Maharaja Duleep Singh or Sir Dalip Singh, later nicknamed the "Black Prince of Perthshire" was the last king of the Sikh Empire. He was the youngest son of the legendary Shere-e-Punjab (Lion of Punjab) (Maharaja Ranjit Singh) and (Maharani Jind Kaur).
Maharaja Duleep Singh came to the throne of the Sikh empire when he was five years old, in the year 1843. He was proclaimed Maharaja of Punjab with his mother, Maharani Jind Kaur, as his Regent. As he was very young to take the decisions his mother took control of the affairs of the kingdom on his behalf, and after their defeat in the Anglo-Sikh War, they were put under a British Resident. Afterward, he was deposed by the British Crown and exiled to Britain, at the age of 15, where Queen Victoria befriended him. He had several children who were godmothered by the Queen. The majority of his final years were spent in the United Kingdom, where he died young.
He was able to reunite with his mother, who had effectively governed him when he was a child, on January 16, 1861, in Calcutta, and travel back to the UK with her. During the last two years of his mother's life, his mother explained his Sikh heritage and the Empire that once belonged to him.
Early Life of the Last Sikh Maharaja
After Maharaja Ranjit Singh died in 1839, Duleep Singh and his mother, Jind Kaur Aulakh, lived in peace in Jammu, which was ruled by Gulab Singh under the watchful eye of the Vizier, Raja Dhian Singh.
In 1843, after the murders of Maharaja Sher Singh and Dhian Singh, he and his mother were sent back to Lahore. On September 16, 1843, at the age of five, Duleep Singh was proclaimed Maharaja of the Sikh Empire, with Maharani Jind Kaur as Regent.
After winning the First Anglo-Sikh War in 1845, the British retained the Maharaja as nominal ruler, but replaced the Maharani with a Council of Regency and later imprisoned and exiled her. Duleep Singh wasn't allowed to see his mother for over thirteen years.
When the Second Anglo-Sikh War came to an end and Punjab was annexed on 29 March 1849, he was deposed by the British government at the age of ten and was placed in the care of Dr. John Login, who sent him from Lahore to Fatehgarh on 21 December 1849, with strict restrictions on who he could meet. Only trusted servants were allowed to meet him in private, and no other Indians were allowed to do so. As per British policy, every aspect of his life was to be culturally anglicized. According to reports, he had poor health and was frequently taken for convalescence to Landour, a hill station near Mussoorie in the Lower Himalaya, which at the time was a 4-day drive away. He would spend weeks at a time in Landour in a huge hilltop building called ‘The Castle, which had been luxuriously decorated to house him.
Conversion to Christianity
The Governor-General Lord Dalhousie approved his conversion to Christianity at Fatehgarh in 1853 under the tutelage of his long-time retainer Bhajan Lal (himself a Christian convert). He got converted before he turned 15 years old. The conversion was hailed as “the first instance of the accession of an Indian prince to the communion of the Church.” Duleep Singh later had serious doubts and regrets regarding this decision and reconverted to Sikhism in 1886.
The deposed Maharaja Duleep Singh was solemnly introduced to his new "superintendent," Dr. John Login, a native of Orkney, Scotland, who had begun his Indian career as a medical officer in the Bengal army. John Login took a great liking to the Maharaja whom he treated like his own son. Sir John Spencer Login, a Christian devout exposed him to Christian texts. The two closest childhood friends he had were both English Anglican missionaries. It was in May 1854 that he was sent into exile in Britain.
Forced Departure
In late 1854, Duleep Singh arrived in England and was introduced to the British court. The turbaned Maharaja was lavished with affection by Queen Victoria, as well as by Prince Consort. Initially, Duleep Singh lived at Claridge's Hotel in London, before the East India Company took over a house in Wimbledon, then eventually he shifted to Roehampton for three years.
The Queen invited him to stay with the Royal Family at Osborne, where she sketched him playing with her children and Prince Albert photographed him, while the court artist, Winterhalter, painted a portrait of the Maharaja Duleep Singh.
Maharaja Duleep Singh got bored from Roehampton and expressed his desire to visit India, but was suggested by the East India Company to take a tour of the European Continent which he did with Sir Spencer Login and Lady Login. His membership with the Photographic Society which later turned into the Royal Photographic Society lasted till his death.
The Menzies Castle
After returning from a trip to continental Europe in 1855, he was given a pension of £25,000 per year (roughly £2,500,000 in today's value), with the condition that he "remain obedient to the British Government." He was also formally placed under the care of Sir John Spencer Login and Lady Login, who had leased the Castle Menzies in Perthshire, Scotland, for him. He stayed there for the remainder of his teenage years, but when he was 19 he insisted on being in charge of his own household. Eventually, he received this plus a raise in his yearly pension.
Sir John Login recommended Lt Col James Oliphant as Equerry to the Maharaja in 1859. It was indeed a steep price to pay for a man who could have been ruling his empire, and yet he kept that promise he made to the British for a while.
If something happened to the Maharaja's closest friend Sir John Login, Oliphant was to be a potential replacement (who did indeed die four years later in 1863). Singh relocated from Castle Menzies to Grandtully Castle in the 1860s.
Reunion with his mother
The British authorities in India intercepted Singh's letter to his mother in Kathmandu when he was 18 and prevented him from reaching her. A courier, Pundit Nehemiah Gore, was also intercepted and prohibited from contacting the Maharani. Duleep Singh then decided to go on his own. Login wrote a letter to the British Resident in Kathmandu, who reported the Maharani’s grim current condition. She was blind and had lost much of her characteristic fire. The British government decided she wasn't a threat and she was allowed to return to England with her son on 16 January 1861.
