Sikh Wars
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Sikh Wars
Bibliography
See B. J. Hasrat, Anglo-Sikh Relations, 1799–1849 (1968).
Sikh Wars
(in Russian, Anglo-Sikh Wars), predatory wars of the English East India Company in 1845–46 and 1848–49 against the Sikh state in Punjab (India). After provoking a border conflict, the British forced the Sikhs to begin military activities in December 1845.
In the first Sikh War the Sikhs were sucessful in battles at Mudki (December 18) and Firozpur (December 21), but they suffered a defeat at the battle at Sobraon on Feb. 10, 1846. After the first Sikh War, the colonialists maintained something like an independent government. However, the Sikhs were forced to surrender the region of Jullundur to the East India Company and Kashmir to the company ally Gulab Singh, raja of Jammu; they also had to agree to accept an English resident at Lahore. The East India Company decreased the number of Punjab troops, placed the state’s taxation department under its control, and took other such steps. This produced an anti-English uprising in the Sikh army in April 1848. Under pretext of struggling against mutineers, the East India Company began the second Sikh War in November 1848. At the end of January 1849 it managed to seize Multan. On February 21 in the battle at Gujarat the Sikh forces were decisively smashed, after which the East India Company annexed Punjab.
REFERENCES
Semenova, N. I. Gosudarstvo sikkhov. Moscow, 1958.Kochnev, V. I. Gosudarstvo sikkhov i Angliia. Moscow, 1968.
Panjab on the Eve of the First Sikh War. Hoshiarpur, 1956.
Gough, C., and A. Innes. The Sikhs and the Sikh Wars. . . . London, 1897.
Singh, Ganda. The British Occupation of the Panjab. Amritsar-Patiala, 1955.
N. I. SEMENOVA