How did the Sikhs loot Nadir Shah's army?

[chatanga1]

On 5/12/2019 at 1:09 PM, dalsingh101 said:

It might be clearer in the original which you can find here. Try downloading that?

 

Thanks. Anyone who wishes to read it a little easier can download it and use zoom feature to read it a little easier. It does still require some concentration though as it will not be crystal clear.

 

On 5/12/2019 at 1:09 PM, dalsingh101 said:

(Regarding the freeing captives), I don't know, but I guess we'll find out. For now we can say that the fact Bhangu doesn't mention it is very interesting.

 

Bhangu doen't mention Baba Deep Singh's shaheedi either.

[dalsingh101]

3 hours ago, chatanga1 said:

.Bhangu doen't mention Baba Deep Singh's shaheedi either.

Good point.

 

So looking at it more broadly and going back to your original question. 

It looks like Nadir Shah (a Persian) was funding his own wars (especially with Ottoman Turks) by looting the Moghuls. 

Singhs followed the invading army's movements from a far. But note how they were able to plan the raids for the loot in quite a precise way. They anticipated the caravan passing over a river, and then released a bunch of logs at the correct time to sabotage the boat bridges used by NS, separating the loot from the main section of the army. Using streams/canals to transport logs from one town/village to another was still common in my granddad's time. 

They then attacked the caravan and carried off the loot. Note how this might have differed from the usual dhai-phat movement because it involved actual hand-to-hand contact with the guards of the loot (unless they managed to pick them all off from a distance. I imagine the loot to be placed on bullock carts, mules etc. So they had to be careful when retreating because these things would have slowed them down. 

It's quite a precise set of coordinated actions, and risky too - that needed to have been done extremely quickly. Singhs are showing some serious efficiency here. 

Also, the fact that Abdali Shah (Nadir's successor?) came back to loot Moghuls too afterwards maybe indicates that the Moghuls still had a lot of wealth despite Nadir's attacks?

[dalsingh101]

Notice how this is all inter-Muslim war. 

 

In 1743, Nader Shah declared war on the Ottoman Empire. He demanded the surrender of Baghdad. The Iranians had captured Baghdad in 1623 and Mosul in 1624, but the Ottomans had recaptured Mosul in 1625 and Bagdad in 1638. The Treaty of Zuhab in 1639 between the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid Empire had resulted in peace for 85 years. After the fall of the Safavid Dynasty, Russia and the Ottoman Empire agreed to divide the northwest and the Caspian region of Iran, but with the advent of Nader Shah, the Russians and the Turks withdrew from the region. Nader Shah waged war against the Ottomans from 1730 to 1736 but it ended with a stalemate. Nader Shah afterwards turned east and declared war on the Moghul Empire and invaded India, in order to refund his wars against the Ottomans.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaigns_of_Nader_Shah

 

[chatanga1]

On 5/13/2019 at 7:47 PM, dalsingh101 said:

Singhs followed the invading army's movements from a far. But note how they were able to plan the raids for the loot in quite a precise way.

Yes, I at that particular time, the Dal Panth were planning and re-planning every possible scenario in order to achieve their goal, which was to not let the invader return with 100% of his loot.

 

On 5/13/2019 at 7:47 PM, dalsingh101 said:

They anticipated the caravan passing over a river, and then released a bunch of logs at the correct time to sabotage the boat bridges used by NS, separating the loot from the main section of the army.

The Sikhs were helped in this regard by the route that Nadir took on his return. Nader wanted to avoid the stifling plains so took a route futher north towards the mountain footholds. This favoured the Sikhs because the mountains provided excellent cover and secure base, but also because the speed of the river was much greater than on the plains with the greater decline of the land going downhill. The river was also a heavier at this time because of the season.

 

On 5/13/2019 at 7:47 PM, dalsingh101 said:

It's quite a precise set of coordinated actions, and risky too - that needed to have been done extremely quickly. Singhs are showing some serious efficiency here. 

Yes everything was in place and the strike had to be quite "surgical." The logs had to be released at a time, where they would catch the rear-end of the train. If it was too early, there would be more of an amry to fight. Too late and there would be none.

I was quite impressed by this operation, which is why I started this topic and asked the question in the title.

 

On 5/13/2019 at 8:19 PM, dalsingh101 said:

Nader Shah afterwards turned east and declared war on the Moghul Empire and invaded India, in order to refund his wars against the Ottomans.

From what I've read on this Nadir empire was attacked by Pathans from Kandahar and kabul. These places were under the Moghal empire. Nadir sought redress from Delhi but when none was forthcoming he decided to invade.

[dalsingh101]

On 5/16/2019 at 8:59 AM, chatanga1 said:

I was quite impressed by this operation, which is why I started this topic and asked the question in the title.

It's very impressive and Singhs seemed to have improved at it over time too. I was refreshing myself on the Jagjit Singh's Sikh Revolution book and came across this: