Battle of Chelianwala
(Dr Harjinder Singh Dilgeer)
Battle of Cheilanwala was fought between the Sikh army (10 thousand led by Sher Singh Attariwala) with 60 guns and the English forces (15 thousand, led by Huge Gough) with 100 guns on 13 January 1849.
In this battle, the Sikh soldiers fought with religious fervour because they were angry over the English occupation of the Punjab; on the other hand, the English had misconceived that they would repeat the results of the battles of Mudki, Pherushahr and Sabraon; but they forgot that they had won those battles not due to their might, bravery or strategy but merely due to treason by the Brahmins Teja Singh Mishra, Lal Singh Mishra, Ayudhiya Prasad, and Kanhaiya Lal and Amar Nath; and they forgot that it was an army of lions fighting for their honour and freedom. This battle badly shattered the English army; their loss of 2512 soldiers (1512 Indian soldiers of Bengal Regiments and 1000 English) dead or wounded(including 132 officers); they also lost four guns to the Sikhs. The Sikhs too lost 3-4 thousand soliders.
General Sir Robert Thackwell (in The Sikh Wars, pp. 61 to 98) has given detailed account of this battle; according to him: “Few battles of ancient or modern times have presented such a roll of casualties – such an enormous sacrifice of life within short space of time as this.” Lord Dalhousie in a letter to Couper, on the 20th Janury 1849, wrote: “We have gained a victory:, he observed ruefully, “like that of the ancients; it is such as one ‘another would ruin us!’”
It is noteworthy that the reign of Ranjit Singh was, in no way, a Sikh rule; it was the rule of a man who happened to be a Sikh; and due to this an average Sikh had no such feeling which could inspire him to join struggle against the English; Ranjit Singh had given all the power to the Dogras, the Brahmins of Hindustan, the Europeans etc; and, an average Sikh was an ordinary citizen of his kingdom; hence they were not ready to fight for the Lahore Darbar headed by Teja Singh Mishra, Lal Singh Mishra and Gulab Singh Dogra. But, in 1848, after the exit of most of the Dogras, insult to Rani Jindan, mistreatment with Attariwalas had created sympathy among the Sikhs. They fought for the Attariwalas in the battle of Chelianwala with this fervour.
Commenting on this battle, Calcutta Review wrote: In this sub-continent, Chillianwala battle was the most dangerous for Britain. Griffin calls it like massacre of the British soldiers in Afghanistan. Edwin Arnold wrote: If the Sikhs would have won another such battle, the rule of the British would have ended not only in the Punjab but also in the whole of India. General Thackwell wrote: I think not a single soldier survived in this battle…each Sikh soldier was able to kill three soldiers of ours… The English soldiers were so sacred of the Sikh army that they were fleeing the battle field like sheep run to save their lives.
This battle created such awe among all the English people that even the British Parliament observed condolence for their losses: speaking in the Parliament, Duke of Wellingdon, who had one time defeated the great French General Napoleon Bonaparte, too offered his services to go to the Punjab and fight against the Sikhs.
The English woes of Chelianwala battle made the famous poet George Meredith write a sad poem on this battle:
Chillanwallah, Chillanwallah!
Where our brothers fought and bled,
O thy name is natural music
And a dirge above the dead!
Though we have not been defeated,
Though we can’t be overcome,
Still, whene’er thou art repeated,
I would fain that grief were dumb.
Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah!
‘Tis a name so sad and strange,
Like a breeze through midnight harpstrings
Ringing many a mournful change;
But the wildness and the sorrow
Have a meaning of their own –
Oh, whereof no glad to-morrow
Can relieve the dismal tone!
Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah!
‘Tis a village dark and low,
By the bloody Jhelum river
Bridged by the foreboding foe;
And across the wintry water
He is ready to retreat,
When the carnage and the slaughter
Shall have paid for his defeat.
Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah!
‘Tis a wild and dreary plain,
Strewn with plots of thickest jungle,
Matted with the gory stain.
There the murder-mouthed artillery,
In the deadly ambuscade,
Wrought the thunder of its treachery
On the skeleton brigade.
Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah!
When the night set in with rain,
Came the savage plundering devils
To their work among the slain;
And the wounded and the dying
In cold blood did share the doom
Of their comrades round them lying,
Stiff in the dead skyless gloom.
Chillianwallah, Chillianwallah!
Thou wilt be a doleful chord,
And a mystic note of mourning
That will need no chiming word;
And that heart will leap with anguish
Who may understand thee best;
But the hopes of all will languish
Till thy memory is at rest.
After the defeat of the English army, General Gough was replaced by Charles Napier.
{From: Dr Harjinder Singh Dilgeer’s SIKH HISTORY IN 10 VOLUMES, vol 3}