There are interesting news coming from India.
It seems that a diplomatic meeting bewteen the ambassador and Foreign Minister of the Marathas, Sawai; and the Raja of Khalsa Raj, Ranjit Sindh at Ram Bagh Mahal has ended with a major diplomatic crisis between the two nations, to the point of an incoming war declaration.
The tensions arose when the Foreign Minister of the Marathas, Sawai, pressed Ranjit Sindh about Marathas' desire of annexing Sindh in exchange for only a non-aggresion treaty and meager economic and transit rights, and forced Khalsa Raj to choose between an unfavourable treaty or the sword. Our correspondant at the Sikh palace reported that he witnessed Sawai bringing an aid forward carrying a majestic box that contained a Khanda sword, adorned with gold, as a military emblem of the Maratha Empire, and claimed that he heard Sawai's literally sabre-rattling that:
"This will be yours, in the alternative that you don't accept, our deal, of Sindh becoming ours, and a transit access deal. This is the personal sword of his Majesty Raja Pratap Singh Mehere. He will personally retrieve his sword from here in Lahore. If he isn't able to, then, perhaps we are not the Empire meant to destroy the British threat, perhaps that duty would fall to you, or the Great Qing."
The Rahaj Ranjit Sindh replied that: "We don't want to take your deal nor your master's sword, dear Sawai. Tell to your Maharajah Pratap Singh Mehere that a diplomat in such a high position as the Minister of Foreign Affairs should only bring back good offers of mutual benefit and peace, not a sword, the symbol of a warrior. How are we meant to take this? As a provocation? As a threat of war?"
The following responses left the room open for war, as the Marathi minister sabre rattling clarification of his intentions at the palace left no room but war: ""It means we will retrieve the sword by force, a challenge, a duel of two countries for the fate of the Indus river, so take it, and know that very soon, we will be back to retrieve it here in Lahore. So we ask you, take the sword."
This reply enraged the Rajah of Khalsa Raj, who adopted a taunting tone, defiant rhetotic and a clear challenging message, shouting to the Marathi minister that:
"Why doesn't he comes to speak with me directly if he dares to threaten to invade my nation?
I, Rajah Ranjit Singh, on the name and honour of my ancestors, am committed to fulfill my duties as a leader to my people and commit to peace and to avoid the bloodshed of the Khalsa Raj soldiers and the Sikh people as a whole. Indeed, I'm willing to even save the lives of your own people.
Tell your "Maharajah" Pratap Singh Mehere, that if he does really want a combat, I will give him one mano a mano (man to man, one to one) in a trial to death by single combat, using equivalent single weapons, on the condition that war would be avoided. Or what happens, is he ready to spill and waste his people's and his subject's blood but not his own? Wouldn't the death of a single man be preferable to the death of thousands? Is in his character or his tradition to chicken out like a coward after threatening to kill thousand, maybe millions, with his reckless expansionism and threats on my people but is unwilling to commit his own life?
(Grabs the offered sword)
Don't worry, I will rip his head off with his personal sword and there shall be peace.
I won't give him the war that he desires, but I will give him the death that he deserves!!"
This rethoric was unacceptable and the message of ripping the Marathas' Maharaja Pratap Singh Mehere head off" in a trial by combat was condemned as barbaric by the Marathi Foreign Minister, who stormed out the room while shouting that there will be a war, instead.
It does seem, as all the unquestionable evidence points out, that the path to war is surely unavoidable now. There's a war in India's horizon.
The winner of the war is not yet decided, but clearly the losers are both, as this will only bring a further level up to the de-stabilization of the entire Indian subcontinent.
There's an old saying that "The road to hell is paved with good intentions", and it seems in this case it should be "The road to war is paved with sabre-rattling declarations."
