Jassa Singh Ahluwalia


Sultan Jassa Singh Ahluwalia was a prominent Sikh leader during the period of the Sikh Confederacy, being the Supreme Leader of the Dal Khalsa. He was also Misldar of the Ahluwalia Misl. This period was an interlude, lasting roughly from the time of the death of Banda Bahadur in 1716 to the founding of the Sikh Empire in 1801. He founded the Kapurthala State in 1772. In 1762, Ahmad Shah Durrani returned and had the Golden Temple blown up with gunpowder. Sikhs returned and celebrated Divali in its premises. In 1764, Baba Jassa Singh Ahluwalia collected donations to rebuild the Golden Temple.

Early life

Jassa Singh Ahluwalia was born at a village called Ahlu in the Lahore District of Punjab.

The formation of the Dal Khalsa and the Misls

In 1733, Zakariya Khan Bahadur attempted to negotiate a peace with the Sikhs by offering them a jagir, the title Nawab to their leader, and unimpeded access to the Harmandir Sahib. After discussion at a Sarbat Khalsa, Kapur Singh was elected leader of the Sikhs and took the title of Nawab. He combined the various Sikh militias into two groups; the Taruna Dal and the Budda Dal, which would collectively be known as the Dal Khalsa. Sikh militias over 40 years of age would be part of the Budda Dal and Sikh militas under 40 years were part of the Taruna Dal. The Taruna Dal was further divided in five jathas, each with 1300 to 2000 men and a separate drum and banner. The area of operations of each Dal, or army, was Hari ke Pattan, where the Sutlej river and Beas River meet; the Taruna Dal would control the area east of Hari ke Pattan while the Budha Dal would control the area west of it. The purpose of the Budda Dal, the veteran group, was to protect Gurdwaras and train the Taruna Dal, while the Taruna Dal would act as combat troops. However, in 1735, the agreement between Zakariya Khan and Nawab Kapur Singh broke down and the Dal Khalsa retreated to the Sivalik Hills to regroup.
Later the command of Dal Khalsa was taken by Jassa Singh Ahluwalia who was an able and powerful administrator, even bought India under Khalsa flag.
He made the foundation of Khalsa firm for future generations to lead.

Nadir Shah's invasion

In 1739, Nadir Shah, the Turkic ruler of Persia, invaded much of Northern India, including Punjab, defeating the Mughals at the Battle of Karnal in 1739, he plundered the city of Delhi robbing it of treasures like the Peacock throne, the Kohinoor diamond and the Darya-i-Noor diamond. Meanwhile, all the Khalsa bands got together and passed a resolution that Nadir shah had plundered the city of Delhi and now he is taking Indian women as slaves to his country. Sikhs made a plan to free all the slaves. Jassa Singh Ahluwalia was 21 years old at that time, he planned raids to free all slaves. He along with other Sikh bands attacked Nadir shah forces, freed all slaves and sent those slaves back to their families safely.
Ahluwalia participated in many battles as well where he proved himself to be a natural leader. In a 1748 meeting of the Sarbat Khalsa, Nawab Kapur Singh appointed him as his successor. His followers awarded him the title Sultan-ul-Qaum. In 1758, he circulated coins with the inscription "coined by the grace of Khalsa in the country of Ahmed, conquered by Jassa, the Kalal"

The raids of Ahmed Shah Abdali

, Nader Shah's seniormost general, succeeded to the throne of Afghanistan, when Shah was murdered in June, 1747. He established his own dynasty, the Sadozai, which was the name of the Pashtun khel to which he belonged to.
Starting from December, 1747 till 1769, Abdali made a total of nine incursions into the northwestern India. His repeated invasions destroyed the Mughal administration of the Punjab and the rest of Northwestern India. At the Third Battle of Panipat, he along with Nawab of Oudh and Rohillas, defeated the Marathas, who after treaty signed in 1752 became the protector of the Mughal throne at Delhi and were controlling much of North India, including Punjab and Kashmir.
Thus he created a power vacuum in the Punjab, which was filled by the Sikhs.

