Rule, region, and governance: accommodation under Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the Kashmir exception (1819–1839)

This article explores Kashmir during the Sikh rule (1819–1846) by contextualising it within the broader historical framework of administration in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, characterised by successive regimes of exploitation and repression. The study asserts that the social and economic turmoil in Kashmir during the Sikh rule cannot be comprehended in isolation; it must be contextualised within the legacy of Afghan (Durrani) rule, which had previously caused substantial impairment to Kashmiri society through force, fiscal exploitation, and administrative instability. There were anticipations of Sikhs becoming the liberators from Afghan enslavement but that dream couldn’t last long. This study, based on both primary and secondary sources, argues that Sikh rule not only failed to mitigate prior harm but aggravated numerous existing forms of exploitation. In contrast to the relative accommodation and plurality inherent in Sikh government in the Punjab’s central region, Kashmir witnessed remote, militarised, and repressive authority. Further, this article elucidates how the accommodative pattern of governance under Ranjit Singh collapsed in Kashmir and that’s why Kashmir stands as an anomaly within the Sikh polity by examining governance frameworks, fiscal policies, and social ramifications, characterised by escalating economic hardship and social upheaval rather than stability or inclusivity.