GULAB SINH, DOGRA
Gulab Sinh (17.10.1792 – 30.6.1857) was son of Kishora Sinh, a Dogra of Jammu. In 1809, he joined the army of (Maharaja) Ranjit Singh as a soldier. He was a cunning person. Within a short period he won confidence of Ranjit Singh. He was given a Jagir worth rupees 12000 and he was given command of 90 horses. Soon he became Ranjit Singh’s chamberlain. Later, he employed hundreds of his relatives in the Lahore Darbar and its army. In 1820, Ranjit Singh appointed Kishora Sinh (Gulab Sinh’s father) as the chief of Jammu. After the death of Kishora Singh in 1822, Gulab Sinh became the chief of Jammu. Maharaja Ranjit Singh was so much under the spell of Gulab Sinh that he himself went to Akhnur to attended the installation of Gulab Sinh. By 1830, Gulab Sinh, besides the rule of Jammu, had a Jagir worth rupees 737,237 per year, plus monopoly of salt mines (for a lease of just rupees 800,00 per year) etc.
He had embezzled the revenue of the State and had a very large sum of the tributary to the Lahore Darbar. In 1841, when he was the custodian of the Jagir of Rani Chand Kaur (widow of Maharaja Kharag Singh), he took away all her jewellery and the other precious items worth several million rupees, to Jammu. In 1845, when the Sikhs came to know about this, a force of 35000 soldiers was sent to Jammu. At this Gulab Sinh paid rupees 400,000 as first instalment and promised to surrender the treasure very soon. When the Sikh army started its journey back to Lahore, Gulab Sinh’s troops attacked the Sikh commanders. Sirdar Fateh Singh Maan was killed at the spot. At this the Sikh army attacked the palace of Gulab Sinh, arrested him and brought him to Lahore. He agreed to pay a fine 68 lakh rupees.
He was a traitor of the Lahore Darbar, and was in league with the British. He provided sensitive information about the Sikh army to the British through Brigadier Wheeler, who was posted at Ludhiana. After the defeat of the Sikhs, the British rewarded him with the reign of Kashmir. Though, he bought the province of Jammu from the British in 1846 with the money stolen from the State treasury, yet it was mere a formality. In fact, he paid nothing (Cunningham has given this fact in his book). It was, in fact, a reward for his treason. The State of Jammu included Jammu, Kishatwar, Zanskar, Laddakh, Baltistan and Kashmir. Gulab Sinh Dogra was an ungrateful person. He was one of the guilty persons who annihilated the family of Ranjit Singh and destroyed his empire. His family ruled Kashmir till 1948, when Hari Sinh Dogra handed over its control to India, in direct line of Gulab Sinh Dogra. Gulab Sinh died at Jammu in 1857.
The Indian government issued a postal stamp in the memory of this traitor in 2009.
(Dr Harjinder Singh Dilgeer)