The northwest of India was once the crossroads of empires—where the ambitions of the Sikhs, Afghans, and British clashed in a fierce contest for power. In the early 19th century, the Sikh Empire under Maharaja Ranjit Singh challenged Afghan control of the frontier, wresting Peshawar and the Khyber region from the Durranis and checking centuries of incursions into the Punjab. These Sikh-Afghan conflicts laid the foundation for a strong, militarized state that would soon confront a new adversary. The 2nd Anglo-Sikh War the final campaign of the East India Company’s Bengal Army, was a brutal reckoning. The Khalsa Army—disciplined, battle-hardened, and fiercely proud—fought with unmatched courage in what would become one of the bloodiest episodes in British India. Though it ended with the annexation of Punjab, the cost of victory foreshadowed the Empire’s challenges to come and left a legacy of martial resistance that still echoes today.

In the first half of the 19th century, the northwest frontier of the Indian subcontinent became the stage for a dramatic three-way struggle between the declining Durrani Empire of the Afghans, the rising Sikh Empire under Maharaja Ranjit Singh, and the ever-expanding British East India Company. The Sikhs, determined to secure their western frontier, clashed repeatedly with Afghan forces in a series of hard-fought campaigns that saw the capture of Peshawar and the famed Khyber Pass. These victories not only ended Afghan dominance in the Punjab but also brought the Sikh Empire into direct contact with British interests. What followed were two bitter Anglo-Sikh Wars. The second, fought in 1848–49, was especially fierce—pitting the battle-hardened Khalsa Army against the seasoned Bengal Army. The war ended with the British annexation of Punjab, marking the fall of the Sikh Empire and bringing British India to the edge of Central Asia.

The tour commences at Lahore which was the capital of Ranjit Singh and at one time of the Mughals and has much to show of the history of both. You then take a two-way journey by train south to Multan for a tour of the fort besieged by the East India Company for a year. After spending another day in Lahore that includes a visit to the Sikh Fort at Sheikhupura, we drive up the Grand Trunk Road and detour to the historic crossing site over the River Chenab at Rasulnagar. It was here that the campaign in northern Punjab opened in November 1948 when a British contingent of cavalry with an infantry brigade failed to attain a surprise crossing against the Sikh Army commanded by their very able General Sher Singh. Our next stop is Gujrat where we will tour the battlefield and spend the night. The next morning is devoted to the Battle of Chillianwala. Following a night at Islamabad, we are back on the GT Road to tour the battlefield of Chach where the Sikh and Afghan Army clashed for the first time. After touring the Sikh sites at Peshawar including the Bala Hisar Fort, we will radiate out to visit the Sikh era fort at Jamrud and drive up the historic Khyber Pass. We will also spend an interesting morning touring the for at Shabqadar. The final leg of our tour is the Battlefield of Pir Sabaq on the banks of River Kabul where Ranjit Singhs highly trained army was nearly defeated by a lashkar one fourth its size and comprising of farmers.