Thread by @ramanmann1974

Remembering "Sher-E-Punjab" Maharaja Ranjit Singh on his birth anniversary, who united 11 #Sikh "misls" of & formed the #SikhEmpire, was the 1st Indian in a millennium to turn the tide of invasion back into the homelands of the traditional conquerors of 🇮🇳, the Pashtuns (Afghans)

At the height of his power, "Sher-E-Punjab" Maharaja Ranjit Singh domains extended from the Khyber Pass in the northwest to the Sutlej River in the east and from the Kashmir region at the northern limit of the Indian subcontinent southward to the Thar (Great Indian) Desert.

In July 1799 Maharaja Ranjit Singh seized Lahore, the capital of Punjab; Afghan king, Zamān Shah, confirmed him as governor of, but in 1801 he proclaimed himself maharaja of Punjab. He had coins struck in the name of Sikh Gurus, & administered in the name of Sikh commonwealth.

A year later Maharaja Ranjit Singh captured Amritsar (now in Punjab, India), the most-important commercial entrepôt in northern India and sacred city of the Sikhs. Thereafter, he proceeded to subdue the smaller Sikh and Pashtun principalities that were scattered throughout Punjab

His later forays eastward, however, were checked by the English. By a treaty, signed in 1806, he agreed to expel a Maratha force that had sought refuge in Punjab;English then thwarted his ambition to bring together all of the Sikh territories extending up to the vicinity of Delhi

In 1809 the English compelled Maharaja Ranjit Singh to sign the Treaty of Amritsar, which fixed the Sutlej River as the eastern boundary of his territories; he then turned his ambitions in other directions. In Dec 1809, after defeating an advancing Ghurka force, acquired Kangra.

In 1813 Ranjit Singh joined a Bārakzay Afghan expedition into Kashmir. Although Bārakzays betrayed him by keeping Kashmir for themselves, he settled scores with them by rescuing Shah Shojāʿ—brother of Zamān Shah, who was pressured into parting with the famous #Kohinoor diamond.

In the summer of 1818 Ranjit Singh’s troops captured the city of Multan, & 6 months later they entered Peshawar. In July 1819 he finally expelled the Pashtuns from the Vale of Kashmir, & by 1820 he had consolidated his rule over the whole Punjab between the Sutlej & Indus rivers.

All Ranjit Singh’s conquests were achieved by Punjabi armies composed of Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus, as were his commanders & ministers. In 1820 he began to modernize his army, using European officers—many of whom had served with Napoleon I—to train the infantry & artillery.

Ranjit Singh's modernized Punjabi army fought well in campaigns in the North-West Frontier (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan, on the Afghanistan border), including quelling an uprising by tribesmen there in 1831 and repulsing an Afghan counterattack on Peshawar in 1837.

In October 1831 Ranjit Singh met with British officials regarding the disposition of Sindh province (now in Pakistan). The British, who had already begun to navigate the Indus River and were eager to keep Sindh for themselves, prevailed on Ranjit Singh to accept their plan.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh, however, was chagrined by the British design to put a cordon around him. He opened negotiations with the Afghans and sanctioned an expedition led by the Dogra commander Zorawar Singh that extended Ranjit Singh’s northern territories into Ladakh in 1834.

In 1838 Ranjit Singh agreed to a treaty with the British viceroy Lord Auckland to restore Shah Shojāʿ to the Afghan throne at Kabul; with that, the British Army Indus entered Afghanistan, while Ranjit Singh’s troops went thru Khyber Pass & took part in the victory parade in Kabul

Shortly afterward, Ranjit Singh was taken ill, and he died at Lahore in June 1839—almost 40 years after he entered the city as a conqueror. In little more than six years after his death, the Sikh state he had created collapsed because of the internecine strife of rival chiefs.