Administration of the Sikh Empire

Lahore and a travelling court

After taking Lahore in 1799, Ranjit Singh developed the fort as a setting for his durbar. The Wallace Collection explains the city’s importance through both its position on trade routes and its prestige as a former Mughal centre. Yet the court was mobile. It travelled with the ruler for diplomacy, religious occasions, warfare and government business. Administrative authority therefore operated through movement as well as through a permanent capital.[1]

Court ceremony helped organise political relationships. Robes of honour, weapons, jewellery and other gifts marked a recipient’s rank or allegiance. The toshakhana supplied these presentations from stores and specialist production, with Misr Beli Ram supervising the choice of suitable gifts. Splendour was thus connected to the practical work of maintaining a hierarchy of officials, commanders and diplomatic partners.[1]

Government left a substantial paper trail

The Khalsa Darbar Records contain Persian papers covering civil, military and revenue administration from 1811 to March 1849. B. J. Hasrat’s encyclopaedia entry groups them into army, revenue, treasury and jagir records. Payrolls record officers and ordinary soldiers, but also workers such as blacksmiths attached to military establishments. Maintaining an army required accounts of people, earnings, transfers and departures, not only the authority of celebrated generals.[2]

Revenue papers distinguished receipts and disbursements, adjustments and daily expenditure. They also recorded administrative subdivisions, officers, estimated income and cultivated areas. Documents concerning land settlements included the claims and liabilities of landlords and tenants. These categories show the state’s interest in making resources legible and recoverable. They do not by themselves demonstrate that an assessment was fair or that every official followed the recorded rule.[2]

Revenue rights paid for service

The jagirdari system assigned revenue from designated lands rather than requiring every servant of the state to receive a cash salary from one treasury. Hari Ram Gupta explains that service grants became especially important under Ranjit Singh. Many were temporary or lasted for the recipient’s lifetime. Military grants could distinguish the amount allowed for the holder’s own service from the resources required to maintain a specified body of horsemen.[3]

Different claims on the same land

A jagirdar’s entitlement to revenue did not mean an unrestricted right to extinguish cultivators’ customary holdings. The encyclopaedia distinguishes peasant proprietors and different categories of tenant, alongside revenue paid directly to the state on khalsa lands or to a grantee on jagir lands. It also records charitable grants to a range of religious institutions. Government rested on these layered rights and obligations, even while the Maharaja’s court exercised strong personal authority.[3]