Khalsa Fauj

The Khalsa Fauj, or Sikh Khalsa Army, was the army of the Sarkar-i-Khalsa, the Sikh state at Lahore. Maharaja Ranjit Singh rebuilt it from the crude military system he inherited from the Sikh misls.

How it was built: The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says that in 1802, after taking Amritsar, Ranjit Singh hired deserters from the East India Company's army to train his infantry, and that in 1822 he set out to modernise on European lines. That year he took on two veterans of Napoleon's army: Jean-François Allard, who trained the cavalry, and Jean-Baptiste Ventura, who trained the infantry. Claude Auguste Court trained the artillery, and Paolo Avitabile joined in 1827. Foreign officers signed contracts not to shave or smoke, not to eat beef, and to marry local women. The army had regular and irregular wings, and a special brigade, the Fauj-i-Khas, which was one elite part of the force rather than another name for all of it. The Wallace Collection says it had grown to five regiments and 15,000 men by the end of 1822. At its height, the Encyclopaedia says, the army was almost 100,000 men, with 288 field guns, and about a third of the state's revenue went to it.

After 1839: Each battalion, regiment and artillery unit chose its own panchayat, and together the panchayats called themselves the Sarbat Khalsa. They grew strong again in September 1843, after Maharaja Sher Singh and Prime Minister Dhian Singh were assassinated, and pressed the Darbar for pay. World History Encyclopedia puts the army in 1845 at about 70,000 infantry, 6,200 cavalry and 500 guns.

Key moments

• 11 December 1845: the army crosses the Sutlej, starting the first Anglo-Sikh war. It loses each major battle: Mudki, Ferozeshah, Aliwal and, on 10 February 1846, Sobraon. The National Army Museum says the leaders Lal Singh and Tej Singh were later accused of betraying their troops, though their motives are disputed.
• 9 March 1846: the Treaty of Lahore caps the regular army at 25 battalions of infantry and 12,000 cavalry, and bars Lahore from keeping British subjects in its service.
• 13 January 1849: Chillianwala. The British suffer about 2,300 casualties, and the Sikhs recapture 28 of the 40 guns taken from them.
• 21 February 1849: at Gujrat the Sikh retreat becomes a rout.
• 14 March 1849: the remnants of the army surrender at Rawalpindi. Punjab is annexed on 29 March 1849.

Where it stands today: The army was disbanded after annexation, and its soldiers were told to go home to their villages and towns, as Dawn puts it. Some were later recruited into British regiments.