SikhSpectrum.com Quarterly Issue No.19, February 2005
The Maharajah's Box An Exotic Tale of Espionage, Intrigue, and Illicit Love in the Days of the Raj
A Review by Hardev Singh Virk
The Maharajah’s Box is a fascinating account of the life story of the exiled King of Punjab, Maharajah Duleep Singh. Christy Campbell, the author, is a journalist, writer and former defence correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph. He has not spared any effort to dig up the resource material and meticulously researched historical documents concerning the Sikh Kingdom of Punjab. The Maharajah’s Box is a tale of murder, deception, and riches beyond imagination and it reads like a historical novel.
On the death of Ranjit Singh in 1839, the Sikh Kingdom of Lahore was the most powerful in India, but it was annexed by the British Indian Government in 1849. Maharaja Duleep Singh, the last King of the Punjab, was born on 6 September 1838, occupied the throne at the age of 5 and removed from the throne in 1849. The deposed Maharajah was placed under the guardianship of Sir John Login and brought to England. He was baptized as a Christian before his deportation. Rani Jindan, his mother, was imprisoned in Fort Chunar from where she escaped to Nepal. Duleep Singh was liberally treated and provided an annual pension of 50,000 pounds in England. He purchased a large estate of 16,000 acres at Elveden in Suffolk and settled down as a country gentleman.
The title of the book has nothing to do with its contents. It all started with the declaration of an unclaimed Swiss bank account in the name of Princess Catherine Hilda Duleep Singh that the author began his investigations and penned down the true tragedy of the last King of Lahore, Maharajah Duleep Singh. He visited Punjab and Delhi to search for Maharajah’s descendants. It was believed that the box in Swiss bank may contain jewellery and other valuable documents about the Sikh Empire but nothing of that sort happened.
In Chapter 4 “The Lion”, Campbell highlights the glory of Sikh Darbar at Lahore as depicted in a painting by Theodor Schoefft, a Hungarian. The Sikh Empire had grown into an independent state of conspicuous wealth and power. Its army, tutored by Prussian, French, American, and Spanish generals was the most formidable fighting machine outside British India. After Ranjit Singh’s death, the British wanted an excuse for takeover and the Sikhs themselves provided it. Lord Ellenborough, the Governor-General of India predicted, “The break-up of the Punjab will probably begin with murder”. How true his prediction proved to be. The Sikh Empire disintegrated within a decade after the death of the “Lion of Punjab”, Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The author narrates the stories of death and mayhem carried out by courtiers and the Khalsa army of Ranjit Singh that led to chaos in Punjab.
Lord Dalhousie put young Maharajah Duleep Singh under the charge of Dr. and Mrs. Login. He was baptized on 8 March 1853 and the unshorn hair he kept as a Sikh was cut as a part of denaturing process. He was deported to England on the steamer SS Hindustan on 19 April 1854, reaching London in end of May. Duleep Singh was introduced to the Royal family at Windsor Palace and Queen Victoria felt infatuated with his youth and beauty. The Maharajah had come to Windsor on several occasions and the Queen got his portraits made by the celebrated court painter of Frankfurt, Franz Winterhalter in 1855. He made friendship with Prince of Wales and enjoyed the company of princesses.
It was during one such Winterhalter sitting that the Queen persuaded the Maharajah to gift her the Kohi-Noor diamond, the mountain of light. The Queen showered her affection, generosity and sympathy for the young Maharajah which was not liked by Lord Dalhousie. Duleep Singh was not allowed public school or University education but Prince Albert appointed tutors to teach him science, music and German and he became well versed in all. In 1863, he left London and settled down at Elveden estate in Suffolk.
Return to Sikh Faith and the Guru’s Prophecy
The poignant and pathetic tale of Rani Jindan, the mother of Duleep Singh, is touched briefly by the author. Christy Campbel has been rather unkind to the role of Jindan in the whole episode. Mother and son met in Calcutta on 16 January 1861 after thirteen and half years. She was shocked to discover Duleep as a clean-shaven young man and told him bluntly that she did not repent the loss of Sikh Kingdom so much as the loss of his Sikh faith. Duleep took Jindan to England where she died in 1863. She was cremated according to the Sikh rites in India and her ashes scattered in the waters of the Godavri river at Nasik. as Maharajah was banned to visit Punjab. On his return journey, the Maharajah stopped in Cairo and married a pretty girl named Bamba Muller. His marriage was solemnized as per Christian rites.
