Sikh Empire Survives
Flag of the Sikh Empire ( Sarkar-I-Khalsa )
Timeline -
Explanation of the POD - Ranjit Singh had established a strong and promising sikh state that had united most of the Punjab region in northwest India. Unfortunately, the great potential of this nation was destroyed with Nau Nihal Singh, who was knocked unconscious by a falling gate coming from his father’s cremation, and then subsequently assassinated by the rival Dogra faction. He was known to be a great administrator, even being described as an “Alexander-like Prince” in some cases. In this timeline, Nau Nihal Singh narrowly escapes being knocked unconscious and then assassinated, going on to greatly expand his grandfather’s kingdom and eventually, by the early 20th century, being recognised as a world power right alongside those of Europe and the U.S.
POD - 1840 - Nau Nihal, the son of Kharak Singh, grandson of Ranjit Singh, succeeds his father as Maharaja of the Sikh empire and narrowly avoiding the collapse of a gate while coming from his father’s cremation, unknowingly preventing his own assassination.
1840 - The Hindu Dogras of kashmir are exposed in their plot bring down the Sandhawalia family, and a civil war ensues. With limited support and the disadvantage in numbers, the Dogras are defeated and Kashmir is completely annexed into the Empire.
1847 - 1848 - Anglo-Sikh War - Due to the Empire’s stability ITTL, the Anglo-Sikh war happens later and is a decisive victory for the Sikhs. They are able to acquire lands well beyond the Sutlej, the previous border between the British and the Sikhs They also show the British the might of the modernized Khalsa, which would affect the British strategy in preparing for the next Anglo-Sikh war.
1849 - Sikhs annex Sindh, which was previously weakened by the British and Sikh occupations.
1856 - The Sikhs intervene in the Oman - Zanzibar succession crisis and gain valuable territory on the Swahili coast. This would test the brand new Imperial Khalsa Navy, and would shape Sikh naval strategy for the years to come.
1857 - The 1st Indian War of Independence begins, and is much larger than in OTL, due to the fact that many indian princes see the independent Sikh kingdom as proof that the British can be thrown back. This interrupts the British plans to invade the Sikh Empire with a much larger army, potentially saving them from destruction. The Sikhs see an opportunity, not to free India from the British yoke, but to secure a potential ally and their position in the subcontinent. This is all a result of the current Maharaja, Nau Nihal Singh, being an excellent administrator and a shrewd diplomat. With the the full force of the fearsome Khalsa on their side, the British are able to put the rebels down fairly quickly. As a reward, the British hand over Balochistan and parts of lower Sindh to the Sikhs. They also agree to not plan any future invasions of the Sikh Empire
1858 - 1876 - “The Great Game” - As the Russians inch towards the subcontinent through central asia, the Sikhs become increasingly wary of their growing presence and see them as a threat to their autonomy and security. The Russians, however, see them as an obstacle to gaining potentially valuable warm water ports on the Indian Ocean. The fledgling nation seeks to secure her northern border against the encroaching power, and looks to Britain for help. This would result in the Russo-Sikh war of 1876, and ultimately end in The Sikh Empire becoming a bulwark against Russian expansion and influence in Central Asia.
1859 - Singing of the Anglo-Sikh alliance. Begins industrialization of the Sikh Empire due to increased trade with Britain and Europe.
1860 - Sarbat Khalsa, which previously served as a kind of rudimentary religious parliament for the Sikhs, is now made up of elected individuals, although they had to be nobles, which now officially meet in Lahore every six months, and elected the prime minister (or wazir) and leader of the Dal Khalsa. The Wazir would serve be able to serve and unlimited number of terms, but also be able to appoint the governments minister’s, with the approval of the Emperor, of course
1861 - Slavery is abolished
1866 - Full male suffrage is granted, and now a period of centralization begins, reforming the old jagir system, and concentrating power in the central and local provincial governments.
1870 - Sikh population in the empire reaches 60 million, still largely confined to the Punjab, but growing rapidly in Sindh, Balochistan and the Afghan provinces. (These numbers do not include Oman and Zanzibar). The Sufi population also grows at a steady rate. Also during this time period, major cities like Lahore, Amritsar, Peshawar, Multan, Srinagar, Sialkot, and many others exploded in population and manufacturing capacity sparking a rapid urbanization of the empire.
1876 - The Russo - Sikh War - Thinking themselves superior to the Indians, the Russians declared war on the Sikh empire expecting it to be an easy victory, along with all the major european powers, even Britain, who had seen the expertise of the Khalsa first hand. This, in fact was not the case. The Khalsa swept the Russian army back into central asia and handed them a humiliating defeat. This proved to the world that the Sikh Empire was now a major world power on par with the nations in europe.
