The Fauj-i-Khas was a brigade of the Fauj-i-Ain section of the Sikh Khalsa Army of Punjab. It consisted of very experienced elites and had separate flag and emblem. It was strictly disciplined on French pattern. All the equipment and weapons were of the best type. It grew to be the best organised section of the regular army (Fauj-i-Ain)
Before the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh the armies in Punjab were consisting purely of cavalry. As Ranjit Singh became the Sardar of Sukerchakia Misl he tried to unify with his conquests most of the Punjab. With clever diplomacy and many battles he gradually unified most of Punjab under him. However the Afghans, The British and the Gurkhas were still a very big threat, while his empire was still in its infancy. Therefore, in 1805, he started recruiting regular forces and employing East India Company deserters as officers or soldiers. This didn't go very well as most of these deserters were constantly in touch with the British. The British where alarmed with the rapid conquests of Ranjit Singh and sent many diplomatic missions to help the Phulkian sardars from a possible conquest of their lands and check the growing power of the Sikh Sovereign.
A Muslim regiment under Charles Metcalfe, 1st Baron Metcalfe was sent to Amritsar for talks with the Maharaja. The soldiers created noise through their chants as they approached Ranjit Singh’s fort in Amritsar and passed near the Golden Temple and caused an irregular detachment of Nihang guards to inquire about the disturbances during prayer, before they were challenged by the Muslim soldiers who fired upon them. The Sikh Nihangs shot off many Musket and matchlock volleys rather than a sword charge. It resulted in the death of many of Metcalfe's escorts, while others were wounded. This impressed Ranjit Singh and left a deep impact on him, as the Nihangs had quickly adopted the line formations of Metcalfe's escorts and then shot off their volleys. The Maharaja then accepted The Treaty of Amritsar (1809), and saw the British as allies for the moment as he took the British refusal to engage after the assault on Metcalfe's convoy as well as the Sikh army's frequent unanswered incursions and attacks south of the Sutlej on British army officers in Ludhiana as signs of weakness on the British's part.
Formation
It was the Maharaja Ranjit Singh who started to hire European officers to train and command parts of his army. The Fauj-i-Khas was a model brigade trained and equipped after European model under the command of General Jean-Baptiste Ventura. It consisted of 11000 horsemen(Ghor Charras), divided into fifteen Dera led by eminent sardars, among them Sham Singh Atariwala, Gurmukh Singh Lamba, Hari Singh Nalwa, and two by non Sikhs, the Mulraj Derah of Dewan Mulraj and Dorgra Derah of Dhian Dogra. Izazi-i-sardari was the highest honour, most distinguished Sikh generals, sardar Gurmukh Singh Lamba, Hari Singh Nalwa, and Dal Singh Nahama were the recipient.
Khalsa Army Flag
Emblems
The Fauj-i-Khas had its own Flag, with the Punjabi inscription of the motto of the Sikh Khalsa Army:"Deg Tegh Fateh.It had also many banners,all of them blue in colour with circles,horses,flowers and corn plants
Size
The Fauj-i-Khas had 4 battalions of infantry, 2 regiments of cavalry and a troop of artillery. The cavalry was built on a British model and the infantry on French pattern. This was the first unit in the army to be equipped European-style. Impressed by its performance, the Maharaja ordered a total reorganisation of his whole regular force on the model of Fauj-i-Khas in 1835. This alarmed the British, who had come to see the emerging military power of Punjab as a threat, to such a degree that they in 1837 issued orders to be vigilant and try to arrest any French officer travelling in disguise to join Ranjit Singh’s army.
SIkh Khalsa cavalry at the Battle of Sobraon
Before Ranjit Singh, the Punjab army was mainly a pure cavalry army. Under the supervision of the European officers, and encouragement by the Maharaja, the infantry and artillery gained importance, and by the time of the death of Ranjit Singh, the infantry service had become the preferred service in the army.
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Commanders
Order of Merit with a portrait of Ranjit Singh, introduced by Ranjit Singh, the first Sikh maharaja of the Panjab (1801–1839), inspired by the French Legion d’honneur and worn by foreign military commanders it was awarded to
Over the years many Europeans served in the army of the Punjab. Among them are the following who mentioned by Alexander Gardner's memoir Soldier and Traveller:
Major Pearse, Hugh; Ranjit Singh and his white officers. In Gardner, Alexander (1999) [1898]. The Fall of Sikh Empire. Delhi, India: National Book Shop. ISBN81-7116-231-2.
Fauj-i-khas Maharaja Ranjit Singh and His French Officers, by Jean Marie Lafont. Published by Guru Nanak Dev University, 2002. ISBN81-7770-048-0.
