Books & Documents

Maharajah Duleep Singh:
- The Exile, by Navtej Singh Sarna, Penguin Books India, New Delhi, 2008

- The Duleep Singhs: The Photographic Album of Queen Victoria's Maharajah: Photo Album of Queen Victoria's Maharajah by Peter Bance, 2004

- The Maharajah's Box: An Imperial Story of Conspiracy, Love and a Guru's Prophecy by Christy Campbell , 2000

- Sovereign, Squire and Rebel: Maharajah Duleep Singh and the Heirs of a Lost Kingdom by Peter Bance


Anglo-Sikh Wars 1845-1849
- The Annexation of the Punjab and the Maharaja Duleep Singh by Evans Bell
- History of Anglo-Sikh War by Om Prakash
- The Hero of Aliwal: the Campaigns of Sir Harry Smith in India, 1843-1846, During the Gwalior War & the First Sikh War
- The First and Second Sikh Wars: An Official British Army History by Reginald George Burton & Jon Coulston (Illustrator)
- A Journal of the Second Sikh War: the Experiences of an Ensign of the 2nd Bengal European Regiment During the Campaign in the Punjab
- Anglo-Sikh wars, 1845-1849, by Bakhshish Singh Nijjar
- The Sikhs and Sikh Wars: The Rise, Conquest and Annexation of the Punjab State, by Charles Gough & Arthur D Innes, 1897

-Military System of the Sikhs 1799-1849, by Fauja Singh Bajwa, 1964, New Dheli

- A Norfolk Soldier in the First Sikh War: Experiences of a Private H.M. 9th Regiment of Foot in the Battles for the Punjab, India 1845-6, by J W Baldwin

- SERGEANT PEARMAN'S MEMOIRS. Account of his service in India from 1845-1853 including the First and Second Sikh Wars, by Marquess Anglesey, 1968

- Fellowship in the East (Novel set in the Sikh Wars), by W D Arnold, 1854, 1973 reissue.

- ANGLO SIKH WAR MONUMENTS IN PANJAB, by Amarpal Sidhu, U.K.

-AT THEM WITH THE BAYONET! The First Sikh War, by Donald Featherstone, 1968

-VICTORIAN COLONIAL WARFARE: India, from the Conquest of Sind to the Indian Mutiny, by Donald Featherstone, 1994

Sikh Soldiers
-The Sikhs: A handbook for the Indian Army, by Major A E Barstow, 1928
-1st King George's V Own Battalion, the Sikh Regiment, the 14th King George's Own response Ferozepur Sikhs, Lieutenant-Colonel P G Bamford, 1948

-Handbook of the Indian Army: Sikhs, by A K Bingley, 1899

-Sikh Regiments in the Second World War, by F T Birdwood

-32nd Sikh Pioneers, A regimental history, by H R Brander, 1906

-Punjabis: A history of the 20th Infantry - Duke of Cambridge Own Force, by Brownlow, 1920

-Historical records of the 3rd Sikh regiment 1847-1930, by George Bruce, 1931

-Description of the view of the Battle of Sabroan, with the defeat of the Army of Punjab, by Robert Burford, 1846

British Raaj in Panjaab
-British Occupation of the Punjab, by Ganda Singh, 1956

-AMRITSAR: The Massacre that Ended the Raj, by Alfred Draper, 1981

-THE BUTCHER OF AMRITSAR: General Reginald Dyer, by Nigel Collett, 2005

-THE NECESSARY HELL: John and Henry Lawrence and the Indian Empire, by Michael Edwardes, 1958


Anglo-Sikh History
- Anglo-Sikh relations, 1799-1849: a reappraisal of the rise and fall of the Sikhs, by
Bikrama Jit Hasrat, 1968

-PAINTINGS OF THE SIKHS, by W G Archer, 1966, HMSO.

