Lehal Library

The Sukerchakia Misl 183 had French generals-De Boigne, Perron, and Bourquin-to direct their conquests. The English were less conspicuous but potentially more formidable than the Marathas. Ostensibly their only interest in the region was to protect the Nawab WazirofOudh, whose territories extended to the river Ganges. Nevertheless, the conquest of the whole ofIndia had begun to stir the imaginations of most Englishmen in the country, and they seldom missed an opportunity to extend their frontiers. They had agents in all the big cities of India, Persia, and Afghanistan, and were fully informed of what was going on. It was the English, more than anyone else, who realized that Zaman's invasions spelled danger to their own possessions in India, and shrewdly guessed that the people who might be counted on to put up an effective resistance to the Afghans were neither the Marathas, nor the Rajputs, nor the Gurkhas, but the Sikhs. They also knew that the one man who could muster the Sikh forces and unite the Punjab was the young Sukerchal<la chieftain, Ranjit Singh. Shah Zaman Invades the Punjab In the autumn of 1796 Shah Zaman crossed the Indus for the third time with the intention of proceeding to Delhi. He had a well-equipped army of over thirty thousand men, and was assured ofcollaboration from many quarters, notably by Nizamuddin Khan of Kasur, who expected to be rewarded with the siibedari of Lahore, and Sahib Singh of Patiala, who believed in keeping up the family tradition of loyalty to every invader. The Rohillas, the Wazir of Oudh, and even Tippu Sultan of Mysore promised to side with the Afghans if they came to India. Zaman's reply to his Indian Muslim collaborators indicated what he had in mind regarding the Sikhs and Marathas. He wrote: 'We shall soon march with our conquering anny to wage war with the infidels and polytheists and free those regions from the contamination of those shameless tribes.' As the news of the invasion spread, Sikh chiefs evacuated their families to the hills and foregathered in Amritsar. The two