Sher Singh

The Sikh empire has been severely weakened by internal divisions and political mismanagement following the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1839.

Meanwhile, immediately after the death of Ranjit Singh, the East India Company had begun increasing its military strength, which was, at the time of his death, spread dangerously thin on the borders of the Punjab.

Ranjit's unpopular legitimate son, Kharak Singh, was removed from power within a few months, and later died in prison.

He was replaced by his able son Nau Nihal Singh, who also died within a few months in suspicious circumstances—crushed by a falling archway at the Lahore fort while returning from Kharak Singh's cremation.

There are at this time two major factions within the Punjab contending for power and influence, the Sindhanwalias and the Dogras.

The Dogras succeed in raising an illegitimate son of Ranjit Singh, Sher Singh, to the throne in January 1841.

The most prominent Sindhanwalias have taken refuge on British territory, but have many adherents among the Army of the Punjab.

The army, which has expanded rapidly in the aftermath of Ranjit Singh's death, as landlords and their retainers have taken up arms, now claims itself to be the Khalsa, or embodiment of the Sikh nation.

Its regimental panchayats (committees) form an alternate power source within the kingdom, declaring that Guru Gobind Singh's ideal of the Sikh commonwealth has been revived, with the Sarbatt Khalsa or the Sikh as a whole assuming all executive, military and civil authority in the State.

The British decry this as a "... dangerous military democracy ...".

British representatives and visitors in the Punjab describe the regiments as preserving "puritanical" order internally, but also as being in a perpetual state of mutiny or rebellion against the central Darbar (Court).

In one notorious instance of unrest, Sikh soldiers run riot, looking for anyone who looks as if they can speak Persian (the language used by the clerks who administer the Khalsa's finances) and putting them to the sword.

The Manchu-led Qing dynasty had consolidated its control of Tibet after defeating the Dzungar Khanate in the early eighteenth century.

From then until late into the nineteenth century, the Qing rule of the region is unchallenged.

South of the Himalayas, Ranjit Singh had established his empire in the Punjab region in 1799.

In 1808, Ranjit Singh had conquered Jammu, which was under control of the Hindu Rajput Dogra dynasty from Dougar Desh in Jammu and incorporated them into his empire as vassals.

Historians continue to debate the reasons for the invasion; some say control of Tibet would have given Gulab Singh a monopoly on the lucrative pashmina wool trade of Tibet, others believe that he aimed to establish a land bridge between Ladakh and Nepal to create a Sikh-Gorkha alliance against the British.

The Sikh invaders had met with success in the beginning of the invasion, thanks to the quality of their weapons, but the Tibetans resist using guerrilla tactics and their knowledge of the local terrain.

Sweeping all resistance before them, the three columns had passed Lake Manasarovar and converged at Gartok, defeating the small Tibetan force stationed there.

The enemy commander had fled to Taklakot but Zorawar storms this fort on September 6, 1841. Envoys from Tibet now came to him as did agents of the Maharaja of Nepal, whose kingdom is only fifteen miles from Taklakot.

The Sikh army now controla the urban centers of Daba, Tholing, Tsaparang Rudok, Gartok and Taklakot (modern Burang Town).

Zorawar garrisons the towns and sets up an administration to rule the occupied territories.

Meanwhile, in the Punjab, the British envoys pressure the Maharaja to order his withdrawal while the Nepalis help the Qing forces against him

Zorawar and his men go on pilgrimage to Mansarovar and Mount Kailash.

He has extended his communication and supply line over four hundred and fifty miles miles of inhospitable terrain by building small forts and pickets along the way.

The fort Chi-T’ang is built near Taklakot, where Mehta Basti Ram is put in command of five hundred men, with eight or nine cannon.

With the onset of winter all the passes are blocked and roads snowed in.

As the intense cold, coupled with the rain, snow and lightning, continues for weeks upon weeks, many of the soldiers lose their fingers and toes to frostbite.

Others starve to death, while some burn the wooden stock of their muskets to warm themselves.

The Tibetans and their Han Chinese allies regroup and advance to give battle, bypassing the Dogra fort of Chi-T’ang.

Zorawar and his men meet the Tibetan and Han Chinese defenders at the Battle of Toyo on December 12, 1841.

In the early exchange of fire the Rajput general is wounded in his right shoulder, but he grabs a sword in his left hand.

The Tibetan horsemen now charges the Dogra position and one of them thrusts his lance in Zorawar Singh’s chest.

Wounded and unable to escape he is pulled down off his horse and beheaded

The battle marks the end of the invasion.

The army of Punjab, their general dead and with three hundred dead and seven hundred soldiers captured, hurriedly retreats to Ladakh with the Sino-Tibetan forces on their heels until they finally halt the pursuit just a day from Leh.

The Sino-Tibetan force now mops up the other garrisons of the Dogras and advances on Ladakh, now determined to conquer it and add it to the Imperial Chinese dominions.

However, the force under Mehta Basti Ram withstands a siege for several weeks at Chi-T’ang before escaping with two hundred and forty men across the Himalayas to the British post of Almora.

Within Ladakh, the Sino-Tibetan army lays siege to Leh, when reinforcements under Diwan Hari Chand and Wazir Ratnu come from Jammu and repulsed them.

The Tibetan fortifications at Drangtse were flooded when the Dogras dam up the river.

On open ground, the Chinese and Tibetans are chased to Chushul.

The climactic Battle of Chushul (August 1842) is won by the Sikhs, who execute the enemy general to avenge the death of Zorawar Singh.