Sikhs in Britain
- Sikhs in Britain: The Making of a Community by Gurharpal Singh & Darshan Singh Tatla

- Khalsa Jatha British Isles 1908-2008 by Peter Bance, Gurpreet Singh Anand, Sukhbinder Singh Paul





Sikh Power and Statehood

- Empire of The Sikhs: The Life and Times of Maharaja Ranjit Singh by Patwant Singh and Jyoti M Rai

- The Sikh Army, 1799-1849 (Men-at-arms) by Ian Heath (Author), Michael Perry (Illustrator)

- The Court of Ranjeet Singh, by Bishan Singh, 1864

- UP THE COUNTRY: A visit to the Lahore of Ranjit Singh (Letters from the Governor-General's sister 1837-1840), by Emily Eden, 1997

Recognition & Respect: Are the Sikhs given due acclaim and protection

Over the centuries, the Panjaabi-Sikh soldier has fought, struggled and died in the most stringent and torturous circumstances for the defense of the British people and the British territorial interests.

Whilst the British soldiers, army officers and generals of the past known all too vividly about the invaluable Sikh role, mainstream Britons and the British Government today has no regard, awareness and appreciation of this fundamental sacrifice by Sikhs for Britain. Whilst much is known about the Gurkhas, and they are retained as a special part of the British armed forces, with special Gurkhas regiments; next to nothing is known and mentioned by the mainstream media, taught in schools, or generally acknowledged in public policy. Prince Charle's public calls for the establishment of a Sikh regiment in the current British Army, were roundly rejected by the British Government and its equalities watchdog, the Commission for Race Equality.

Sikhs were clearly good enough between 1850 and 1945, to fight on the frontiers and die in the trenches of France, fight the vigorous Afgan tribesmen in the North-West Frontier, defend Britain from imminent Nazi take-over, and protect the British presence from near collapse in the 1857 Indian rebellion. Yet, today, the very same Sikhs are forgotten and rejected by the Government for whom they did so much immeasurable amount.

"Under the mercy of God the loyalty and contentment of the people of the Punjab has saved India. Had the Punjab gone we must have been ruined." Sir John Lawrence, August 1858

The current media exposure about the British Government's sadistic discrimination against Gurkhas, is highly positive and deserved. The role of the Gurkhas needs much public profile and praise. Equally, what about the Sikhs? Are they to be left behind in past history?

"When in the month of May 1857, Mohammedan and Hindu Sepoys in the Hindustani armies turned on their officers and massacred them, the Sikhs, in and out of the services, stood loyal to a man...they endured starvation and misery during those days terrible days, and finally gave their lives by the sides of their British comrades...hungry and always outnumbered, they covered themselves with glory...with their backs to the wall, the Khalsa fought and died as men." Colonel Landen Sarasfield, Betrayal of the Sikhs, 1946, page 33

"Wherever in the East, and very often in the West, a British soldier has been in action, there also were to be found his Sikh comrades, ever loyal, ever courageous and ever ready to give their life's blood in the Common Cause. From those days in 1857 when nearly all India rose against us and massacred as many Europeans as were defenceless, the Sikhs have always been on our side. Whether at Dheli or on the plains of Flanders, in Salonika or in the Islands of the Pacific, they have covered themselves with immortality in our service." Colonel Landen Sarasfield, Betrayal of the Sikhs, 1946, page 19

"the Punjabees bore the privations, the fatigues, the perils of the ridge before Dheli, and shared in the final conflict within the city walls; how for long weary months they threw in their lot with the British beseiged in the Lucknow residency, how they were among the foremost in the storming of Lucknow city, how they behaved in the reconquest of Rohilcund, how in the arid and thirsty jungles of Behar they gave noble and touching proofs of their devotion to Europeans. Their physique shows that they come of a hardy and warlike stock, their discipline shows that, though encouraged and well treated, they have never been pampered or spoilt; that they have been taught to be obedient in all things, and that they have been inured to hard work of every description." Sir John Lawrence, Head of British Administration of Punjab, Report on the Administration of Punjab, May 1858

Jagdeesh Singh, pictured below, was a Sikh victim of post 9/11 ignorance and racism towards Sikhs in Britain. Across the globe, Sikhs suffered repeated physical violence and verbal taunting. Two Sikh gurdwaras in Britain were attacked. Numerous Sikh individuals were attacked. In September 2004, Jagdeesh Singh, was viciously attacked in Coventry.

