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

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HISTORY OF THE SIKHS

CHAP. IX

1845-6. The British army was gradually reinforced, and it took
The Sikhs up a position stretching from Ferozepore towards Hariki,
recross the and parallel to that held by the Sikhs on the right bank of
Sutlej, and the Sutlej. But the want of ammunition and heavy guns
threaten
Ludhiana, reduced the English to inactivity, and delay produced
Jan. 1846. negligence on their part and emboldened the enemy to fresh
acts of daring. The Cis-Sutlej feudatories kept aloof from
their new masters, or they excited disturbances; and the
Raja of Ladwa, a petty prince dependent on the English,
but who had been denounced as a traitor for a year past,'
openly proceeded from the neighbourhood of Karnal, and
joined the division of the Sikh army under Ranjor Singh,
which had crossed the Jullundur Doab, to the neighbourhood of Ludhiana. This important town had been denuded
of its troops to swell the first army of defence, and it was
but slowly and partially garrisoned by fresh regiments
arriving from the eastward, although it covered the several
lines of approach from the Jumna towards Ferozepore.2
Early in January the Raja of Ladwa returned to withdraw
1 Major Broadfoot to Government, 13th Dec. 1844. This chief
received the title of Raja from Lord Auckland, partly as a compliment
to Ranjit Singh, to whom he was related, and partly in approbation
of his liberality in providing the means of throwing a bridge across
the classical Sarsuti, at Thanesar. He was a reckless, dissipated man,
of moderate capacity; but he inherited the unsettled disposition of
his father, Gurdut Singh, who once held Karnal and some villages to
the east of the Jumna, and who caused the English some trouble
between 1803 and 1809.
2 It is not clear why Ludhiana was not adequately garrisoned, or
rather covered, by the troops which marched from Meerut after the
battle of P'heerooshuhur. The Governor-General's attention was,
indeed, chiefly given to strengthening the main armyin its unsupported
position of Ferozepore-the real military disadvantage of which he
had ample reason to deplore; while amidst his difficulties it may
possibly have occurred to his Lordship, that the original policy of
1809-of being strong on the Jumna rather than on the Sutlej-was
a truly wise one with reference to the avoidance of a war with the
Sikhs.
The desire of being in force near the capitals of the Punjab and the
main army of the Sikhs likewise induced Lord Hardinge to direct
Sir Charles Napier to march from Sind, without heeding Multan,
although, as his Lordship publicly acknowledged, that victorious
commander had been sent for when it was thought the campaign
might become a series of sieges.