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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 182.177.79.242 (talk) at 12:49, 31 January 2013 (I think this is another sock of the same Indian POV-warrior who used User:Shahdaan Khan in September 2012; When all major Western sources write "Afghans defeated Sikhs in Jamrud", we present here similar result!!!!). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Battle of Jamrud
Part of the Afghan-Sikh wars
A portrait of the Jamrud Fort
Date 30 April 1837 Location Jamrud, modern day Khyber Agency Result Afghans defeat the Sikhs but fail to take Jamrud Fort. Territorial changes Khyber Pass
Belligerents
Emirate of Afghanistan	Sikh Empire
Commanders and leaders
Akbar Khan Afzal Khan	Hari Singh Nalwa  †
Strength
7,000 cavalry 2,000 matchlock 20,000 Khybers 50 pieces artillery	800 Jamrud garrison 10,000 relief force

The Battle of Jamrud was fought between the Emirate of Afghanistan and the Sikh Empire on 30 April 1837. The Sikhs were building up towards crossing the Khyber pass and capturing Jalalabad. The Afghan attempt to retake Peshawar from the invading Sikhs failed, but the killing of Sikh General Hari Singh Nalwa limited the Khyber pass as the western extent of the Sikh Empire.

Introduction

The Battle of Jamrud was fought between the Sikhs under Ranjit Singh and the Afghans under Emir Dost Muhammad Khan. The Afghans had been losing their long held territories to Sikhs over the preceding years due to internal conflicts, and had seen their once mighty empire shrink with the loss of the Punjab region, Multan, Kashmir, Derajat, Hazara and Peshawar. The last three now largely constitute Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The loss of Peshawar was the most personal as the inhabitants of the region were fellow Afghans and the city was the second capital of Afghanistan.

Background

Towards the end of 1836, Hari Singh Nalwa attacked and captured the small, though very strategic, fortified Misha Khel Khyberi village of Jamrud, situated on the south-side of a range of mountains at the mouth of the Khyber pass. With the conquest of Jamrud, the frontier of the Sikh Empire now bordered the frontier of Afghanistan. This Sikh victory at Jamrud was followed by the resounding defeat of the Yusafzai chief, Fatteh Khan of Panjtar.

In 1837, the Sikh army was in Lahore for Kanwar Nau Nihal Singh's wedding, (the grandson of Maharaja Ranjit Singh). It is alleged that inside information on the goings-on in Lahore were sent to Kabul by the Dogras which encouraged the Afghans to attack and attempt to reclaim Peshawar. The Emir of Afghanistan Dost Muhammad Khan immediately rushed his army accompanied by no less than five of his sons to drive the Sikhs out of Peshawar. Although the battle was not won by the Afghan army, much appreciated Sikh general Hari Singh Nalwa, was killed in the encounter.

The battle

On taking Jamrud, Hari Singh Nalwa had asked his deputy Mahan Singh to repair the small existing fort at the entrance to the Khyber pass. Hari Singh Nalwa had simultaneously laid the foundation for a large fort in the vicinity of the smaller one, but construction activity had to cease because of the commencement of hostilities.

On this occasion, Sikh forces faced the wrath of the Afghans, but the Afghans did not dislodge the Sikh troops from the fort. One view is that the decision to abandon the campaign to reclaim Peshawar had more to do with the logistic supply problems of the Afghan army. When Sikh reinforcements from Lahore arrived, the Afghans decided to return to Kabul.

The Afghans claimed victory, though they failed to achieve their main objective. The impression which resulted from the ensuing conflict was such as to convince the men of Dost Mohammad's army of their total inability to contend with the Sikhs, but the death of Hari Singh Nalwa was a serious set back to the Sikh Forward Policy. "Even if the victory had been more decided" observed the author of the Peshawar Gazetteer sixty years later, "it would have been dearly purchased by the Sikhs, with the loss of so brave a warrior as Hari Singh"

Fallout

As a result of this battle, Jamrud and the Khyber pass became the western limits of Sikh influence. The loss of Hari Singh Nalwa proved a major blow to the Sikhs. In June 1839, the death of Ranjit Singh plunged the Sikh Empire into dynastic conflict. The British eventually fought two wars to defeat and dissolve the Sikh Empire.

See also

• Battle of Panipat (1761)
• Battle of Attock
• Battle of Multan
• Battle of Shopian
• Battle of Nowshera
• Battle of Peshawar
• Baba Deep Singh

References

1. Adamec, Ludwig W. (2011). Historical Dictionary of Afghanistan. Scarecrow Press. p. xxi. ISBN 0-8108-7957-3. Retrieved 2012-05-26. 1837: Lord Auckland appointed governor general. Akbar Khan, son of Dost Muhammad, defeats Sikhs at Jamrud... {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); More than one of |pages= and |page= specified (help)
2. Jeffery J. Roberts, The Origins of Conflict in Afghanistan, p4.
3. "THE GREAT GAME". Library of Congress Country Studies. 1997. Retrieved 2013-01-13. In 1834 Dost Mohammad defeated an invasion by the former ruler, Shah Shuja, but his absence from Kabul gave the Sikhs the opportunity to expand westward. Ranjit Singh's forces occupied Peshawar, moving from there into territory ruled directly by Kabul. In 1836 Dost Mohammad's forces, under the command of his son Akbar Khan, defeated the Sikhs at Jamrud, a post fifteen kilometers west of Peshawar. The Afghan leader did not follow up this triumph by retaking Peshawar, however, but instead contacted Lord Auckland, the new British governor general in India, for help in dealing with the Sikhs. With this letter, Dost Mohammad formally set the stage for British intervention in Afghanistan. At the heart of the Great Game lay the willingness of Britain and Russia to subdue, subvert, or subjugate the small independent states that lay between them.
4. Doherty, Paddy. "The Khyber Pass: A History of Empire and Invasion". London: Faber and Faber, 2007. p.186-187.]
5. Maharaja Ranjit Singh: A short life sketch, Ganda Singh, Maharaja Ranjit Singh: First Death Centenary Memorial, (Nirmal Publishers, 1986), 43.
6. Maharaja Ranjit Singh: A short life sketch, Ganda Singh, Maharaja Ranjit Singh: First Death Centenary Memorial, 43.
7. http://www.harisinghnalwa.com/index.html
8. The Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-century Land Warfare: An Illustrated World View, by Byron Farwell Published by W.W. Norton, 2001. ISBN 0-393-04770-9, ISBN 978-0-393-04770-7.
9. Chief and families of Note in Punjab, Vol II, op.cit., pp. 87,89,90
10. NAI/fpc 1-5-1837:53 quoted in Nalwa,V. 2009. Hari Singh Nalwa - Champion of the Khalsaji, New Delhi: Manohar, p. 318.
11. The Sikhs and Afghans, in Connexion with India and Persia, immediately before and after the death of Ranjeet Singh: From the journal of an expedition to Kabul through the Panjab and the Khaibar Pass By Shahāmat ʻAlī, Published by J. Murray, 1847
12. Gazetteer of the Peshawar District 1897-8, revised edition, Lahore: Punjab Government, p. 74.

Further reading

• Olaf Caroe, The Pathans

• Battles involving Afghanistan
• History of Sikhism
• Conflicts in 1837