Interestingly, there has been zero media coverage of these attacks in the mainstream media. Home Affairs Select Committee inquiries into the impact of 9/11 and terrorism on communities, has noted the concerns and incidents against the Muslim population. The Prime Minister and Government Ministers have repeatedly expressed their public support for the victimised Muslim population. The mainstream media has provided numerous feature stories of attacks on Muslim individuals. The Commission for Race Equality has expressed much concern about 'Islamaphobia'. Meanwhile, zero acknowledgement has been made of the severe impact on the Sikh community. This inspite of repeated communications and representations by the aggrieved Sikh community.

The above photo of the Sikh victim, epitomises the collective pain, hurt and dejection felt by the Sikh community within Britain and internationally. The above Sikh victim has a family history of dedicated service to Britain. From 1850 to 1945, three generations of his grand-parents have served in the armed forces for Britain. In December 1998, his sister Surjit Athwal, was murdered in Panjaab. Surjit, like Jagdeesh, was a full-fledged British national. Yet, the British Government has taken no official steps to enquire into his case with the Indian Government. Dismissed, rejected, discriminated?

In the 1947 Transfer of Power, the British overruled the Sikh demands for a distinct political set up to secure their territorial and political status, either as an autonomous or independent state. The Sikh homeland was partitioned, causing massive genocide, ethnic cleansing and population displacement. Power was handed to two new states - Pakistan and India. Sikhs were left to fend for their rights, freedoms and security between these two monstrous states. The British Government has refused to intervene to protect continuing Sikh issues, including the continuing human rights atrocities and genocide on the Sikh population in the Indian state. Under pressure from the Indian state, the British Government has obstinately refused to implement a landmark judicial ruling establishing Sikhs as a distinct 'racial group'. The same Government has rejected the proposal for a Sikh regiment in the British Army, whilst having Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Gurkha regiments.

"Surely...we cannot be so ungrateful as to forget them...If we do forget, and permit the Sikhs to be consigned to economic and political oblivion, I do not think any self-respecting Englishman will ever again be able to look a Sikh in the face or shake his hand in the way only honourable friends can understand."
Colonel Landen Sarasfied, page 20

The British Government's conduct throughout the centuries towards the Sikhs, as toward other conquered peoples, wherever and whenever, has been one of callous, sadistic, opportunistic exploitation, abandoned and scant dismissal. The British Government Prime Minister and fellow Ministers, have colluded and combined with the forces hostile to the Sikhs, such as the Indian Government. In 1984, the British Government provided military expertise to the Indian Government as part of its devastating genocidal military onslaught on Panjaab. The British Government remained coldly silent, as 50,000 civilians in Panjaab were made to 'disappear' and the whole of Panjaab was subdued beneath a layer of military terror, mass killings and military rule.

This official government policy, is distinct from the warmth and affinity of grassroot peoples of England, Scotland and Wales (who are equal victims of official policy). Ordinary Sikh citizens have enjoyed positive relations with their English, Scottish and Welsh neighbours, sharing common ties in employment, as neighbours and as ordinary citizens experiencing common issues and common life aspirations.

"A remarkable people, the Sikhs, with their Ten Prophets, five
distinguishing marks, and their baptismal rite of water stirred with steel; a people who have made history, and will make it again." Martial India, F. Yeats-Brown, 1945.

