In the first half of the nineteenth century, the British East India Company governed ‘Hindoostan’ from their headquarters at Fort William in Calcutta. ‘Sikh Affairs’ were under the charge of their ‘Foreign Department’. British agents, stationed at Ludhiana, were deputed to keep an eye on the affairs of the Punjab. The National Archives of India, New Delhi, has in its collection detailed reports dispatched to the British Governor-General spanning the period of the Sikh Kingdom. The information incorporated in these records is truly phenomenal. A report by one such agent was used by H.T. Prinsep, the Secretary in the Persian Department of the East India Company, to compile the first book on Maharaja Ranjit Singh, ruler of the Punjab. This book remains a ready reckoner for the Kingdom of the Sikhs.

Reports by the functionaries of the East India Company on spying missions — Charles Masson, Alexander Burnes and William Moorcroft — provided eye-witness accounts. Mohan Lal Kashmiri and Shahamat Ali, both employees of the East India Company, present an even more knowledgeable Indo-British view. The British Gazetteers, compiled after the annexation of the Punjab, fill in many of the gaps.

European travellers through the Punjab — Godfrey Thomas Vigne, Reverend Joseph Wolff and Baron Charles von Hügel — render their personal, often unbiased, first-hand accounts. Baron von Hügel is the most outstanding of the three. This German had taken part in the war against Napoleon and had thereafter travelled widely in Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia. The journal relating to his travels in South India, Punjab and Kashmir was translated from German into English and published under the patronage of the Honourable Court of Directors of the East India Company. Every ‘India man’ of consequence read his book. The British translator of his work referred to him as a ‘nobleman of high birth and great good sense’. Hügel’s observations were of special interest because he did not entertain the prejudice of the English rulers of Hindustan or the bias of Muslim historians.

The most authentic indigenous source is the five volumes of Sohan Lal Suri’s Lahore Court chronicle — a diary of events maintained contiguously with the rule of the Sikhs. There is a remarkable concordance between the court chronicle and the British reports. There are two other readily available sources of information from within the Punjab. The first is a compilation of letters written by a spy retained by the Deccan Peshwa at Ranjit Singh’s court. The second is an account rendered by young Amarnath before he gained employment with Ranjit Singh as the paymaster of the Irregular Cavalry.

Leading poets in the Punjab penned ballads in Gurmukhi. Family records with the Pandas at Haridwar and Pehowa reveal much more than just genealogy. A rich collection of art work relating to the Sikh Kingdom is to be found with private collectors and museums world wide.

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