The last battles

The last battles
Meanwhile, Whish's force completed their siege works around Multan, their batteries opened fire and made a breach in the defences, which the infantry stormed. Mulraj surrendered on January 22. He was to be imprisoned for the remainder of his life. The ending of the siege allowed Whish to reinforce Gough. In particular, Whish's division had large numbers of heavy guns, which the Sikhs lacked.
As Gough's army closed in on the Khalsa, Sher Singh attempted a last outflanking move, sending cavalry to cross the Chenab, and re-cross in Gough's rear. They were thwarted by British irregular cavalry led by Harry Burnett Lumsden and William Hodson. On February 13, Gough attacked the Khalsa at the Battle of Gujarat. Here, he began the battle with a three-hour bombardment from 100 guns, which drove the Sikhs from their hasty entrenchments. He then sent his cavalry and horse artillery after them in a pursuit which lasted for four hours.
On March 12, Chattar Singh and Sher Singh surrendered near Rawalpindi. Some 20,000 men (mainly irregular cavalry) laid down their arms. Dost Mohammed Khan of Afghanistan had half-heartedly sent some tribes into the Punjab to fight against the British. After learning of the Battle of Gujarat, they withdrew.
On March 30, Duleep Singh held his last court at Lahore, at which he signed away all claims to the rule of the Punjab. A proclamation by Dalhousie, annexing the Punjab, was then read out. For his services the Earl of Dalhousie received the thanks of the British parliament and a step in the peerage, as marquess. Gough also received rewards for his services, although his tactics at Chillianwala were to be questioned for the remainder of his life. Many of the junior British Political Agents who had organised local resistance to the Khalsa were to have distinguished later careers.

[edit] Aftermath
The Sikh defeat had resulted from several causes. Their administration of the population of the Punjab had been poor, which meant that their large armies found it difficult to find enough food. The mainly Muslim inhabitants of the frontier districts who had themselves been subjugated by the Khalsa in earlier years readily fought under British officers against the Sikhs, continually disrupting their movements. Finally, the East India Company had brought overwhelming force against them.
The Sikh Wars gave the two sides a mutual respect for each other's fighting prowess (although the war itself had been unchivalrously fought - Sikhs took no prisoners at Chillianwala, and the British had taken no prisoners at Gujarat).
There was an increased recruitment of people from various communities of the Punjab in the Punjab Irregular Force under British command. These recruits fought for the East India Company during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, against the mutineers and other opponents (mostly high-caste Hindus from Eastern provinces, and forces or loyalists of Shia, Maratha and Mughal rulers). These Punjabi recruits had especially little sympathy with the Hindu mutineers of the Bengal Army, ironically contributed to by the latter's role in helping the British in the Anglo-Sikh wars. A long history of enmity of the Sikhs with Mughal rule did not help the mutineers' cause either, given their choice of Bahadur Shah Zafar as a symbolic leader.