Sikhs in 1947: Abandoned and Betrayed by British Government

"Sikhs were sacrificed on the altars of Muslim ambition and Hindu opportunism." Alan Campbell-Johnson, PA to Lord Mountbatten, in his private memoirs: "Mission with Mountbatten"


"due to the neglect on the part of the Cabinet Mission to make satisfactory provision for the Sikh community in the future Constitution of India there seems to be a strong possibility of a clash between the Khalsa and the British...such step-motherly treatment of a community noted for its high standard of courage and spirit of sacrifice...this grievous wrong." Colonel Landen Sarasfield, Introduction, Betrayal of the Sikhs, 1946

William Wallace: Sikh Joins Scottish 700 year Celebration

In September 2005, Sikhs marched alongside the Clan Wallace to mark 700 years of Scotland's greatest BRAVEHEART, William Wallace!

The two nations of Scot and Sikh share immense similarity and affinity. Their common histories, struggles, battles, clans and misals, rugged culture, battle for liberty and freedom, denial of national statehood. These are the common ingredients that make up the vibrant histories of the Scots and Sikhs.

Sikhs marched proudly with the Clan Wallace in Lanark, Scotland, on 11th September 2005, celebrating the braveheart spirit which defines both nations and their enduring histories. Sikhs highlighted their parallel William Wallace, the famous heroic Banda Singh Bahadur. Like Wallace, he fought a guerilla war against the mighty Moghul empire to make Panjaab an independent state. Attaining initial independence for a short while (1710-1716), his forces were overpowered by the unr

elenting Moghul forces constantly on the attack against Panjaab. The flag of P

anjaab was once again subdued, Banda Singh was taken prisoner alongwith hundreds of other fellow fighters. Shackled and caged in hugely constructed cages, he was publicly paraded like Wallace, in the capital of the Moghul empire (Dheli).

He was publicly executed alongside his five year old son! The executioner first torn open the live body of his son, ripping out the palpating heart. Stuffing that into the mouth of Banda Singh, he then turned to Banda Singh. His body was slowly, methodically, in full public fanfare, hacked limb by limb, exactly like William Wallace!

The intense passion and bravery of these two foremost bravehearts of history, continue to simmer and sizzle in the minds of their nations; inspiring them to reclaim what has been taken from them and overthrowing the mentality of submission and acceptance of superpower domination.

In front a gathering of tens of thousands of Scots, in Lanark main park, Sikhs performed the historic Sikh battle combat discipline, popularly known as 'Gatka'. Scots who had fought with Sikhs in history, during the Anglo-Sikh wars, had reverred memories of the formidable Sikh soldier. Seoras Wallace, head of the Wallace Clan, spoke of his intense respect and affinity for the Sikhs, and the oral history past down through the Wallace generations about the Sikhs. Bhai Harjinder Singh (pictured below with his son) and his team from the Baba Deep Singh Gatka Akharra (Birmingham), gave a stunning performance to a mesmorised Scottish audience.

William Wallace and Banda Singh 'Bahadur' (braveheart) for ever!!!

For further details, contact Harjinder Singh at www.gatkaonline.co.uk or 07813 488 168.

Anglo-Sikh Wars

Sikhs are the "bravest and most warlike and most disruptive enemy in Asia." Lord Hardinage(1785-1856) Governor General of India(1844 - 48), commenting on British-Sikh relations before the Wars.

"the safety of our own State requires us to enforce the subjection of the Sikh nation...it is indispensable to the security of the British territories and to the interests of the people, that you should put an end to the independence of the Sikh nation and reduce it to entire subjection." Lord Dalhousie, Governor-General India, Papers Relating to the Punjab, 1847-1849, page 663

Direct hand-to-hand combat with a Akhali Sikh fighter:

