Whenever I see a Sikh cabbie in the West driving around their white riders respectfully that they forget their history of how from a self respecting people they were robbed of both their dignity, culture, traditions and faith by the very people they serve after losing their own homeland and freedom.
They were the 1st victims and we seem to be the next as half of Punjab today constitutes Pakistan , if we don’t learn from history as we still pride serving them and the foriegn funding whether through IMF or remittances that our brothers and sons send home.
This lady is the Punjabi Maharani equivalent of the British Queen but not as fortunate as her. Her name being Jind Kaur (1817-1863) – the last wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh married for her beauty, the Lion of Punjab being a known debaucherer who even harassed the young beautiful Afghan Princesses, daughters of Afghan King Shah Zaman, who had sought refugee and from whom the characterless Ranjit Singh extracted the rare diamond Kohi Noor, later to adorn the British Crown . Shortly, after Jind Kaur gave birth to her son Duleep Singh, Raja Ranjit Singh died of old age and his kingdom began to disintegrate being made of a band of bandits and thugs operating mostly through advice and support of their French Generals who together skinned the people in every possible manner whether through heavy taxation or heavy handed governance .
Duleep Singh, became the new sovereign at only 5 years of age and Jind Kaur fought hard to ensure she was regent for Duleep. With the instability of the kingdom, Britain became interested in taking over Punjab and acquiring the Kingdom’s enormous wealth. Jind encouraged the Sikh Empire into waging two wars against Britain. According to sources, “Jind was instrumental in organizing the Sikh resistance, rallying her generals to return to battle and plotting rebellion once the British finally took over the Punjab in 1849.”
The British imprisoned Jind and took the 9 years old Duleep to England where he was influenced into shedding his Punjabi culture, became known as the Black Prince and was converted to Christianity.
After 13 years apart, Jind and Duleep were finally reunited when he came to India for a short trip. She was allowed to come back to England with him because Britain no longer saw her as a threat. However, it was her influence that made Duleep return to India and reconvert to Sikhism which the English prevented and he forcibly brought back to the West from his ancestral East . Duleep Singh is buried in France in a church and his last rites performed as per the Christian faith.
It seems we still have not learnt our lessons and remain obsessed with serving our foreign masters loyally at the cost of our freedom by being disloyal both to ourselves, our culture, traditions and homelands .