In his native district, he found himself confronted with the same difficulty as his father and grandfather. The local Muslim tribes had still to be reduced, the rival Sikh chieftains had to be overcome or conciliated. The Chathas made another struggle for independence, Jan Muhammad, the son of Ghulam Muhammad, had fled to Kabul after the fall of Manchar, and returning in 1799 with aid from Zaman Shah Ranjit Singh being then occupied with the Bhatti and Tarar tribes of Hafizabad — the country rose in his favour, the Sikh garrisons were expelled, and Jan Muhammad re-established himself in Ramnagar. His success was however short lived. Ranjit Singh took the field with a large army and laid siege to Ramnagar. Jan Muhammad was killed in the siege, the garrisons surrendered, the power of the Chatha tribe which had played so prominent a part in the politics of the 18th century was broken, and their villages quietly submitted to the Maharaja’s sway.
Emboldened by this success and strengthened in resources and prestige by the possession of Lahore which he had captured in the same year, 1799, Ranjit Singh determined to subdue once for all the turbulent Muhammadan tribes of Hafizabad which for years had been offering a guerilla resistance to his troops. He entered the tract with a large army and in a short time overcame the Kharrals, Lodikes, and even the Tarars. The Bhattis alone, true to their Rajput traditions, offered a determined resistance, and though defeated in the field, they entrenched themselves in the fortified towns of Jalalpur and Pindi Bhattim. These were, however, taken by storm in A.D. 1801. Most of the Bhatti leaders were killed, the survivors who fled for protection to the Siyals of Jhang were outlawed and their possessions confiscated. When the power of the Sikhs was broken in the 2nd Sikh war, and the Punjab annexed, they returned and were restored to most of their old possessions. The power of the local tribes having thus been broken, it remained to overcome the rival Sikh chiefs.
Most of these were the descendants of the adventurers who had aided Charat Singh and Maha Singh in establishing their power. Many of them were nearly connected with the Maharaja by blood or marriage, but neither the remembrance of past services, nor the ties of blood, could restrain Ranjit Singh in his career of unscrupulous ambition. Dal Singh, of Akalgarh, the brother-in-law of Charat Singh, had been the most strenuous of the Sukarchakias in their various campaigns against the Chathas, and on the overthrow of the latter had received a large portion of their possessions in Jagir. For some years after, Ranjit Singh’s accession, Dal Singh was his most trusted adviser. His increasing influence however excited the Maharaja’s jealousy and brought on a rupture.
Ranjit Singh made an attack on Akalgarh in 1800, which was successfully resisted by Sahju the wife of Dal Singh. Dal Singh died in 1804, Ranjit Singh captured Akalgarh and Ahmadanagar, and annexed Dal Singh’s possessions, making however, according to his custom, a decent provision for the family by the grant of a jagir and thus attaching them to his standard. Jodh Singh, Varaich, whose sister had married Charat Singh, and whose father Gurbakhsh Singh had attached himself to the rising fortunes of that chief and received Wazirabad and 47 villages in the vicinity as a reward for his services, was the next victim. Jodh Singh had always aided Maha Singh against the Bhangi Chief Sahib Singh, but when the latter was besieged in Sohdra in 1790, Jodh Singh is suspected of having secretly supplied him with ammunition, fearing that Maha Singh, if successful, would become too powerful, and this action is said to have been the cause of Ranjit Singh’s hostility to him. The ambition of the latter, however, supplies a motive beyond which it is unnecessary to seek.
Finding his enemy too powerful to he openly attacked, Ranjit Singh set a trap for him. He invited him to Lahore, received him in Darbar with great courtesy, and while professing friendship and esteem, suddenly gave the signal to have the Sardar seized. Jodh Singh drew his sword, and called on them to attack as he disdained to flee. The Maharaja was so struck with his gallantry that he dismissed him with safety, confirmed him in his possessions, and added to his Jagirs, A few years later, however, when Jodh Singh died in 1809, the Maharaja marched a force to Wazirabad and ruthlessly confiscated all the Jagir allowing a small grant for the maintenance of Ganda Singh and Amrik Singh, the minor sons of Jodh Singh. The fate of the Bhangi Sardars, whose estates in this district were finally confiscated in 1809, has already been related. The rise of Bhag Singh, the leader of the martial Virakh clan, who, in the time of Charat Singh and Maha Singh, had seized a large portion of the Gujranwala and Sheikhupura parganahs and extended his power up to the banks of the Ravi, has been referred to in an earlier page. Though a steady supporter of the Sukarchakias while they were struggling against their rivals, he was too near the throne for the Maharaja to brook him as a rival. He was compelled in 1805 to sacrifice his independence and submit to the Maharaja who granted him 84 villages in Jagir and put him in command of the Virakh Horse.
On his death in 1806 his son Jodh Singh succeeded to his position and emoluments. Another branch of the Virakh tribe, under Sahib Singh, had established a strong position in and around Sheikhupura, whence they had expelled the Lobana tribe. In 1808 the Maharaja turned his arms against them. For some time, they made a successful resistance in the fort of Sheikhupura, but were at length induced to submit under promise of considerate treatment. They were granted considerable Jagirs, entered the Mahraja’s service, and for many years were among the most zealous and loyal of his followers. Thus by force and fraud, tempered with conciliation, Ranjit Singh had succeeded in overcoming all local opposition and cleared the way for the extension of his dominion over the whole Punjab.