So, you got sent back through time and space, and somehow find yourself in the early 1830s- arriving in the city of Lahore, then the capital of the Sikh Empire, just outside the grand mansion of French general Jean-François Allard (who had been awarded the Légion d'honneur by Napoleon, and was the Western officer that Ranjit Singh trusted the most; but was lonely in the Punjab, unable to relate to the Indians, and was known to welcome any Westerner who arrived on his doorstep). And shortly afterwards, he decides to introduce you to Maharajah Ranjit Singh (who's actively seeking Westerners to modernize his Sikh Khalsa Army in European warfare, and to help kick-start the infrastructural development and early industrialization of his Empire, by instating the most learned and educated foreign mercenaries who sought to enter his service as District Governors, and giving them unlimited powers to do whatever they pleased as long as taxes were collected and order maintained).
Besides paying well, Ranjit Singh- described by contemporary Western visitors as "...a sensualist with a passion for beautiful women and boys, a taste for laudanum (a tincture of Opium, equivalent to 1% morphine), and an addiction to alcohol in the form of his own lethal homemade cocktails (which he called "firewater", and were believed to contain among other things grape juice, orange seeds and grounded gemstones)", whose "parties were fantastic bacchanalian bouts, and his sexual stamina legendary... with a particular highlight being Ranjit Singh's practice of getting his dancing girls drunk and then having them engage in wild cat-fights for his amusement"- also rewarded those served him well with beautiful concubines, with the most successful given large harems for their sexual enjoyment. Finding yourself in this situation, what would you do?
Besides paying well, Ranjit Singh- described by contemporary Western visitors as "...a sensualist with a passion for beautiful women and boys, a taste for laudanum (a tincture of Opium, equivalent to 1% morphine), and an addiction to alcohol in the form of his own lethal homemade cocktails (which he called "firewater", and were believed to contain among other things grape juice, orange seeds and grounded gemstones)", whose "parties were fantastic bacchanalian bouts, and his sexual stamina legendary... with a particular highlight being Ranjit Singh's practice of getting his dancing girls drunk and then having them engage in wild cat-fights for his amusement"- also rewarded those served him well with beautiful concubines, with the most successful given large harems for their sexual enjoyment. Finding yourself in this situation, what would you do?
