In the thousand-year history of the Punjab, few rulers have been able to match the ability and guile, let alone the popularity, of Maharajah Ranjit Singh of the Lahore Darbar. Such is the gloss of his name that historians have not traced his ancestry.

This piece focuses on the rise and rise of Maharajah Ranjit Singh of the Lahore Darbar (1799-1849) as such a powerful leader though his father, and more so his grandfather, were once rising chiefs of a village in Gujranwala.

Like all amazing stories the rise of the maharajah is like a fable. So, in this piece let us go over the history of the Sukarchakia clan, and for this we have consulted the works of Forester, of Murray and of Moorcroft, each having separately written their histories of the Punjab. The twists and turns are such that one cannot help but imagine that their main sources were the verbal folk traditions of the Punjab.

The story of Suker Chak, which means the ‘blessed village’ has been traced back to a Warraich Goth (clan) from the village of Bhattian in Lahore District. From here moved a man named Kalu who with his wife moved to Sansi in Ajnala near Amritsar.

In those days a very paying proposition was to be a ‘thug’ – a plunderer of the Sansi tribe. Even today in the Punjabi lingo a ‘thug’ is known as a ‘Sansi’. After making a reasonable amount Kalu and his wife moved to a village near Wazirabad called Sandh. Here was born a son named Jaddoman, who became like his father a famous Sansi thug.

In approximately 1488 Kalu died and Jaddoman took on the ‘thug’ mantle. In one such Sansi raid Jaddoman was killed in 1515. His son was named Kalurvived, who had a son named Galeb, or better so as Mannu. He also became a famous ‘thug’ and died in 1549, with his son Kiddoh taking on the mantle.

It was Kiddoh who moved away and settled in 1555 in the village of Sukerchak. Once Kiddoh moved to Sukerchak we learn that he became religious and spiritual and worked on the land as a labourer. He died in 1578 and his two sons Rajadab and Premu moved away from thuggery.

Rajadab while working as a labourer on the land also opened a small grocery store in the village. There he studied Punjabi verses and learnt the ‘Landa’ script. He died in 1620 and had three sons named Nilu, Telu and Takht Mal. Two of the sons died in infancy with Takht Mal surviving. With the savings of his elders, he became a money lender in the village of Suker Chak. When he died in 1653 his sons Baru and Bara took over. It was Baru who was the first to accept the teachings of Guru Nanak.

Baru learnt off the ‘Adi Granth’ and set off for Amritsar to be initiated into the religion. On the way he met an accident and died in 1679. His son Budda, whose nick name was Desu, named after his horse Desi, was baptised as Budh Singh. On maturing he was baptised into the Khalsa order by Guru Gobind Singh. In the tradition of Gobind Singh we learn that Budh Singh became a well-known Khalsa warrior. When he died in 1716 his wife also committed suicide and they were cremated together.

Budh Singh had two sons named Naudh Singh and Chanda Singh. It was the younger Chanda Singh who started off with the Sandhawalia side of the Raja of Sansi, with some scholars claiming that he had returned to the ‘Sansi Thug’ tradition. But then we see his brother Naudh Singh becoming a landlord of Gujranwala and after he built a small mud fortress he named it Suker Chak. He was known as Chaudhry Naudh Singh Sukerchakia. The Sukerchakia family was born.

As his influence spread, he set up a small group, known as a ‘jatha’ of 30 horsemen to protect his wealth from the invading Afghans, which were becoming a menace to everyone with some wealth. The Sukerchakia Misl was joined by the ‘misl’ Faizalpuria of Nawab Kapur Singh, and they thrived by setting up small groups of ten fast moving horsemen each, who attacked the Afghans and deprived them of their looted wealth. All the slaves in their possession were set free, which made them popular among the masses.

In 1749, during a clash with Afghans he was shot in the head. By this time the tactics of the Sukerchakia was acknowledged by Sarbat Khalsa in Amritsar, and all the ‘misls’ were organised into 11 groups, and these Sikhs became the major aggressive force in the Punjab.

After Naudh Singh died in 1752, his eldest son Charat Singh headed the Sukerchakia Misl. He had a son named Maha Singh and a grandson named Ranjit Singh. It was Charat Singh Sukerchakia who formalised the ‘misl’ after splitting from the Singhpura Misl and claimed the Gujranwala region as his zone of influence.

As the Afghan raiders of Ahmed Shah Abdali came, it was the Sukerchakia horsemen who took after their looted wealth. This huge acquisition was used to increase the influence of Charat Singh, and with the co-operation of other local misls he took over Rohtas, Chakwal, Pind Dadan Khan and, ultimately, took over Wazirabad.

The Sukerchakia Misl now needed to further expand their influence. Charat Singh got his sister married to Sardar Dal Singh Kalianwala of Alipur, while the Bhangi Misl chief Sohel Singh was married to Charat Singh’s daughter. But the critical marriage was of Charat Singh’s other daughter to the son of Gujjar Singh Bhangi’s son.

To add to all these influential connections Charat’s Singh’s son Mahan Singh was married to the daughter of Jai Singh Mann of Mughal Chak. The combined armies of all these misls were enough to challenge any armed opposition.

Even given these developments, in the larger Punjab picture it was the Kanhaiya Misl that was the most powerful. But as the reputation of Mahan Singh increased he slowly started to throw off the influence of Raja Rai Singh Kanhaiya. A point came when with other misls, Rai Singh attacked the forces of Mahan Singh, but was soundly defeated with Rai Singh’s son being killed in the clash.

Now the Sukerchakia Misl became the most influential in the Punjab, and to cool down inter-Sikh opposition Mahan Singh married his son Ranjit Singh to the widow of the slain son of Rai Singh Kanhaiya. It was a strategic move that further consolidated the Sukerchakia Misl, and it was a strategy engineered by Ranjit Singh’s mother.

So it was that Mahan Singh died in 1792 and the young Ranjit took over. His guiding force always was his mother, who saw through all the intrigues that surrounded him. By 1799 we see Ranjit Singh weakening the Afghans to such an extent that they decided to leave the Punjab, and Ranjit Singh took over Lahore from the Sikh Triumvirate in 1799.

The story of the rise and rise of the Sikhs is almost like a fable. But then when every force tries to acquire power, it is the image of being clean and free of corruption that matters most. This has always been true. It remains true today.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2024