Government (royal court) of Maharaja
Ranjit Singh’,
gouache, ca.1850The empire's ruling court based out of Lahore is termed the
Lahore Darbar or
Khalsa Darbar. The ruling court was diverse and under the ultimate command of the ruling
maharaja, who was the "drum of the Khalsa". The purpose of this border policy was to dissuade potential foreign spies from entering the country. Another more conservative estimate puts its total surface area during its zenith at 100,436 sq mi (260,124 km sq). The following modern-day political divisions made up the historical Sikh Empire: •
Punjab region, to
Mithankot in the south •
Punjab, Pakistan, excluding
Bahawalpur State •
Punjab, India, excluding the
Cis-Sutlej states •
Himachal Pradesh, India, only the territories northwest of Sutlej river. •
Jammu Division,
Jammu and
Kashmir, India and Pakistan (1808–1846) •
Kashmir, from 5 July 1819 to 15 March 1846, India/Pakistan •
Kashmir Valley, India from 1819 to 1846 •
Baltistan, from 1840 onwards •
Gilgit,
Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan, from 1842 to 1846 •
Ladakh, India 1834–1846 •
Peshawar, Pakistan (taken in 1818, retaken in 1834) • Excluding
Waziristan, Ranjit Singh made no attempt to conquer Waziristan.
Jamrud District (
Khyber Agency, Pakistan) was the westernmost limit of the Sikh Empire. The westward expansion was stopped in the
Battle of Jamrud, in which the Afghans managed to kill the prominent Sikh general
Hari Singh Nalwa in an offensive, though the Sikhs successfully held their position at their Jamrud fort. Ranjit Singh sent his General Sirdar Bahadur Gulab Singh Powind thereafter as reinforcement and he crushed the Pashtun rebellion harshly. In 1838, Ranjit Singh with his troops marched into Kabul to take part in the victory parade along with the British after restoring Shah Shoja to the Afghan throne at Kabul.
Administrative divisions The empire was divided into various provinces (known as
Subas), with them namely being as follows as per
Hari Ram Gupta: Hans Herrli instead claims there were five provinces of the Sikh Empire, namely Lahore, Multan, Peshawar,
Derajat, and Jammu and Hill States. The Fakir brothers were trusted personal advisors and assistants as well as close friends to Ranjit Singh, particularly
Fakir Azizuddin, who would serve in the positions of foreign minister of the empire and translator for the maharaja, and played important roles in such important events as the negotiations with the British, during which he convinced Ranjit Singh to maintain diplomatic ties with the British and not to go to war with them in 1808, as British troops were moved along the Sutlej in pursuance of the British policy of confining Ranjit Singh to the north of the river, and setting the Sutlej as the dividing boundary between the Sikh and
British empires; negotiating with
Dost Muhammad Khan during his unsuccessful attempt to retake
Peshawar, and ensuring the succession of the throne during the Maharaja's last days in addition to caretaking after a stroke, as well as occasional military assignments throughout his career. The Fakir brothers were introduced to the Maharaja when their father, Ghulam Muhiuddin, a physician, was summoned by him to treat an eye ailment soon after his capture of Lahore. The other Fakir brothers were Imamuddin, one of his principal administrative officers, and Nuruddin, who served as home minister and personal physician, were also granted jagirs by the Maharaja. Every year, while at Amritsar, Ranjit Singh visited shrines of holy people of other faiths, including several Muslim saints, which did not offend even the most religious Sikhs of his administration. As relayed by Fakir Nuruddin, orders were issued to treat people of all faith groups, occupations, and social levels equally and in accordance with the doctrines of their faith, per the
Shastras and the
Quran, as well as local authorities like judges and
panches (local elder councils), as well as banning forcible possession of others' land or of inhabited houses to be demolished. There were special courts for Muslims which ruled in accordance to Muslim law in personal matters, and common courts preceded over by judicial officers which administered justice under the customary law of the districts and socio-ethnic groups, and were open to all who wanted to be governed by customary religious law, whether Hindu, Sikh, or Muslim. One of Ranjit Singh's first acts after the 1799 capture of Lahore was to revive the offices of the hereditary
Qazis and
