Demystifying the tale of so called "British-Jat war and invincibility of Lohagarh fort of Bharatpur". The siege of Bharatpur by British commander Gerard Lake in 1805 is mythified in so many legends, modern newspaper and social media article that it is universally believed as
victory of Jats against the British. Even wikipedia articles mention it as such. Hence it is necessary to demystify the whole event, step by step which is missing in all these abovementioned narratives.
So the story starts in 1803. Jat Raja of Bharatpur, Ranjit Singh seeing British succeeding against Sindhia, sent a friendly overture to Lord Lake, and later personally went to meet Lord Gerard Lake in his camp. Soon a treaty was signed by Bharatpur with British.
Bharatpur was one of the first to sign treaty with British from Rajputana, another being Dholpur (also a Jat state), Bharatpur also sent a contingent to fight under British flag. But the treaty was actually quite advantageous to Ranjit Singh because now he no longer
had to pay 2 lakh rupees yearly, that he had to pay to Marathas. And unlike marathas British were willing and more importantly capable of denfending Bharatpur against any foreign aggressor that too without 2 lakh rupees yearly. Above that Brits gave Ranjit more territory.
Meanwhile a war was going on b/w Brits and Yashwant rao Holkar. Holkar was in desperate need of allies as other maratha leaders like Scindhia, Gaekwad etc were friendly with British. While fighting in north, Holkar sent his vakil to Bharatpur.
Ranjit Singh clearly said he already signed treaty with British and is in friendly terms with them hence cant support holkar. Holkar again sent a second vakeel and this time convinced that he (Holkar) is winning the war against British and as soon as he will win the war he will
grant Ranjit quite a large territory. By sweet mouth of the vakeel, Ranjit singh was convinced and he hoped to gain from allying with Holkar. But all these were sweet talks, holkar was not winning at all but infact suffered defeats from British on more than one occasion.
Holkar fled to Deeg fort which was under Bharatpur territory. The fort of Deeg was besieged and captured by the British soon enough. With fall of Deeg, Ranjit Singh realized the folly he had committed and now tried to correct it. He sent a messenger to Lake for treaty (again)
but Lake didn't entertain this and wanted to teach a lesson to Jat raja for breaking the earlier treaty. Ranjit Singh was alarmed at hearing the report of Lord Lake's march on Bharatpur and first thought of sending his ranis to mountain fortress of Jaipur or Jodhpur
for asylum but was later dissuaded by some of the courtiers. The British commenced the siege, attack on Bharatpur started with heavy bombarding, a few times British attempt to take the fort by storm didnt succeed but the siege was not slackened by Lake. Holkar who fled to Agra
and tried to harass the besieger army was defeated. In grim situation Ranjit Singh sent message to Pindari leader Amir Khan for help with promise of money, Amir Khan too tried to harass the British but he too was defeated. With limited resources, Lake was fighting
on many fronts alongwith the siege of Bharatpur. With defeat of both of his supporters and the situation worsening in the fort, Ranjit Singh realized that he could no longer hold on against the British and again sent a peace proposal to Lord Lake.
On the promise of 20 lakh of indemnity to British a fresh treaty was signed. Forts like Deeg remained under British control for compliance of treaty and above all Randhir Singh, the eldest son of Ranjit Singh and heir to throne was given as hostage to Lord Lake, he was
taken into custody in British camp (Just like Tipu's sons were given as hostage to Cornwallis after former's defeat). Thus ended the famous siege of Bharatpur which in sober history a humiliating defeat for Bharatpur but everywhere in newspaper articles and social media which do
not give the details of the end of the war represent the battle as if it was won by Ranjit Singh. Fort of Bharatpur by the way can not be called invincible, as British didnt raise siege but Ranjit singh signed a humiliating peace, otherwise it would have fallen in next few weeks.
And we have clear proof for the "invincibility" of Bharatpur when in 1825 due to succession issue, British army besieged the fort of Bharatpur once again, the King of Bharatpur at that time was Durjansal who sued for peace but Brits didnt entertain the proposal.
Within less than a month the so called "invincible" fort of Bharatpur fell. Durjansal fled from Bharatpur and was captured while fleeing. Every Jat fort, like Kumbher, Weir, Deeg etc surrendered. Durjansal was removed from Bharatpur territory altogether and a minor named Balwant
Singh son of a former raja was given the throne of Bharatpur and so ended the second siege of Bharatpur.
So in short, In 1805 the war of Brits was with Holkar, Ranjit was friendly with Brits but for hope of more territory joined Holkar. Soon after with Holkar's defeat Ranjit again sue for peace, not entertained by Lake. Lake besieges Lohagarh (Bharatpur), finally Ranjit
pays indemnity of 20 lakhs and gave his eldest son and future king as hostage to Lord Lake to end the siege. In 1825 the same fort of Lohagarh fall to Brits arms within a few days. End of the story.
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