A new book records the resilience and contributions of Bibi Sahib and other women in colonial Punjab

In 1794, near the tiny hamlet of Mardanpur in Ambala, the armies of two emerging powers were facing each other for the first and last time. On one side were the Marathas, valiant warriors from the Deccan, with an army of 15,000 men fighting under their general, Apa Khande Rao Scindia, the man who had brought Mughal Delhi to its knees. On the other side stood a confederation of petty Sikh chiefs, all of whom had replaced the Mughal nobility that once ruled East Punjab, and were fighting under the banner of their largest chiefdom, Patiala, founded by Ala Singh. With an army half the size of the Marathas, the anxious Patiala alliance was worried about their impending defeat. Their confidence dwindled every hour as more and more of their men began to fall in the face of a much-better trained and equipped Maratha army. Sensing an imminent Maratha victory, the Sikh chiefs began to cautiously retreat along with their soldiers. As they began abandoning their positions to move towards their camp, they were met by a rath (bullock-drawn canopied chariot) emerging from amongst the countless Punjabi soldiers. The rath, a closed Punjabi bullock cart, would have been covered completely...

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