Demand for General Zorawar Singh’s statue on banks of Pangong in Ladakh
The recent installation of a statue of Maratha King Chhatrapati Shivaji on the banks of Pangong Tso in eastern Ladakh has sparked a debate, with several citizens calling for the erection of a statue of General Zorawar Singh Kalhuria, the man credited with leading the Dogra Army of Jammu to conquer Ladakh in the 19th century.
General Zorawar Singh’s military campaign between 1834 and 1840 played a pivotal role in merging the Buddhist-majority kingdom of Ladakh with the Dogra kingdom, which was then part of the Sikh Empire led by Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Lahore. His successful military campaigns against Ladakh’s last ruler, Tsepal Namgyal, culminated in the integration of the region into Jammu & Kashmir, shaping the boundaries of present-day eastern Ladakh.
On December 26, the Leh-headquartered 14 Corps of the Indian Army unveiled a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji on the banks of Pangong Tso, a 135-kilometer-long glacial-melt lake straddling the Line of Actual Control (LAC) – the de facto border between India and China. While the statue of Shivaji, a revered figure in Indian history, has been welcomed by many, it has also led to a call for greater recognition of General Zorawar Singh’s legacy. Advocates for his commemoration argue that his historical contribution to the region’s strategic landscape deserves equal acknowledgment. General Zorawar Singh’s series of military campaigns, which began in 1834, were instrumental in consolidating Dogra control over Ladakh.
The seeds for this conquest were sown in 1822, when Maharaja Gulab Singh appointed Zorawar Singh as the Governor of Kishtwar, Arnas and Riasi-Khasali.
In 1846, after the British defeated the Sikh Empire, the Treaty of Amritsar was signed, marking the formal integration of Ladakh into the newly created princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, under the rule of Raja Gulab Singh. Thus, General Zorawar Singh at its forefront laid the foundations of the current geopolitical landscape of Ladakh.
