Author: Fakir Syed Waheeduddin
Publisher: Punjabi University
Year: 2001
Language: English
Pages: 166
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8173807787
Description
This book does not pretend to be a standard biography or a work of historical research. It is a plain and simple pen-portrait of Maharaja Ranjit Singh as my ancestors know him in real life. The Fakir Family’s Ranjit Singh could well have been chosen as its title.
Ranjit Singh was of the stuff that legendary characters are made of, and legend has claimed him for its own. He continues to live and grow in the people’s imagination, and it has been history’s unceasing task to make his historical personality live up to its legendary counterpart. There was that about him which makes men more memorable than their achievements. Men’s achievements date; but if there is something about the men themselves, something beside their achievements, which is worth preserving , the memory of mankind sees to it that it is preserved; and it has other means of doing so besides history.
History is after all concerned primarily with events and deals with men only as they appear in the events-as counters on the chequer-board of politics and not as creatures of flesh and blood. As creatures of flesh and blood, some of them prove larger than history. Ranjit Singh was such a one.
Contents
PART ONE
The four commandments:
1. The mysterious apparition.
2. A true Sikh.
3. The throne of the Mughals.
4. The subjects’ rights.
5. The Fakir family.
PART TWO
The man of destiny:
1. The jigsaw puzzle of the Punjab.
2. From Budh Singh to Ranjit Singh.
3. Leader of the Sikhs.
4. From Misldar to Maharaja of the Punjab.
5. Rival and ally of the English.
6. Host to Afghan ex-kings.
7. Conqueror of Multan, Kashmir & Peshawar.
8. Arbiter of Afghan destinies.
PART THREE
The pen and the sword:
1. The pen.
2. The sword.
PART FOUR
Humanity indeed:
1. The ambitious mother-in-law.
2. Brothers for ever.
3. An embarrassing admirer.
4. A saint manqué.
5. The legendary Laili.
6. The bungalow on wheels.
7. Pigeons, blind women and tigers.
8. Unequal sweethearts, equal wives.
9. On the borderline.
10. Honourable subjects.
PART FIVE
A wedding and a funeral:
1. Showers of gold.
2. The death of a lion.
Epilogue-A Wreath of choice tributes
Glossary