Before Shah Shuja’s arrival, Ludhiana was known mainly as a centre of the flesh trade, through which girls from the Punjab Hill States and Kashmir—considered the fairest and most beautiful in the region—passed into slavery in the Sikh-controlled Punjab and Hindustan.16 Shah Shuja’s arrival with his court-in-exile began its transformation from a centre of slave dealing into a major hub of political intrigue and espionage.
