Sardar Charhat Singh Sukerchakia

Sardar Charhat Singh was the chief of the Sukerchakia misl, the eldest son of Sardar Naudh Singh and the grandfather of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. In the generation after the Ghallugharas he turned a fighting band into a territory around Gujranwala, the base from which his grandson later built the Sarkar-i-Khalsa.

The misl's story runs over three generations. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism names Budha Singh as founder of the clan, which took its name from the village of Sukkarchakk in Gujranwala district, and credits his son Naudh Singh with raising the band. Naudh Singh joined the Faizullapuria (Singhpuria) misl under Nawab Kapur Singh and died in 1752. After his death Charhat Singh broke away from the Faizullapuria misl to build territory of his own, so he is the first Sukerchakia chief to lead it as a misl in its own right. His dates are disputed: the Encyclopaedia says only that he died in 1770, while Wikipedia gives 1721 to 1770 or 1733 to 1774.

Key moments

• He made Gujranwala his headquarters and in 1756 married Desan, eldest daughter of his close companion Amir Singh, joining the two families' resources.
• August 1761: he besieged Ahmad Shah Durrani's general Nur ud-Din Bamezai at Sialkot and forced him to flee. He also repelled Ubaid Khan, the Afghan governor of Lahore, who besieged Gujranwala; the arrival of Jassa Singh Ahluwalia helped force Ubaid Khan to retreat.
• 5 February 1762: he fought in the Vadda Ghallughara.
• April 1763: with the Bhangi sardars he sacked Kasur. In November 1763 he defeated the Shah's commander-in-chief Jahan Khan at Sialkot.
• He plundered Eminabad, captured Wazirabad and Rohtas, ranged across the Rachna and Chaj Doabs, Dhanni and Pothohar, and took Pind Dadan Khan and the Salt Range. That angered the Bhangi sardars, who counted those areas as theirs.
• 1770 (1774 in some accounts): in a quarrel over the succession at Jammu he backed Brij Raj Deo against his father Ranjit Deo, who had the Bhangis' support. He was fatally wounded when his own matchlock burst.

What he is remembered for. He is the link between the guerrilla bands of the Ghallughara years and the sovereign state of his grandson. His son Mahan Singh enlarged the misl, and Mahan Singh's son Ranjit Singh, the Encyclopaedia says, "liquidated the misls north of the Sutlej" and became the Punjab's sovereign.