Sikh Durbar (Lahore Darbar)

The Lahore Darbar, also called the Darbar Khalsaji or Sikh Durbar, was the court and government of the Sikh state from 1799 to 1849. Persian chroniclers called the state the Sarkar-i-Khalsa. Ranjit Singh drove the Bhangi rulers out of Lahore on 7 July 1799, and on 12 April 1801 Baba Sahib Singh Bedi marked him with the tilak and proclaimed him Maharaja.

How it worked

The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism calls the Darbar highly personal, resting on the Maharaja's will. Ranjit Singh meant it to give people of all communities equal rights, not to be a Sikh theocracy. His councillors included Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims and Christians. Among them were Dhian Singh, a Dogra Rajput who became principal minister on 21 June 1839; Fakir Azizuddin, the Muslim foreign minister; and Dina Nath, a Brahmin who with other Brahmins handled finance, diplomacy and military affairs. Around forty European officers, among them Allard, Ventura, Avitabile and Court, served in the Darbar's army, which at its peak numbered roughly 100,000 men.

The succession after 1839, in order

• 27 June 1839: Ranjit Singh dies and his eldest son Kharak Singh succeeds him.
• 9 October 1839: Dhian Singh's party kills Kharak Singh's favourite, Chet Singh Bajwa, in his presence. Kharak Singh is confined and his son Nau Nihal Singh runs the government, without being formally crowned.
• 5 November 1840: Kharak Singh dies. The same day a gateway falls on Nau Nihal Singh, who dies of his injuries (the Encyclopaedia gives 8 November).
• January 1841: Sher Singh takes Lahore and is formally installed on 27 January.
• 15 September 1843: the Sandhanwalia sardars Ajit Singh and Lehna Singh kill Sher Singh. Ajit Singh also kills Dhian Singh.
• 16 to 18 September 1843: five-year-old Duleep Singh is proclaimed Maharaja, Dhian Singh's son Hira Singh becomes prime minister, and Maharani Jind Kaur acts as regent.
• 21 December 1844: Hira Singh is killed by a Sikh force led by Jawahar Singh and Sham Singh Attariwala.

Collapse

By then, in the Encyclopaedia's words, real authority had passed from the palace to the cantonment and the military panchayats. The First Anglo-Sikh War ended in the 1846 treaties, which made the kingdom a British protectorate, and in December 1846 Jind Kaur gave up political power to a council appointed by the British Resident. After the Second Anglo-Sikh War and the defeat at Gujrat on 21 February 1849, Lord Dalhousie proclaimed the annexation of the Punjab at a darbar in the Lahore Fort on 29 March 1849, and Duleep Singh was made to sign away his kingdom.