Kapurthala State

Kapurthala State
1846–1947
Flag of Kapurthala
Flag
Coat of arms of Kapurthala
Coat of arms
Detail of Kapurthala State, from a map of Punjab, Delhi, and the Punjab States of British India, published in the 'Imperial Gazetteer of India' (Vol. XXVI, Atlas; 1931 revised edition; plate no. 34)
Detail of Kapurthala State, from a map of Punjab, Delhi, and the Punjab States of British India, published in the 'Imperial Gazetteer of India' (Vol. XXVI, Atlas; 1931 revised edition; plate no. 34)
StatusPrincely State under the East India Company (1846–1857)
Princely State under the British Raj (1857–1947)
Historical eraNew Imperialism
• Established
1846
• Part of the Punjab States Agency
1930
• Accession to the Indian Union
1947
Area
19011,320 km2 (510 sq mi)
Population
• 1901
314,341
Preceded by		Succeeded by
Ahluwalia Misl
Patiala and East Punjab States Union
Today part ofPunjab, India
Kapurthala state The Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1909, v. 14, p. 408–416.

Kapurthala State was a kingdom and later princely state of the Punjab Province of British India. Ruled by Ahluwalia Sikh rulers, spread across 510 square miles (1,300 km2). According to the 1901 census the state had a population of 314,341 and contained two towns and 167 villages. In 1930, Kapurthala became part of the Punjab States Agency and acceded to the Union of India in 1947.

In colonial India, Kapurthala State was known for its communal harmony, with its Sikh ruler Jagatjit Singh building the Moorish Mosque for his Muslim subjects. At the time of the Indian independence movement, the ruler of the Kapurthala State opposed the partition of India and advocated for a united, secular country.

History

Origin

The Kapurthala family traced its ancestry to the ruling family of the Jaisalmer State. According to this legend, Krishna's descendant Salibahn established a kingdom in Punjab. After the Muslim conquest of Punjab, Salibahn's grandson Bhatti migrated to the Jaisalmer area, where his descendants became known as the Bhatti Rajputs. After Alauddin Khalji's conquest of Jaisalmer, some of Bhattis migrated to Punjab; others recaptured Jaisalmer, but migrated to Punjab later, after being subjugated by the Mughals. In Punjab, they mingled with the Jats, and came to be known as Jats. In the 17th century, they joined Guru Hargobind's army. Ganda Singh of this family raided Lahore, whose governor Dilawar Khan persuaded him to join the Lahore army, and assigned him the fief of Ahlu and some other villages. Ganda Singh's son Sadhu (or Sadho) Singh Kalal lived in Ahlu, and his sons married into Kalal families, because of which the family came to be known as Ahluwalia Kalal. The descendants of his son Gopal Singh Kalal, who was the grandfather of Jassa Singh Kalal, established the royal family of Kapurthala. The British administrator Lepel Griffin (1873) dismissed this account as spurious. The Sikh author Gian Singh, in his Twarikh Raj Khalsa (1894), wrote that the Ahluwalia family adopted the Kalal caste identity much before Sadhu Singh.

The ruling dynasty of Kapurthala originated in the Ahluwalia misl. The Ahluwalia misl rose to prominence under Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, who was the first person to use the name "Ahluwalia". Originally known as Jassa Singh Kalal, he styled himself as Ahluwalia after his ancestral village of Ahlu and belonged to the Kalal community. He is regarded as the founder of the Kapurthala State. The Kalals later underwent Sanskritisation and adopted the new term Ahluwalia for themselves and their low-caste origin became obscured.

Establishment

In 1774, Jassa Singh Kalal conquered Kapurthala from Rai Ibrahim Bhatti, however the town had a different unrecorded name. In December 1779, Jassa Singh embarked on a decisive campaign to assert his authority over Kapurthala. This strategic region, nestled along the left bank of the River Beas, had been under the control of Rae Ibrahim Bhatti. Rae Ibrahim's failure to pay the annual tribute of one lakh rupees, which had been overdue for some time, sparked Jassa Singh's action. Furthermore, Ibrahim's construction of 13 forts around the town, including the strategically located Rae-ka-kot near Afghan colonies, raised concerns about his growing power.

