The fear of British arms, and the apprehension that the jealous Sikh States on the east of Sutlej would throw themselves under British protection, led Ranjit to sign a treaty of perpetual friendship with the English at Amritsar on the 25th April, 1809. By the treaty, Ranjit’s activities were confined to the right side of the Sutlej. The British frontier was extended from the Jumna to the Sutlej and English troops were stationed at Ludhiana. Thus Ranjit had to give up the most cherished ideal of his life—that of undisputed mastery over all the Sikhs.
With a view to utilising the growing Sikh kingdom as a buffer state against the suspected Russian designs on India, Lord William Bentinck met Ranjit Singh at Ropar on the Sutlej in October, 1831, and managed to get the treaty of alliance with him renewed. On the 6th May, 1834, the citadel of Peshawar was captured by the Sikh general Hari Singh Nalwa and Peshawar passed formally under Sikh control. But the further ambitions of Ranjit with regard to the Afghans were restrained by the English. The kingdom of Sindh also felt the impact of Sikh expansion. As a matter of fact, the occupation of Sindh was important to Ranjit as it would increases the compactness of his dominions, because Sindh and the Punjab were provinces of the Indus as Bengal and Bihar are provinces of the Ganges. But here too he was forestalled and checked by the English. Nevertheless, Ranjit succeeded in establishing a kingdom large in extent and rich in fame, before he died on the 27th June, 1839, at the age of fifty-nine.
Ranjit Singh is one of the most important personalities in the history of modern India. Though his physical appearance was not particularly handsome and an attack of small-pox deprived him of sight in the left eye, he had delightful manners and address and inspiring features. He was, writes Cunningham, “assiduous in his devotions; he hounoured men of reputed sanctity, and enabled them to practise an enlarged charity; he attributed ever success to the favour of God, and he styled himself and his people collectively the ‘Khalsa’.
A born ruler of men, Ranjit is entitled to fame chiefly for his success in effecting the marvellous transformation of the warring Sikh States into a compact national monarchy.
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