10-22-2005, 11:28 PM
THE DOGRAS
Just as the Sukarchakia and Bhangi misls fought the rulers of Jammu, towards the east the ruler of Kangra had to contend with the Kanahiya and Ramgarhia misls. The increasing cavalry forces of these two misls had taken to plundering the hill states and had imposed tributary claims on them even as they fought each other with equal ferocity. Sansar Chand Katoch took part in one such fight as the ally of the Ramgarhias and recovered his ancestral fort of Kangra from the Kanahiyas. With the eviction of Sikh forces from the Kangra valley the Katoch chief imposed his own supremacy on all hill states.
Some of the original artillery-commanding mercenaries of his grandfather's time, Mughalias and Afghans, had died out by this time. The Purbias on the other hand had become the most sought after infantry group in India (see RMA III) and those under Sansar Chand came under the command of an Irishman named O'Brien[43]. In 1805 the deposed Ruhela chieftain, Ghulam Muhammad of Rampur, persuaded the Katoch chief to hire his own disbanded Ruhelas at a lower scale of pay. While this change was being carried out the subordinate hill chiefs formed an alliance with the Gurkhas and invested Sansar Chand at Kangra. The Katoch chief took the assistance of Ranjit Singh and defeated the Gurkhas---in the process losing his own independence to Ranjit Singh.
Thus the entire range of hill states had been either annexed or made tributary but recovery of their political power came from an unexpected quarter. After the annexation of Jammu state a brave and ambitious young man named Gulab Singh joined the army of Ranjit Singh at the head of a small contingent of Rajput soldiers. He was a Rajput of the Jamwal clan but among the Sikhs he and his men were simply called Dogras.
Dogra or Durgar was the old geographical name of the Jammu region and all people who lived there, whether Brahmans, Rajputs, Vaishyas, or Shudras were called Dogras by outsiders without regard to their caste or clan. Gulab Singh and his brothers rose through the ranks to become the most important leaders in the Kingdom of Lahore---Gulab Singh himself created a large kingdom stretching across the Himalayan Range into Ladakh and Baltistan (http://www.4dw.net/royalark/India/kashmir.htm genealogy of the Jamwal rulers; here again mistakenly called the Dogra dynasty). Several Rajputs from the Kangra hills, including the celebrated Zorawar Singh Kahluria, joined his army.
[43] O'Brien was an ordinary soldier in the Royal Irish Regiment of the East India Company. Reprimanded on parade by an officer with a cane the Irishman knocked him down with his carbine and deserted. He found service with Sansar Chand Katoch and was titled Colonel O'Brien after he had formed a small infantry corps of 1400 men and a manufacturing armory for small arms. His grave is still visible at Sujanpur-Tira.
In both the trans-Himalayan campaigns and the wars with the Pashtuns and other tribes of the western hills these Rajputs displayed their traditional skill in hill-fighting and accurate marksmanship[44]. Gulab Singh's success in preserving his kingdom through the two Anglo-Sikh wars left the Rajputs of the Dogra region as the supreme indigenous power in this part of North India and in the eyes of the British naturally made the name Dogra universal for the entire hill country (the Dogri language also preserved its identity to a greater extent than the other hill dialects[45]). While today Himachal Pradesh has formed its own identity, <b>for the purpose of Indian Army recruitment the term Dogra is still applied to the people of Jammu, HP, and the neighboring Punjab districts (Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur). </b>
[44] The latter was most effective in the Battle of Samman Fort at Lahore where 3000 Dogra musketeers kept at bay a vast army of 150,000 Khalsa troops under Maharaja Sher Singh. This battle left a deep impression on the minds of the Khalsa soldiery and created an aura of invincibility around Gulab Singh, which saved his kingdom later in the Khalsa invasion of Jammu in 1845. It also led to many Sikhs accepting the leadership of Gulab Singh, who was considered superior to the other chiefs because of his vast wealth and loyal army.
[45] Himachal Pradesh has collectively termed all its native dialects as the Pahari language; but the Dogri language, with its Takkari script, has a stronger identity. Dogri is even considered to be older than Punjabi, which has been severely altered under Persian influence.
Many people are confused about the relationship between J&K and Himachal or between Dogras and Punjabis...maybe this article will clear that confusion.