"a party of Akhalees...on foot stopped and fought us, in some instances very fiercley. One...beat off four sowars one after another, and kept them all at bay. I then went at him myself, fearing that he would kill one of them. He instantly rushed to meet me like a tiger, closed with me, yelling "Wah Gooroo ji", and accompanying each shout with a terrific blow of his sword. I guarded the three of four first, but he pressed so closely to my horse's rein that I could not get a fair cut in return. At length I pressed in my turn upon him so sharply that he missed his blow, and I caught his tulwar backhanded with my bridle hand, wrenched it from him, and cut him down with the right, having received no further injury than a severe cut across the fingers; I never beheld such desperation and fury in my life. It was not human scarcely...." William Hodson, Twelves Years of a Soldier's Life in India, London 1859

"No nation could exceed them in the rapidity of their fire...No men could act more bravely than the Sikhs. They faced us the moment we came on them, firing all the time...their individual acts of bravery were the admiration of all." 'Camp Ramnuggar, 25 November 1948' in Illustrated London News, 27 January 1849

Panjaab was the last region of South Asia to be conquered by the British imperialism. Whilst the various territories and kingdoms were swallowed up from 1750s onwards, Panjaab continued to hold steadfast against British overtures. Its proud Sikhs continued to declare their independence, and their intention of not become another victim of British expansionism.

The much unknown and undiscussed Anglo-Sikh Wars, represented the most intense challenge to the stability and safety of British rule across South Asia ('India'). The Wars comprised two parts, first 1845-1846 and then, again, as the Sikhs refused to be subdued, in 1848-1849.

"The Sikhs were always the most formidable opponents of the British among the natives of India..." Karl Marx, First Indian War of Independence 1857-1859, page163

"the Khalsa fought as no man ever did in India before."
Subedar Sita Ram, an Indian officer in the British Army


Following agreements and alliances and co-operations, forged decades earlier in the form of the Treaty of Amritsar 1809, and lesser known Treaty of Amity and Friendship in 1806, relations between the Sikh Panjaab and the delicate British Raaj in South Asia broke down from 1839 onwards. Tensions, suspicions and rivarly was already in place, as both powers suspected each others regional intentions. Panjaab remained anxious and apprehensive about the unending British expansion across the whole map of South Asia. The famous Ranjeet Singh, Maharajah of Panjaab, predicted during his life, that "one day the whole map of India will be red." Red depicting British control. By the 1830s, Panjaab had begun to feel encircled by British territorial expansion.

"The quality of resistance experienced from the Sikhs was higher than the British ever met in India before, even from the Gurkhas...The English were badly mauled at Ramnagar, Sadulpur and at Chillianwala..." Colonel Landen Sarafield, Betrayal of the Sikhs, 1946, page 18-19

The British found the staunchly independent Panjaab, a major political sore to their grand plan across South Asia. A strong, independent, assertive state like Panjaab posed serious difficulty to the interests across the whole region. Their continuous designs on Afghanistan, would require co-operation from Panjaab. Panjaab had made it plain that it was not prepared to be a lame ally, and certainly not be used as a pawn in Britain's 'grand game' across South Asia. Panjaab had a full sense of self-existence and self-confidence. Unlike the rest of India's independent kingdoms and territories, it had no intention of being subdued and subsumed into the mushrooming British India.

1831 circa, Ranjeet Singh had invited the rajahs and maharajahs of India to rally behind him, in a united resistance to the unceasing British expansion. However, not a single of them came forth. All of them became a target of Britain's quest for supreme territorial power across South Asia, toppling like dominoes one after the other.

This Panjaabi pride and independence, continued to prick the British political mind. Unlike Panjaab was subdued once and for all, the British Raaj could never be stable. The Anglo-Sikh wars were a product of these mounting tensions.

"With the conquest of Scinde and the Punjab, the Anglo-Indian Empire had not only reached its natural limits but it had trampled out the last vestiges of independent Indian states." Karl Marx, The First Indian War of Independence 1857-1859, p.35

The Anglo-Sikh Wars comprised a series of battles across Panjaab. Finally, the Sikhs, through a combination of British military subterfuge (i.e. bribing the Hindu Dogra Generals of the Sikh armies with money and offers of royal titles over Kashmir and sabotage of Sikh canons) and military fire-power; the Sikhs were defeated.

