The last great indigenous power of India: a secular, tolerant, French-drilled state that held the British at bay for fifty years.
The Sikh Empire was the last great indigenous power of the Indian subcontinent, ruling the Punjab from 1799 to 1849 under Maharaja Ranjit Singh — the “Lion of Punjab.” From his capital Lahore, Ranjit Singh built a modern, religiously tolerant state with one of Asia’s finest armies, until Britain annexed it after two bloody Anglo-Sikh wars.
