journey and lives of . An excerpt…
Most of the Europeans who were to have a major impact on the Maharaja’s regime were French and Italians, and they became the most influential and leading personalities at the Court of Lahore
THE Sikh Kingdom under the benevolent leadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1780-1839) known as ‘Sarkar-e-Khalsa’ and the ‘Lion of the Punjab’ was considered a hegemony amongst all the Indian princely states that were under the jurisdiction of the East India Company in the early part of the 19th century. This was the golden era of the Punjab and its inhabitants, who stood firm against its powerful neighbour, British India, a secular and independent nation forming a buffer state against Russia, but wedged precariously between Afghanistan and China. Its inhabitants were not just Punjabis but there was also a minority of Europeans, who had forsaken their homelands to seek their fortunes and to enhance their careers in the political milieu of Punjab — probably the only province in the early 19th century that still offered any scope of military employment to a select group of foreigners newly arrived on its doorstep.Court chronicles
Bobby Singh Bansal chose to explore a path less explored when he started working on the manuscript that became The Lion’s Firanghis: The Europeans at the Court of Lahore.Read More:
The Tribune: Firangis in Ranjit Singh’s Durbar
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