1878 - Treaty of Kabul - Sikhs and Russians agree to split the country, The Sikhs acquiring the lion’s share of the valuable territory. Russians would also pay harsh reparations and trade agreements, along with the demilitarization of Russia up to the Amu Darya River. This would severely hamper Russian efforts to expand into central asia, redirecting their focus elsewhere in asia.
1878 - The victory over the Russians cement their status as a world power, along with the invitation to the Berlin conference of 1884, they are now viewed as equals to the Europeans. This would force the Europeans to reconcile their own colonial oppression with the fact that a native population had created a civilised and industrial nation, and unfortunately giving rise to the notion that ethnic Punjabis were superior to other indians among the pseudoscientific community of Europe . This would also require the British to enforce the idea that Sikhs were other , trying to separate the Sikhs from any part of Indian identity.
1879-1881 - A genocide of the ethnic Pashtun tribes in the newly annexed afghan territories begins in 1879, and ends in 1881 with as many as 100,000 Pashtuns dead. This action is seen by many sikhs as justified as one century prior, the afghans had committed the same crimes against them. This, although a crime against humanity, would serve the Sikhs well as the afghan territories would be considerably weakened by this and scarcely, if ever, rebel against their rule.
1878 - A period of major industrialization with the Sikh Empire begins, and they become one of the world’s leading textile exporters, along with cotton, grain and various other cash crops and raw goods. They become a key producer for European, especially British, industry. Along with this came a surge in the arts and culture, as many nobles and even the Maharajah were great patrons of the arts and many great Mosques, Hindu Temples and Gurdwaras(Sikh Temples) were built. Outside of the Empire, small Sikh populations began to grow in Russia, China and East Africa, because of the appeal to the lower classes and the openness of the religion.
1878 - An official parliament, The Sasada, is established and a constitution is written, based of European styles of government, guaranteeing freedom of religion, speech and press. This was the first constitution of its kind in asia.
The new flag of The Empire of the Sikhs and the Kingdom of the Punjab
1884-1885 - The Sikhs are invited to the Berlin conference, and are given a significant portion of East Africa including OTL German Tanzania and British Kenya.
1884 - A delegation of Uyghurs from the Qing province of Xinjiang arrive in Lahore to ask the Maharajah to free them from the Chinese yoke.
1899 - 1901 - The War of Turkestan - With and increasing appetite for raw minerals, and the richness of the chinese province of Xinjiang, the new Maharajah, Ranjit II, seeks to absorb the region into his empire to satisfy his desire for conquest and the increasing industrial might of Punjab. In 1899, the young king declared war on the Qing and swiftly took the province. Unwilling to see the growth of the Sikhs in Asia, the Russian emperor, Nicholas II, allied himself with the Qing and declared war on the Sikhs as revenge for the humiliating defeat of them two decades earlier. This would spur on the British, who would honor their alliance with Sikhs and put their full might behind the Sikhs. This conflict would come to be one of the bloodiest and most costly of the early 20th century, as fighting in central asia was hard and brutal. This war would also test the might of the fully modernized armies of great powers on some of the harshest battlefields in the world. The War would end as more or less a stalemate, as both sides had suffered tremendous losses. But the obvious loser in this war was Qing china, which was especially weakened by having two new states carved out of its eastern provinces. (This would greatly affect China, as the desire for reform increased exponentially within the government).
1901 - Treaty of Berlin - As the conflict would become increasingly bloody and costly, Germany offered to mediate a peace deal. The conflict would end in the independence of Turkestan, at first a short-lived sultanate, and then a republic. This would also outline the balance of power in central asia for the decades to come, and serve to exploit the resources of central asia for the gain of the great powers. The Kingdom of Tibet would also become independent. The treaty would also set the Russian-Qing-Tibet alliance and the Sikh-British-Turk alliance as the two balancing forces in the region.
Flag of The Kingdom of Tibet
Flag of The Islamic Republic of Turkestan
Aftermath - The war would see the development of the Republic of East Turkestan into a production hub and exporter of raw minerals. This would also see central asia being connected by an extensive network of railroads and infrastructure. The war would stop Britain and Russia from singing the Anglo-Russian Entente of 1907, as a result of less cooperation in Iran and East Asia, along with general bitterness towards each other after the war, which never really fizzled out. Russia, because of this mostly focused their efforts on gaining territory in East Asia, and largely excluded themselves from European politics for the next several years. THe opposite would occur for the Sikh. Although weakened, the Sikhs were able to exert much influence over Central Asia in this period, largely due to the absence of Russian power in the region and British ambivalence towards Sikh expansion.