Jangnama Hind Punjab

Hundreds of poets from the soil of Punjab are completely unknown to the Punjabis and Shah Muhammad (1789-1862) – who wrote Jungnama Hind Punjab- an epic about British Punjab wars is one of them. The reason for the estranged relationship between Punjabi literature and Punjabi people has been best explained by a British I.C.S officer. C.F. Osborne. Writing in 1914 he said, “The educated native effects to despise anything that is written in spoken vernacular. He regards it with the same kind of cultivated shoulder that a lady of fashion would feel if a lout from the country came into her drawing–room with muddy boots, an old blue smock, and a drawling Gloucestershire accent.”

Shah Muhammad was not considered worthwhile even by the Sikh historians, except for a few. Principal Nirmal Singh said that Shah Muhammad failed to expose the conspiracies of Raja Dhyan Singh, Raja Gulab Singh, and Raja Heera Singh – all Dogars from Jammu –and Misar Lal Singh and Misar Tej Singh, the Brahaman brothers from Meerut (U.P). The fact, however, is that Shah Muhammad gives a full account of the Dogra-Brahman-Rani Jindan conspiracy:

راجہ گیا گلاب سنگھ آپ چڑھ کے بانہوں پکڑ لاہور لیاندا ای

"صاحب لوک جی اَساں پردیا کرنی اوہ تاں اپنا کم بنا دندا ای

“Raja Gulab Singh himself went to the Britishers. He led them to Lahore. He appeared to them to be merciful to him. Thus he earned their favor.”

Here Shah Muhammad indirectly refers to Kashmir which was given to Raja Gulab Singh by the new masters. The infamous bargain about which Iqbal said:

قومے فروختند وچہ  ارزاں فروختند

How cheap did they sell a nation!

Neither did Shah Muhammad spare those who were in league with the company officials whether it was Pahara Singh of Faridkot, Tej Singh of Meerut, or Raja Gulab Singh of Jammu.

 

پہاڑا سنگھ سی یار فرنگیاں دا سنگھاں نال سی اوس دی غیر سالی

اوہ تاں بھج کے لاٹ نوں جا مِلیا گل جا دَسّی ساری بھیت والی

              “Pahara Singh had developed enmity with the Lahore Rulers. He was a friend of the Britishers. He told them of the conspiracy by Rani Jindan, her paramour, and Prime Minister Lal Singh and Raja Gulab Singh.”

Shah Muhammad was very bitter about those who had helped to destabilize the Punjab Government which was against the European imperialists.

           مُٹھی میٹی سی ایس پنجاب دی جی، ایہناں کھول دِتا اَج پاج یارو

 

“My friends! Punjab was united like a fist. But today they have broken its unity.”

Punjab had always remained an eyesore for the East India Company. Ranjeet Singh had co-operated with the company only to install Shah Shuja in place of Dost Muhammad. On the one hand, he had hoped that Shuja would give him areas beyond Peshawar and, on the other he expected that the Britishers would vacate Shikarpur and adjacent areas—territories of which Ranjeet Singh had aspired since his conquest of Multan in 1818. But he died before his dream could materialize.

After the accidental deaths of Maharaja Kharak Singh and his son, Kanwar Naunehal Singh Kanwar Sher Singh succeeded to the throne. But he was like the earlier apathetic towards the Russians in Kabul.  The company was, however, worried about Afghanistan where Shah Shuja was again being threatened by anti-British Sardars. Sher Singh was, therefore, not considered to be a suitable person to rule Lahore.

Earlier, his succession had been challenged by Mai Chand Koran, and then was persuaded by Sindhanwala to abandon his hold on the palace and leave for Hoshiarpur, which he did. Mai Chand Koran then appointed Misar Tej Singh as the Commander-in-Chief. But most of the soldiers, the European commanders of the Khalsa army and Raja Dhyan Singh, fully supported Kanwar Sher Singh and invited to invade Lahore, which he did and captured the throne.

شیر سنگھ   نوں رَب نے راج دِتا، کھو ہ لیا لاہور جو رانیاں تھیں

سِندھا ں ولایا دے دیسوں پیر کھِسکے، جا پُچھ لے راہ پدھا نیاں تھیں

مُڑ کے پھیرا جیت سنگھ لئی، بازی پیدا ہویا سی اصل سوانیاں تھیں

شاہ  محمدؔ جمیا علی اکبر آندا باپ نوں  کالیاں پانیاں تھیں

 

        “God bestowed the realm of Lahore upon Sher Singh. He got back the throne from the queens. Sindhanwalas (close relatives of Mai Chand Koran) left the motherland and took refuge in the Company’s country. From where did Ajeet Singh, the Sindhanwala, get support to ultimately finish Kanwar Sher Singh? Shah Muhammad, Ali Akbar had freed his father imprisoned in Kala Pani.”

Shah Muhammad has presented a clear picture of the currents and cross-currents running between British India, Sikh Punjab, and Sardar’s Afghanistan in his poem.

Mai Chand Koran was murdered and her close relative, Ajeet Singh Sindhanwala, took refuge in British Punjab. Sher Singh, who was disliked by the British, Further angered them when he refused to share the control of Punjab with Mr. Clerk, the agent of the Governor-General.

Later on, Maharaja Sher Singh was persuaded to take back the Sindhanwalas and he rehabilitated them in their traditional position. They drew very close to Sher Singh with the intention of murdering him, his son Paratap Singh and Prime Minister Dhyan Singh. Shah Muhammad writes about this clever plan of Sindhanwalas in these word.

