The Sikh Empire & Afghanistan

The North-Western Frontier

For generations, armies from Afghanistan had crossed the north-western routes into Punjab.

By the mid 1800s, alongside the rise of the Sikh Empire that relationship was changing. As the Durrani Empire fragmented in Afghanistan and Ranjit Singh consolidated power from Lahore, Punjab's north-west became one of the most contested regions of the Sikh Empire.

Afghan dynasties competed amongst themselves, local rulers defended their own interests, alliances shifted, and Lahore dealt with both allies and enemies across the frontier.

Over several decades, the balance of power changed.

The Decline of Durrani Power

During the eighteenth century, Ahmad Shah Durrani and his successors had repeatedly exercised power across Punjab.

But the Durrani state did not remain united.

By the time Ranjit Singh captured Lahore in 1799, Afghanistan was increasingly divided by struggles within the Durrani ruling elite.

For Lahore, this created an opportunity.

Ranjit Singh was no longer dealing with a single powerful Afghan state capable of consistently invading and trying to control Punjab. Instead, he encountered competing rulers, governors and dynasties whose authority changed rapidly.

The frontier became fluid.

Shah Shuja and Ranjit Singh

One of those rulers was Shah Shuja Durrani, who lost the Afghan throne and spent years attempting to recover it. His relationship with Ranjit Singh shows how complicated Sikh-Afghan politics could be.

Shah Shuja was not simply an enemy of Lahore. At different points, the exiled Afghan ruler negotiated with Ranjit Singh while seeking the resources and political support needed to restore himself.

It was during Shah Shuja's exile that the Koh-i-Noor diamond eventually passed into Ranjit Singh's possession in 1813, and Lahore was beginning to expand into territories that Afghan rulers still regarded as part of their political sphere.

Crossing the Indus

The struggle increasingly centred on the routes and territories around the Indus and Peshawar.

In 1813, Sikh forces secured Attock, an important crossing on the Indus.

The acquisition was strategically significant.

Control of Attock strengthened Lahore's position on the routes connecting Punjab with the north-west and gave the expanding empire a stronger foothold beyond Punjab's traditional heartland.

Further campaigns followed.

Kashmir came under the Sikh Empire in 1819, while Lahore's influence continued to push towards Peshawar.

The Battle of Nowshera

One of the decisive confrontations came at Nowshera in 1823.

Sikh forces under Ranjit Singh faced Afghan and Pashtun forces assembled around the Peshawar region.

Among the Sikh commanders were General Hari Singh Nalwa, Prince Sher Singh, Jean Francois Allard, Jean Baptiste Ventura, and Akali Phula Singh - who was killed during the fighting.

The battle was costly, but Lahore emerged with its position around Peshawar strengthened. Peshawar itself was not immediately transformed into an ordinary province of the empire. Local rulers continued to operate under changing arrangements of tribute and authority.

But the direction of power had become increasingly clear.

Lahore was now capable of projecting military power deep into the north-western frontier.

The Barakzais and Dost Muhammad Khan

At the same time, another Afghan dynasty was rising.

The Barakzai brothers became increasingly powerful following the decline of the Sadozai rulers, and Dost Muhammad Khan eventually established himself as the dominant ruler in Kabul.

This created a new rivalry and for Dost Muhammad, Peshawar was deeply important.

For Ranjit Singh, surrendering it would weaken the western frontier he had spent decades building. The question of Peshawar therefore became one of the central disputes between Kabul and Lahore.

Both viewed the frontier as valuable but neither side saw it as permanently settled.

Peshawar

In 1834, forces of the Sikh Empire took direct control of Peshawar. The city now came firmly within Lahore's political system. For the Sikh Empire, this represented one of the furthest points of its expansion but controlling Peshawar was different from controlling Lahore or Amritsar. The surrounding frontier contained powerful tribes, difficult terrain and political networks that could not simply be replaced by orders from the capital.

The empire relied on forts, commanders, local agreements and military pressure to maintain its position. Among the figures most closely associated with this frontier were Hari Singh Nalwa and Paolo Avitable.

Jamrud

Beyond Peshawar stood the route towards the Khyber Pass.

In 1836, the Sikh Empire established a fort at Jamrud, close to the entrance of the pass. Its location carried enormous strategic importance. In April 1837, Afghan forces attacked Jamrud. Hari Singh Nalwa was mortally wounded during the fighting, but the Sikh position at the fort held.
The Battle of Jamrud did not lead to a Sikh conquest of Afghanistan, nor did it permanently end Afghan claims to Peshawar. Instead, it demonstrated where the effective western frontier of Ranjit Singh's empire had reached.

A Reversed Frontier

The relationship between Punjab and Afghanistan had changed dramatically within a generation.

Under Mughal rule, in the 1700s Afghan rulers had repeatedly projected power eastwards into Punjab. By the 1830s, the Lahore Durbar controlled Peshawar and maintained a fortified position near the Khyber. Afghan rulers remained powerful beyond the frontier. Pashtun communities continued to shape politics on both sides of it. Dost Muhammad had not abandoned his interest in Peshawar.

The frontier remained contested. What had changed was the balance of power. Punjab was no longer simply a territory through which armies from the north-west could advance. Under Ranjit Singh, Lahore had become a regional power capable of negotiating, fighting and drawing its own frontier in the opposite direction.

And by the late 1830s, that frontier would pull another power into the dispute: the British East India Company.