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MAHARAJ SINGH was a saintly
person turned revolutionary who led
an anti-British movement in the Punjab
after the first Anglo-Sikh war, was
born Nihal Singh at the village of Rabbon,
in Ludhiana district. He had a religious
bent of mind and came under the influence
of Bhai Bir Singh of Naurangabad. After
the latter's death in 1844, he succeeded
him as head of the Naurafigabad dera
and was held in high esteem by a vast
following, including most of the Sikh
chiefs and courtiers. Maharaj Singh's
revolutionary career started with the
Prema conspiracy case involving him
in a plot to murder the British resident,
Henly Lawrence, and other pro-British
officers of the Lahore Darbar. Maharaj
Singh, whose movements were restricted
to Naurangabfid by the British, went
underground. The government confiscated
his properq at Amritsar and announced
a reward for his arrest.
Bhai Maharaj Singh intensified his
activities against the British when
he came to know that Diwan Mul Raj had
in April 1848 raised a standard of revolt
against them at Multan. He left for
Multan with 400 horsemen to join hands
with Mul Raj. But soon differences arose
between the two leaders, and Maharaj
Singh left Multan for Hazara in June
1848 to seek Chatar Singh Atarivala's
assistance in his plans to dislodge
the British. In November 1848, he joined
Raja Sher Singh's forces at Rimnagar
and was seen in the battlefield riding
his black mare and exhorting the Sikh
soldiers to lay down their lives for
the sake of their country. Thereafter
he took part in the battles of Chehanvala
and Gujrat but, when Raja Sher Singh
surrendered to the British at Rawalpindi
on 14 March 1849, he resolved to carly
on the fight single-handed.
He escaped to Jammu and made Dev Batala
his secret headquarters. In December
1849, he went to Hoshiarpur and visited
the Sikh regiments to enlist their support.
Bhai Maharaj Singh, who carried on his
head a price of 10,000 rupees was arrested
on 28 December 1849 at Adampur. The
Guru is no ordinary man," wrote
Dr Vansittart, the Jalandhar deputy
commissioner, who had arrested him.
He is to the natives what Jesus is to
the most zealous of Christians. His
miracles were seen by tens of thousands
and are more implicitly believed than
those worked by the ancient prophets"
Vansittart was so greatly impressed
by Bhai Maharaj Singh's personaliq that
he recommended special treatment to
be accorded him, but the government
did not wish to take any risks and deported
him to Singapore where after several
years of solitary confinement, he died
on 5 July 1856. He had gone blind before
the end came.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Copyright © Harbans Singh "The
encyclopedia of Sikhism. "
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