Maharani Jind Kaur, the last wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Last Queen

Maharani Jind Kaur, the last wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Last Queen. 

By Hamd Nawaz.

There can’t be a better time to remember our queen than the death of their queen ; 

A tribute to The Last Queen of Punjab who fought the British Monarchy. 

Maharani Jind Kaur, the last wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh was the sharpest thorn in the British throat back in 1840s. 

Mahrani got the throne in very troubling times, her King husband had just died, the Punjab was under attack by the British from all sides and her son, the future King Daleep Singh was just a little boy of 6 years. It was then that the first Anglo-Sikh war began. 

The Sikhs commanded a zealous army of Punjabis. Initial attacks showed that the chances of drawing the British back were high. But then, two of the main Sikh Generals left their ranks & conspired in favour of the British. Unable to recover from the traitors, the army lost. 

A treaty, famously known as the treaty of Lahore was signed and Prince Daleep Singh was reinstated as a ruler. But Henry Lawrence saw the biggest threat in Rani Jindan. She was captured and jailed in the Lahore Fort’s Samman Tower and later in the Sheikhupura Fort. 

She started writing letters to the rulers of adjacent states, rallying them against the British Army. When the British discovered it, they were so baffled by her success that they started calling her “the Messaline of Punjab”, after the Roman Empress who had such political power. 

The Muslims and Sikhs of Lahore and Gujranwala protested against such harsh treatment of their maharani. Defiant that she was, she disguised herself as one of the servants and calmly walked out of the gates, riding & walking most of the way northwards till Kathmandu in Nepal.

The Nepalese Prime minister supported her in her escape and looked after her in his own house. The new Prime Minister Jung Bahadar Rana built her a new house at Thapathali and granted her an allowance. Here Rani Jindan stayed for 11 years as a constant threat to the British. 

Countless British intelligence would go into keeping an eye on her. Her name, her escape & newly gained alliance with the Nepalese became a reason of hope among the Punjabis. Separated from her little son, she would try to get him back but young Daleep Singh was sent to England. 

Years passed. Daleep Singh grew under the Queen’s Victoria watch and ended up as complacent friend of the British. Mahrani Jind Kaur, however couldn’t forget the killers of her army. She resisted meeting her own son for a decade till they finally met in Calcutta. 

A few Sikh regiments returning from fighting in China learnt of the Rani’s presence and demonstrations broke out. The Governor General Lord Canning requested Duleep Singh to immediately take the first ship to England with his mother. So to England they both set off. 

An excited British Press carried the headline “The Messalina of the Punjab in London”. Maharani Jind Kaur died peacefully in her sleep in Abingdon House, Kensington, in 1863. She was cremated and her ashes were buried with her husband, Ranjeet Singh in Lahore. 

The British files still remember her as a rebel, a sharp witted politician, a symbol of hope for her people, a liberator and a valiant fighter. A queen loved and desired by millions ; Everything that a British queen could never be!