Beschreibung:

A collection of seven documents relating to Maharajah Duleep Singh, written by his guardian, Dr John Login, as a record of events, of the details of the treaties with the Sikh nation, the financial settlements of the Maharajah's affairs, and his conversion to Christianity England, the earliest dated July 1854, the latest shortly after January 1860 manuscript on paper, all in the hand of Dr Login, with the exception of one in the handwriting of Edith Login the largest 340 x 210 mm.; the smallest 166 x 110 mm.(7) Fußnoten The documents, which are drafts written soon after the return of Duleep Singh and Login to England in 1854, or at a slightly later date (Login died in October 1863), can be summarised as follows: 1. A 19-page memoir, on blue paper, in Login's hand, 'Relating to His Highness the Maharajah Duleep Singh: his removal from the throne of the Punjab; and the circumstances under which, by the providence of almighty God he was led to embrace the Christian Faith, prepared for the perusal of Her Gracious Majesty the Queen, by Her Majesty's very devoted subject and servant', Wimbledon, July 25th 1854. 2. A short account of the legal opinion of a Mr Leith relating to the settlement made with Duleep Singh and his status, in the hand of Edith Login. 3. A letter to Sir Charles Wood, dated 28th July 1859, on the financial aspects of the settlement. 4. A memorandum, a copy of one sent to William Haye [?] in January 1860, on the financial settlement. 5. A short letter dealing with Duleep Singh's education in the Christian faith, and the possibility of extending that faith through the Sikh nation. 6. A short summary of the terms agreed after the end of the Second Anglo-Sikh War between the British and the Sikhs. 7. A short summary of the position of Duleep Singh with relation to the treaties [after 1856]. Full transcriptions of all the documents are available on request. On the death of Maharajah Ranjit Singh in 1839 the Lahore court and the Sikh kingdom fell into a bloody internecine battle for power. The Maharani Jindan was proclaimed regent, and Duleep Singh was proclaimed Maharajah in 1843, at the age of five. After the First Anglo-Sikh War, during which the British defeated the Khalsa army at the battles of Ferozeshah, Sobraon, Aliwal and Mudki, the Treaty of Lahore was concluded in 1846, and the Sikhs were made to give up Kashmir and to accept a British Resident in their capital. In 1849 the Sikh chieftains rebelled, giving the British Governor-General, Lord Dalhousie, the chance to invade and annex the Punjab outright in the Second Anglo-Sikh War. The Koh-i-Noor diamond was taken from the treasury and presented to Queen Victoria as a symbol of dominion over the whole of India. In April of that year Duleep Singh was removed from the Punjab to Mussoorie and put in the care of Dr (later Sir) John Login, a Scottish surgeon in the Bengal army, and his wife, Lena. Later, in 1850, he was moved again to Fatehgarh, near Kanpur. He was forbidden contact with any Punjabis and a Hindu, Bhajan Lall, was appointed as his personal attendant, who in fact surreptitiously introduced him to Christianity, in part by reading to him every night from the Bible. (Fatehgarh was itself also a centre of Christian missionaries). In March 1853 he was received into the Christian faith, something which seems to have been personally satisfying to the Logins, who had the devout and evangelical natures which we associate with the Victorians. Lord Dalhousie saw things from a more pragmatic angle, when he commented in a letter: 'This is the first Indian Prince of many who have succumbed to our power, or have acknowledged it, that has adopted the faith of the Stranger'. The British authorities felt that Duleep Singh should be well and truly separated from any possibility of contact with the Sikhs. Login encouraged in him the desire to visit England. They left India in April 1854, so that the memoir must have been written shortly after their arrival in England,