Jassa Singh had previously demonstrated his military prowess by capturing Rae-ka-kot in 1770 with the help of Murar Singh and Shaikh Karimulilah. He then appointed Chait Singh as the thanadar of the region. However, tensions escalated in 1777 when Jassa Singh's son-in-law, Mohar Singh, was killed by a gunshot from one of the forts near Kapurthala. Despite Ibrahim's apologies and claims of innocence, Jassa Singh demanded justice and eventually decided to take over Kapurthala.

Upon arriving at Kapurthala, Jassa Singh's forces clashed with Rae Ibrahim's, and the Bhatti chief retreated to the main fort. Jassa Singh set up camp at Shaikhpur village, while his cousin, Kanwar Bhag Singh, successfully captured several surrounding villages. These villages included: Andresa, Dialpur, Bholath, Bhoian, Bohal, Brahmwal, Chakoke, Dainwind, Dala, Dhaliwal, Dhilwan, Hamira, Karael, Khakhrain, Kularan, Lakhanki, Lohian, Mullanwal, Nadali, Parveznagar, Ramidi, Sidhwan, and Wadalli. Rae Ibrahim soon realized the futility of resistance and sued for peace. He sent a horse as a gift and dispatched his officials, Diwan Lahori Mal and Bora Mal, to negotiate terms.

Jassa Singh agreed to let Rae Ibrahim leave safely with his family and belongings. He also provided him with a place to live and a fixed allowance, demonstrating his magnanimity. In the end, Jassa Singh Ahluwalia would rename the city Kapurthala after his predecessor Nawab Kapur Singh, who was an influential and respected Sikh leader at the time as well as a mentor to Jassa Singh Ahluwlia, Kapurthala became the headquarters of Kanwar Bhag Singh and it would become the capital of the Ahluwalia misl. Jassa Singh continued to reside at Fatehabad, solidifying his leadership and the Ahluwalia misl's dominance in the region.

Subjugation

Map of Jalandhar district (including Kapurthala State) of Punjab Province, British India, published in 'The Panjab, North-West Frontier Province and Kashmir' (1916)

Even after other misls lost their territories to Ranjit Singh's Sikh Empire, the emperor permitted the descendants of Jassa Singh to retain their estates. After the British took over the Sikh territories in 1846, Jassa Singh's descendants became the ruling family of the Kapurthala State.

Colonial era

The state experienced modernization under Maharaja Jagatjit Singh. He was a Francophile who had travelled to Europe, with constructions built during his reign bearing European (especially French) influences and him getting ideas regarding development that he would put to use in the state he ruled back in India. The Kapurthala City Municipality was established in 1896 for proper urban planning and development, such as regarding sanitation, water supply, roads, and public spaces. Kapurthala had both a telegraph office and line by the early 20th century. It became connected to the Indian railway network via Kartarpur station of the North Western Railway. Buildings for visitors and guests were built (known as a sarai), such as the Victoria Sarai, Kapurthala. Universal education was provided for free (including to girls and women) via the construction of schools and colleges, such as Randhir College (est. 1856, becoming an arts college in 1897 that taught French as a subject). Three printing-presses were operating in the state, the Nawal Kishore Press, the state jail press, and the Jagatjit Press, which published two periodicals named the Kapurthala Akhbar and Kapurthala Gazette. Furthermore, hospitals were constructed that offered free medical care and vaccinations, being staffed with civil surgeons, such as the Victoria Hospital for Women and the Irwin Jubilee Memorial Hospital. Farming cooperatives were set up for agriculture in the state. Patrick Geddes was invited to the state in 1917 to assist with town planning.

