A statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Sher-e-Punjab, which has failed to thwart repeated vandalism attempts by militants, has been installed inside Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan’s Punjab province.The restored nine-foot-tall bronze statue of the Sikh kingdom’s first ruler was unveiled at Kartarpur Sahib, about 150 km northeast of Lahore, on Thursday, his birth anniversary, amid a gathering of Sikhs from Pakistan and India.
The statue was initially installed in Lahore Fort on June 27, 2019, the 180th anniversary of the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, but was vandalised thrice by militants.
The statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Lahore Fort is of historical importance and served as a memorial to him who ruled Punjab from Lahore Fort for almost four decades.
The statue will be brought to Kartarpur in December 2023 and will now be installed in a park named after Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the most successful Punjabi king, who was voted “the greatest leader of all time” in a poll by BBC World History magazine that also included Winston Churchill.
The statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Lahore Fort is of historical importance and served as a memorial to his nearly four decades of ruling Punjab from Lahore Fort. Now, by shifting the statue to a Gurdwara, Pakistan has negated its efforts to convey the unbiased history of Lahore Fort and the secular nature of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s kingdom to future generations.
The first terrorist attack on the statue occurred in 2019, shortly after it was installed. The statue was vandalized again in the summer of 2020 and once more in 2022. These incidents forced the government to move the statue to its current location.
“We are proud of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. After his death, Punjab became isolated. His government had officials of all religions. He built mosques and temples,” said Babar Jalandhari, an activist promoting the Punjabi language in Pakistan.
“The attack on his statue in Lahore and the government’s silent submission to the attack and shifting the statue to Kartarpur Sahib is a defeat for the government. If the government continues to act like this, tomorrow someone will even question the existence of Kartarpur Sahib. I want the statue to be shifted to Lahore Fort. I am ashamed of this decision of the government,” he said.
Objections to the statue
The statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Lahore Fort contrasts with Pakistani nationalism, which honours Ahmad Shah Durrani, who is considered the founder of the modern Afghan state. Durrani invaded Punjab many times until Maharaja Ranjit Singh stopped these invasions permanently and negotiated with the Afghans on their terms.
Pakistan’s religion and mainstream politics have been heavily influenced by the Madrasah institutions that were migrated from Uttar Pradesh in 1947, leaving little room for regional identities or non-Islamic heroes like Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Even Punjabi Islamic heroes like Dullah Bhatti have failed to find a place in Pakistani popular culture as they did not fit with Pakistani nationalism.
The politics of Punjabi identity are still weak in Pakistan and although the majority of Pakistanis speak Punjabi, Punjabi is not an official language in West Punjab, which is why statues of the Maharaja are considered taboo in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
“One of the main reasons behind the attack on the statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh is that he was a non-Muslim ruler of Lahore Fort. Lahore Fort symbolises the history of rule of Muslim kings and is not in keeping with the ideals of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” Jalandhari said.
Maharaja Ranjit Singh not only brought law, order and justice to Lahore, but also added an element of secularism to the city, and his achievements are still remembered in Pakistan even after the partition of Pakistan in 1947 and the relocation of Sikhs from Lahore.
The Maharaja’s secular approach to administration played a major role in keeping Lahore peaceful under his rule. Sikhs were a minority in the Punjab under Maharaja Ranjit Singh, as Muslims and Hindus were in the majority. Maharaja Ranjit Singh had as his ministers not only Sikhs but also Muslims and Hindus of Lahore. The Foreign Minister, Fakir Aziz-ud-din, played a major role in persuading the Maharaja to sign the Treaty of Amritsar in 1809.
Besides the gurdwara, the king also made donations to many mosques and Hindu temples in Lahore.