Rani Jindan told Duleep about the Guru’s prophecy that he shall rule over India but he did not believe. In 1883, Thakur Singh Sandhanwalia a cousin to Duleep Singh was summoned to England. It was Thakur Singh who convinced the Maharajah about the truth of the Guru’s prophecy and prevailed upon him to return to the Sikh faith. This prophecy was broadcast mainly by the Kukas in Punjab who were fighting against the British Empire in India. A part of the prophecy ran : “When the Russian troops invade the country, agitation will prevail in London and the British army will march to India. A Sikh martyr will be born and will reign as far as Calcutta. Duleep Singh will shine among the Khalsa and will drive his elephant throughout the world”.
Convinced of the Guru’s prophecy, Duleep Singh wrote an impassioned appeal on 25 March 1886 in name of his countrymen: “I beg forgiveness of you, Khalsa-Ji, for having forsaken the faith of my ancestors for a foreign religion. It is my fond desire to take the Pahul again on reaching Bombay”. The Maharajah was dissuaded to visit India but he had resolved to do so. He set sail with his family but was detained at Aden on 21 April 1886. After a few days, his family returned to England. Maharajah Duleep Singh was administered Khande Di Pahul on 25 May 1886 at Aden but not allowed to visit India. Heart-broken and frustrated, he returned to Paris in July 1886. In Paris, he set up his headquarters to start revolutionary activities against the British Empire. But he was not a gifted conspirator according to the author of the book.
Paris was a meeting point for revolutionaries where Duleep Singh met Irish rebels and Russian diplomats. He issued two proclamations from Paris, the first to the Sikhs and the second was addressed to ‘Brother Princes and Nobles and the people of beloved Hindustan’, declaring himself as the Maharajah of Sikhs and exhorting them to revolt against the British Empire.
Journey to Russia
Maharajah Duleep Singh traveled to St. Petersburg, the Russian capital, under a false identity as Mr. Patrick Casey, the Irish rebel. He was accompanied by a young pretty girl, Ada Wetherill, whom he married in Paris after his return from Russia. Mikhail Katkov, the editor of the Moscow Gazette and a staunch nationalist, had invited the Maharajah. Katkov and his collaborators in Paris campaigned for a Franco-Russian alliance and had strong influence on the Russian Czar Alexander III. Unfortunately, Katkov fell from Czar’s grace, died of cancer in Moscow and Duleep Singh failed in his mission. He wandered for a year in Russia as a frustrated man.
Duleep Singh wrote a detailed letter to the Russian Czar on 10 May 1887, asking for his help in liberation of India. He also mentioned his Guru’s prophecy in this letter. It was a masterly plan in tactics and geo-political warfare. The Czar made comments on its contents but did not adhere to the Maharajah’s plan of action. Duleep Singh dispatched his emissary, Arur Singh, to India with letters of revolt addressed to Indian princes. After the death of his sponsor, Mr. Katkov, in August 1887, all his schemes to liberate India with the help of Russian army came to naught.
Duleep Singh's grave
Copyright: Norfolk Library and Information Service
The British had penetrated the Maharaja’s conspiracy with impeccable accuracy. All his letters were copied and dispatched to the office of Secretary of State for India in London by the French officer-in charge of the Maharajah in Paris. Arur Singh was captured in Calcutta and all the plans of the Maharajah were revealed by him during his interrogation. Thakur Singh Sandhanwalia acted as the Maharajah’s Prime Minister-in-exile. He was based in Pondicherry, the French colony in India. He died (some believe poisoned) while the Maharajah was still negotiating his terms with the Russian Czar. His family Jagir was confiscated by the British The aspirations of the Khalsa in Punjab were aroused by the proclamations of Duleep Singh, but nothing concrete was achieved except all round frustration.
Maharajah Duleep Singh returned to Paris and married Ada Douglas Wetherill, who also acted as a British spy during his sojourn in Russia. The network of British spies was so perfect that all his movements were reported to London and Shimla simultaneously. He had eight children, six from his first wife and two girls from the second. All of them died issueless, as a consequence of another prophecy of the Guru.
Maharajah Duleep Singh, the last King of the Punjab, died in a Paris hotel on 21 October, 1893. He was buried in Elveden Estate cemetery, not as a Sikh but a Christian. The Maharajah’s Box by Christy Campbell is a heart-rending account of the life of the last Sikh Maharajah of Punjab.
