Abstract
Military man, failed ambassador, and linguist, James Browne entered the service of the East India Company in 1765 aged twenty-one. He rose from cadet to captain in six years, attracting the attention of the venerable Warren Hastings with whom Browne’s own fortune would be tied for the rest of his life. Hastings, then governor-general, appointed Browne as his aide-de-camp. He was appointed collector of the Jungleterry districts in 1773. However, he encountered great difficulty in administering the country and settling disturbances. Becoming acutely aware of the nuisance created by the Sikhs in the Punjab, he was sent by the council on an embassy to Shāh Ālum II at Delhi to negotiate with him for assistance against the Sikhs.
Lt.-Col. James Browne, India Tracts: Containing a Description of the Jungle Terry Districts, Their Revenues, Trade, and Government: With a Flan for the Improvement of Them. Also an History of the Origin and Progress of the Sicks (Logographic Press, Printing-House Square, Black-Friars, 1788), pp. 1–30.
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Notes
Gupta, History of the Sikhs, 2: 4–6; Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs, 2 vols. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963, 1966. Revised edition, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1991), 2: 4–6.
Surjit Singh Gandhi, Sikhs in the Eighteenth Century (Amritsar: Singh Bros., 1999), 33.
“They (Sikhs) established themselves in the Bari Doab under the leadership of Bhag Singh Ahluwalia. They stopped the traffic, plundered and raided a large number of villages and towns and exacting heavy tributes from the neighbouring zemindars. Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, the son of Bhag Singh’s sister, a handsome and courageous youth, was his uncle’s deputy and exercised full authority over matters and things concerning Bhag Singh. The other Sikh chiefs also accepted the leadership of the Ahluwalia Sardar and willingly worked under him. Thus the administration of the whole Doab seemed, at the time, to be passing into the hands of the Sikhs.” Sohan Lal Suri, An Outstanding Original Source of Panjab History: Umdat-ut-Tawarikh, trans. V.S. Suri (Delhi: S. Chand, 1961), 109.
The date of the Durrāni’s desecration of the Harimandar Sāhib is generally given as November 1757 rather than 1755 as stated by Browne. Jahān Khān was the Wazīr, or deputy, of Prince Timur, Ahmad Shāh Durrānī’s son. The battle preceding this event is described by Tahmās Khān who was present throughout. In his description he makes mention of the five-man group headed by the famous Bābā Dīp Singh who gained the appellation Shāhīd or martyr, following his fearless exploits in his last battle, at the age of seventy five, protecting the Harimandar Sāhib against the 5,000-strong army of Jahān Khān. “The victorious army closely pursued them [the Sikhs] to Chak Guru [Amritsar]. The Wazir stood at a spot there. Five Sikhs on foot were seen standing at the gate of the Chak. The [Afghān] troops made a sally and killed them. Mir Ni’mat Khan, one of the notables of Lahore, attained martyrdom at that place. The camp of the victorious army was established there.” Irfan Habib trans., “Re-emergence of Sikh Power in the Punjab, 1784–64: From Tahmās Khan, Qissa-i Tahmās-i Miskīn or Tahmās Nāma” in ed. J.S. Grewal and I. Habib, Sikh History from Persian Sources (New Delhi: Tulika, 2001), 176.
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© 2004 Amandeep Singh Madra and Parmjit Singh
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Singh Madra, A., Singh, P. (2004). Browne’s Treatise on the Sikhs, 1788. In: Madra, A.S., Singh, P. (eds) “Sicques, Tigers, or Thieves”: Eyewitness Accounts of the Sikhs (1606–1809). Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-11998-8_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-11998-8_9
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