Demographics

Religion in Kapurthala Princely State(1941)
  1. Muslims (56.5%)
  2. Sikhs (23.4%)
  3. Hindus (16.3%)
  4. Others (3.89%)
Religious groups in Kapurthala State (British Punjab province era)
Religious
group		 1881 1891 1901 1911 1921 1931 1941
Pop. % Pop. % Pop. % Pop. % Pop. % Pop. % Pop. %
Islam 142,974 56.6% 170,557 56.91% 178,326 56.73% 152,117 56.73% 160,457 56.44% 179,251 56.59% 213,754 56.49%
Hinduism 82,900 32.82% 89,463 29.85% 93,652 29.79% 61,426 22.91% 58,412 20.55% 64,319 20.31% 61,546 16.27%
Sikhism 26,493 10.49% 39,493 13.18% 42,101 13.39% 54,275 20.24% 64,074 22.54% 72,177 22.79% 88,350 23.35%
Jainism 214 0.08% 169 0.06% 226 0.07% 205 0.08% 228 0.08% 27 0.01% 380 0.1%
Christianity 35 0.01% 8 0% 39 0.01% 107 0.04% 1,100 0.39% 983 0.31% 1,667 0.44%
Buddhism 1 0% 0 0% 3 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0%
Zoroastrianism 0 0% 0 0% 4 0% 3 0% 4 0% 0 0% 6 0%
Judaism N/a N/a 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0%
Others 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 0 0% 12,677 3.35%
Total population 252,617 100% 299,690 100% 314,351 100% 268,133 100% 284,275 100% 316,757 100% 378,380 100%
Note: British Punjab province era district borders are not an exact match in the present-day due to various bifurcations to district borders — which since created new districts — throughout the historic Punjab Province region during the post-independence era that have taken into account population increases.

Royal dynasty

List of rulers

No. Name

(Birth–Death)

 Portrait Reign Ref.
Sardars
1 Jassa Singh Ahluwalia
(1718–1783)		 1777 – 20 October 1783
2 Bhag Singh Ahluwalia
(1747–1801)		 20 October 1783 – 10 July 1801 [citation needed]
Rajas
3 Fateh Singh Ahluwalia
(1784–1837)		 10 July 1801 – 20 October 1837
4 Nihal Singh
(1817–1852)		 20 October 1837 – 13 September 1852 [citation needed]
5 Randhir Singh
(1831–1870)		 13 September 1852 – 12 March 1861
Raja-i Rajgan
– Randhir Singh
(1831–1870)		 12 March 1861 – 2 April 1870
6 Kharak Singh
(1850–1877)		 2 April 1870 – 3 September 1877 [citation needed]
7 Jagatjit Singh
(1872–1949)		 3 September 1877 – 12 December 1911
Maharajas
– Jagatjit Singh
(1872–1949)		 12 December 1911 – 15 August 1947
Titular
– Jagatjit Singh
(1872–1949)		 15 August 1947 – 19 June 1949
8 Paramjit Singh 19 June 1949 – 19 July 1955 [citation needed]
9 Brigadier Sukhjit Singh, MVC 19 July 1955 – 28 December 1971 [citation needed]

Crown Princes

Dewan / Ministers of Kapurthala State

Orders of chivalry

The Royal House of Kapurthala awards three orders of chivalry; these knighthoods include:[citation needed]

The decoration of the Nishan-i-Iftikhar includes the coat of arms of Kapurthala State.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1931-1941: Including Ad-Dharmis

