A history of the Sikhs, from the origin of the nation to the battles of the Sutlej.

192

HISTORY OF THE SIKHS

CHAP. VII

1831. dynasty was acknowledged as the proper head of the
'Khalsa', by the predominant English rulers. The able
chief, Hari Singh, was one of those most averse to the recognition of the right of the Prince Kharalk Singh, and the
heir apparent himself would seem to have been aware of
the feelings of the Sikh people, for he had the year before
opened a correspondence with the Governor of Bombay, as
if to derive hope from the vague terms of a complimentary
The meet- reply.1 Ranjit Singh thus readily proposed a meeting, and
Rfipar,
i Rupat one took place at Rupar, on the banks of the Sutlej, in the
17th July month of October (1831). A present of horses from the
1831. King of England had, in the meantime, reached Lahore, by
the Indus and Ravi rivers, under the escort of Lieut. Burnes,
and during one of the several interviews with the Governor31st Oct. General, Ranjit Singh had sought for and obtained a written
1831. assurance of perpetual friendship.2 The impression went
abroad that his family would be supported by the English
Government, and ostensibly Ranjit Singh's objects seemed
Ranjit wholly, as they had been partly, gained. But his mind was
Singh's
anxiety not set at ease about Sind: vague accounts had reached
about him of some design with regard to that country; he plainly
Sind. hinted his own schemes, and observed the Amirs had no
efficient troops, and that they could not be well disposed
towards the English, as they had thrown difficulties in the
way of Lieut. Burnes's progress.3 But the Governor-General
1 With regard to this interchange of letters, see the Persian
Secretary to the Political Secretary at Bombay, 6th July 1830.
That Ranjit Singh was jealous, personally, of Hari Singh, or that
the servant would have proved a traitor to the living master, is not
probable: but Hari Singh was a zealous Sikh and an ambitious
man, and Kharak Singh was always full of doubts and apprehensions
with respect to his succession and even his safety. Ranjit Singh's
anxiety with regard to the meeting at Rupar, exaggerated, perhaps,
by M. Allard, may be learnt from Mr. Prinsep's account in Murray,
RanjUt Singh, p. 162. Col. Wade has informed the author that
the whole of the Sikh chiefs were said by Ranjit Singh himself to
be averse to the meeting with the British Governor-General.
2 Murray, Ranjit Singh, p. 166.
3 Murray, Ranjit Singh, p. 167. This opinion of Ranjit Singh
about Sindian troops may not be pleasing to the victors of Dabo and
Miani, although the Maharaja impugned not their courage, but their
discipline and equipment. Shth Shuja's expedition of 1834, nevertheless, served to show the fairness of Ranjit Singh's conclusions.