On 28 January 1846, near the village of Aliwal on the Sutlej river in the Punjab, a British and Indian army of the East India Company under Major-General Sir Harry Smith defeated a Sikh force commanded by Ranjodh Singh Majithia. It was one of the cleanest victories of the First Anglo-Sikh War, remembered for the charge of the 16th Lancers into the Sikh infantry, and it cleared the way for the decisive battle at Sobraon two weeks later.
A threat to the British rear
The First Anglo-Sikh War began in December 1845, when the army of the Sikh Empire, the Khalsa, crossed the Sutlej into territory held by the East India Company. After the costly battles of Mudki and Ferozeshah, the main armies faced each other along the river.1
In January 1846 a Sikh detachment under Ranjodh Singh Majithia crossed the Sutlej further upstream, threatening the British fort at Ludhiana and the supply lines of the main army. The commander-in-chief, Sir Hugh Gough, sent Harry Smith, a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, to deal with it. Smith joined the Ludhiana garrison and then marched on the Sikh camp.2
The battle
The Sikhs held a ridge between the villages of Aliwal and Bhundri, with the Sutlej close behind them. After an indecisive exchange of artillery fire, Smith's infantry stormed Aliwal village, which turned the Sikh flank and threatened the fords.3
On the British left, a cavalry brigade led by the 16th Lancers drove off the Sikh horsemen and then rode into the Sikh infantry, battalions trained in the European manner. The infantry closed into defensive formations, usually described as squares, although the World History Encyclopedia notes that Sikh troops traditionally formed triangles. The Lancers broke through several of them at heavy cost. As the Sikh line gave way, the retreat to the river turned into a rout, and the Sikh guns were captured or lost in the Sutlej.4
The battle was often described as "the battle without a mistake", and the National Army Museum notes that some see it as a "near perfect battle". It appears in our guides to the battles of India and the greatest cavalry charges.5
Numbers and losses
The sources disagree on almost every figure. The National Army Museum gives Smith about 12,000 men and 32 guns against about 20,000 Sikhs with 67 guns. The World History Encyclopedia gives about 10,000 against about 14,000, with 32 and 75 guns.6
For British and Indian losses, the National Army Museum gives 141 killed, 413 wounded and 25 missing, while the World History Encyclopedia gives 151 killed with the same numbers of wounded and missing. The 16th Lancers alone lost about 140 of their roughly 300 men. Sikh losses are even less certain: the National Army Museum estimates about 3,000 killed, while the World History Encyclopedia only says hundreds.7
What followed
Aliwal removed the threat to the British rear and freed Smith to rejoin Gough. According to the National Army Museum, Smith was made a baronet for the victory. On 10 February 1846 the combined British army stormed the main Sikh position at Sobraon, and the Treaty of Lahore that followed ended the war, with the Sikh state ceding large territories to the Company. A second war in 1848 to 1849 ended with the annexation of the Punjab.8
