(38) The Grandsons

Shah Zaman, the grandson of Ahmad Shah Abdali, who had been the scourge of the Punjab for decades crosses the Indus again. As the Sikhs prepare to abandon their cities in the face of the Afghan juggernaut, Sardarni Sada Kaur persuades them to dig their heels in and resist. The young Ranjit Singh, the grandson of the legendary Sikh warrior Sardar Charat Singh Shukerchakia, challenges the Afghan King to single combat. An ambitious new British Governor General arrives in Calcutta and lays out an aggressive, expansionist vision, which promises to have a profound impact on the powers jockeying for position in the remains of the crumbling Mughal Empire.