"In spite of the fine organisation of their army, which fought against the British with stubborn bravery, the Sikhs were defeated in battles at the village of Mudki (near Ferozepore) on December 18, 1845, at Ferozeshah on December 21, 1845, and at the village of Aliwal near Ludhiana on January 28,1846. As a result, the Sikhs lost the first Anglo-Sikh War of 1845-46. The chief cause of the defeat was treachery on the part of their supreme command." Karl Marx, page 195

"It is only since 1849, that the one Anglo-Indian Empire has existed." Karl Marx, First Indian War of Independence, 1857-1859, p.24

The Panjaab was signed off in the Treaties (Amritsar, Lahore and Bhyrowaal) that followed, as a 'protectorate' and then fully annexed into British India.

"Punjab was conquered in British campaigns against the Sikhs in 1845-46 and 1848-49. The Sikh teaching of equality (their effort to reconcile Hinduism and Islam) became the ideology of the peasant movement against the Indian feudals and Afghan invaders in the late 17th century. As time went on, a feudal group emerged from among the Sikhs whose representatives stood at the helm of the Sikh state. In the early 19th century the latter included all Punjab and a number of neighbouring regions. In 1845, the British colonialists enlisted the support of traitors among the Sikh gentry to provoke a conflict with the Sikhs, and in 1846 succeeded in turning the Sikh state into a vassal principality. In 1848 the Sikhs revolted, but were totally subjugated in 1849. With the conquest of Punjab all India became a British colony."
Karl Marx, The First Indian War of Independence, 1857-1859, p.186

"India: Another Victory over The Sikhs" - Times (London), 31st March 1846


"At the close of the second Sikh war it was determined to annex the Punjaub to British territory, and to put an end to the separate Khalsa Government of the Sikhs." Memorandum by Charles Wood and the Council of India, 21st March 1860

Sikhs in British Armed Forces

"their valour, loyatly, toughness, endurance, elan in battle, and their soldierly appearance made them valued by many officers above all other classes."

"infantry battalions from the Punjab increased from twenty-eight in 1862, to thirty-one in 1885, and to fifty-seven in 1914."

"During World War II 300,000 Sikhs served in the army..."

"Of the twenty-two Military Crosses awarded to Indian soldiers in World War I, fourteen were won by Sikhs."

"Armies of the Raj", Byron Farewell, 1989


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heOhHWbNjZowatch?v=heOhHWbNjZo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBwHUU9OfHU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWp3CtSQyaM&feature=related


Battle of Saraghari, 12th September 1897, North West Frontier:

"The British...are proud of the 36th Sikh Regiments. It is no exaggeration to record that the armies which possess the valiant Sikhs cannot face defeat in war", British Parliament, House of Commons.

"You are never disappointed when you are with the Sikhs. Those 21 soldiers all fought to the death. That bravery should be within all of us." Field Marshall William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim

"Unparalleled bravery and sacrifice in the history of military battle" :
21 Sikhs (36th Sikhs) fight to death defending British fort against 15,000 Afghan tribesmen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Saragarhi
http://www.saragarhi.org/
http://www.strategypage.com/militaryforums/72-16107.aspx
http://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php?title=Battle_of_Saragarhi

Duleep Singh - first Sikh in Britain

"we received the young Maharajah Duleep Singh, the son of Ranjeet Singh who was deposed by us after the annexation of the Punjab. He has been carefully brought up and was baptised last year so he us a Christian. He is extremely handsome and speaks English perfectly and has a pretty, graceful and dignified manner...This young prince has the strongest claim on our generosity and sympathy; deposed when a little boy of ten, he is as innocent as any individua of the misdeeds which compelled us to take possession of his territories. I always feel sorry for these poor desposed Indian princes." Queen Victoria, 1st July 1854 (Journal of Queen Victoria)



Maharajah Duleep Singh (1837-1893) -
the Sikh Bonnie Prince Charlie



This boy maharajah, the son of the grandiose king of Panjaab, Ranjeet Singh, was taken into British custody, immediately following the defeat of Panjaab in 1849. Sikh resistance to British expansionism into Panjaab, following two intense wars - the Anglo-Sikh Wars between 1845 and 1849, had failed. Panjaab was no more an independent state. It was now safely secured as border state for British India. This last bastion of independence, and a potential threat to Britain's security in India, was no firmly in British control.


