Quotes from Rajmohan Gandhi

Sikhs and Punjabi Muslims mainly, but also Dogras and Gurkhas, had enlisted on the Empire's behalf.)

there will be but one feeling throughout the army, a feeling that our prestige is gone, and that feeling will be more dangerous than any other.

In some villages near Allahabad, British soldiers killed aged men, women and children for alleged association with the rebels. Many were simply 'burnt to death'.

Stir and use the dislikes: Sikh resentment of Muslim rule, Muslim resentment of Sikh domination, Punjabi disdain of the Purbiah. Spread word of the chance to plunder Delhi under British protection.

massive incorporation of religion into the subcontinent's political life that occurred via imperial hands: the separate Muslim electorate.

Khafi Khan would record that no Sikh prisoner accepted Islam to save his life.

The year 1834 saw unrestrained fighting between Nalwa's force and Pashtun tribals. The latter's ambushes and sniping were countered by the destruction, under Nalwa's command, of whole villages and the construction of a series of forts.

My proposition for a regiment of ten companies is four of Sikhs, two of Hill Rajputs, two of Punjabi Mohammedans, two of Pathans. In Peshawar, if you like, you might have a third of Pathans.

The name of Nalwa became a terror in the tribal territory', and Pashtun mothers would for years frighten children into good behaviour by speaking of 'Haria', after Nalwa's first name.

The somewhat sinister maxim, divide et impera [had] been acted upon', adds Bosworth Smith, with 'triumphant results'.

The Jhang success encouraged Ranjit Singh to reconstitute the Sikh military into three wings. The first wing, which he commanded himself, included the best of his generals. Much of it trained in the European style, this wing possessed cavalry, infantry and artillery branches, the last led by a Muslim, Ghausa Khan. A second wing consisted of soldiers supplied as needed by a clutch of the once-powerful Bhangi sardars

this separate electorate, introduced in 1909 by the Earl of Minto, the viceroy at the time, was a knowingly divisive move was acknowledged a quarter-century later in a book written by the Earl of Minto's widow.

Sikh rajas of Patiala, Nabha, Jind and Kaithal—allies of the British even during the Anglo-Sikh wars—they required little persuasion.

Nihangs, the body of militant ascetics who for generations had served as 'the suicide squads of the Khalsa armies'.

Blood on India's streets was not what the Raj desired, yet Hindu-Muslim disputes were preferable to India-England ones.

A keen practical sense told Ranjit Singh that vassalage was less expensive than governing new pieces of territory with his own limited forces, and less productive of lasting hostility.

Nalwa rose from his sickbed and led a counter-attack. In gory battles fought along the Khyber Pass, about 6,000 Punjabis and 11,000 Afghans were killed, but Nalwa and a son of Dost were among the dead.

A work of statesmanship that will affect India and Indian history for many a long year. It is nothing less than the pulling back of 62 millions of people (India's Muslim population at the time) from joining the ranks of the seditious opposition (the Congress).

Hari Singh Nalwa received four wounds: two from sabres, one from an arrow (which Nalwa pulled out himself), and the fourth from a gunshot. Before dying, he instructed his men not to give out word of his condition.

the Company 'had long cast covetous eyes on [Punjab]'108. Ranjit Singh did not miss this reality.

All were free, the commissioner declared—Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Christians—to observe their own religious and social customs, but none would be permitted to meddle with those of their neighbours.

elections held during the winter of 1945-46 accelerated polarization across India around the INC and the League

Chand Kaur seems to have offered the British 'a large slice' of Punjab if they supported her against Sher Singh, who too was willing to cede a portion of the kingdom to the British if they backed him against Chand Kaur.

Lawrence dented a practice among some in the Bedi clan of killing baby girls. The justification for the practice was this. The clan that produced Guru Nanak would lose prestige if its girls married into inferior clans; if they married within the clan, it would be like incest. The only solution was to kill the girl-child.