Aberfeldy and Auchlyne
In 1858, Duleep Singh rented the house at Auchlyne from the Earl of Breadalbane after Castle Menzies' lease expired. A luxurious lifestyle, the lavishness of the receptions, shooting parties, and a love of Highland costumes soon led him to be nicknamed "the Black Prince of Perthshire" and he became ever more popular as the years passed. At the same time, he was known to have developed a sense of regret for his exile, including some inner turmoil about his conversion to Christianity. He rented the Grandtully Estate near Aberfeldy after spending a short time with his mother in Perthshire. When his mother and Sir John Login died in 1863, he returned to England.
Years spent at Elveden
In 1863, Maharaja Duleep Singh (as he became in June 1861) purchased ((or the India Office purchased for him) a 17,000 acre (69 km2) country estate at Elveden on the boundary between Norfolk and Suffolk, close to Thetford. He enjoyed living in Elveden Hall and the surrounding area, and he restored the church, cottages, and school. He turned the run-down estate into an efficient game preserve, and it was here that he established his reputation as England's fourth best shot.
The house was transformed into a quasi-oriental palace in which he lived as a British aristocrat. Maharaja Duleep Singh was accused of overspending, and his estate was sold after his death to pay his debts.
Re-initiated to Sikhism
In 1864, Duleep Singh married Bamba Müller in Cairo and settled at Elveden Hall in Suffolk. Following his disillusion and embitterment with the British, he returned to India in 1886 and reverted to the religion of Sikhism.
He was eager to go back to India and wanted to learn more about Sikhism while he was in exile. His handlers had previously prevented him from reaching out to his cousin Sardar Thakar Singh Sandhawalia, who had left Amritsar for England on September 28, 1884, together with his sons Narinder Singh and Gurdit Singh, and a Sikh granthi (priest), Pratap Singh Giani. Additionally, he brought a list of the Indian assets owned by Sir Duleep Singh. All of this strengthened his ties to Sikhism.
In 1886, the British Government decided against his return to India or re-embracing Sikhism. On 30 March 1886, despite protests from the India Office, he set sail for 'home'. In Aden, then part of Aden Settlement, where the Viceroy of India's writ began, he was intercepted and arrested. He could not be stopped from holding an informal re-conversion ceremony in Aden, far less big and symbolic than one in India, carried out by emissaries sent by Sardar Thakar Singh Sandhawalia, who had previously planned the Pahaul ceremony in Bombay. Sir Duleep was forced to return to Europe.
Family of Maharaja Duleep Singh
Sir Duleep Singh married twice, first to Bamba Müller in Alexandria, then to Ada Douglas Wetherill in 1889. He had eight children in total.
He had seven children with Maharani Bamba. In 1865, their first child, their male heir, died. The other children were:
- Prince Victor Albert Jay Duleep Singh (10 Jan 1866-7 Jun 1918)
- Prince Frederick Victor Duleep Singh (23 Jan 1868-15 Aug 1926)
- Princess Bamba Sofia Jindan Duleep Singh (29 Sep 1869-10 Mar 1957)
- Princess Catherine Hilda Duleep Singh[34] (27 Oct 1871-8 Nov 1942)
- The Princess Sophia Alexandra Duleep Singh (18 Aug 1876-22 Aug 1948)
- Prince Albert Edward Alexander Duleep Singh (1879-1 May 1893)
The marriage of Maharaja with Wetherill blessed him with two children:
- Princess Pauline Alexandra Duleep Singh (26 Dec 1887-10 Apr 1941)
- Princess Ada Irene Beryl Duleep Singh (25 Oct 1889-14 Sep 1926)
Sikh royalty ended with the deaths of all eight children without legitimate issues.
There is a memorial at Eton College in England to Princes Victor and Frederick, Maharaja Sir Duleep Singh's two sons who studied at Eton in the 1870s.
Death of the last King of the Sikh Empire
Drained financially and destitute of friends, he passed away on October 22, 1893, at the age of 55 in his modest hotel room in Paris. Due to the symbolic value, the funeral of the son of the Lion of Punjab might have caused and the growing resentment of British rule, Maharaja Duleep Singh's wish to return his body to India was not honored, due to fear of unrest. Under the supervision of the India Office, his body was buried at Elveden Church beside the graves of his wife Maharani Bamba and his son Prince Edward Albert Duleep Singh. The graves are located on the west side of the Church.
The Prince of Wales unveiled a life-size bronze statue of the Maharaja on a horse in 1999 on Butten Island in Thetford, a town that benefited from his generosity. On 19 April 2007, Bonhams auctioned the 74 cm high white marble portrait bust of Maharaja Duleep Singh, created by Victorian sculptor John Gibson, R.A. in Rome in 1859 for £1.7 million (plus premiums and taxes).
Popular Media
- The Black Prince, a 2017 movie directed by Kavi Raz, an Indian-born filmmaker, tells the tale of Duleep and his relationship with Queen Victoria.
- Maharaja Duleep Singh: A Monument of Injustice, a movie directed by P.S. Narula, was released in 2007.
- Maharaja Duleep Singh's character is featured in Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed: Syndicate game. The game features young Duleep Singh as a fictional adventure-based character on his real-life struggle, as an exiled ruler in Victorian London.