Maharajah Duleep Singh, aged 5 at the time, personified that independence in the Sikhs. To ensure that no further Sikh activity was possible, Duleep Singh was promptly taken into British imperial custody and kept concealed from the Sikh masses.

He was taken to England, where he was fitted out with a brand new lifestyle. He was brought up in a royal environment, under the care and attention of Queen Victoria, the Empress of India. His life would be that of a grandiose 'country-gentlemen', mixing with aristocracy, hunting, enjoying the lavish features of a typical royal life. He had been completed infused with a British aristocratic character. All his Sikhness has been erased.

However, as he grew in adulthood, contact with his long exiled mother, Rani Jindan and other figures from his family, Thakar Singh Sandawalia, produced a string of deep feelings about his origins. His country, his home, his religion, his history, his independence and more began to rock his internal being.

The country-gentleman Duleep sought a return to his Sikh origins. He took amrit, to formalise his Sikh re-connection. He started to aspire to Sikh sovereignty and statehood, once again. His feelings of dissatisfaction and rebellion against the social and political confines of life in England as the 'black prince' royal householder, began to overspill. He began active plans to return to Panjaab, and re-start a freedom movement.

This boy prince taken from Panjaab, and his attempts to revive and reconnect with his Sikh origins, brought him into direct and intense conflict with his British imperial overseers. Duleep was never allowed to return to Panjaab territory. This young figure was vigorously surveilled as he crossed the world, in search of support for his envisaged war of independence. He sought help from Britain's arch enemy, the imperial Russians; but without success. He bore an anguished dream to return and revive his country from its position as subdue province in British India.

This young pretender, like Bonnie Prince Charlie of Scotland, was watched and pursued by the might of the British imperial state. As the first Sikh to come to Britain, thought without consent, he wanted to leave rapidly. His lenghty appeals to Queen Victoria, his main carer, to rectify the rights of his country, fell on deaf ears. In fact, they provoked anger and bitter revulsion towards the 'brat'.


His life story represents a magnificent heartache and struggle for justice. His spirit took on a whole empire. In 1838, he died in a Paris hotel of a suspicious heart-attack. Broken and down-trodden in his agonising pursuit of freedom for his cherished country, he left behind a legacy that continues to inspire the minds of Sikhs in Britain over a hundred years later.


Duleep Singh's story is very much the story of the British imperial conquest and subjugation of the Sikh nation between 1845 and 1849. Whatever, the relationship and gradual friendship that has emerged thereafter, with critical Sikh sacrifices to defend the British from the most fatal threats to their control (i.e. Indian rebellion 1857, Battle of Saraghari 1897, Second World War 1939-45); the injustice and impact of the Anglo-Sikh wars on Sikh life and liberty and independence remains a deep scar visited and re-visited by the aspiring Sikh nation. History-makers like Duleep Singh (the deposed 'King' of the Sikhs) have left a powerful legacy, which is picked up by inspired generations to come. History will certainly be made further.

























For further details on the life of his British-Sikh hero, see:

http://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Maharaja_Duleep_Singh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duleep_Singh

http://www.duleepsingh.com/Comments.aspx

http://www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk/default.asp?Document=400.730.53x1

http://www.explorethetford.co.uk/shared/trails/pdfs/5.pdf

http://sikhsangat.org/1469/2009/03/maharaja-duleep-singh-died-a-sikh-uk-scholar/

http://www.azete.com/view/22873