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| New light on Patiala’s Maharaja | | | SHYAM BHATIA | 5/7/2013 12:37:32 AM |
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NEW evidence
has emerged of
how an ancestor of the Maharaja of Patiala was hanged by the British colonial authorities for secretly colluding with Sikh forces during the first Anglo-Sikh war in December 1845.
At the start of the Anglo-Sikh war Maharaja Karam Singh was thought to have helped his ostensible British allies by securing vital supplies and safeguarding Ludhiana, but he was subsequently accused of treachery after he was found to be corresponding with the so-called 'enemy', represented by the generals of the independent Sikh state founded by Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
Karam Singh was succeeded by Narendra Singh, Mahendra Singh, Rajinder Singh, Bhupinder Singh, Yadavindra Singh and Captain Amarinder Singh.
The significance of Karam Singh's execution - he was hanged from a tree - is that until then Patiala, along with Nabha and Jind, was considered a pro-British ally that required protection from Ranjit Singh's territorial ambitions south of the Sutlej river. It now turns out that Karam Singh was a nationalist hero and not - as previously thought -- just a British quisling.
Discovering Karam Singh's attempt to forge links and make common cause with his fellow Sikhs across the Sutlej is a major feat of scholarship by authors Amandeep Singh Madra and Parmjit Singh, who have just brought out a new edition of the much loved classic, Warrior Saints (Volume 1), which was first published in 1999 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Khalsa and also chronicle the founding and development of the Sikh 'warrior saint' ethos.
The new edition of the book was launched at a glittering function and in front of a packed audience consisting of NRIs, local British scholars and others interested in Punjabi history at Britain's National Army Museum in London.
"People think of the Sikh warrior tradition as coming into being with the founding of the Khalsa in 1699 by the tenth Guru, Gobind Singh", says author Amandeep. "In fact its roots lie in the teachings of Guru Nanak in the 1500s and in the struggles of the Sikhs for survival from the early 1600s.
"Our revised edition of Warrior Saints aims to bring to light this more nuanced narrative in which the Sikh martial tradition and its philosophical underpinnings are more tightly bound. We also race the phenomenal rise of a new force in the subcontinent that took on persecutors and foreign rule.
It was truly an army of the people, for the people."
Adds co-author Parmjit, "the reputation of the Sikhs as a warrior people is well known throughout the world. However, how they gained that reputation has never been fully told or appreciated. Indeed the details have always been sketchy, even to the Sikhs themselves.
"For the past two decades we have been on a journey of discovery to reveal this hidden history with a view to sharing it in a comprehensible but easily digestible way. It is a tale of enormous fortitude and resolve that rivals any military history through the ages.
Rare sculptures by NRI artists on sale
FOR those interested in more contemporary art, the event to follow is the forthcoming sale of sculptures by NRI artists, London-born Bharti Kher and Mumbai-born Anish Kapoor at a charity auction in New York on May 13.
The auction is being organised by Christie's in collaboration with the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation and Kher and Kapoor are among the 30 of today's most important living artists who have donated masterpieces especially for the auction.
Funds raised through the sale will support innovative conservation projects that protect some of the last wild places on earth, the endangered species that inhabit them, and the people whose welfare depends on them.
Kapoor's donated sculpture, entitled 'Untitled', has an estimated value of US$ 450,000-550,000, while Kher's sculpture, entitled 'The Skin Speaks a Language Not Its Own, 2006', has a higher estimated value of US$ 1.8-2.5 million.
Kher's work is said to be the ultimate icon of Indian contemporary art and the sculpture itself, the lifesize model of an elephant covered in bindis, is described as a monumental tribute to India and 'a metaphor for the tensions and energies of that rapidly changing yet fundamentally ancient area.'
A spokesperson for Christie's commented on how the tender intimacy of this female elephant " is a timeless symbol of the changes in mankind's relationship with nature during the age of modernisation.
This endangered creature is shown weighed down by swirling masses of bindis, a glistening yet sightless eye acting as a focus for the viewer's empathy as life ebbs away from the kindly giant."
Brett Gorvy, Chairman and International Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art, added, "Christie's is honored to host the most important environmental charity ever staged. The roster of donations reads like a who's who of the most important contemporary artists of our time. This has been a project of passion and commitment led by Leonardo DiCaprio and Christie's Loic Gouzer."
How A.Q. Khan stole uranium secrets
MEMORIES will be revived of how Pakistan's notorious Dr A.Q. Khan stole the secrets of uranium enrichment in Europe when the British government sells its one third stake in Urenco, one of the world's biggest uranium enrichment companies.
The German and Dutch governments are the other co-partners of the company which makes gas centrifugal technology sufficient to fuel 430 nuclear power plants, as well as for nuclear bombs.
The company's total value at the forthcoming auction has been estimated at £9 billion. A British government spokesman stressed that the sale would only go ahead if it was satisfied that the UK's security and non proliferation interests can be protected and value for money is achieved for taxpayers. Currently Urenco enriches uranium for some 50 customers in 18 countries generating an annual income of some £343 million. It has an order book of some £18 billion extending to beyond 2025.
Britain's Business and Energy Minister added that the sale "made good commercial sense..and is consistent with our position that assets should be sold where ownership itself does not deliver any policy objective." Bhopal-born Dr Khan, who migrated to Pakistan after Independence, was employed by a sub-contractor of Urenco in Almelo, Holland, when he gained access to highly sensitive and classified data about gas centrifuge technology.
It was the application of this stolen technology that helped Pakistan carry out its first nuclear test in May 1988. The rest is history. Khan became a national hero overnight in Pakistan until he was dismissed under US pressure from his government job in 2004.
Before he was dismissed, however, he had become a multi-millionaire, thanks to his clandestine sales of the stolen technology to countries such as Libya and North Korea. Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto was personally involved in carrying uranium technology secrets to North Korea in exchange for the medium range Nodong missile developed by Pyongyang.
Available: Sikh paintings
AMANDEEP and Parmjit are not the only Punjab experts offering an insight this summer into the heritage of the Sikhs. Their efforts are being supplemented in a forthcoming sale by the famous British auction house, Mullocks, which is selling historic paintings of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Duleep Singh, as well as historical documents and books about Punjab.
A painting of Baba Deep Singh from Mullocks
The highlight of their sale is expected to be an early water colour of revered Baba Deep Singh, a contemporary devotee of Guru Gobind Singh and the first Jathedar of the Damdami Taksal.
When Ahmed Shah Durrani raided northern India for the fourth time in 1757, demolishing the Harmandar Sahib, it was 75-year-old Baba Deep Singh who forged the resistance to avenge the desecration of the Golden Temple. The painting being offered for sale shows his decapitated body still marching onwards against the Afghan forces who were ultimately defeated.
This particular painting comes from the family collection of Kanpur-born Field Marshal Frederick Roberts, revered in the UK as one of Britain's most successful military commanders of the 19th century, who participated in the siege and capture of Delhi in 1857.
Also included in this collection is the sale of a hand-written letter by one J.A. Lindsay, a member of the 19th century Tirah Field Force who witnessed the aftermath of the Battle of Saragarhi in the North West Frontier where 21 Sikhs from the 36th Sikh Regiment in October 1897 defended an army post against 10,000 Afghan tribesmen.
In his letter Lindsay writes, "Saragarhi is an awful sight which 21 Sikhs behaved so admirably…and the place is anything but sanitary, as of course not much burying could be done."
Lindsay adds, "The 36th Sikhs marched over Gulistan (4 miles) this morning carrying the standard they had captured from the enemy -- they are a splendid corps and have made a great name for themselves." |
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