برس ہویا جاں حاضری لین  بدلے ڈیرا شاہ بلاول لگاؤندا ای

اجیت سنگھ گھجی قرابین لے کے شیر سنگھ نوں آن دکھاؤندا ای

رسدّھی جدوں شہزادے نے نظر کیتی جلدی نال چا کلا دباوندا ای

شاہ محؐمدؔ! زمین تے پیا تڑفے تیغ مار کے سیس اڈاوَندا ای

 

What Shah Muhammad said in the above-quoted verses from “Jangnama Hind Punjab” same is narrated by Doctor Honighberger in his “Adventures in the East”.

He (Maharaja) reclined easily on his chair little suspecting the fate which awaited him. While he was thus employed, Ajeet Singh approached Sher Singh, and, exhibiting a handsome English double-barrelled fowling-piece for his inspection, said with a smile: “See what an excellent rifle I have bought for 1400 rupees, I would not now part with it for even 3000”. The Maharaja stretched out his hand to take the gun, which was loaded with two halls in each barrel, and as Ajeet Singh handed it to the Maharaja, he discharged both barrels simultaneously into his breast. The Maharaja instantly fell back in his chair exclaiming, ``Eh ki dagha, (What treachery is this?), and expired immediately.”

The young Prince Partap Singh was killed by Lehna Singh and by Noon Raja Dhyan Singh had also been assassinated. Sindhanwalas thus completed the task which a year earlier the Governor-General himself wanted to do. Infant Dalip Singh was put on the throne with Jawahar Singh, his maternal uncle, as Prime Minister, and Rani Jindan, his mother, as his patron. Misar Lal Singh became Finance Minister. Gulab Singh of Jammu replaced his nephew, Raja Heera Singh. After the murder of Jawahar Singh brother of Rani Jindan, the ruling junta was convinced that only the Company across the river Sutlej would help them and that was possible only if the Khalsa army was defeated.

جٹی ہواں تے کراں پنجاب رنڈی سارے دیس دے وِچ

چھڈاں نہیں لاہور وِچ وڑن جوگے سَنے وڈیاں افسراں جمعداراں

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عرغی لکھی فرنگی نوں کَج گوشے پہلاں آپنا سُکھ اَنند واری

تیرے دَل میں فوج نوں گھلنی آں کھٹے کریں توں اینہاں دے وَند واری

۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔۔

پہلاں پار دا مُلک توں مل ساڈا آپے کھا غُصّہ  تیں تھیں آدنی گے

 

 “According to Shah Muhammad, Rani Jindan, after the murder of her brother Jawahar Singh, decided that she would take revenge from the Punjabis.”

To complete the subjugation of Punjab, she in consultation with her Prime Minister (her paramour) Misar Tej Singh, (the Barhamans from U.P.) sent a message, through Nawab Shamsuddin of Kasur, to Capt. Nicholson in Ferozepur and invited him to invade Khalsa army. Shah Muhammad says;

شاہ محمدؔ! گوریا چھیڑ چھیڑی ملک پار دا مَلیا آن میاں

 “Shah Muhammad, the Britishers mischievously occupied the Lahore territory across river Sutlej.”

 The Khalsa could not stomach this. They retaliated and then the four battles of Mudki, Ferozeshahr, Aliwal, and Subraon were fought. On all four occasions Misar Tej Singh, the Commander-in-Chief, mysteriously slipped away from the scene.

تیجا سنگھ دی لشکریں آن وڑیا عہدیدار اوتھے سبھ آؤندے نی

کرد حکم تے تیغ اُٹھایئے جی ، پئے سنگھ کچیچیاں کھاؤندے نی

 

 “Tej Singh with other senior officers came there. The soldiers were impatient to open fire. But Tej Singh never gave them the orders.”

The same thing is also told by S.M Lateef in his History of the Punjab.

The next battle was Ferozeshahr (or Pheroshahr) where both the Brahman brothers Tej Singh and Lal Singh played hell with the Punjabi forces. Shah Muhammad depicts the scene in these words.

اوہدر آپ فرنگی نون بھانج پئی دوڑے جان گورے دِتی کنڈ میاں

چلے توپ خانے سارے گوریاں تے  مگر ہوئی بندوق دی پھَنڈ میاں

کِنھے جا کے لیا کے خبر دتی لندن ہو بیٹھی تیری رنڈمیاں

 شاہ محمدؔ! دیکھ میدان جاکے رُلدی گوریاں  دی پئی جھنڈ میاں

 

 “The panic-stricken Britishers were not in good shape. They were about to run and London was going to be widowed. Shah Muhammad go and see the battlefield where heads of Britishers rolled.”

“When the tables were about to turn, Pahara Singh went to the Governor-General and told him of the designs of Tej Singh.”

اوتھوں ہوگیا ہرن ہے خالصہ چوداں ہَتھ دی مار کے مرگ چھالی

 

“Lal Singh has fled and Tej Singh who brought a great force will not join. He just wants to get the complete defeat of the Sikh army.”

Next was the battle of Aliwal and the fourth and the final was that of Subraon (in his neighborhood a bloody battle fought by Alexnder which broke the Morale of Macedonian soldiers who refused to advance). Here too Misar Lal Singh and his brother Tej Singh were commanding the Punjabi forces. Lateef writes:

“The traitor Tej Singh, as before, had fled on the first assault and sank the boat in the middle of the bridge communicating with the opposite bank of the river.”

This happened on February 10, 1846.

شاہ محمدؔ! آ میاں میر بیٹھے ، وچ دیس تے تھاں نکاریاں دے

 

 “Shah Muhammad, the Britishers conquered Lahore and they descended upon Mian Mir, in place of those who failed themselves.”

From here onward the Company had no difficulty in dealing with the Afghans and limiting the Russian influence in Kabul.

نِکے پوچ ہُن بیٹھ کے کرن گلّاں، اساں دِٹھی فرنگی دی چھاؤنی جی

 

“The young generations are very easy going but we have seen the    repression of the colonialists