Military Administration of Ranjit Singh

The reorganization of the Sikh military system was the crowning achievements of Ranjit Singh.Very early in his carrer, he realised that his existing small army, ill equipped and indisciplined was unsuitable for the task of building up a powerful Sikh kingdom in the Punjab. Maharaja Ranjit Singh must be given credit for training and disciplining a large army on Western lines.

Creation of Regular Force :

Holkar, after suffering defeat at the hands of the English fled to the Punjab and net Ranjit Singh at Amritsar in 1805. He urged upon the Maharaja the desirability of having a full treasury, building strong forts and disciplining the forces, if he was to save his kingdom from the English.Ranjit Singh visited General Lake’s camp in disguise and saw the drill of his forces.in 1809 Sir Charles Metcalfe had gone to carry on negotiations with the Maharaja and Ranjit Singh was impressed by his disciplined bodyguard. Moreover, Ranjit Singh realised that treaty of Amritsar was his defeat from the diplomatic and military points of view. A strong disciplined army was necessary to avoid such set-backs in future,

Organization of Army :

It was in 1815 Napoleon met his Waterloo. The officers of the French army moved towards different directions in order to seek a fortune. Some of them like Ventura, Court and Allard came to the Panjab and joined the service of Ranjit Singh. They completely overhauled his army and taught it new techniques of warfare. The army of Ranjit Singh was divided into Fauj-i-Aam or regular army and Fauj-i-be-qawaid or irregular force.

Fauj-i-Aam or Regular Army - It consisted of Infantry, Cavalry and Aritillery. Osborne says, “The Sikh army can be easily moved-30,000 Sikh troops would move more easily than 3 company regiments.” Cunningham says “he found the military army of his country a mass of horsemen, brave indeed, but ignorant of war as an art and he left it mastering 50,000 disciplined soldiers, 50,000 well armed youngmen and militia and more than 300 pieces of Cannon for the field.”

Infantry - The infantry force was gradually created. The Sikhs did not consider it honourable to fight on foot. In the time of the Misls, the Sikhs used infantry only to garrison forts and protect women, property, etc. They fought on horseback.

The Sikhs were not prepared to join infantry when the Maharaja decided to create a regular infantry force. Ranjit Singh persisted and overcame their traditional prejudices. After 1818 people began to join infantry. In 1822 General Ventura joined the Sikh army. He had served under Napoleon and he trained infantry force very efficiently. Some other Napoleonic officers also joined the army of Ranjit Singh.
The lowest unit was the section consisting of about 25 soldiers. It was under a Havaldar who was assisted by a Naib. Four sections formed a company which consisted or about one hundred troops. Its officer was called Subedar. He was assisted by two Jamadars. Eight companies formed a battalion or Paltan. Its minimum strength was 800 soldiers. It was under a Commandant who was assisted by an Adjutant or a Major. A number of non-combatants like Munshi, Granthis were attached to it. A large organisation called Brigade was created towards the end of reign. A brigade usually consisted of four battalions of infantry, of a few cavalry regiments and a battery of eight or ten guns. A company of Beldars was generally attached to it.

Cavalry. - Ranjit Singh wanted to train his cavalry force on Western lines. The Western tactics consisted in the quick manoeuvring of horses and troops. The proud Ghurcharas regarded these as the tricks of dancing girls and were not prepared to learn these new methods. Hence Ranjit Singh was forced to raise new cavalry recruits. General Allard arrived in 1822 and the development of the cavalry was more rapid after that. The strength of the trained cavalry had increased four times within a few years of his arrival. The strength of a cavalry regiment varied from one hundred to five hundred. Large regiments were divided into Risalas. The pay in cavalry was higher than infantry.

Artillery. - In the beginning there was no separate artillery. Two guns were usually attached to each infantry battalion. A separate artillery corps was raised in 1810 and it was called Topkhana-i-Khas. It was commanded by Mian Ghuas Khan. These guns were distributed among battalions in 1814 and a new artillery corps was raised. It was divided into four classes.
(1) Top Khana Filli or elephant batteries.
(2) Top Khana Shutri or Camel swivels. It was also called Zarnb urkhanas.
(3) Top Khana Aspi or horse batteries.
(4) Top Khana Gawai or Bullock batteries.
The artillery was raised to a high pitch of efficiency by General Court and Col. Gardiner.

Fauj-e-Khas or French Legion. - It was the model brigade of the Sikh army and was raised in 1822 by General Ventura and General Allard. It consisted of four infantry battalions, two cavalry regiments and 2$ guns. It was the best trained brigade of Ranjit Singh’s army. The infantry battalions were Khas battalion, Gurkha battalion, Deva Singh’s battalion and Sham Sota’s battalion. The two cavalry regiments were Khas regiment and Dragoon regiment. Its artillery was called Corps of General Ilahi Baksh.
The flag of this special brigade was a tricolour one with an eagle and material Guru Gobind Singh embroidered on it. This model brigade was also called French Legion because it used French words of command.

Fauj-i-be-qawaid or the irregular Army. - It mostly consisted of horsemen. These were of two kinds—Ghurcharas and Misldars. Ghurcharas were a single organisation and were generally recruited from among the landed gentry. They provided their own equipment. The Misldars were all the petty chiefs who had lost their possessions to Ranjit Singh and had agreed to join him with their horsemen. They were considered inferior to Ghurcharas. Their number increased with the passing of time.

Recruitment and Payment :

There was no dearth of recruits. This was due to the martial traditions of the people, social prestige of fighting profession and Ranjit Singh’s patronisation of military career.
The troops in the days of Misls were paid out of plunder. Ranjit Singh felt that it was not a good system. He started giving them monthly salaries. The pay of the army was usually in arrears of three to four months. The idea was to check insubordination and desertions on the part of soldiers. The pay in the Cavalry was higher than in infantry, but the pay of infantry and artillery was practically the same. There was no system of pensions but sometimes jagirs were given. There was no provision for the widows and children of those who were killed on the battlefields.

Drill System. - Ranjit Singh also introduced drill system in his army. The Akalis objected to it and called it Raqas-e-Loulouan (Dance of the fools), but Ranjit Singh stuck to his guns and they had to do it.

Both the infantry and the artillery were unrivalled for steadliness and the former was a match for the East India Company's forces and the latter was probably superior.These forces constituted the material strength of the Sikh power and as long were capably led and held together, they had no superior in the sub-continent.It was the only army which was capable of meeting the East India Company's forces.The Sikh armies baffled the British in the Anglo-Sikh Wars and if they were defeated, it was because of the treachery of their generals.

By: Harman Sandhu