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The
British East India Company acquired control of the Punjab in
the Anglo-Sikh Wars. During the second and final war (1848-9)
members of the former Sikh Empire rebelled against British
rule. The small kingdom of Nurpur, situated in the Western
Himalayas adjacent to the Sikh Punjab, joined the rebellion
under the leadership of Ram Singh Pathania, son of the late
ruler's wazir. The rebellion ultimately failed, but the story
of Ram Singh—assuming the form of an oral epic—reverberated
throughout the hills long after and today he is popularly
perceived as "India's first freedom fighter." The story of Ram
Singh Pathania has gone transformations that captures
something of the changing nature of hagiographies in India.
Originating in an aristocratic milieu, the narrative has been
adopted by different social groups to become an integral part of local heritage. Thus the historical
exploits of the rebel exploring Rajput dharma have been
incorporated into a "nationalized" Ram Singh in contemporary
representations. While village narratives from the Nurpur area
employ Ram Singh to express popular Shakti beliefs by pairing
the hero with the Goddess in a military campaign through Devi
shrines reminiscent of local pilgrimage. Arik Moran
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Ram Singh Pathania, son of Wazir Shyam
Singh of Nurpur, was in his early
twenties when the region between the Sutlej and Ravi Rivers was
transferred to British administration following the end of the First
Anglo-Sikh War in 1846.Various kingdoms from Spiti in the east
through Lahual in the north and Nurpur in the west came under direct
British occupation. Expecting the reinstatement of their former
roles and titles as had been the arrangement with the Rajas south of
the Sutlej, the local chiefs were gravely distraught upon discovery
of the British administration's plans to hold on to this
strategically important region. Consolidating British hegemony in
the hills thus required extensive military and political maneuvers.
Nurpur suffered in particular, owing to its reputation as a
"problematic" rebellious kingdom under the previous Sikh regime
(and, indeed, under the Mughals as well). In negotiations between
the British and child-Raja Jaswan Singh, the latter followed the
counsel of his advisors (chief among them Ram Singh) and declined
offers of compensation consisting of a British-paid pension and
alternate land as jagir.
The British then took the kingdom by
force and the raja later accepted a
diminished settlement agreement. The events Following two years of
British rule,the Punjab once more became restless. Agitation began
in Multan and later kindled in the northern tracts of the Punjab
west of Nupur. On April 22nd,1848, the Sikhs declared independence
and numerous peasants- former soldiers of the pre-1846 disbanded
Sikh army- mobilized in anticipation. The Second Anglo-Sikh War
started and Nurpur was ready to join the cause. Ram Singh Pathania
left his family‘s residence at Basa Waziran in August 1848. It seems
that from the very beginning of his revolt he contacted numerous
family members and ex-rajas of the hills, yet almost all of his
pleas for help were met with refusal.As he made his way to Shahpur
Kandhi- formerly the second most prosperous town in Nurpur State
after Indaura (and before Nurpur)- north of the Ravi, he gathered
followers from local villages forming a band of guerrilla warriors.
Apart from the prospect of acquiring provisions at this wealthy
town, Shahpur could well have been chosen by the rebels as a symbol
of "Greater Nurpur" due to its traditional status as a dominion of
Nurpur since Mughal times,a status that had been lost with the
advent of British rule and the ceding of the town to the Dogras of
Jammu following the First Anglo-Sikh War. En route to Shahpur, Ram
Singh and his men began attacking the British by laying waste the
British cantonment at Mamon, near Pathankot.
Their first major encounter with
the British garrison at Shahpur Fort was a success. Having subdued
and captured it, Ram Singh unfurled the Nurpur flag and announced
Jaswan Singh as Raja, himself as his wazir and Maharaja Dalip Singh
of the Punjab- another ten year old ruler, son of the late Maharaja
Ranjit Singh, in whose name the Punjabi Sikhs rebelled- supreme
ruler. British reinforcements were called from Sarhali Cantonment in
present day Hoshiarpur and the rebels abandoned Shahpur by night.The
second major engagement was held on September 18th, 1848, and took
place on a thickly wooded ridge above the village of Jacch, lying
between Nurpur Fort and the contemporary village of Jasûr leading to
the plains. The 250-strong rebel forces lost to the superior units
under the command of the District Commissioner of Kangra, G.
C.Barnes, and John Lawrence, Resident at the Court of Lahore and
Barnes's predecessor as head of administration in Jallandhar.British
reports maintain that the rebels "fought with the utmost courage and
coolness, loading and firing as they retired", leaving behind them
some 50-60 men killed or wounded. Ram Singh fled undetected through
enemy lines to the hilly outpost of Rasul in Gujrat missil of the
Panjab (presently in Pakistan), where Sikh rebels were still at
large. He managed to secure the sympathies of the Sikhs and
reentered Nurpur territory on January 1849 along with two 500-strong
Sikh regiments.The forces camped on the Dalla ki Dhar, a moderately
high and heavily wooded mountain range perched above the eastern
bank of the Ravi. A force from the Calcutta Army under General
Wheeler, consisting of about 500 men, strengthened by
elephant-carried artillery, made its way to confront the rebels.
They reached and secured Shahpur (site of Ram Singh‘s first
insurrection) on January 11th.Three days later the army set camp at
Kumhani (present day Kumna ki Payal) on the plains facing the Dalla
Range. On the 16-17th of January the rebellion's
decisive battle was fought. There were many casualties on both
sides, among
them Lt. John Peel, nephew of prominent British politician and prime
minister
(1834-5, 1841-6), Sir Robert Peel. Lt. Peel is commemorated in a
tablet raised
by his fellow soldiers at the site.
Ram Singh managed to escape this
bloody battle, although by now most of his force was largely
dispersed. Despite most historians' tendency to view the
rebels as a group of marauding "worthless characters",10the details
reviewed so far- the heavy casualties on the British side, the
different strategic choices made by Ram Singh for attack and camp
settings- paint a rather different picture. The rebels were a
well-trained and disciplined fighting force that is efficiently
commanded by the wazir's son as he utilizes the familiar settings of
his homeland to their best advantage. After the battle of Dalla the
British had despaired of capturing Ram Singh by ordinary military
means and announced a 2,000-Rupee prize for information leading to
his capture. The rebel was thus eventually caught in Kangra, where
he most likely arrived in an attempt to pursue his plot with local
leaders. The majority of British forces were now engaged in
expanding British rule in the far off Hazara region, formerly under
Sikh rule, capitalizing on the opportunity to consolidate their rule
as a result of the war. It is accepted that Ram Singh‘s family and
friends betrayed him, the Brahmin cook (boti) taking the blame for
actually pointing him out to the British while the rebel was
performing morning puja. He was tried in Kangra and sentenced to
exile beyond the kala panî at the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.That, in
general lines, is the story of Ram Singh Pathania‘s revolt as
transcribed by British administrators in 1905.
The story of Ram Singh remains
significant to the people of Nurpur today. In
fact, the tale gained in popularity to such an extent that today it
is
incorporated by most Himachalis, regardless of their home district,
as part of
their cultural-historical heritage, forming a part of Himachali
identity. Today
we thus find Ram Singh locally known as “India‘s first freedom
fighter“, with
colleges being named after him, state-level fairs celebrated at
Dalla and his
story accounting for nearly the entire first half of the All India
Radio
(Dharamshala branch) Republic Day broadcast, Khunti ki Kangra ("Kangra‘s
Freedom Struggle"). Ram Singh is further commemorated in folk tales
that
recount his story. One such version from a village near Nurpur tells
of his
adventures while describing his travels through various Devi shrines
and forts,
where the Goddess time and time again comes to his aid.
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