September

As a British Sikh, I have always had a deep fascination with ‘Maharaja Duleep Singh’, and the tragic events that led to him being taken away from his mum and ‘Punjab’ when he was a little boy.

He was probably also one of the first Sikhs to arrive in the U.K, and his experiences as a Sikh in a predominantly white Anglo Saxon country must have been difficult, especially the strange relationship he must have had with the British and the royal family whilst he lived in the UK.

‘Maharaja Duleep Singh’, (6 September 1838 to October 1893), who later in life was nicknamed the ‘Black Prince of Perthshire’, was the last Maharaja of the ‘Sikh Empire’. He was Maharaja Ranjit Singh's youngest son, and the only child of Maharani Jind Kaur.

After the assassinations of his predecessors, he came to power in September 1843, at the age of five. But in 1849 following the closely fought ‘Anglo-Sikh wars’, the British annexed the ‘Punjab’, and Duleep Singh was then compelled to resign his sovereign rights and exiled.

Mother and son were not allowed to meet again for 13 years. In April 1849, ten year old Duleep was put in the care of Dr John Login. He was exiled to ‘Britain’ at age 15 and was much admired by Queen Victoria, who had written of the Punjabi Maharaja: "those eyes and those teeth are too beautiful’.

The Queen was godmother to several of his children.

In 1856 he tried to contact his mother and met her on 16 January 1861 in ‘Calcutta’ and returned with her to the ‘UK’. During the last two years of her life, his mother told the Maharaja about his Sikh heritage and the Empire which once had been his to rule.

He then sought to learn more about ‘Sikhism’ and returned to ‘India’, but the British were against this. Despite this he set sail for home on 30 March 1886. However, he was arrested in Aden, but still took a re-conversion ceremony.

But, he was then forced to return to ‘Europe’.

Duleep Singh died in ‘Paris’ in 1893 at the age of 55, having seen ‘India’ after the age of fifteen only twice. Although Maharaja Duleep Singh had married twice and fathered eight children, all died without bearing any children, ending the direct line of the ‘Sikh Royalty’.