The Sixth Abdali Incursion, 1762

In early 1762, mews had reached to Ahmad Shah Abdali in Afghanistan of the defeat of his general, Nur-ud-Din Bamezai, at the hands of the Sikhs who were fast spreading themselves out over the Punjab and had declared their leader, Misldar Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, King of Lahore. To rid his Indian dominion of them once and for all, he set out from Kandahar. Marching with alacrity, he overtook the Sikhs as they were withdrawing into Malwa after crossing the Satluj. The Battle of Kup was fought on 5 February 1762 between the Afghan forces of Ahmad Shah Abdali and the Sikhs. In a fresh Afghan invasion of the upper Punjab, Ahmad Shah Durrani with his 100,000 Soldiers reached Malerkotla, west of Sirhind, then attacked a 20,000 Sikh army escorting 40,000 women and children, along with the elderly. In one of their worst defeats—known as Vadda Ghalughara —the Sikhs lost perhaps 5–10,000+ soldiers and had 20,000 civilians massacred. The Afghan forces of Ahmad Shah Durrani came out victorious with the night ambush on the large convoy.
Despite the Ghalughara disaster, by the month of May, the Sikhs were up in arms again. Under Jassa Singh, they defeated the Afghan faujdar of Sirhind in the Battle of Harnaulgarh. By autumn, the Sikhs had regained enough confidence to foregather in large numbers at Amritsar to celebrate Diwali. Abdali made a mild effort to win over them and sent an envoy with proposals for a treaty of peace. The Sikhs were in no mood for peace and insulted the emissary. Abdali did not waste any time and turned up at the outskirts of Amritsar.
The Battle of Amritsar was fought in the grey light of a sun in total eclipse. It ended when the sunless day was blacked out by a moonless night with the adversaries retiring from the field: The Sikhs to the fastness of the jungles of the Lakhi and Abdali behind the walled safety of Lahore.

Battle of Delhi and Capture of Red Fort

The Sikhs under Baghel Singh had been raiding Delhi since 1764 but without success. On 11 March 1783 the combined Sikh army of Baghel Singh, Jassa Singh Ahluwalia and Jassa Singh Ramgarhia defeated the Mughal army and captured Delhi.

Legacy

"He had the great privilege of conquering Lahore and issuing his own coin... sitting on the throne of the Mughal Emperors in the Red Fort at Delhi . He fought a number of times face to face with Ahmad Shah Durrani, the greatest Asian general of his days. The invader tried to win him over in vain. The Maharajas of Patiala and Jind stood before him in all reverence and humility. The Rajas of Nalagarh, Bilaspur, Kangra Hills and Jammu touched his knees. The Nawabs of Malerkotla and Kunjpura paid him homage. And yet he remained a humble and docile disciple of Guru Gobind Singh. In the person of Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, the Guru actually made a sparrow kill hawks. Jassa Singh was a great warrior, mighty general and eminent organiser. He bore thirty-two scars of sword cuts and bullet marks on the front part of his body and none on his back. He was a giant in body.... Qazi Nur Muhammad who saw him fighting against Ahmad Shah Durrani called him a mountain." - Hari Ram Gupta
“He was a great warrior, mighty general and eminent organiser. He bore thirty-two scars of sword cuts and bullet marks on the front of his body and none on his back. He was a giant in body. His breakfast consisted of one kilogram of flour, one half kilogram of butter, one quarter kilogram of crystalline sugar slabs, and one bucketful of butter-milk. One he-goat sufficed him for two meals…. These were the days of physical prowess, and only men possessed of indomitable will power could compete with ferocious Afghans on better footing. He was wheatish in colour, tall, fat, with a broad forehead, wide chest, loud and sonorous voice which could be clearly heard by an assemblage of 50,000 men….. The horses under him must have been the size of an elephant. This is why he could be clearly be seen by Qazi Nur Muhammad in a body of fifty or sixty thousand men. His long arms came down to his knees. This enabled him to strike his sword right and left with equal valour.” - Hari Ram Gupta
Nawab Jassa Singh Ahluwalia Government College in Kapurthala, established in 1856 by Raja Randhir Singh of Kaputhala is named after him. A commemorative postage stamp on Jassa Singh Ahluwalia was issued by Government of India on 4 April 1985.

In popular culture

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