Duleep Singh's descendants for memorial to him in city

Neha Saini

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 10

Every wall in each room at their residence in Guru Amardass Avenue at Airport Road speaks about their history. The Sandhanwalias, the descendants of Maharaja Duleep Singh, have already made it to the pages of history because of the bloodline and now the family is demanding that the mortal remains of their ancestor be brought back from England to Amritsar.

Sukhdev Singh Sandhanwalia and his family wants to dedicate a memorial to the last Maharaja of Punjab, Duleep Singh and the family’s youngest member, 25 year-old Damandeep Singh Sandhawalia, has already been working to acquire some of the heirlooms and documents regarding their pedigree. “Our great grandfather Thakur Singh Sandhanwalia was a blood cousin and adoptive son of Maharaja Duleep Singh. A lot has been written about our family’s ancestry by Indian and British historians and recently we finally were able to acquire vast correspondence and letters between Maharaja Duleep Singh and our family from the British Museum. The letters are significant as they mention facts and prove that Maharaj Duleep Singh adopted Thakur Singh and later on Princess Sophia too adopted Pritam Singh Sandhanwalia, the youngest son of Gurdit Singh Sandhanwalia, who was Thakur Singh’s son,” said Damandeep. Recently, visiting heritage and conservationist Karen Emma White from UK’s Ancient House Museum of Thetford Life too visited the Sandhanwalias to research and study the information shared through the letters.

Apart from significant mentions like the letters written to Duleep Singh by three members of the Sandhanwalia family to explain their plans to ignite a rebellion against British rule and for the Maharaja to return to India with 20,000 foreign fighters to lead the charge and Princess Sophia’s visit to Rajasansi, Sandhanwalia’s ancestral village in 1907 to adopt Pritam Singh, the collection also contains a pedigree table of the family. “Noted historian and writer Christy Campbell sent us a compilation of 500 pages including the documents of history while writing his book The Maharaja’s Box in 2002. This prompted me to research further and I also met Sikh historian Dr Ganda Singh for the same,” said Damandeep. Another British historian, Peter Bance, too visited the Sandhanwalias and helped with the missing information.

Now, the family desires that the Government of India should put efforts to see that the mortal remains of their royal descendant should be brought back. “Being a descendant, I feel that injustice had not been meted out to Maharaja Duleep Singh and Amritsar had been the second capitol of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. It was an unfulfilled dream of the late Maharaja Duleep Singh to return back to his beloved Punjab and especially pay obeisance at Harmandir Sahib. Amritsar remains the most suitable place to bring back the mortal remains of the Sikh Maharaja and fulfil his last wishes,” said Damandeep.