ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>VA&#7692&#7692&#256 GHALL&#362GH&#256R&#256</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="VA  ,GHALLjGHR"> <META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279VA&#7692&#7692&#256 GHALL&#362GH&#256R&#256, lit. major holocaust or carnage, so called to distinguish it from another similar disaster, Chho&#7789&#257 (minor) Ghall&#363gh&#257r&#257 that took place in 1746, is how a one-day battle between the Dal <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 and Ahmad Sh&#257h Durr&#257n&#299 fought on 5 February 1762 with a heavy toll of life is remembered in Sikh history. As Ahmad Sh&#257h was returning home after his historic victory over the Mar&#257&#7789h&#257s in the third battle of P&#257n&#299pat in 1761, the Sikhs had harassed him all the way from the Sutlej right up to the Indus. Returning to the Central Punjab, they ravaged the country all around, annihilated the Af<u>gh</u>&#257n force in Ch&#257r Mah&#257l, drove away the <i>faujd&#257r</i> of Jalandhar, plundered Sirhind and M&#257lerko&#7789l&#257, defeated a force,12,000-strong, sent by Ahmad Sh&#257h from Afghanistan to punish them and another led personally by the Af<u>gh</u>&#257n governor of Lahore, and even captured Lahore, all within a short period, June-September 1761. At a general assembly (Sarbatt <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257) of the Dal at Amritsar convened on the occasion of D&#299v&#257l&#299, 27 October 1761, it was resolved to punish the agents, informers and collaborators of the Af<u>gh</u>&#257ns, beginning with '&#256qil D&#257s of Ja&#7751&#7693i&#257l&#257, head of the heretical Nirañjan&#299&#257 sect and an inveterate enemy of the Sikhs. '&#256qil D&#257s despatched messengers post-haste to Ahmad Sh&#257h Durr&#257n&#299, who had in fact already entered India at the head of a large army. Meanwhile, the Sikhs had besieged Ja&#7751&#7693i&#257l&#257, 18 km east of Amritsar. '&#256qil D&#257s' messengers met the Sh&#257h at Roht&#257s. The latter advanced at quick pace but before he reached Ja&#7751&#7693i&#257l&#257, the Sikhs had lifted the siege and retired beyond the Sutlej with the object of sending their families to the safety of the wastelands of M&#257lv&#257 before confronting the invader. Ahmad Sh&#257h, on the other hand, determined to teach the Sikhs a lesson, sent messages to Zain <u>Kh</u>&#257n, <i>faujd&#257r</i> of Sirhind, and Bh&#299khan <u>Kh</u>&#257n, chief of M&#257lerko&#7789l&#257, directing them immediately to check the Sikhs' advance, while he himself taking a light cavalry force set out at once and, covering a distance of 200 km including two river crossings in fewer than forty eight hours, caught up with the Sikhs who were encamped at Kup-Rah&#299&#7771&#257, 12 km north of M&#257lerko&#7789l&#257, at dawn on the 5th of February 1762. The Dal <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257, comprising all of the eleven <i>misls</i> and representatives of the Sikh chiefs of M&#257lv&#257, was taken by surprise. The attacks of Zain <u>Kh</u>&#257n and Bh&#299khan <u>Kh</u>&#257n were easily repulsed, but the main body of Ahmad Sh&#257h, much larger and better equipped, soon overtook them. Having to protect the slow-moving <i>vah&#299r</i> or baggage train including women, children, old men and other non-combatants, the Sikhs could not resort to their usual hit and run tactics, and a stationary battle against such superior numbers was inadvisable. Sard&#257r Jass&#257 Si&#7749gh &#256hl&#363v&#257l&#299&#257, the commander-in-chief of the Dal, therefore, turning down a suggestion by Sard&#257r Cha&#7771hat Si&#7749gh Sukkarchakk&#299&#257 to form a solid square of four <i>misls</i> to face the enemy with two <i>misls</i> each protecting either flank of the <i>vah&#299r</i> and balance in reserve, decided that all the <i>misls</i> combining to form a single force should make a cordon round the <i>vah&#299r</i> and start moving towards Barn&#257l&#257, 40 km to the southwest, with the agents of the M&#257lv&#257 chiefs acting as guides. Thus "fighting while moving and moving while fighting," says Ratan Si&#7749gh Bha&#7749g&#363, <i>Pr&#257ch&#299n Panth Prak&#257sh</i>, on the authority of his father and an uncle who had taken part in this battle, "they kept the <i>vah&#299r</i> marching, covering it as a hen covers its chickens under its wings." On several occasions, the Sh&#257h's troops broke the cordon and butchered the helpless non-combatants, but every time the Sikh warriors re-formed and pushed back the attackers. By early afternoon they reached a big pond, the first they had come across since the morning. The fighting stopped automatically as the two forces fell pell-mell, man and animal, upon the water to quench their thirst and relax their tired limbs. The battle was not resumed. The Sikhs marched off towards Barn&#257l&#257 and Ahmad Sh&#257h thought it prudent not to pursue them in the little known semi-desert with an army that had had no rest during the past two days, and had suffered considerable loss of life in the day long battle.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Estimates of the Sikhs' loss of life vary from 20,000 to 50,000. The more credible figures are those of Misk&#299n, a contemporary Muslim chronicler, 25,000, and Ratan Si&#7749gh Bha&#7749g&#363, 30,000. This could have been a crippling blow to the Sikhs, but such was the state of their morale that, to quote the <i>Pr&#257chin Panth Park&#257sh</i> again, as the Sikhs gathered in the evening that day, a Niha&#7749g stood up and proclaimed aloud "... the fake has been shed. The true <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 remains intact." The Sikhs rose again within three months to attack Zain <u>Kh</u>&#257n of Sirhind, who bought peace by paying them Rs 50,000 in May, and they were ravaging the neghbourhood of Lahore during July-August 1762, Ahmad Sh&#257h, who was still in the Punjab, watching helplessly the devastation of the Jalandhar Do&#257b at their hands.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Bha&#7749g&#363, Ratan Si&#7749gh, <i>Pr&#257ch&#299n Panth Prak&#257sh</i>. Amritsar, 1914<BR> <li class="C1"> Gi&#257n Si&#7749gh, Gi&#257n&#299. <i>Panth Prak&#257sh</i>. Delhi, 1880<BR> <li class="C1"> Ga&#7751&#7693&#257 Si&#7749gh, <i>Sard&#257r Jass&#257 Si&#7749gh &#256hl&#363v&#257l&#299&#257</i>. Patiala, 1969<BR> <li class="C1"> Harbans Singh, <i>The Heritage of the Sikhs</i>. Delhi, 1983<BR> <li class="C1"> Gupta, Hari Ram, <i>History of the Sikhs</i>, vol. IV Delhi, 1982<BR> <li class="C1"> Gandh&#299, Surjit Singh, <i>Struggle of the Sikhs for Sovereignty</i>. Delhi, 1980<BR> <li class="C1"> Bhagat Singh, <i>Sikh Polity in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries</i>. Delhi, 1978<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Sard&#257r Si&#7749gh Bh&#257&#7789&#299&#257<br></p><BR> </font> <img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""> </HTML></BODY>