An issue arose within the final week of December 2024 when the overall officer commanding of 14 Corps inaugurated a statue of Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj on the banks of the Pangong Tso lake in Ladakh. A refrain of protests emerged from retired generals, Ladakhis and Dogras, with every group questioning the statue’s location and suggesting that different heroic figures may have been a better option, if a statue was to be erected there in any respect.
One identify steadily instructed was that of legendary Dogra warrior Zorawar Singh, who captured Ladakh and made forays deep into Tibet, crossing this very Pangong Tso lake. On this week’s column, we are going to take a quick take a look at the life and profession of this extraordinary basic, a wazir of Raja Gulab Singh of Jammu, who was a feudatory of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Sikh ruler of Khalsa Raj in Punjab.
A complete account of Basic Zorawar Singh has been written by Dr C L Datta, previously of the Division of Historical past, Panjab College, Chandigarh, and it serves as a superb reference level for the life and instances of this nice soldier and army commander.
There are completely different accounts concerning the start of Zorawar Singh. Whereas some say he was born in Ansara village of Hamirpur district in Himachal Pradesh, others declare he was a local of Kussal close to Reasi in Jammu and Kashmir. Gulab Nama, a up to date account of these instances, refers to him as Zorawar Singh Kahluria, lending assist to the assertion that he was from a Rajput clan and a descendant of the Kahluria Mians.
4 forays into Ladakh
Zorawar Singh is alleged to have joined the service of Raja Gulab Singh, who was allowed to take care of a military by Maharaja Ranjit Singh for the defence of his jagir, and was appointed the governor of Riasi and later Kishtwar and Kussal. He honed his and his Dogra troopers’ army expertise throughout this era within the early 1800s, which stood him in good stead in his subsequent forays into Skardu and Ladakh.
A army marketing campaign to carry the Ladakhi kingdom to its knees was launched by Zorawar Singh in 1834 from his headquarters in Kishtwar with a small military of 5,000 well-trained troopers, a lot of them Muslims. The contingent marched via the Wurdwan valley, Maryam La, and reached Suru, the place they defeated a Ladakhi drive of round 5,000 troopers.
Dr Datta writes that having consolidated himself at Suru, the Dogra basic defeated one other Ladakhi drive at Pashkym. He would have pushed on additional, however he acquired information {that a} British agent of the East India Firm was in Leh. Underneath the Sutlej Treaty of Maharaja Ranjit Singh with the British, there ought to have been no British presence in Ladakh, and right here Zorawar Singh paused and raised a question with Raja Gulab Singh, who in flip raised it with Maharaja Ranjit Singh. As soon as the British clarified that the presence was an anomaly, the go-ahead was given to Zorawar to proceed, however winter had set in by then.
Within the meantime, peace negotiations had begun with the Ladakhi King Tse-Pal Nam-Gyal, which broke down, main to a different conflict between the Dogra contingent and Ladakhi troopers, the place the previous once more carried out higher. The Dogras reached Mulbe after which, by way of Kharbu, arrived in Lamayuru in April 1835. The Ladakhi king sued for peace and Zorawar Singh and his military marched into Leh, making the Ladakhi king a vassal of Raja Gulab Singh and, via him, that of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. In October 1835, Basic Zorawar Singh marched again to Kishtwar.
Hardly had he returned when Zorawar discovered of a rise up by the Ladakhi king. Regardless of it being peak winter, he started one other march again in November 1835 to Leh, this time via the Zanskar area. The king was deposed and a brand new one was positioned on the throne. Zorawar strengthened the place of the Dogras in Leh and constructed a big fort, which stays to at the present time and is called the Zorawar Fort. In complete, Zorawar carried out 4 invasions of Ladakh, quelling rebellions every time earlier than continuing to annex Baltistan.
“By 1840, the Dogras had conquered Ladakh and Baltistan and had established their authority in these lands. They had been prepared for contemporary conquests. Basic Zorawar Singh now considered establishing an empire in (Chinese language) Turkestan… his enlargement in direction of Gilgit having been discountenanced by the Sikh Nazim of Kashmir, his solely path for enlargement within the circumstances lay north and north-east of Ladakh—in direction of Yarqand and Western Tibet,” writes Dr Datta.
Exploits in Tibet
Basic Zorawar himself led a column within the invasion of Tibet and with practically 3,000 troopers, following the path to the south of the Pangong lake, he invaded Rudok and conquered it in June 1841. “There was little resistance, the fort was fully sacked and the Tibetan native governor of Rudok made a prisoner. Right here, along with different articles of booty, some ammunition additionally fell into the arms of the invaders. From Rudok, the Dogra drive superior by detachments in direction of Gartok, the district headquarters of West Tibet. For the reason that place had been evacuated by the Tibetans, it was conquered with none issue,” writes Dr Datta.
Basic Zorawar’s exploits in Tibet are too huge to be recounted on this restricted house, however it’s fairly evident that if in any respect a statue needed to be put up on the banks of Pangong Tso, his identify would high the record of these deserving the popularity.
CAPTION: The bust of Basic Zorawar Singh inaugurated by the lieutenant governor of Jammu and Kashmir at Jammu in 2023 (file pic).
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