Dhulîp Singh

Dhulîp Singh - sometimes noted Dulîp Singh or Dalîp Singh - (Lâhore, September 6th 1838 - Paris, October 22nd 1893), wire of Ranjît Singh, is the last râja Sikh.

The beginning of the life of Dhulîp Singh is marked by the intrigues of the palate of Lâhore. Indeed, the succession of his/her father, Ranjît Singh, is difficult, Kharag Singh, his/her son and logical successor dies the November 5th 1840, the son of this last, Nunihâl Singh, goes up on the throne and dies the November 17th according to. The râni Chandâ Kûnwar, widow of Kharag Singh, then ensures regency for Sher Singh, one of the brothers of Kharag Singh, but he is assassinated in 1843. It is finally Dhulîp Singh which reaches the throne at the five years age under the regency of his/her mother the râni Jundan, sometimes called the Messaline of the Panjâb , which certain historians suspect of being responsible for preceding disappearances.

Following the defeat of the Khâlsâ in 1846, the kingdom of Dhulîp Singh is tiny room of half and a British resident is installed in Lâhore. In spite of the apparent generosity of the peace treaty, the English Compagnie of the Eastern Indies begins the dismantling of the State sikh. Then at the end of the Second war anglo-sikh (Treated of Lâhore, March 9th 1849), the British enter Lâhore and send Dhulîp Singh under house arrest to Fatehghâr, then center Christian missionary where it gives up his religion sikh and converts. The following year, to the twelve years age, it is sent in England where it is quickly received at the court of the queen Victoria who entiche of him and will receive it many times. It is as at that time as the diamond Koh-i Nor, which had been offered to his/her father by Shâh Shûjâ to thank it for its hospitality during its escape in 1814, is presented, the July 3rd 1850, in Victoria, for the 250e birthday of the English Company of the Eastern Indies. The queen orders at the time of one of the stays of Dhulîp Singh to Buckingham Palace, in 1854, a portrait with the painter Franz Xaver Winterhalter.

The râja passes its adolescence and its life of young man to Scotland where it off is called the Black Prince Perthshire . In 1860, it has the right to go back to the Indies where it finds his mother for the first time since its departure in England, which enables him to withdraw it of its political exile from the Nepal. Both set out again for London where they take part in the social life until the death of the râni in 1863. Dhulîp Singh turns over then again to India for the cremation of his/her mother. It returns to settle then with Elveden in a property provided by the India Office , with his wife Bamba Muller, semi-Ethiopian, semi-allemande, who give him, between 1866 and 1879, six children: Victor Dhulîp Singh, Frederick Dhulîp Singh, Bamba Jundan Dhulîp Singh, Katherine Dhulîp Singh, Sophia Alexandra and Albert Edward Dhulîp Singh.

In spite of its English education, of its comfortable and middle-class lifestyle, its first visit in India during which it had met members of the ex-court panjâbî, gives him the idea to recover its throne and, in 1886, it takes the road of the Panjâb to implement its project. But it is stopped with Aden where it is forced to turn over to Europe. It maintains however as from this time the contacts with Pânjab, the Irish revolutionists and the Russian government then implied in what is called the Big game with the British Raj for the control of the Central Asia. It gives up also Christianity to find the faith sikhe.

Its health is degraded and he dies in Paris, recluse, in a hotel room, perhaps of the continuations of a crisis of epilepsy. His second wife, Ada, were suspected by certain of having been a spy with the service of the British government intended to supervise her anti-colonial activities.

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