Ranjit Singh stands out as a fascinating personality in Indian history. Though ugly in physical appearance, Ranjit Singh had an impressive personality. Fakir Aziz-ud-din, the Foreign Minister of Ranjit Singh, on an enquiry from an English officer as to which eye of the Maharaja was blind, replied: “The splendour of his face is such that I have never been able to look close enough to discover”. Ranjit Singh was loved by the people of the Punjab, Hindus and Muslims alike.
If Ranjit Singh looked upon the Sikhs as his colleagues and coreligionists, he respected learned men of other religions also, once the Maharaja wiped off the dust from the feet of a Muslim mendicant with his long grey beard.
As a ruler Ranjit Singh showed deep solicitude for the welfare of the people. He took adequate care to safeguard the interests of the common man against official oppression. It is said that a box was affixed outside his palace in which his subjects could lodge their complaints. The key of this box was personally kept by the Maharaja. He also paid personal visits to various parts of the country to acquaint himself with the actual state of affairs. Men of all communities enjoyed the benefits of his mild and merciful administration.
Faqir Aziz-ud-din, a Muslim, was his Foreign Minister and was greatly trusted by the Maharaja. Jamadar Khushal Singh, the Dogra Brothers and Teja Singh occupied very high positions in the Lahore Darbar. Dhian Singh Dogra was the Prime Minister and enjoyed the title of’ Raja’. Above all, Ranjit Singh gave to the people of the Punjab the blessings of peace, the like of which they had not seen in the past one hundred years.
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It is difficult to regard Ranjit Singh as a constructive statesman. The kingdom he had so assiduously built up disintegrated within a decade of his death and the Maharaja himself cannot escape the responsibility for that. He had so greatly concentrated all administration in his hands that his disappearance from the scene caused not a ‘vacancy’ but a ‘void’ and the entire structure began to crumble.
Beside, Ranjit Singh failed to subordinate the army to the civil authority. So long as he lived his personal influence kept the army under control, but after his death the army got out of control, dabbled in politics and reduced the civil government to a mere non-entity. Again, unlike Shivaji, Ranjit Singh did not breathe into the hearts of the people, any sentiment that could keep them together after his death.
Perhaps Shivaji’s successors were as incapable as Ranjit Singh’s successors, but the history of Maharashtra after the death of Shivaji is quite different from the history of the Punjab after the Maharaja’s death. Nowhere is Ranjit Singh’s shortsightedness more apparent than in his dealings with the English.
Realising full well that the English were throwing a cordon round his kingdom and fully cognizant of British expansionist designs, he bided his time and avoided a conflict. On several occasions, he thought of going to war with the British, but his courage always failed him. The Maharaja left the inevitable task of fighting with the English to his weak and incompetent successors.
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The memory of this hero is still cherished by the people of the Punjab. Summing up the achievements of Ranjit Singh, Cunningham writes: “Ranjit Singh found the Punjab a warring confederacy, a prey to the factions of its chiefs, pressed by the Afghans and the Marathas and ready to submit to English supremacy.
He consolidated the numerous petty states into a kingdom, he wrested from Kabul the fairest of its provinces and he gave the potent English no cause of interference “. He rolled back the tide of invasion from the north-west and extended his sway up to the North-western Khyber Pass. Above all, he left behind a tradition of strength and it is here that history enthuses posterity.