II
THE DULEEP SINGH'S THE PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM OF QUEEN VICTORIA'S MAHARAJA
Author : Peter Bance
Publisher : Sutton Publishing Limited, UK
Price : £ 18.99, pages : 160
A Review by Hardev Singh Virk
After my sentimental journey to Elveden in UK, where the last Maharaja of Sikh kingdom of Lahore lies buried in the church cemetery, my curiosity to collect information about the family of Maharaja Duleep Singh was aroused. The curator of Ancient House Museum at Thetford came to my help. I collected all information about new publications about Maharaja Duleep Singh and his family. The book under review is the latest in the series published in 2004.
As the title suggests, this book is a pictorial album of Maharaja Duleep Singh's family, being a lavishly illustrated account with almost 200 images of the Maharaja, the Maharani and their children. The book The Duleep Singhs is divided into eleven chapters. The historical origin of the Sikh kingdom is traced in the introduction. First chapter deals with the birth of Duleep Singh, his coronation as Maharaja and his surrender before the Governor General, Sir Henry Hardinge, in Lahore after defeat of the Khalsa Army in the first Sikh war. Pictures are based on paintings and engravings, and illustrate the poignancy of the situation. One is moved to watch the surrender ceremony of eight-year-old Maharaja Duleep Singh and annexation of Sikh kingdom after the second Sikh war. Photography and Duleep Singh were contemporary phenomenon in India. A calotype photograph of the Maharaja in 1848 by John Mclosh is also included; which may be considered as the first photograph taken with a camera in Punjab.
Chapter 2 deals with Maharaja's life in England. Under the tutelage of Dr John Login and Lena Login, Duleep Singh was deported to England in April 1854 and separated from his mother Rani Jind Kaur. Her Majesty Queen Victoria of England received Duleep Singh at Buckinghem Palace on 1st July 1854. He became a favourite of the Queen and was accorded the rank of a European prince. The most beautiful paintings of Maharaja Duleep Singh were commissioned by the Queen and prepared in her presence by the best painters of Europe. Chapter 2 is fully illustrated by these paintings, and photographs of palaces where Duleep Singh lived in England.
The child Maharajah in 1852, by royal portraitist George Beechey
Chapter 3 describes Maharaja's trip to India, his emotional reunion with his mother Rani Jind Kaur, his second trip to India for the last rites of his mother, his marriage with Bamba Muller on his return journey at Cairo and return of the royal couple to England. The Maharaja was not allowed to visit Punjab to perform the last rites of his mother. She was cremated at Bombay and her ashes were immersed in the river Godavari at Nasik. This chapter includes two unique photographs of Maharaja Duleep Singh and Maharani Bamba in wedding robes. It was a Christian marriage ceremonised in the Presbyterian Church of Cairo.
Chapter 4 "The Suffolk Squire" is the most illustrated chapter of the book. In 1863, Maharaja Duleep Singh left London and purchased an estate of 17,000 acres in Elveden on the Norfolk-Suffolk border. He renovated Elveden Hall in the oriental style and raised his family of 6 children. Maharaja Duleep Singh indulged in his passion for hunting and shooting and arranged shikar parties for the royal guests including Prince of Wales. Like his father he was a great lover of shikar. Imitating his royal friends, the Maharaja had a flirtatious nature. His notorious escapades to Paris and London clubs are mentioned in this chapter. He displayed all the virtues and vices of an oriental monarch and indulged in high life of London. One can see the royal visitors to Elveden Hall residence of the Maharaja, elite society ladies, and Thakur Singh Sandhanwalia who was later designated as Prime Minister-in-exile for Maharaja Duleep Singh. It was Thakur Singh who persuaded Maharaja to return to the Sikh faith and fight for his lost Sikh kingdom. The Maharaja was fully convinced of the betrayal and treachery by the British and he revolted against the Empire.
Chapter 5 describes Duleep Singh’s wish to return to India for taking khande di pahul. He was off-loaded the ship at Aden and ordered to return to England. Before his return, he was re-initiated into the Sikh faith as a Khalsa. His desire to visit Punjab was never fulfilled and in frustration he resigned his pension and took residence in Paris. He was so much annoyed with the British Empire in India that he joined a revolutionary group in France and traveled to Russia to seek help from the Russian Czar. The Maharaja was not a gifted conspirator. His Russian collaborator died and by a strange coincidence of misfortunes, he failed in his mission to liberate India from the clutches of the British Empire. He died in a Paris hotel in utter frustration. This chapter narrates a sad story full of poignant details of the Maharaja's life in Paris.
