Ranjit Singh's eccentric empire

Minor irritants don't detract from Singh's research and penchant for weaving a narrative of Sikh militarism while chronicling the times of Ranjit Singh

Sarbpreet Singh’s book on Maharaja Ranjit Singh could well have been named “The Dancing Girl of Lahore, From Waterloo to Lahore” or “A Woman of Substance”. These are chapters in Mr Singh’s book that chronicle unusual and unheard stories from the court of Ranjit Singh. Instead, the book bears the title of its first chapter — The Camel Merchant of Philadelphia — which also happens to be one of the most eccentric and outlandish stories in the book. The title of book and the chapter describes the adventures of an American named Josiah Harlan and his tryst with the first