Sikh Soudhan Wars

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Sudhanoti–Sikh Wars
Date 1814_1819_1832 (Intermittent) Location Sudhanoti, Ponch, Kashmir Result Military stalemate In the Third Sikh Sidhnuti War, the Sikhs captured Sidhnuti. The Poonch which was in the possession of Siddhnuti was also taken away from Sidhnuti.
Belligerents
Sudhanoti Supported By_ Brothers Peshawar Sardars	Dal Khalsa Misldar Army Sikh Empire
Commanders and leaders
Sardar Shams Khan, Sardar Milli Khan, Sardar Sabz Ali Khan,	Maharaja Ranjit Singh, *Mian Gulab Singh,*Mian Odham Singh,

The hill chiefs of Sidhnuti fought three wars with the Sikhs.The First Sikh Sudhnuti War was fought in mid-1814 on the Poonch-Sidhnuti border between the hill chiefs of Sidhnuti and the Sikhs, led by Maharaja Ranjit Singh himself, who was defeated by the hill chiefs.The second war was also led by Maharaja Ranjit Singh himself and in this war the chieftains of the Pahari Sudhan clan offered to accept the alliance of the Lahore government through Ranjit Singh's foreign minister Faqir Azizuddin, after which A peace treaty was reached. In which the head (Sardar Shams Khan) of the fifteen hill chiefs of Sidhnuti of Taha Paya and seventy members of his family will have to live in the court of the Sikh Empire in Lahore so that the rest of the hill chiefs of Shams Khan's clan will remain under the Sikh Empire.The Third Sikh Sidhnuti War began with the rebellion of Sardar Shams Khan from Sidhnuti Ming who captured Sidhnuti Poonch and all the forts of the Sikh Empire from Poonch to Jammu. General Gulab Singh led the Third Sikh Sidhnuti War on behalf of the Sikh Empire.In which Sardar Shams Khan and his fellow hill chiefs were defeated.^[1][2][3][4]

First Sikh Sudhan War[edit]

At the time of the First Sikh Sidhnuti War, Sidhnuti was a kingdom divided among fifteen hill chiefdoms. To its north-east and south-east lies the border region of Maidani and Balai Poonch, where the first Sikh Sidhnuti war took place. While the remaining 900 square miles of Siddhunati is a very hilly and difficult terrain with a topography of fifteen mountains.Descendants of Nawab Jassi Khan ruled here from the 14th century AD to the end of the 16th century AD. In the late 16th century AD, the Sadhuzais wrested rule from the descendants of Nawab Jassi Khan and divided the fifteen hills of Sidhnuti among themselves.Thus the rule of fifteen chieftains was established on the fifteen mountains of Sidhnuti. After that Sidhnuti came to be called the land of hill chiefs.Because now there were fifteen rulers on the fifteen mountains of Sidhnuti, who are written and called in history by the name of hill chiefs.The first Sikh-Sidhnuti war with these hill chiefs of Sidhnuti begins with Maharaja Ranjit Singh's capture of Kashmir. When Ranjit Singh's forces reached Rajouri via Bhimbar in mid-June 1814 to occupy Kashmir, the then ruler of Rajouri, Raja Agar Khan, handed over Rajouri to Ranjit Singh without any resistance.Maharaja Ranjit divided his army into two parts to attack Kashmir from two sides during Rajouri stay. Commanding a part of his army under the leadership of Ram Dayal, Dil Singh and Namdar Thakur, he ordered this army to conquer the areas from Rajouri to Baramulla and from Baramulla to Shopian.and himself commanding a second army, conquering the city of Poonch from Rajouri and the Sidhnuti hills on his right, he resolved to advance his army by the Pir Panjal to Shopian. Maharaja Ranjit Singh thought that Shopian, which was then the military cantonment of Muhammad Azim Khan, should assemble here after conquering the respective areas of his two armies. so that the two parts of his army should advance with him. But when Maharaja Ranjit Singh's army passed through Tehsil Mendhar and reached Poonch, he encountered the hill chiefs of Sidhnuti on the border of Sidhnuti.Here a pitched battle took place between the two armies, during which a torrential downpour began, due to which many of Maharaja Ranjit Singh's cannons were disabled. Due to this, Ranjit Singh suffered a heavy defeat from the hill chiefs. When Maharaja Ranjit Singh saw the huge loss of his life and property in this battle, Ranjit Singh fled leaving behind many of his useless cannons. After this defeat, Maharaja Ranjit Singh did not attack the hill chiefs for four years.^{[5] [6]}

