Over the whole district the period between the decline of the Mughal empire on the death of Aurangzeb and the rise of the Sikh confederacies (roughly the first half of the 18th century) was one of indescribable confusion and anarchy. The empire was gradually falling to pieces owing to the quarrels and successive shocks of invasion from the north-west. There was no strong central authority to maintain peace and order. It was devastated again and again by the invading armies of Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali, and the prosperity which had been slowly built up in the previous two centuries gave place here, as elsewhere to desolation and misery. In the general insecurity of life and property tribe fought against tribe, village against village; all but the strongest positions were abandoned, homesteads were deserted, and the face of the country became a wilderness. The traditions of nearly every village show that in this period of rapine, it was sacked, burnt or deserted; the continuity of village life was broken, and the old owners fled for safety to the jungles or to fortified towns, in some cases disappearing forever, in others returning after the lapse of a decade or a generation when the spread of disorder was checked by the rising power of the Sikhs.
The Gujranwala district was among the first in which Sikh dominion was established; it has many associations with the Sikh regime, and intimate connection with the fortunes of the Sikh royal family. Gujranwala city was the birth-place of Maha Singh and his more famous son Ranjit Singh, and a monument in marble, erected in 1891 by the Sikh Sardars at the instance of Mr. Ibbetson, the then Deputy Commissioner, marks the site of the humble abode where the great Maharaja was born and spent his youth. Charat Singh, Sukarchakia (so named from his birthplace ill the Amritsar district), a Sansi Jat of the Manjha was one of the most daring and successful adventurers whom that disturbed period brought to the front. His aid was invoked by his fellow tribesmen, the Sansi Jats of this district a small tribe around Gujranwala with their head-quarters in the city, in their struggle against the Varaich tribe led by the famous robber Chief Bare Khan. The Sansis of Gujranwala repelled the Varaichs but found they had overcome a rival only to saddle themselves with a master. In 1765, Charat Singh seized Gujranwala city which was thenceforward the head-quarters of himself till his death in 1773, of his son Maha Singh, and of his more celebrated grandson Maharaja Ranjit Singh till the capture of Lahore by the latter in 1799 A.D. To this event may be traced the origin of the central power among the Sikhs. Before, however, that power culminated in the establishment of the Sikh monarchy by Ranjit Singh, he had successively to resist and overcome or assimilate the rival Sikh leaders and confederacies and the local Muhammadan chiefs. This work was begun by Charat Singh, continued by Maha Singh, and successfully accomplished by Ranjit Singh in 1810 A. D.
Of the rival Sikh chiefs, the most powerful were:
- Bagh Singh, Virakh, a native of Gujranwala Tehsil
- Gurbakhsh Singh, Varaich, who seized Wazirabad
- Gujar Singh Bhangi from Manjha
Of the Muslim tribes who struggled with most success to maintain their independence, the most prominent were the Bhattis and Tarars in the Hafizabad tehsil (then a tehsil of Gujranwala) who were overcome by Ranjit Singh, and the Chathas in the western half of the Wazirabad tehsil who carried on an unceasing and bitter struggle against Sikh ascendency till their final overthrow by Ranjit Singh in 1799. Charat Singh having seized Gujranwala, proceeded to extend his authority over the neighborhood, and in a few years the Sikh power, brought the taluqas of Gujranwala, Kila Didar Singh, Kila Mian Singh, Kila Sahib Singh, embracing the northern half of the Gujranwala tehsil, under his sway, together with the Sheikhupura and a small circle of villages around Akalgarh. He was killed near Jammu in 1778 by the bursting of his gun when assisting the Kanhaya confederacy in an expedition against the hill Rajas. His son, Maha Singh, showed himself as able and unscrupulous a leader as his father. The decaying power of the Mughals at the beginning of the last century had given the Chatha tribe the opportunity of making a bold push for political ascendency in this part of the Rechna Doab.
Under Nur Muhammad, the first leader of note amongst them, and Pir Muhammad and Ahmad Khan, his more famous sons, they built and fortified the strongholds of Manchar, Alipur (Akalgarh) and Rasulnagar (Ramnagar), and about 1750 raised the standard of independence by refusing to pay tribute to the Mughal governor at Lahore. The Mughals were unable to exact allegiance or revenue, but Mir Mannu, the representative of Ahmad Shah Durrani, who had now seized the empire, laid siege to Manchar in 1764. The siege was ineffectual, and soon afterwards the Emperor recognised the Chatha chiefs and confirmed them in their possessions, probably as a counterpoise to the rising power of the Sikh confederacies in Gujranwala. At this time, they held sway over 150 villages or more than half of the Wazirabad tehsil and their increasing power soon brought them into collusion with Charat Singh, who was extending his possessions in Gujranwala. Charat Singh after, the occupation of Gujranwala had found himself strong enough to turn his arms against the Chathas.
The struggle was carried on with varying success for 10 years between Charat Singh and Ahmad Khan. On the death of the former in 1773 and of the latter in 1775, it was continued by their sons Maha Singh and Ghulam Muhammad, the bravest and ablest of the Chatha chiefs. Under his leadership, the Chathas gained several Successes over the Sikhs, in one of which they captured the famous Bhangi gun, and it at one time looked as if the progress of the Sikh arms had been arrested and their dominion in the Doab annihilated. Maha Singh at this crisis strengthened himself by an alliance with his rival Sahib Singh, the son of Gujar Singh, Bhangi, to whom he gave his sister Raj Kaur in marriage, and the combined forces of the two Sikh chiefs proved too strong for the raw levies of brave but untrained peasants which the Chathas opposed to them. Ghulam Muhammad was driven back into his fortress at Manchar to which siege was laid by the Sikhs, and seeing that further resistance was ineffectual he offered to surrender on promise of permission to retire in safety to Mecca.
The promise was given but basely broken; most of the garrison was put to the sword, Ghulam Muhammad himself was shot at the instigation of Maha Singh; the fortress was raised to the ground, and the possessions of the Chatha chiefs were appropriated by Maha Singh, or distributed as rewards among his followers, viz. Dal Singh, Kalianwala, of Akalgarh, who had married the sister of Charat Singh, Jowahir Singh, Bastani, Sohel Singh, Bhangi, who had married the sister of Maha Singh and Jai Singh Man who had married his daughter to the Sukarchakia chief. To mark the overthrow of the Muhammadan chiefs and the triumph of the Sikhs, the names of Rasulpur and Alipur were altered to Ramnagar and Akalgarh, but the old names are still religiously adhered to by every Muhammadan in this part of the Doab, and the heroic resistance of Ghulam Muhammad and his treacherous end are still celebrated in many a local ballad. Maha Singh pursued his success in a manner characteristic of the age, by turning his arms against his ally and brother-in-law Sahib Singh, the Bhangi chief, but the latter made a successful resistance and maintained his independence till his death in A. D. J801 when his possessions were forcibly annexed by Ranjit Singh, who however gave the widow Raj Kaur, a daughter of Charat Singh, a Jagir of Rs. 4,000 per annum for her maintenance. Maha Singh died at Sohdra in 1791.
His death is said to have been hastened by mortification at the failure of his attempt to oust Sahib Singh from Sohdra which he was at that time ineffectually besieging. In an age when success depended solely on unscrupulous, daring, reckless courage and unrestrained cruelty he bad won himself a foremost position by a pre-eminence in these qualities which it was left for his son and successor Ranjit Singh to surpass. The same qualities which had raised the father from a successful freebooter to the leader of a powerful confederacy raised the son to be the ruler of a powerful kingdom.