First Anglo-Sikh War

Who: The Khalsa army of the Sarkar-i-Khalsa at Lahore, ruled in name by the child Maharaja Duleep Singh with his mother, Maharani Jind Kaur, as regent, against the East India Company's army under Sir Hugh Gough and Governor-General Viscount Hardinge. On the Sikh side the wazir Lal Singh and the commander-in-chief Tej Singh led the field armies, and Sardar Sham Singh Attariwala was among the chiefs who fought to the end.

What: After Maharaja Ranjit Singh died in 1839 the Punjab slid into weak rulers, assassinations and a standoff between army and court, while the Company massed troops at Ferozepur. On 11 December 1845 the Khalsa crossed the Sutlej into Company territory, and the Company declared war on 13 December.

• Mudki, 18 December: Lal Singh's army of about 14,000 with 22 guns met Gough's 12,000 and 42 guns (National Army Museum). Lal Singh left the fight early; Khushwant Singh says he ordered the troops to begin it and withdrew himself, and that they fought on until midnight ("Midnight Mudki"), losing half their force and fifteen guns. The Museum adds that a British cavalry charge on the Sikh left then forced them to retire during the night. Sikh artillery killed two British generals, Sale and McCaskill.
• Ferozeshah, 21-22 December: About 40,000 Sikhs held entrenchments. Gough's roughly 18,000 men took them only at heavy cost. When Tej Singh arrived with a fresh army, the Sikhs withdrew.
• Aliwal, 28 January 1846: Sir Harry Smith beat Ranjodh Singh Majithia's force near Ludhiana. The Sikhs lost about 3,000 men and the British 475.
• Sobraon, 10 February: The main Khalsa army was broken on the bank of the Sutlej.

Where: On the Sutlej frontier: Mudki, Ferozeshah (near Ferozepur), Aliwal (near Ludhiana) and Sobraon on the river itself.

Why it mattered: The defeat ended the Khalsa's independent power. The Treaty of Lahore of 9 March 1846 took the Jalandhar Doab, Kashmir and Hazara from the Sikh state and capped its army, and Henry Lawrence arrived as British Resident to oversee the court. The resentment this caused fed the Second Anglo-Sikh War and the annexation of 1849.

The war is also remembered for the question of betrayal. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says Lal Singh passed military information to a British officer at Ferozepur on secret British instructions, calls Tej Singh's conduct duplicitous, and records that Sham Singh Attariwala rebuked both men for leaving the field at Ferozeshah. The National Army Museum says the motives of some Sikh leaders remain disputed, while World History Encyclopedia notes that historians generally treat the generals' conduct as deliberate, given the posts they later held under British rule.