Ram Singh: A Challenge to the British Raj

I will fight with Farangi.

I have a claim against the English.

My life is a thing of but four days.

Ram Singh was born in the house of Shama.

Born in the likeness of God and named “the bold”

He was who saved the Rajput’s Honour.

Well did the son of the Wazir fight.

No doubt, after the fall of the Sikhs the British were ruling supreme in the land of five rivers. The British, with the help of Bengalis, Purbis, Madrasis and Gurkhas, had conquered the last post but not with any case. They met the toughest resistance in the Punjab. From Subraon to Challianwala stretches a graveyard that still bears witness to what happened to the mighty Farangis.

         Ram Singh’s episode is one of the many which were enacted by the rebel sons of the Punjab right from 1842 to 1947. Ram Singh and rebels like him have been the heroes of the bards of Punjab. They paid tributes to these warriors and recorded their miracles in their ballads. Ram Singh’s account is well cherished by the folk bards. Ram Singh, son of the Wazir to the Raja of Nurpur (now in Himachal Pradesh) who in 1848 challenged the new conquerors of the Punjab.

         The ballad of Ram Singh consists of four parts, the first describes of first rebellion and the fight at Jachh; the second describes the preliminary negotiation, but irrelevantly referring to the Dalla mountain, the scene of the second rebellion; the third reverts to the fighting at Jachh, the subsequent scattering and re-assembly at Shahpur; the fourth is a description of the last fight on the Dalla heights above Shahpur.

He (Ram Singh) wrote an order to his mother’s brothers.

He called Jawahar Singh and Bahadur Singh – his mother’s brothers.

He called the Kotwal named Das, he called Dhian the Jarral.

         He also called Amar Singh Minhas, who bared his sword (and said) I will try against the armies how my sword works.

         Then Ram Singh backing out, going up in his hand, seized his sword which says “kill, kill”.

         Barnes’ Settlement Report says:

         “At the end of August 1848, a Pathania Rajput, and son of the Wazir of the ex-Raja of Nurpur, collecting a batch of adventurers from the neighbouring hills of Jammu suddenly crossed the Ravi and threw himself into the un-occupied fort of Shahpur. That night he received a congratulatory deputation from the neighborhood and proclaimed by beat of drum that the English rule had ceased.”

He bared his sword from his waist.

He girded it on his waist.

He gave orders to his soldiers and brought his camp to Shahpur.

         Barnes writes in his settlement Report: “In January 1849 Ram Singh persuaded Raja Sher Singh to give him two Sikh regiments, each 500 strong, to make a second eruption in the hills. He took up a final position upon the Dalla heights.

         “This ridge (Dulla or Dalla) overhangs the Ravi and presents towards the plains the quarter from which an assailing force must proceed, a series of perpendicular blocks of sandstones, varying from 50 to 150 feet high and each forming in itself a strong and almost impregnable valour of the insurgents made the assault of service of peculiar danger, and Brigadier Wheeler came up in person accompanied by a strong force of all arms. By his skilful disposition the rebels were driven from their fastnesses with considerable slaughter and we on our side had to mourn the loss of two gallant officers Cornet Christie of the 7th Cavalry and Lt.J.Peel of Hoshiarpur Local Corps.”

And the ballad says!

The drums roll on the height of Dalla, the side drums beat at Kumhai.

The news of you has reached the present.

Malmal Sahib has come up raising the country as he comes.

He shot an arrow into the hands of Malmal Saheb and the hand he destroyed.

Malmal Saheb’s brother Chandi Saheb came up, as he came he gave a blow.

He warded off the blow with his shield and struck his own blow on Saheb's head.

They had his body taken to Delhi.

Burton’s account

         Burton gives more details about the rebel Ram Singh in his book ‘First and second Sikh wars’.

         "Ram Singh son of Shama, one of the hereditary wazirs of Nurpur, crossed the frontier and attacked several posts on the customs line in the vicinity of Pathankot and Nurpur. A force of the 15th Irregular Cavalry and 29th Native Infantry under Major Fisher was accordingly sent against him and crossed the Beas at Kathgarh on the 9th September 1848. Early on the 10th, Major Fisher marched to Pathankot, where arrangements were made for attacking the rebels who were reported to be in possession of the neighboring fort of Shahpur. As the force approached that place a body of a man was seen on the hill overlooking, dispersed by the cavalry. When the party neared the fort, a heavy fire of musketry was opened from the walls, by which a few spears were wounded. Fire continued until dusk and during the night the rebels evacuated the fort, escaping by a precipitous path leading to the Ravi, which flowed several hundred feet below”.

         "On the 10th September, Mr.J.Lawrence, Commissioner of the Jullundur Doab, reached Kangra and on the 13th he arrived at Nurpur, when he heard that Ram Singh occupied a long narrow hill in the immediate vicinity of the town. He had perpetrated several dacoities and had written circular letters to the headmen of villages asking them to join him. On the morning of the 14th, Mr. Lawrence and Major Fisher reconnoitered the enemy's position and the surrounding country which was difficult. It was found that cavalry could act with difficulty on the south, a wider ravine, interspersed with rice fields, running along that side, on the north the country was much more difficult, being broken in every direction into hundreds of little spurs running out from the main chain on which the insurgents were brought up, and on the morning of the 19th, Ram Singh and his followers were dispersed”.    

"On the 8th January (1849) Brigadier General Wheeler marched from Pathankot against a body of insurgents under Ram Singh, who had taken up a position on the Dalla mountain north of Shahpur. He sent the 4th Native infantry and a risala of irregular cavalry under command of Lt.Col. D.Downing, up the bed of the Chaki River, to take post at the opposite end of the mountain where the ascent was easier than on the Shahpur side. At Shahpur he found that a range of hills had to be crossed to reach the Dalla Mountain. He had hoped to avoid this range by marching up the bed of the river Ravi, but it was found that the fords were too deep and the stream across a gorge which crossed the intervening hills, the work occupying three days. At the foot of Dalla mountain three days were employed in reconnoitering and on the 15th and 16th January three columns marched to different points from which a simultaneous attack was made on the latter date. The enemy were driven from their stronghold with considerable loss, 35 bodies being counted. On the British side Coronet Christie, 7th Light cavalry, and Jamadar Ram Kishan Singh, 18th Sikh Local Infantry were killed and Lieutenant Peel, 2nd-in-command of the latter corps, was wounded."  

According to the Punjabi ballad, the end of Ram Singh was:

Your Brahmans have been deceitful.

They enabled the capture when he was seated at prayers.

They put him in a palanquin and came to Nurpur city.

And in the prison of the foreign masters Ram Singh says:

As my life was written so I have received.

My Misar (Brahman) deceived me.

Who takes my name while I live?

The word of the men remains with men (till death).

Mother’s sons fight.

Ram Singh, the Pathania, fought with strength.

         Ram Singh was transported for life in the following February but this was after the conclusion of hostilities in the Second Sikh war.