Just as the Sukarchakia and Bhangi misls fought the rulers of Jammu, towards the east the ruler of Kangra had to contend with the Kanahiya and Ramgarhia misls. The increasing cavalry forces of these two misls had taken to plundering the hill states and had imposed tributary claims on them even as they fought each other with equal ferocity. Sansar Chand Katoch took part in one such fight as the ally of the Ramgarhias and recovered his ancestral fort of Kangra from the Kanahiyas. With the eviction of Sikh forces from the Kangra valley the Katoch chief imposed his own supremacy on all hill states.
Some of the original artillery-commanding mercenaries of his grandfather's time, Mughalias and Afghans, had died out by this time. The Purbias on the other hand had become the most sought after infantry group in India (see RMA III) and those under Sansar Chand came under the command of an Irishman named O'Brien[43]. In 1805 the deposed Ruhela chieftain, Ghulam Muhammad of Rampur, persuaded the Katoch chief to hire his own disbanded Ruhelas at a lower scale of pay. While this change was being carried out the subordinate hill chiefs formed an alliance with the Gurkhas and invested Sansar Chand at Kangra. The Katoch chief took the assistance of Ranjit Singh and defeated the Gurkhas---in the process losing his own independence to Ranjit Singh.
Thus the entire range of hill states had been either annexed or made tributary but recovery of their political power came from an unexpected quarter. After the annexation of Jammu state a brave and ambitious young man named Gulab Singh joined the army of Ranjit Singh at the head of a small contingent of Rajput soldiers. He was a Rajput of the Jamwal clan but among the Sikhs he and his men were simply called Dogras.
Dogra or Durgar was the old geographical name of the Jammu region and all people who lived there, whether Brahmans, Rajputs, Vaishyas, or Shudras were called Dogras by outsiders without regard to their caste or clan. Gulab Singh and his brothers rose through the ranks to become the most important leaders in the Kingdom of Lahore---Gulab Singh himself created a large kingdom stretching across the Himalayan Range into Ladakh and Baltistan (http://www.4dw.net/royalark/India/kashmir.htm genealogy of the Jamwal rulers; here again mistakenly called the Dogra dynasty). Several Rajputs from the Kangra hills, including the celebrated Zorawar Singh Kahluria, joined his army.
[43] O'Brien was an ordinary soldier in the Royal Irish Regiment of the East India Company. Reprimanded on parade by an officer with a cane the Irishman knocked him down with his carbine and deserted. He found service with Sansar Chand Katoch and was titled Colonel O'Brien after he had formed a small infantry corps of 1400 men and a manufacturing armory for small arms. His grave is still visible at Sujanpur-Tira.
In both the trans-Himalayan campaigns and the wars with the Pashtuns and other tribes of the western hills these Rajputs displayed their traditional skill in hill-fighting and accurate marksmanship[44]. Gulab Singh's success in preserving his kingdom through the two Anglo-Sikh wars left the Rajputs of the Dogra region as the supreme indigenous power in this part of North India and in the eyes of the British naturally made the name Dogra universal for the entire hill country (the Dogri language also preserved its identity to a greater extent than the other hill dialects[45]). While today Himachal Pradesh has formed its own identity, <b>for the purpose of Indian Army recruitment the term Dogra is still applied to the people of Jammu, HP, and the neighboring Punjab districts (Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur). </b>
[44] The latter was most effective in the Battle of Samman Fort at Lahore where 3000 Dogra musketeers kept at bay a vast army of 150,000 Khalsa troops under Maharaja Sher Singh. This battle left a deep impression on the minds of the Khalsa soldiery and created an aura of invincibility around Gulab Singh, which saved his kingdom later in the Khalsa invasion of Jammu in 1845. It also led to many Sikhs accepting the leadership of Gulab Singh, who was considered superior to the other chiefs because of his vast wealth and loyal army.
[45] Himachal Pradesh has collectively termed all its native dialects as the Pahari language; but the Dogri language, with its Takkari script, has a stronger identity. Dogri is even considered to be older than Punjabi, which has been severely altered under Persian influence.
Many people are confused about the relationship between J&K and Himachal or between Dogras and Punjabis...maybe this article will clear that confusion.