British palace of the last king of Punjab
By K.R.N. Swamy

IT is 150 years since the British conquered Punjab in 1849 and removed the last independent ruler of Punjab — the 11-year-old Maharaja Dalip Singh, the son of the legendary Maharaja Ranjit Singh, from his throne. In 1854, Maharaja Dalip Singh became a Christian, went to Great Britain as a dispossessed king and in 1863, he bought the Elveden.

He was a favourite of Queen Victoria and instances are on record when she ensured that the young ex-ruler of Punjab was not harmed by the British imperialists, especially during the 1857 uprising against the British in India. As he grew up to manhood, the British Government wanted to ensure that he became sufficiently anglicised and a part of British aristocracy. Growing up in the company of princely companions like Edward — the Prince of Wales, Dalip Singh developed conspicuous love of country sports, especially shooting. Out of borrowed funds from the British government, he bought the Hatherop Castle in Gloucestershire and later rented grandiose estates in Scotland for his grouse shooting. In 1863, he bought the Elveden Hall in the Suffolk/Norfolk Border for £ 105,000. In the same year he married Bamba Muller a half-Abyssinian half-German girl in Egypt, on his way back from a trip to India. They took up residence in 1864.

There is nothing to suggest that much building was undertaken until 1869. According to the Builder magazine (dated November 18, 1871), it was in 1869 that the architect, John Norton, was commissioned by the Maharajah to add a wing to the existing building. Before this could be completed, it was decided to demolish everything except two rooms and begin again. The result was an Italianate, E-shaped, red brick building with Lancaster stone dressings, very solid, respectable and dull. To all outward appearance Dalip Singh’s manor, conformed to the prevailing fashion, only the Indian "minaret" water tower and a domed pavilion in the garden enlivened the estate. Once through the portico, the visitor entered another world, the Indian design of the etched-glass lobby heralded a decorative scheme of considerable ingenuity and imagination. There were many other unusual features including "ceilings and wall panellings of most minute and elaborate Indian design, together with marble fireplaces, marble inlay and tiles by Mapin & Co".

Only the Maharani’s boudoir remained immune to the Indian scheme being designed in French Renaissance style. But even in 1871, the house was still unfinished. Much use was made of colour, the cast iron stair railing were bright red and elsewhere coloured cements were used. Mirrors were frequently used and an English firm experimented with an Indian technique of silvering convex glass which was used on the ceilings. In the library, gold embroidered Indian shawls hung on the walls and textiles were also employed in the drawing room. All the details were made in plaster rather than in carved wood. As can be seen from the photograph of the 1870s, the furnishing consisted mainly of sofas and ottomans. No Anglo-Indian furniture seems to have been bought, although there were six very extraordinary upholstered chairs with "peacock" backs.

Dalip Singh spent £ 30,000 in refashioning Elveden. Soon he ran up heavy debts and appealed in vain to British government to return to him the personal treasures his father Maharajah Ranjit Singh had bequeathed him. But in their calculations the average income of a British Peer in those days was about £ 10,000 and as they had already granted an annual income of £ 50,000 to Dalip Singh’s they felt that he had no other rights on the share of his father’s property from Punjab, although he pleaded that without that income he would not be able to live an aristocrat’s life in Britain. At one stage he even started selling his family silver by auction.

Finally disillusioned by the British attitude, he tried to return to India but was stopped in Aden and sent back to Britain. Soon he left the hostile British shores and settled as a poor refugee in Paris. He met, for the last time, Queen Victoria during her visit to France and there was a tearful reconciliation. He died in Paris on October 22, 1893, and was buried in the grounds of Elveden. The Prince of Wales had sent a wreath in memory of olden days with the inscription "For Auld Lang Syne" and Queen Victoria was represented by Lord Camay. In accordance with the terms made with the Government of India, Elveden was sold in 1894 and bought by the first Earl of Iveagh for £ 159,000 — equivalent of nearly £ six million of today’s money value. The new owner proved to be a rich peer who could indulge in his oriental fancies better than the Maharajah. The remodelled "Durbar" hall at Elveden Hall erected between 1899 and 1903 is the only interior in Britain of any consequence to have been influenced by Anglo-Indian architecture. It was designed by Caspar Purdon Clarke, keeper of the Indian section of the Victoria & Albert Museum. The carrera marble designs were carved by British workmen at a cost of £ 70,000 and among these masterpieces "not least of which are the two fireplaces based upon the Emperor’s throne in the Diwan-i- aam-Delhi."

The contents and furnishings of the Elveden were auctioned again by Christie’s in 1984 and the new owners are not very happy with the large crowds of Indians visiting the former palace of the last King of Punjab, paying homage to his memory in his grave in the compound. Recently the Sikh Community in U.K. erected a statue of Dalip Singh near the grave as a memorial. "Elveden remains an isolated, melancholy reminder of the life of a Maharajah who desperately sought his roots at a time when many Indians were beginning to lose theirs." — MF