References

  1. ↑ Kapurthala state The Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1909, v. 14, p. 408.
  2. ↑ Venkatesh, Karthik (16 January 2016). "Malerkotla, Where Tolerance is a Way of Life". The Wire. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  3. 1 2 "An undivided India?". NDTV. 29 August 2009. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  4. 1 2 Ganda Singh (1990). Sardar Jassa Singh Ahluwalia. Punjabi University. pp. 1–4.
  5. ↑ M. L. Ahluwalia (1996). Land marks in Sikh history. Ashoka International. p. 37.
  6. ↑ Kaushik Roy (2015). Military Manpower, Armies and Warfare in South Asia. Routledge. p. 88. ISBN 9781317321279.
  7. ↑ Singhia, H.S. (2009). The encyclopedia of Sikhism. New Delhi: Hemkunt Press. p. 111. ISBN 978-81-7010-301-1.
  8. 1 2 Fenech, Louis E. Historical Dictionary of Sikhism. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 21. ISBN 9798216256151. AHLUVALIA. A small Sikh caste, originally Kalals, or brewers of country liquor. The Kalals were very close to being Outcastes in status. It was a small, tightly organized caste, and late in the 19th century its leaders decided to Sanskritize (i.e., adopt professions and a way of life that would result in an ascent in caste terms). They adopted for the caste the name of a famous Kalal, Jassa Singh Ahluvalia, and rigorously followed a lifestyle conspicuously higher than was required of a low caste. In adopting the name of a distinguished misldar, the Ahluvalias have been much more successful than the Ramgarhias, who adopted the name of Jassa Singh Ramgarhia. The change was aided by the fact that the ruling family of Kapurthala (the descendants of Jassa Singh Ahluvalia) was also Kalal. So successful have they been that today their Kalal antecedents have been largely forgotten, and the Ahluvalias rank with the Khatris in caste status. Most Ahluvalias are Sikhs.
  9. ↑ Donald Anthony Low (1968). Soundings in Modern South Asian History. University of California Press. pp. 70–71. OCLC 612533097.
  10. ↑ Sohan Singh Seetal (1981). The Sikh Misals and the Punjab States. Lahore Book Shop. p. 75.
  11. ↑ Dogra, R. C.; Mansukhani, Gobind Singh (1995). Encyclopaedia of Sikh Religion and Culture. Vikas Publishing House. p. 249. ISBN 9780706983685.
  12. ↑ Singh, Khushwant (1963). A History of the Sikhs: 1469-1839. Vol. 1. Princeton University Press. p. 123.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Hari Ram Gupta (October 2001). The Sikhs Commonwealth or Rise and Fall of the Sikh Misls. Munshilal Manoharlal Pvt.Ltd. ISBN 81-215-0165-2.
  14. ↑ Prinsep, James (1846). History of the Punjab And of the Rise, Progress, & and Present Condition of the Sect and Nation of the Sikhs. London: W.H Allen. pp. 322, 353–355. ISBN 9781376424485. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  15. ↑ W. H. McLeod (2009). The A to Z of Sikhism. Scarecrow Press. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-8108-6344-6.
  16. ↑ Sharma, Jyoti Pandey (March 2017). Lambah, Abha Narain (ed.). "The Architectural Legacy of Maharaja Jagatjit Singh of Kapurthala". Marg. 68 (3): 94–107.
  17. ↑ "Census of India, 1881 Report on the Census of the Panjáb Taken on the 17th of February 1881, vol. I." 1881. JSTOR saoa.crl.25057656. Retrieved 26 December 2024.
  18. ↑ "Census of India, 1881 Report on the Census of the Panjáb Taken on the 17th of February 1881, vol. II". 1881. p. 14. JSTOR saoa.crl.25057657. Retrieved 26 December 2024.
  19. ↑ "Census of India, 1881 Report on the Census of the Panjáb Taken on the 17th of February 1881, vol. III". 1881. p. 14. JSTOR saoa.crl.25057658. Retrieved 26 December 2024.
  20. ↑ "The Punjab and its feudatories, part II--Imperial Tables and Supplementary Returns for the British Territory". 1891. p. 14. JSTOR saoa.crl.25318669. Retrieved 26 December 2024.
  21. ↑ "Census of India 1901. [Vol. 17A]. Imperial tables, I-VIII, X-XV, XVII and XVIII for the Punjab, with the native states under the political control of the Punjab Government, and for the North-west Frontier Province". 1901. p. 34. JSTOR saoa.crl.25363739. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
  22. ↑ "Census of India 1911. Vol. 14, Punjab. Pt. 2, Tables". 1911. p. 27. JSTOR saoa.crl.25393788. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
  23. ↑ Kaul, Harikishan (1911). "Census Of India 1911 Punjab Vol XIV Part II". p. 27. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
  24. ↑ "Census of India 1921. Vol. 15, Punjab and Delhi. Pt. 2, Tables". 1921. p. 29. JSTOR saoa.crl.25430165. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
  25. ↑ "Census of India 1931. Vol. 17, Punjab. Pt. 2, Tables". 1931. p. 277. JSTOR saoa.crl.25793242. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
  26. ↑ India Census Commissioner (1941). "Census of India, 1941. Vol. 6, Punjab". p. 42. JSTOR saoa.crl.28215541. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
  27. ↑ "Kapurthala". Archived from the original on 8 August 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2019.
  28. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "KAPURTHALA". Royal Family of India. 12 April 2013. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  29. ↑ "History | Kapurthala Web Portal | India". Government of India. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
  30. ↑ A history of the Sikhs, from the origin of the nation to the battles of the Sutlej. Cunningham, Joseph Davey, 1812-1851., Garrett, H. L. O. ed. (Herbert Leonard Offley), 1881-1941
  31. ↑ Griffin, Lepel Henry (1892). Ranjit Singh. Oxford : Clarendon press.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  32. ↑ Arora, A. C. (1982). British Policy Towards the Punjab States, 1858-1905. Export India Publications. p. 323.

31°23′N 75°23′E / 31.383°N 75.383°E / 31.383; 75.383