Muftis which had been prevalent in Mughal times. Qazi Nizamuddin was appointed to decide marital issues among Muslims, while Muftis Mohammad Shahpuri and Sadulla Chishti were entrusted with powers to draw up title-deeds relating to transfers of immovable property. The old mohalladari system was reintroduced with each
mahallah, or neighbourhood subdivision, placed under the charge of one of its members. The office of
Kotwal, or prefect of police, was conferred upon a Muslim, Imam Bakhsh. Generals were also drawn from a variety of communities, along with prominent Sikh generals like
Hari Singh Nalwa, Fateh Singh Dullewalia, Nihal Singh Atariwala,
Chattar Singh Attariwalla, and Fateh Singh Kalianwala; Hindu generals included
Misr Diwan Chand and
Dewan Mokham Chand Nayyar, his son, and his grandson; and Muslim generals included
Ilahi Bakhsh and Mian Ghaus Khan; one general,
Balbhadra Kunwar, was a Nepalese Gurkha, and European generals included
Jean-Francois Allard,
Jean-Baptiste Ventura, and
Paolo Avitabile. other notable generals of the
Sikh Khalsa Army were
Veer Singh Dhillon,
Sham Singh Attariwala,
Mahan Singh Mirpuri, and
Zorawar Singh Kahluria, among others. The appointment of key posts in public offices was based on merit and loyalty, regardless of the social group or religion of the appointees, both in and around the court, and in higher as well as lower posts. Key posts in the civil and military administration were held by members of communities from all over the empire and beyond, including Sikhs, Muslims,
Khatris,
Brahmins,
Dogras,
Rajputs,
Pashtuns, Europeans, and
Americans, among others, and worked their way up the hierarchy to attain merit.
Dhian Singh, the prime minister, was a Dogra, whose brothers
Gulab Singh and Suchet Singh served in the high-ranking administrative and military posts, respectively. Brahmins like finance minister
Raja Dina Nath, Sahib Dyal, and others also served in financial capacities. Muslims in prominent positions included the Fakir brothers, Qazi Nizamuddin, and Mufti Muhammad Shah, among others. Among the top-ranking Muslim officers there were two ministers, one governor and several district officers; there were 41 high-ranking Muslim officers in the army, including two generals and several colonels, and 92 Muslims were senior officers in the police, judiciary, legal department and supply and store departments. In artillery, Muslims represented over 50% of the numbers while the cavalry had some 10% Muslims from among the troopers. Thus, the government was run by an elite corps drawn from many communities, giving the empire the character of a secular system of government, even when built on theocratic foundations. A ban on cow slaughter, which can be related to Hindu sentiments, was universally imposed in the empire. Ranjit Singh also donated large amounts of gold for the plating of the
Kashi Vishwanath Temple's dome. The Sikhs attempted not to offend the prejudices of Muslims, noted Baron von
Hügel, the Austrian botanist and explorer, yet the Sikhs were described as harsh. In this regard, Masson's explanation is perhaps the most pertinent: "Though compared to the Afghans, the Sikhs were mild and exerted a protecting influence, yet no advantages could compensate to their Mohammedan subjects, the idea of subjection to infidels, and the prohibition to slay
kine, and to repeat the
azan, or 'summons to prayer'." According to
Chitralekha Zutshi and
William Roe Polk, Sikh governors adopted policies that alienated the Muslim population such as the ban on cow slaughter and the
azan (the Islamic call to prayer), the seizure of mosques as property of the state, and imposed ruinous taxes on
Kashmiri Muslims causing a famine in 1832. In addition,
begar (forced labour) was imposed by the Sikh administration to facilitate the supply of materials to the imperial army, a policy that was augmented by the successive Dogra rulers. These policies led the Kashmiri Muslim population to emigrate en masse to more lenient neighbouring regions, particularly
Ladakh. As a symbolic assertion of power, the Sikhs regularly desecrated Muslim places of worship, including closing of the
Jamia Masjid of Srinagar and the conversion of the
Badshahi Mosque in Lahore to an ammunition store and horse stable, but the empire still maintained Persian administrative institutions and court etiquette; the Sikh silver rupees were minted on the Mughal standard with Persian legends. Christian missionaries had been active in the Punjab even prior to the dissolution of the empire in 1849. ==Demography==