generals who have betrayed their men. In return these traitors have been awarded with titles and money and lands. They have been made to feel important, as most of them shamelessly still feel about their elders. But of all the generals probably it is Tej Singh who gained the most.

Tej Singh became the commander-in-chief of the Lahore Darbar Khalsa army and lived in a special house opposite the Lahore Fort. My guess is that that house is the Haveli Baroodkhana, for Tej Singh made sure he had enough arms and ammunition in case he was attacked. Just who was this Tej Singh. Born a Gaur Brahmin in 1799 and named Tej Ram. He was related to Jamadar Khushal Singh and started working in the Lahore Darbar at the age of 13 in 1812. Seeing that being a Sikh was a paying proposition he allegedly converted to Sikhism in 1816 and was renamed Tej Singh. He joined the army and fought in the battles of Kashmir, Leiah and the Derajats. In 1818, he was promoted to the rank of a general. In 1839, he assisted the British forces in their invasion of Afghanistan, and it was at this point he was richly rewarded by the East India Company. As he influenced Nau Nihal Singh, he acquired a unique position in the Sikh court. When Rani Jindan ordered him to march against the British, he was reluctant. From this point onward at every stage he betrayed the Khalsa Army, getting thousands of soldiers killed because of his crafty tactics.

One scholar is of the opinion that the East India Company army killed fewer Sikhs than what Tej Singh got killed. Examples of his treachery are manifold. In the battle of Ferozshah once the brave Sikhs soldiers had won, he undertook a tactical movement that led to the British overcoming the Lahore Darbar Army. In the battle for Lahore, he abandoned his position, which led to the Lahore Darbar capital falling to British forces.

In February 1846 in the Battle of Sobraon, his moves led a certain victory to a humiliating defeat with hundreds being killed. As the Sikhs faced certain victory being turned into suspicious defeats, the Lahore Darbar within 10 years was lost. The Treaty of Lahore led to all the wealth of the Punjab being handed over to the British, including the Koh-i-Noor and gold and silver by the tons.

In the 1857 War of Independence, he led an army against his own people. He was made Raja of Sialkot, and headed the Golden Temple committee. His adopted son Harbans Singh built the Harbanspura Colony outside Lahore, while he handed over his Lahore house to the British, who in turn handed it over to a loyal Kashmiri family. So, what are the lessons of history which we should never forget. Firstly, when army generals get free land, they are well on their way to political positions. Corruption is the hallmark of such persons, who can easily betray their own people. The examples of Thailand, of Turkey and scores of African and South American countries are before us. It is time that we learnt from history and let the will of the people matter more.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2024