Ropar Meeting
The Ropar Meeting was held between Maharaja Ranjit Singh and Lord William Bentinck, Governor-General of the East India Company in October 1831 on the bank of the river Satluj in a town of the same name.
Background
The Ropar Meeting was arranged in October 1831 to show the world, the camaraderie between Maharaja Ranjit Singh of the Sikh Empire and the East India Company, which controlled Hindustan. The magnificence of the Sikh display led it to be compared with the Field of the Cloth of Gold by a British historian[1]
The agenda of both powers was at variance. Ranjit Singh wanted to confirm the accession of his son, Kharak Singh, and gauge the response of the Company towards his proposed annexation of Sindh. The Company wanted the Maharaja to open the Indus for navigation so that they could transport their goods by sea from Bombay to Karachi, and then up the Indus on boats to Peshawar. From there on camels would carry the merchandise to Kabul. The Company wanted to curb Russian trade. The existing land route was circuitous and fraught with danger.
Ranjit Singh had signed the Treaty of Amritsar in 1809, which limited the expansion of the Sikh territories south of the river Satluj. In like fashion, the Company could not make inroads north of the Satluj. Sindh lay on either side of the Indus, south of the Satluj. But the waters of the Satluj fell into the Indus before emptying into the Arabian Sea.
The precursor to the meeting
In April 1831, four months before the Ropar Meeting, Ranjit Singh deputed a mission to Shimla to felicitate the Governor-General. The Sikh delegation was the first foreign mission hosted by Lord Bentinck as Governor-General.[2]
Claude Martin Wade, the British agent deputed to manage Sikh affairs by the East India Company, was deputed by the Governor-General to arrange the meeting. All correspondence relating to the proposed meeting was secret, for it was inappropriate for the Governor-General to appear to be the first to show such an interest. [3]
The meeting
William Bentinck and his large entourage descended from Shimla in the Himalayas to Ropar in the plains of Punjab. Ropar was a small town situated on the bank of the river Satluj under Bhup Singh, a Sikh chieftain bearing allegiance to the Company.
The parties had determined to encamp on ‘their side’ of the river Satluj. Both parties constructed their bridge of boats to facilitate passage across the river. Commandant Chet Singh supervised the bridge on behalf of the Sikhs and Lieutenant Frederick Mackeson did the same for the Company. The Governor-General reached Ropar on the evening of the 22nd, two days before Maharaja Ranjit Singh did. Maharaja Ranjit Singh arrived on the morning of the 25th to a 101-gun salute.
Invitations were extended, salutes fired, complementary missions exchanged, gifts exchanged, and displays of military might followed by feasting with entertainment. Amidst all this, discussions commenced.
The interaction was in three languages—Punjabi, Persian and English. Ranjit Singh conveyed his message in Punjabi to Fakir Aziz-ud-din, who delivered it in Persian to Captain Wade. In turn, Wade translated the communication into English for the governor-general. Captain Wade was the interpreter and master of ceremonies for the entire duration.[4]
Alexander Burnes, an employee of the East India Company noted, ‘The English gentlemen formed a sorry contrast to the burnished glittering gold houdas of the Seiks,’. On noticing the disparity, Ranjit Singh asked the Englishmen to transfer to his richly decorated elephants.
The Ropar meeting marked by Sikh opulence did not garner a convincing convergence of interests. ‘Eastern vanity’ was stumped by ‘English sense and soberness’. The only benefit of the meeting was the Maharaja’s lesson in military science but at what cost?
The weeklong indulgence resulted in a somewhat unsatisfactory ‘Yaddasht’ (commemorative document) for the Sikh Maharaja. Ranjit Singh’s failed attempt to obtain British ‘approval’ for his ambitions concerning Sind made its conquest a distant dream. The East India Company knew that were the Sikhs to take control of Sind, Ranjit Singh would always have the power to annoy the Company by closing the navigation of the Indus.
The Ropar convention drew the attention of the world in the nineteenth as an event displaying the magnificence of the Sikh Empire. During his travels, Reverend Joseph Wolff visited the Sikh Empire. The Maharaja was astonished when Wolff informed him that while in Bokhara, he had heard of the Ropar summit.
Later Wade disclosed that ‘the whole of the Sikh chiefs were said by Runjeet Singh himself to be averse to the meeting with the British Governor General’ .[5] The Sikh Sardars believed that it was below the dignity of the Maharaja to meet with the governor-general, as he represented the East India Company and not the Great Britain. They believed that the grandeur of their king could be matched by none other than the King of England.
In hindsight, it might have occurred to Ranjit Singh that he should have heeded the advice of his Sardars. The Sardars had waited with bated breath to see Lady Bentick and her companions perform for them, as she had for the Sikh mission at Shimla earlier that year.[6] They were disappointed on that score, for Lady Bentinck did not dance at Ropar.
Those in attendance
Sikh representatives Officers of the British East India Company Other regional powers
- ^ Prinsep, H.T. (1970). Origin of the Sikh Power in the Punjab and Political Life of Muha-raja Runjeet Singh. Punjab: Languages Department.
- ^ Nalwa, V. (2009). Hari Singh Nalwa—Champion of the Khalsaji. Manohar. p. 157. ISBN 978-81-730478-5-5.
- ^ Bentinck, W. H. C. (1977). Correspondence of Lord William Cavendish Bentinck Vol 1. Oxford University Press. p. 436. ISBN 81-85477-01-9.
- ^ Fraser, J. (1851). Military Memoirs of Lt Col James Skinner Vol 2. Smith, Elder & Co. p. 211.
- ^ Cunningham, J. (1853). A History of the Sikhs from the Origin of the Nation to the Battles of the Sutleje. John Murray. p. 196 ft nt.
- ^ Sohan Lal Suri (1851). Umdat-ut-Twarikh Vol 3 (i). Guru Nanak Dev University. p. 33. ISBN 81-77700715.