Chapters 6-10 are dedicated to the six children of Maharaja Duleep Singh Princes Victor, Albert Edward and Frederick Duleep Singh and Princesses Catherine, Sophia and Bamba Duleep Singh. The Maharaja wanted his eldest son to marry in India, but he did not agree calling the Maharaja 'my idiotic father'. Victor studied at Eton and Cambridge where he met his true love, Anne Blanche of Coventry and married her. Duleep Singh did not attend the marriage ceremony. Even Queen Victoria was not happy with Victor over this marriage. She treated Victor as her godson. She called Princess Anne, the pretty wife of Victor, to her audience and ordered her to leave England and to take a vow never to have children who would become the heir apparent of the Sikh Kingdom. The couple followed the royal command faithfully and never returned to England.
Albert Edward Duleep Singh died at the young age of thirteen. Maharaja Duleep Singh came from Paris to see his ailing son and wept bitterly but he returned and could not attend his funeral. Prince Frederick Duleep Singh was the most talented of all the Princes. He went to Cambridge and got an MA degree in history. He was a keen collector of old books, coins, stained glass, and other artifacts. He was a kind-hearted man and became very popular in his County as the 'Black Prince'. He was a historian, an archaeologist, a philanthropist and a great lover of music. He was keen to promote the legacy of Maharaja Duleep Singh, and keeping this in view he donated all his art collection to set up the Ancient House Museum in Thetford, which is a living testimony to the family of Maharaja Duleep Singh. Chapter 7 is fully illustrated depicting the life of Frederick Duleep Singh, who remained a bachelor all his life.
The author has devoted three chapters to Princesses Catherine, Sophia, and Bamba Duleep Singh. Catherine was ranked as one of the most beautiful European princesses but she did not marry. She spent most of her time in Germany with her governess Lina Schafer. Princess Sophia was the youngest of the three sisters, a firebrand like her father and became a leading figure fighting for the voting rights of women in England. During the first World War, Princess Sophia visited wounded Punjabi troops in the Indian army and gave them mementos as a grand daughter of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. She kept her links with the family of Takhur Singh Sandhanwalia who served his father faithfully and offered to adopt Pritam Singh as her son.
Author Peter Bance (right) and his wife, with Oliver Bone (centre),
Curator of the Ancient House Museum.
Copyright: Norfolk Museum and Archaeology Services
Princess Bamba Duleep Singh was the most colorful character in Duleep Singh's family. She was a rebel like her father and began styling herself as the 'Queen of the Punjab'. She frequently visited India and married colonel Sutherland who became Principal at King Edward's Medical College, Lahore. Once Sophia and Bamba visited Lahore in 1924 and the crowds gathered from Punjab villages to see the daughters of their last king Maharaja Duleep Singh. The police dispersed the crowd, as it was thought to be politically too dangerous for the British Empire.
Princess Bamba visited Khalsa College, Amritsar during the 1940s and in 1944 she shifted to Lahore. She never accepted the partition of Punjab and settled in Lahore, the capital of Sikh kingdom, as a permanent resident. She set up a museum in Lahore fort, which is known as Princess Bamba Collection. The last member of Duleep Singh family, Princess Bamba died on 10 March 1957 and is buried in the Christian Cemetery in Lahore.
The legacy of Maharaja Duleep Singh is the last chapter of the book by Peter Bance. It is followed by Maharaja Duleep Singh's family tree. One wonders, how all the direct descendants of Maharaja Ranjit Singh vanished leaving no heir apparent. All of them died issueless as a consequence of the Guru's prophecy, a myth created in Punjab.
After procuring the book from Sutton Publishing, UK, another riddle appeared before me about the identity of its author Peter Bance. On the Internet, I requested for his biodata. It was a pleasant surprise that Peter Bance is a third generation Sikh (Bhupinder Singh), settled in England. He is a keen collector of Sikh antiques, including an unrivalled collection on the Duleep Singh’s' which form part of the book under review. I congratulate the young author (29 years old) for writing this illustrated historical album after a strenuous research of eight years. The book will prove to be a collector's choice and should decorate the drawing room of every Sikh family keen to probe its heritage.
Statue of Maharaja Duleep Singh in Thetford (UK)
Anglo Sikh Heritage Trail
Prince Charles unveiling the statue of Maharaja Duleep Singh in Thetford 29 July 1999
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