Sardar Ramesh Singh Arora Pays Tribute at Graves of Maharaja Duleep Singh and Maharani Bamba Duleep Singh in UK

Lahore Ali Imran Chattha 

 Elveden, Suffolk, UK – Sardar Ramesh Singh Arora, the first Sikh minister of Punjab, Pakistan, currently serving as Minister for Minorities & Human Rights, and President of the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, visited the graves of Maharaja Duleep Singh and Maharani Bamba Duleep Singh on the death anniversary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s youngest son.

 Maharaja Duleep Singh, the last sovereign ruler of the Sikh Empire, was just a child when the British annexed Punjab in 1849 following the Second Anglo-Sikh War. At the age of 10, he was separated from his mother, Maharani Jind Kaur, and exiled to England. The British took possession of his kingdom and the famed Koh-i-Noor diamond, and Duleep Singh spent the rest of his life in exile, under surveillance by the British Crown. In 1864, he married Bamba Müller, a woman of German and Ethiopian descent, in Cairo. The couple settled in the UK and had six children. One of their daughters, Princess Bamba Duleep Singh, was known for her patriotic sentiments and strong connection to her heritage. She later moved to Lahore, where she passed away in 1957 and is buried in Pakistan.

 Sardar Arora’s visit to the graves at St Andrew and St Patrick Churchyard in Elveden, Suffolk is a moment of deep historical reflection, honoring a royal legacy disrupted by colonialism and remembered with pride by Sikhs and South Asians across the world.