Ratan Singh Bhangu (1846) Sikh Historian
Akali Ratan Singh Bhangu Nihang was a Sikh historian and Nihang who wrote about the Sikhs' struggles and rise to power in North India, in his book Prachin Panth Prakash. In the beginning of the 19th century the British East India Company approached the Punjab frontier. They wanted to know about the Sikhs and their rise to power in Punjab.
Ratan Singh Bhangu belonged to the family of martyrs and had first-hand knowledge of the struggle and success of the Khalsa. He, being a member of the ruling Sikh aristocracy, took upon himself to prove to the British the glory of the Sikh rise to the power in Punjab and the complete legitimacy of Sikh domination. He was requested by Captain Murray, Agent to the Governor-General, to write the history of Sikhs, which he did under the title of the Prachin Panth Parkash.
Panth Parkash is the name of two well-known books on Sikh history.
1.Panth Parkash of Rattan Singh Bhangu, the grandson of famous Sikh warrior, Sardar Mehtab Singh Mirankotia. It was written during 1809-1841. Panth Parkash is the only Sikh source of historical account of Banda Bahadur and the establishment of Sikh rule in the Punjab.
It is termed Prachin (old) being older of the two histories.
1.Panth Parkash of Giani Gian Singh, who conducted the marriage of Maharaja Bhupinder of Patiala, written in 1880 in Braj Bhasha.
Muslim accounts
The mid 19th-century Muslim historians, such as Shahamat Ali who experienced the Sikh Empire first hand, presented a different view on Ranjit Singh's Empire and governance.
According to Ali, Ranjit Singh's government was despotic, and he was a mean monarch in contrast to the Mughals.
The initial momentum for the Empire building in these accounts is stated to be Ranjit Singh led Khalsa army's "insatiable appetite for plunder", their desire for "fresh cities to pillage", and entirely eliminating the Mughal era "revenue intercepting intermediaries between the peasant-cultivator and the treasury".
According to Ishtiaq Ahmed, Ranjit Singh's rule led to further persecution of Muslims in Kashmir, expanding the previously selective persecution of Shia Muslims and Hindus by Afghan Sunni Muslim rulers between 1752 and 1819 before Kashmir became part of his Sikh Empire.
Bikramjit Hasrat describes Ranjit Singh as a "benevolent despot".
The Muslim accounts of Ranjit Singh's rule were questioned by Sikh historians of the same era. For example, Ratan Singh Bhangu in 1841 wrote that these accounts were not accurate, and according to Anne Murphy, he remarked, "when would a Musalman praise the Sikhs?"
In contrast, the colonial era British military officer Hugh Pearse in 1898 criticized Ranjit Singh's rule, as one founded on "violence, treachery and blood".
Sohan Seetal disagrees with this account and states that Ranjit Singh had encouraged his army to respond with a "tit for tat" against the enemy, violence for violence, blood for blood, plunder for plunder.
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