Thread by @JigraaJat

A thread about Akali Phula Singh Ji's life;

A thorn in the side of both the Sarkar Khalsa & the East India Company, Akali Phula Singh exemplified the independence of the Nihang Singhs.

Born in 1761, Akali Phula Singh grew up in a period of increasing Sikh ascendancy.

After losing his father at a young age, the young Phula Singh was taken under the care of Akali Baba Naina Singh, Jathedar of the Nihang Buddha Dal, as well as the leader of the Shaheedan Misl. Unlike most Sikh Chiefs of the time who were busy increasing their territory,

Akali Phula Singh gave away most of his families territory in his youth, using the money to help the poor & ensuring he didnt have attachment to the world illusion.
He was trained in the art of Shastar Vidhya by Naina Singh, who himself was trained by Baba Deep Singh.

In the year 1800, Akali Phula SIngh & his band of 3000 Nihangs shifted their headquarters to Amritsar where he took possession of Darbar Sahib, the Akaal Takht & many other Gurdwara's which had started to either fall into disrepair or was being run by disreputable people.

Eventually, by 1807, Akali Phula Singh was made the Jathedar of the Akal Takht, as well as succeeding Naina Singh as the leader of the Nihang Budha Dal.

During this period, Ranjit Singh was expanding his Misl and began systematically incorporating cities across Panjab into his

domain & in 1801 he arrived at the gates of Amritsar, a city that was under the control of the Bhangi Misl. Akali Phula Singh prevented a full scale battle between the rival Sikh Misls by mediating a settlement where the Bhangis would withdraw & the territory would be ruled by

Ranjit Singh's Sukerchaks. Up until now the Nihang Singhs stayed relatively clear from the inter Misl warfare that had plagued the Sikhs for the previous 25 years. The Shaheedan Misl of Nihangs although highly respected because of its history, wasn't one of the major Misls of the

period. The Shaheedan Misl & Nishanwalias were in fact the 2 Misls who stayed aloof from the politics of the Sikh Sardars & would come together only when they was an external enemy as they refused to fight fellow Sikhs. Akali Phula Singh changed the dynamics of the Akali Nihang

Singhs. For the first time in half a century, they became politicised, playing a major role in the Sarkar Khalsa. Akali Phula Singh became an integral member of the Lahore Darbar & even dressed as a Sikh Sardar, wearing a white bana & jewelled armour as opposed to the traditional

blue bana of the Akali Nihangs.

Despite his place amongst the Sikh aristocracy, Akali Phula Singh retained the fierce indepedence the Akali Nihang Singhs were famous for. By 1807, although formally under the leadership of Ranjit Singh, Akali Phula Singh & his Nihangs had become

defacto rulers of Amritsar & were beyond the control of Sarkar Khalsas leaders. This was most apparent during the early period of Ranjit Singh's reign as Maharaja. The Nihangs witnessed Ranjit Singh on an elephant sitting in the presence of a Muslim dancing girl. Insulted by his

affront to the Sikh Rehit, Akali Phula Singh demanded the Maharaja present himself to the Akaal Takht for punishment & Ranjit Singh duly obliged. Akali Phula Singh ordered the Maharaja to be flogged unless he publically asked for forgiveness. On making a public apology, those in

attendance shouted their forgiveness & Ranjit Singh escaped with nothing more than a bruised ego.

Akali Phula Singh became one of the nascent Sikh state's leading commanders in 1807 during the Battle of Kasur. Ranjit Singh, Jodh Singh Ramgharia, Hari Singh Nalwa & Akali Phula

Singh were all involved in a fierce battle with Qutbuddin Khan, the Nawab of Kasur. After a week long siege, the Sikhs broke through, destroying the Pathan forces in hand to hand combat & forcing the Nawab to withdraw.

Until this point, the Nihang's made their living through plunder, a constant source of worry for the Sikh leader's who couldnt control the Akali Nihang's thirst for plunder - from friend or foe. Following the battle, Ranjit Singh decided to reward the Nihang Jatha with a jagir &

Akali Phula Singh came under central government pay. Ranjit Singh hoped this would achieve the twin function of having Akali Phula Singh fight under his leadership & control the Nihangs from roaming the countryside & threatening the rule of the Sikh aristocracy.

On the whole, this had the effect that was intended. Akali Phula Singh led the Sikh's to a large number of successes, perhaps most famously at Multan. The Sikhs had attempted to take the Afghan controlled city 4 times over a 13 year period but in 1818 they finally succeeded,

killing its leader Muzaffer Khan & his five sons in the battle. The turning point came in the early part of the battle when a group of Nihangs under Akali Phula Singh distracted the Afghans by laying a mine under one part of the fort under heavy fire. A few days later another

larger contingent of Nihangs breached the Khizri Gate, taking the defenders by surprise and occupying the fort. It was only after seeing the Nihangs in the fort that the rest of the Sikhs followed.

