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Abstract
Although Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s rule has been well studied by scholars none up to this point have turned their attention to the cultural capital produced by his court and what this meant in regard to Ranjit Singh’s association with the British and how this configured the colonial relationship. This article challenges basic assumptions about the cordial nature of Ranjit’s kingdom, claimed to be particularly genial towards the British after the Treaty of Lahore in 1809, by focussing in part upon the image of himself that Ranjit wished to portray to the outside world, an image not only of his personal self but also of the products produced by his court in particular the Sikh Kashmiri shawls of the Lahore Darbar and the medal of valour, the Kaukab-i Iqbāl-i Punjāb.
Notes
1 Nurallah Iranparast (ed.), Būstān-i Saʿdī, 238, line 5 in this text.
2 Griffin (Citation1892, 92):
His political sagacity was great, and was shown in nothing more convincingly than in his determined friendship with the English, when he had once realized that they were safe friends and very dangerous enemies.
3 See particularly Ganda Singh, ‘Maharaja Ranjit Singh: A Short Life-Sketch,’ and K. C. Khanna, ‘Maharaja Ranjit Singh as Nation-builder,’ both of which appear in Singh (Citation1986, 12–45; 194–206).
4 The collected essays within Singh ([Citation1939] Citation1986) are a case in point.
5 See Akāl Ustati, Dasam Granth, 11–38.
6 For example, when asked why he had accepted a beautifully illumined manuscript copy of the Qurʾan when he was in fact a Sikh, the maharaja is said to have replied that since God had taken away one of his two of his eyes he could look at all religions with simply one, and thus act indiscriminately. Singh (Citation1973, 7). For ‘secular’ in modern Indian political discourse, see Van Der Veer (Citation1992) and Larson (Citation1995).
7 Singh (Citation1996, 428–430). The tale appears in Ratan Singh Bhangu's Gur-panth Prakāś 94.1:42–48. For the latest edited edition of Bhangu's text, see Dhillon (Citation2004, 207–208).
8 This is despite Bhangu's growing concern that Ranjit Singh would likely encroach upon Bhangu's own family inheritance in eastern Punjab, an anxiety that likely had more to do with Bhangu's desire to write this Sikh history than his need to inform Captain Murray of the Sikhs, a point on which he elaborates within his text. It is likely for such contemporary personal and political reasons that Bhangu's opinion of Malwai and Majhail Sikhs is so prominent. Gurinder Singh Mann, ‘Revisiting Rattan Singh Bhangu's Gur Panth Prakash,’ paper presented at the conference New Directions in Sikh Studies, University of California at Sant Cruz, 11-12 November 2011.
9 Kohli (Citation1928), 246. A Punjabi translation appears as Singh (Citation1995). The meṣraʿ appears here on 221.
10 Nurallah Iranparast (ed.), Būstān-i Saʿdī, 238, line 8 in this text.
11 The maharaja's library, for example, contained a manuscript copy of the Shāh-nāmah. For further Islamicate texts and objects, see both A. S. Melikian-Chivrani, ‘Ranjit Singh and the Image of the Past,’ and Susan Stronge, ‘The Arts of the Court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh,’ both of which appear in Stronge (Citation1999, 60–73, 74–91).
12 Guru Arjan, Sirī rāg 13(2), Adi Granth, 74. Some contextualisation provided in Grewal (Citation2013).
13 Guru Nanak, Mājh kī vār 1:7 Adi Granth, 140–141.
14 See Guru Arjan, Marū rāg 9:3:12, Adi Granth, 1084.
15 Grewal and Banga (Citation1987, order 65, 111); Suri (Citation1961, 342, 346, 404). The maharaja's penchant for beautiful dress is regularly noted in Suri's chronicle.
16 Dhavan (Citation2011). See also Fenech (Citation2014, 240–249).
17 Suri (Citation1961, 281) for one of many examples of individual Sikhs noted as ‘Khalsa so and so’; 454 when Khalsa refers to the army specifically.
18 Guru Nanak, Tilaṅg rāg 2:3, Adi Granth, 722.
19 See, for example, Sethi (Citation1950, 82).
20 When presented a map of India with British territories coloured red, the maharaja is claimed to have said that one day it will all be red.
21 As noted in Ali (Citation2004, 139). For a list of the many works produced in the Tenth Guru's literary court, see Padam (Citation1976). Also see Fenech (Citation2008, 122–198).
22 Appadurai (Citation1986, 3–63) as noted in Eaton (Citation2004, 816–844, esp. 817). This article is expanded in Eaton (Citation2013, 151–194).