Second Sikh Sudhan War[edit]

The First Sikh Sudhan War took place in mid-1814, in which the hill chiefs of Sidhnuti defeated the Sikhs and thwarted Maharaja Ranjit Singh's dream of conquering Kashmir. Ranjit Singh realized that it was impossible to conquer Kashmir unless these hill chiefs of Sidhnuti and other independent tribes of Poonch were conquered. So Maharaja Ranjit first decided to conquer these hill chiefs of Sidhnuti. For which Ranjit Singh, utilizing all his resources, took an army of 40,000 with him and reached Pindi Kahota, the main gate of Sudhnuti, and started bombarding Sidhnuti with mountain cannons. Such a situation was witnessed by the hill chiefs whose total army was about four thousand while the rest were foot farmers who did not even have their own horses.Seeing all this situation, the hill chiefs offered to accept the alliance of Lahore government through Maharaja Ranjit Singh's Foreign Minister (Faqir Azizuddin) which was accepted by Maharaja Ranjit Singh. After which Sardar Shams Khan, the head of the hill chiefs, was brought as a hostage to the Lahore Sikh Darbar along with seventy members of his family under the peace treaty so that the remaining 14 hill chiefs of Sardar Shams Khan's tribe remained under the Sikh Empire.Thus, the war ended under the alliance of the Sikh Empire under the Peace Treaty^[7][8]

Third Sikh Sudhan War[edit]

The Third Sikh Sudhan War begins with the revolt of Sardar Shams Khan. Sardar Shams Khan who was the head of the Sudhan tribe of fifteen hill chiefs of Sidhanoti. He was taken as a hostage in the Sikh court during the Second Sikh Sudhan War. So that the hill chieftains of Sardar Shams Khan's tribe remained subject to the Sikh Empire.Sardar Shams Khan was a hostage in the Sikh court of Lahore during Janata time, during this period the hill chiefs of Sardar Shams Khan's tribe did not revolt against the Sikh Empire. But as soon as in 1832 Sikh war started with Yusufzai of Pakhtun Khawa in which Sikhs had to face defeat.So Sardar Shams considered this opportunity to be appropriate and separated from the Sikh court and came to his homeland Sidhnuti and rebelled against the Sikh Empire. For which the hill chiefs were waiting for years. The hill chiefs of Sidhnuti along with Sardar Shams Khan massacred the Sikhs and declared their independence by wresting all the forts from Sidhnuti to Poonch and Poonch to Jammu from the Sikhs.Seeing such conditions, the Sikh Empire temporarily stopped the war with the Yusufzais of Pakhtun Khaw and attacked Sardar Shams Khan and his fellow hill chiefs with full force. The hill chiefs could not withstand the sophisticated artillery of the Sikhs. Thus, in 16 days,15,000 Sudhan hill chiefs died on the battlefield.Some of the hill chiefs were encamped in Mang fort, where the Sikh artillery bombarded the fort so much that the fort was destroyed and some of the wounded hill chiefs of Sidhnuti were captured alive.Among them were the famous generals of (Sardar Sabz Ali Khan) and (Sardar Mali Khan) Sidhnuti. Whose skins were removed from the living corpse. Thus the Third Sikh Sudhan War ended in victory for the Sikhs.^[9][10][11].^[12]

Bibliography[edit]

• Bamzai, P. N. K. (1994), Culture and Political History of Kashmir, M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd., ISBN 978-81-85880-31-0
• Bakshi, S.R. (1998), Kashmir History and People, New Delhi: Sarup and Sons, ISBN 8185431965
• Panikkar, K. M. (1930), Gulab Singh, London: Martin Hopkinson Ltd
• Singh, Bawa Satinder (1974), The Jammu Fox, Southern Illinois University Press, ISBN 0809306522
• Rai, Mridu (2004), Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of Kashmir, C. Hurst & Co, ISBN 1850656614

References[edit]

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