The Sikh Army 1799-1849 By Ian Heath, Michael Perry
Maharaja Ranjit Singh By Jean Marie Lafont (Page 59,146,148)
The first Anglo-Sikh war was fought between the Sikh Empire and the British East India Company in 1845 and 1846 around the Ferozepur district of Punjab. It resulted in the defeat and partial subjugation of the Sikh empire and cession of Jammu & Kashmir as a separate princely state under British suzerainty.
The Sikh Empire was a regional power based in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. It existed from 1799, when Maharaja Ranjit Singh captured Lahore, to 1849, when it was defeated and conquered by the British East India Company in the Second Anglo-Sikh War. It was forged on the foundations of the Khalsa from a collection of autonomous misls. At its peak in the 19th century, the empire extended from Gilgit and Tibet in the north to the deserts of Sindh in the south and from the Khyber Pass in the west to the Sutlej in the east. It was divided into four provinces: Lahore, which became the Sikh capital; Multan; Peshawar; and Kashmir from 1799 to 1849. Religiously diverse, with an estimated population of 4.5 million in 1831, it was the last major region of the Indian subcontinent to be annexed by the British Empire.
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Khalsa College is a historic educational institution in the northern Indian city of Amritsar in the state of Punjab, India. Founded in 1892, the sprawling 300-acre (1.2 km2) campus is located about eight kilometers from the city-center on the Amritsar-Lahore highway, adjoining Guru Nanak Dev University campus, to which Khalsa College is academically affiliated.
The Sikh Khalsa Army, also known as Khalsaji or simply Sikh Army, was the military force of the Sikh Empire. With its roots in the Khalsa founded by Guru Gobind Singh, the army was later modernised on Franco-British principles by Maharaja Ranjit Singh. It was divided in three wings: the Fauj-i-Khas (elites), Fauj-i-Ain and Fauj-i-Be Qawaid (irregulars). Due to the lifelong efforts of the Maharaja and his European officers, it gradually became a prominent fighting force of Asia. Ranjit Singh changed and improved the training and organisation of his army. He reorganized responsibility and set performance standards in logistical efficiency in troop deployment, manoeuvre, and marksmanship. He reformed the staffing to emphasize steady fire over cavalry and guerrilla warfare, improved the equipment and methods of war. The military system of Ranjit Singh combined the best of both old and new ideas. He strengthened the infantry and the artillery. He paid the members of the standing army from treasury, instead of the Mughal method of paying an army with local feudal levies.
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Akali Phula Singh Nihang was an Akali Nihang Sikh leader. He was a saint soldier of the Khalsa Shaheedan Misl and head of the Budha Dal in the early 19th century. He was also a senior general in the Sikh Khalsa Army and commander of the irregular Nihang of the army. He played a role in uniting Sikh misls in Amritsar. He was not afraid of the British who at many times ordered for his arrest but were not successful. During his later years he served for the Sikh Empire as a direct adviser to Maharaja Ranjit Singh. He remained an army general in many famous Sikh battles up until his martyrdom in the battle of Nowshera. He was admired by the local people and had a great influence over the land and his settlement was always open to help the poor and helpless. He was well known and was a humble unique leader and prestigious warrior with high character. He was also known for his effort to maintain the values of Gurmat and the Khalsa panth.
The Fauj-i-Ain was a branch of the Sikh Khalsa Army and was the regular army of Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab. It contained infantry, cavalry and artillery units. The Fauj-i-Ain had two divisions, the Kampu-i-mu'alla, and the Fauj-i-Khas.
Ilahi Bakhsh was a Punjabi Muslim general who served in the Sikh Khalsa Fauj for over forty years and was regarded as one of the best artillery officers.
Sultan Mahmud Khan was a Punjabi Muslim commander of the Sikh Khalsa Army, the army of Sarkar e Khalsa. His derah of artillery was designated as Topkhana Sultan Mahmud. He is regarded as one of the best commanding officers of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
In 1822, after Maharaja Ranjit Singh gave employment to the European mercenaries, the Fauj-i-Ain divided unequally into the Kampu-i-mu'alla and the Fauj-i-Khas. Of the two, the Kampu-i-mu'alla was the larger trained division of the Sikh Khalsa Army comprising infantry, cavalry and artillery, but principally the infantry and artillery. The men enrolled in the Kampu-i-mu'alla wore uniforms and received a salary from the royal treasury.
The Ropar Meeting in October 1831 was between Maharaja Ranjit Singh and Lord William Bentinck, Governor-General of the East India Company, on the banks of the river Satluj, in a town of the same name. Ranjit Singh's fame had reached its peak, attracting the attention and friendship of sovereigns from afar.
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Sikh Empire 