23 After the death of Ranjit Singh, Europeans played an even more intimate role in altering shawl production. This ultimately led Kashmiri weavers to change their method of production, which, in turn, led Europeans to decry the industry as denigrating. Maskiell (Citation2002, 54).
24 Of course exports of shawls and other Indian textiles had peaked in the seventeenth century and had by the late nineteenth century decreased substantially. This was in part due to the copying of styles and their adulteration by British manufacturing which transformed the botah into the paisley. For background on textile export numbers to England from India, see Robins (Citation2012). In England, however, there was still a profitable market for genuine shawls as evinced by the foundation in 1875 of Arthur Liberty's famous store, Liberty, which is still situated on London's Regent Street. The store was founded, so its catalogue of 1876 states, ‘to educate the British public to appreciate the gems of the intricate art of the East.’ See Zutshi (Citation2009, 437).
25 For background on the early history of the shawl and Indian textile market and its significance for global trade, see Guy (Citation2013), 12–27.
26 Maskiell (Citation2002, 27–65). Also see Ames (Citation2010, 69).
27 Ames (Citation2010, 77, 86). Also see my review of Ames’ Woven Masterpieces in the journal Sikh Formations 8:2 (August 2012), 261–265.
28 Eaton (Citation2004, 822). This article richly excavates the nuances of such portrait gifting on both the British and Indian sides.
29 Zutshi (Citation2009), 425–426. Here Zutshi argues as to the British East India Company's efforts in securing a footing in the late eighteenth-century shawl trade.
30 For example, Zutshi (Citation2009, 420–440) and Crang and Ashmore (Citation2009) among the many other articles mentioned within this paper.
31 Vigne (Citation1842, 124) tells us that Ranjit paid an advance of five thousand rupees for their production. Rosemary Crill, however, mentions that Ranjit paid ‘a staggering 50,000 rupees.’ Rosemary Crill, ‘Textiles in the Panjab,’ in Stronge (Citation1999, 129).
32 Suri (Citation1961, 453):
The Captain Sahib (C.M. Wade) and Macnaughten Sahib … presented him [Ranjit Singh] with a picture of the Lat Sahib [Auckland], very well painted and set with diamonds, containing his name and a pearl necklace around it and said that the said necklace may be worn by the sincere friend and in fact put it round the neck of the Maharaja.As Natasha Eaton notes, furthermore, in a somewhat different context, the gifting of this portrait in such an extravagant setting (diamonds … and a pearl necklace) carried with it a crucial subtext, that is to use the picture ‘to foist a personal obligation onto the recipient.’ Eaton (Citation2004, 832). Emily Eden also gifted Ranjit Singh with an image of Queen Victoria set within a stunning frame of gold, ‘very well worked, with a sort of shell at each corner, encrusted with precious stones, and one very fine diamond in each shell’ which cost about 500 pounds. Eden (Citation1983, 193).
33 For the history of the medal of valour within India, see McClenaghan (Citation1996).
34 The grant to Auckland is noted by both McClenaghan in 15 and Susan Stronge in ‘The Arts of the Court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’ (82, note 90). Osborne notes that on the day before his departure, Ranjit Singh had given him a very rare tour of the Gobind Garh fort and its well-stocked treasure room containing ‘about twelve millions in gold.’ He continues:
He gave me some magnificent presents when I came away; but I am allowed to keep nothing but the decoration of the military order of the ‘Runjeet Star of the Punjab', of which he made me a knight, and invested me himself.
35 Henry Fane, for example, praises Allard in his chronicle. Fane (Citation1842, I: 161).
36 Suri (Citation1961, 333). The passage is worth quoting:
The Maharaja … wanted to know something about the three medals which were hanging about the neck of the Lat Sahib (Sir H. Fane). The Lat Sahib (Sir H. Fane) said that one of them had been granted him for his three years’ Government service rendered in the best possible manner, the second was in token of his title, and the third in recognition of his military rank.Fane himself did not mention the discussion in his travelogue. Henry Edward Fane, Five Years in India I: the events of 6 March 1837 appear on pages 131–137.
37 I talk about the idea of farr in Indo-Islamic India in the context of the Persian writings of Guru Gobind Singh in Fenech (Citation2013, 53).
38 As noted in Axel ( Citation2 Citation001, 58).
39 There is a wonderful narrative in the Umdat-ut-Tawarikh in which a French doctor and Captian Wade almost come to blows when the said doctor calls into question British manliness:
The Maharaja asked [the French doctor] if the French were more brave and daring than the Frangis (the English) and he replied that the French were very well trained so much so that one French (man) was equal to four Farangis (the English) … .After that hot words were exchanged between the Captain Sahib (C.M. Wade) and Doctor Sahib.Suri (Citation1961, 457–458).