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Match Fixing and The First Sikh War

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Toltec View Drop Down
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  Quote Toltec Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Match Fixing and The First Sikh War
    Posted: 22-Jul-2012 at 03:07
After the death of Ranjit Singh the Punjabi Empire was in disarray, his three successors were all murdered in months of taking power, and the army, the Kalsa, split into factions. The Sikh Empire wasn't so much a state with an army as an army with a state. In the scene from the movie 300 it's pointed out Spartans are full time warriors not farmers and artisans in peacetime like the other Greeks. The same was true of the Kalsa, and the only way to finance the Sikh Empire was conquest of new lands to provide new revenue to pay the troops. In 1843 Maharani Jindan, the widow of Ranjit Singh, took the Sikh throne and proved more wily than her predecessors. She appointed her brother head of the army which had now reached 80,000 in number and the state no-longer had the abililly to maintain without new conquest. In 1845 not having the funds to pay the army Maharani Jindan's brother was hacked to death at a parade, 2 months later the Kalsa invaded British India promised by its leaders all the gold in Delhi.

The invasion of India by the Kalsa has always been difficult to explain by history. The Sikh and British Empires had always been strong allies and had a demilitarised border. Indian historians site the British conquest of the Sind (South Eastern Pakistan) and the building of fortifications on the Sikh border in a response to the unrest in the Punjab before the war as a potential cause. British historians tend to favour the fact that Britain had just suffered a humiliating defeat in the First Afghan War and that British forces in western India numbered less than half the Kalsa, Delhi must have seemed an easy rich prize.

However Sikh historians offer a third and quite interesting alternative, Maharani Jindan after her brother's murder and fearing imminant military coup and her death needed rid of her army sent it into India with the intent of Britannia destroys it for her. Sikh historians claim she was in constant contact with British agents giving away positions and plans of her army during the war. The claim the Sikhs threw the war on the surface at least does seem plausible, after all how could they lose? The Kalsa outnumbered the British army by over 2/1, its infantry was as well equipped, disciplined and trained as the British, its artillery the most numerous and heaviest outside Europe and its cavalry the finest on Earth. Just before the war began Maharani Jindan replaced the leaders of the army with two of her cadre who were either the two of the most incompetent commanders in military history or trying to lose. As the war began the actions of the Kalsa get quite mystifying, instead of heading to Delhi they simply crossed the border, divided their forces then sat at two emcampments allowing the British to concertrate their forces. When the British arrived, still outnumbered by each half of the Sikh army they attacked each half one at a time. Despite being well within range on both occasions the other half of the Kalsa failed to march to their comrades aid by falling on the British flank.

No evidence has ever emerged rom British records of the allegded collusion between the Sikh Queen and the British and at the time the British wrote off the idea. Another possible interpretation is the Sikhs a proud warrior people, when they had an army both so superior in numbers and quality of the opposition just couldn't believe how they could have been ligitimaty beaten so needed to invent one of the first known conspiracy theories out there to save face.

So was the First Sikh War match fixed?

Edited by Toltec - 22-Jul-2012 at 05:59
Stupidity got us into this mess, why can't it get us out?

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oxydracae View Drop Down
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  Quote oxydracae Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22-Jul-2012 at 08:14
yeah this war was kind of pre-fixed as the Vizier Lal Singh and Commander Tej Singh were more worried about their jagirs (county seats) and were informing every step of Sikh army to the British commanders.
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  Quote Nick1986 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22-Jul-2012 at 19:46
Seems like a waste of good warriors. The Brits knew the Sikhs were among India's best fighters and recruited them to fight the rebels in 1857. Sikh regiments were issued better weapons and equipment than the rest of the Indian army
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