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1: Kulwant Singh (U.S.A.), January 21, 2014, 10:37 AM.

This seems to be a romanticized account of a time when patriarchy was practiced thoroughly. The wives of these men must have endured humiliation, but they could not protest because a woman would have to 'know her place'. These men thought they were in love? One thing remains true today: A fool and his money are easily parted.

2: Kaala Singh (Punjab), January 21, 2014, 1:35 PM.

This is precisely the reason why the Sikh empire fell. The great Empire built on the blood and sweat of the likes of Hari Singh Nalwa and Baba Phoola Singh fell because of the lefe-style of this Maharaja in the latter part of his life. This should not have been the way a king rules in the name of Sikhi.

3: R Singh  (Canada), January 21, 2014, 7:18 PM.

When we start judging historical figures according to our own norms, we create scenarios that are not factual. The Sikh kingdom did not fall because of any romance. We deem arrangements between parents to seal deals or alliances of convenience as the epitome of marriages. Before we fling stones at a personality who stood head and shoulders above all, let us not forget, romance or not, the expeditions to as far as Tibet were being conducted. While Sikhs formed the nucleus of the forces, there were many recruits from Nepal to Kangra to the Frontier, amongst them Hindus and Muslims alike. No one else had the ability to keep them together like Ranjit Singh. Let us quit blaming Ranjit Singh and take stock of why there are such few pragmatic leaders amongst us, while he rose to establish an empire.

4: Raj (Canada), January 21, 2014, 11:58 PM.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh's biggest failure was that though he had fifty years to establish a line of able succession, he failed to do so.

5: Gurinder Singh (Stockton, California, U.S.A.), January 22, 2014, 4:21 AM.

Ranjit Singh, despite his great achievements and his love for Sikhi, often failed to meet the high ideals of Sikhi.

6: R Singh  (Canada), January 22, 2014, 10:56 AM.

We seem to not get the picture. The failure was not his, but of a people who do not distinguish between the duties of rulers and duties of religious heads. When they overlap, we have a rigid theocratic state. Ranjit Singh could not entertain that scenario, for simple logistic reasons. There is more to ruling than mere battles. We keep repeating those cliches from the history class. According to the bard Shah Muhammad, we turned victory into defeat.

7: Sarvjit Singh (Massachusetts, USA), January 22, 2014, 12:28 PM.

Ranjit Singh was a great warrior and is credited with establishing the Sikh Raj, and made the 19th century big-game powers to recognize Sikhs as an entity. This was the first sovereignty message. So from a historical perspective his contribution is phenonmenal (perhaps bigger than any other Sikh besides the Ten Gurus and Banda Singh). However, in his personal life-style as a Sikh, he too fell short ... like all of us.

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