Akali Phula Singh was the special advisor on all things related to the volatile

Afghan border & led most attacks in this region, defeating Feroze Khan later in 1818 & then conducting mountain warfare in Kashmir in 1819. Akali Phula Singh was also the strategic mastermind of the successful first Battle of Peshawar defeating Yar Mohammed Khan.

Despite his successes for the Sikh state, Akali Phula Singh continued to display independence, on more than one occasion embarrasing Ranjit Singh & his son, Sher Singh. Europeans at the time couldnt believe the behaviour of Nihangs & the lack of power of the ruling Sikhs to

control them, Emily Eden, a member of the British aristocracy called them 'alarming' & 'fanatical' mentioned the 'Maharaja was completely powerless' when trying to control them'. On one occasion the Nihangs threw mud at the Maharaja to demonstrate against the Europeanisation

of the Sikh Army. Akali Phula Singh was a proponent of the battle tactics developed by Guru Gobind Singh & would ridicule the European drill system & tactics that were brought in by European officers such as Jean Francois Allard.

The Nihangs who viewed the East India Company with suspicion had a number of encounters with the British, all of which greatly embarassed Ranjit Singh. The most infamous was in Amritsar in 1809 when Charles Metcalfe was meeting Ranjit Singh. As he passed through Amritsar,

his Indian Muslim soldiers started shouting pro-Shia slogans during an important Islamic festival. The Nihangs hearing the commotion, viewed the Muslims shouting slogans as an affront to their power. The Nihang's confronted the British & Muslims & in the unsuing physicalities,

the dastaar of a Nihang fell to the floor. On hearing of the incident, Akali Phula Singh appeared from the Akaal Takht seething with anger & shots were fired. The incident escalated & firing became widespread with a loss of life on both sides. As more & more Nihangs began

arriving on the scene, Ranjit Singh heard the commotion & realised the death of a British official would undoubtedly mean war & convinced the Nihangs to cease their attack. The matter was settled, but the British began pressing the Maharaja to arrest Akali Phula Singh.

These noises became louder following a skirmish with a British regiment led by Captain White near Damdama Sahib, The Nihangs felt the British were operating on Sikh territory & preparing for an attack on Sikhs & so without asking questions, the Nihangs attacked the British camp,

killing 6 & wounding 20. The British formally put an arrest warrent out for Akali Phula Singh following this incident. A British government source described Phula Singh's men as "fanatical bordering on insanity, they seem to be at war with all mankind...they are lawless..."

Akali Phula Singh eventually fell at the second Battle of Peshawar in 1823. Dost Muhammed Khan had replaced the previously defeated Afghan leader Yar Mohammed Khan & called for Jihad against Sikhs. As the Afghan border of the Sikh state became increasingly rebellious,

the Maharaja decided to send Akali Phula Singh, Hari Singh Nalwa, his son Kharak Singh, the Frenchman Allard & finally Ranjit Singh himself decided to lead a contingent of Sikh forces. This battle displayed all of Akali Phula Singh qualities as well as his weaknesses.

Prior to the campaign, the Sikh leaders had taken a oath to begin fighting that very evening & reconquer the territory, however, on arriving they realised General Allard was slightly delayed. Ranjit Singh decided to delay the attack until the morning,

however Akali Phula Singh stubbornly refused to break his oath & without warning launched his Nihang Singhs into battle. Vastly outnumbered, the early Sikhs forces were pushed back considerably by the Afghans. It was only when Ranjit Singh saw Phula Singh in the thick of battle

did he decide to throw his forces into the battle. The Nihang determination had given the unprepared Sikhs the inspiration they needed & from defeat they began to turn the tide of battle. Phula Singh had a horse shot from underneath him, and in his desire to re-enter the

battlefield, he made the tactical mistake of jumping onto an elephant. The Aghans couldnt believe their luck, Phula Singh, a constant source of misery to the Afghans was in the middle of the battle and here he was standing out like a target on an elephant.

The Afghans trained their muskets on him and riddled his body with bullets. 

Following the eventual Sikh victory, Ranjit Singh himself viewed the body of Phula Singh & wept uncontrollably at the death of one of his finest generals but also a man who had for the previous

two decades made his life difficult. The death of Phula Singh began the end of Nihang involvement in the Sarkar Khalsa & they only regained a small measure of political relevancy at the Battle of Sabroan in 1846, although this only lasted a number of weeks.

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