Jat Sikh Imperial Rule to British Paramountcy and the Hindu Dogra Maharajas
The political history of Jammu and Kashmir is often simplified into a succession of rulers, but the actual structure of power was more complicated. In the nineteenth century, the region moved from Jat Sikh imperial rule centred in Lahore to a Hindu Dogra monarchy operating under British paramountcy.
Under the Jat Sikh Empire
In 1819, the Jat Sikh Empire of Maharaja Ranjit Singh conquered the Kashmir Valley from the Afghan Durrani administration. Kashmir consequently became part of the Sikh Empire, whose capital was Lahore.
Jammu also came within the Sikh imperial system. The Dogra ruler Gulab Singh, a Hindu Dogra Rajput, rose to power under Maharaja Ranjit Singh and was recognised as Raja of Jammu in 1822.
This distinction is important: Gulab Singh was not initially the sovereign ruler of an independent Jammu and Kashmir state. He was a powerful subordinate ruler within the much larger Sikh Empire.
The political hierarchy was broadly:
Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the Lahore Sikh Empire
↓
Dogra rulers of Jammu and other subordinate territories
↓
Local governors, chiefs and administrators
1846: The Political Order Changes
The Jat Sikh Empire was defeated by the British East India Company in the First Anglo-Sikh War of 1845–1846.
The resulting settlements transformed the political map of the region. Under the Treaty of Amritsar of 16 March 1846, the British transferred Kashmir and associated territories to Gulab Singh, who was recognised as Maharaja of the newly constituted princely State of Jammu and Kashmir.
This marked the beginning of the Dogra dynasty’s rule over the princely state.
However, Jammu and Kashmir did not become a fully sovereign independent country.
The Hindu Dogra Maharajas Under British Paramountcy
From 1846 until 1947, Jammu and Kashmir was a princely state under British paramountcy.
The Hindu Dogra Maharajas retained considerable authority over internal administration, taxation, land, law and government, but the British Crown occupied the superior position in the imperial political order.
In simplified form, the hierarchy became:
British paramount power
↓
Hindu Dogra Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir
↓
State administration, governors and local rulers
This is an important distinction in understanding Kashmir’s history.
The Dogra rulers possessed substantial autonomy, but their state existed within the wider framework of the British Indian Empire and recognised British paramountcy.
Why This Matters Today
The political structure helps explain why descriptions of nineteenth-century Jammu and Kashmir as simply an independent Dogra kingdom can be misleading.
There were effectively two successive imperial frameworks:
Before 1846: Jammu and Kashmir’s territories were governed within the political system of the Jat Sikh Empire centred in Lahore.
From 1846 to 1947: the princely State of Jammu and Kashmir was governed by the Hindu Dogra Maharajas under British paramountcy.
Only with the end of British paramountcy in 1947 did that constitutional structure collapse, producing the crisis over the future of Jammu and Kashmir that remains unresolved today.
Understanding this hierarchy provides a clearer picture of how the former princely state was created, governed and ultimately divided.