Maharaja Ranjit Singh, leader of the Sikh empire in the early 19th century, has topped a poll of the greatest leaders in world history.
At the beginning of this year, BBC World Histories Magazine asked historians including Rana Mitter, Margaret MacMillan and Gus Casely-Hayford to nominate their ‘greatest leader’ – someone who exercised power and had a positive impact on humanity – and to explore their achievements and legacy. The list was voted on by more than 5,000 readers, and Singh has been named history’s greatest leader. You can read more about Singh’s life, successes and failures here.
Taking more than 38 per cent of the vote, Maharaja Ranjit Singh was described by nominating historian Matthew Lockwood as a modernising and uniting force, whose reign “marked a golden age for Punjab and north-west India”.
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