Born in vil­lage Rab­bon, near Malaud in the Lud­hi­ana dis­trict of Pun­jab, the child named Ni­hal Singh by his par­ents, later came to be known Bhai Ma­haraj Singh, in recog­ni­tion of his hu­mil­ity, ded­i­ca­tion and self­less ser­vice, which he im­bibed while stay­ing for many years at Bhai Bir Singh’s Dera -cen­tre, at Nau­rangabad. Last week we ob­served his 165th Mar­tyr­dom day. Scholar-re­searcher Colonel Dr Dalvin­der Singh Gre­wal pays trib­ute re­count­ing his roller­coaster life and ex­em­plary con­tri­bu­tion till he died in a Sin­ga­pore prison in 1856.

NIHAL SINGH ALIAS BHAG­WAN SINGH ALIAS BHAI MA­HARAJ SINGH used to get lost in his ded­i­ca­tion to ser­vice, so much so that he used to cook meals for thou­sands of vis­it­ing devo­tees sin­gle-hand­edly. He re­cited Lord’s Name every mo­ment and brought wa­ter for his guide Bhai Bir Singh daily at 3 AM with­out a day’s break. He took Am­rit at the dera of Bhai Bir Singh and was given the name Bhag­wan Singh.

It was a tough time when Do­gras were play­ing their dirty games, killing Sahibzadas -heirs to thrones with ease. Gen­eral At­tar Singh Sand­han­walia and Prince Kash­mira Singh took refuge in the Dera of Bir Singh to es­cape the Do­gras.

When the Do­gras learnt this, Hira Singh Do­gra, the chief min­is­ter of Pun­jab, de­manded the two from Bir Singh which the lat­ter re­fused.  Hira Singh then or­dered his forces to at­tack the Dera in 1844 with 20,000 troops and 50 can­non guns. Sev­eral hun­dred Sikhs, in­clud­ing Gen­eral At­tar Singh Sand­han­walla, Prince Kash­mira Singh and Bhai Bir Singh were killed. 

Bhag­wan Singh be­came the head of the Dera. Bhag­wan Singh by then rechris­tened as  Bhai Ma­haraj Singh due to his ex­em­plary lan­gar Sewa handed over the Dera to an­other Bir Singh and moved to Am­rit­sar where he es­tab­lished an­other Dera.

Bhai Ma­haraj Singh kept in con­tact with Ma­ha­rani Jin­dan and helped her re­solve her prob­lems. Mean­while the British, who had been wait­ing for the right mo­ment to in­ter­vene and es­tab­lish their au­thor­ity, made their move in 1847. They de­ported Rani Jin­dan. 

The Sikh chiefs in­clud­ing Bhag­wan Singh alias Bhai Ma­haraj Singh re­volted. He was wel­comed by Sikhs say­ing “Ah Wo Ma­haraj.”

The Sikh chiefs in­clud­ing Bhag­wan Singh alias Bhai Ma­haraj Singh re­volted. He was wel­comed by Sikhs say­ing “Ah Wo Ma­haraj.” Dur­ing the Sec­ond An­glo-Sikh war that fol­lowed, at the bat­tles of Ram Na­gar, Chill­ian­wall and Gu­jrat, he was very ac­tive in pro­vid­ing per­sonal in­spi­ra­tion and or­ga­niz­ing sup­plies for the Sikh Army. Soon af­ter the de­feat at Gu­jrat, all the other Sikh chiefs had been cap­tured or had sur­ren­dered. 

At a time of grow­ing British in­flu­ence and in­ter­fer­ence at court, his mes­sage was un­com­pro­mis­ing and highly Sikh-na­tion­al­is­tic. His trans­for­ma­tion to a saintly rev­o­lu­tion­ary was com­pleted in 1847 when he was im­pli­cated in a con­spir­acy to as­sas­si­nate Henry Lawrence, the British res­i­dent at La­hore. With his prop­erty con­fis­cated and wanted by the British, he went un­der­ground with 600 fol­low­ers in or­der to con­tinue his sedi­tion. The gov­er­nor-gen­eral at the time, Lord Dal­housie, of­fered a stag­ger­ing Rs. 10,000 bounty for his head.

Bhai Ma­haraj Singh was one of the first peo­ple of Pun­jab to launch a free­dom move­ment in Pun­jab af­ter the British took over Pun­jab. He said in 1849: “There will be an­other Na­tional War”.

Bhai Ma­haraj Singh was one of the first peo­ple of Pun­jab to launch a free­dom move­ment in Pun­jab af­ter the British took over Pun­jab. He said in 1849: “There will be an­other Na­tional War”.

“Bhai Ma­haraj Singh, a Sikh priest of re­puted sanc­tity, and of great in­flu­ence, the first man who raised the stan­dards of re­bel­lion be­yond the con­fines of Mul­tan in 1848, and the only leader of note who did not lay down his arms to Sir Wal­ter Gilberts at Rawalpindi,” said Henry Lawrence, Res­i­dent of La­hore.

Bhai Ma­haraj Singh’s plan of ac­tion against the su­pe­rior British was framed in the jun­gles of the Chamb Val­ley, in­cluded,

•       To res­cue Ma­haraja Dalip Singh from La­hore Fort.
•       To or­ga­nize a United Front of all anti-British forces.
•       Or­ga­nized dis­rup­tion by sub­ver­sion and sur­prise at­tacks on British trea­suries and can­ton­ments.

He dis­played su­perb mil­i­tary gen­er­al­ship and knowl­edge of tac­ti­cal war­fare. His rich spir­i­tual her­itage sus­tained him in all his en­deav­ours. 

The British re­acted by mov­ing Dalip Singh to se­curer con­fine­ment in Mus­sorie, en­cour­aged Mus­lim zealots to lo­cate him for them and of­fered high re­wards for in­for­ma­tion of his where­abouts. They tried to por­tray him as a re­li­gious leader to lower his fol­low­ing as a mil­i­tary or po­lit­i­cal leader. It was the British of­fi­cers who coined the term “Kar­ni­vala” since they did not want to ad­mit the fail­ures of their in­tel­li­gence. Bhai Ma­haraj Singh, un­doubt­edly, was cer­tainly a “Mir­a­cle Maker” since it be­came im­pos­si­ble for the British to ar­rest him. This was due to the sup­port given to him by the pub­lic that he was able to min­gle and hide among the peo­ple.

Ma­haraj Singh led the anti-British cam­paign as a mat­ter of re­li­gious duty to­wards his peo­ple. Af­ter the First An­glo-Sikh War, he moved about the Ja­land­har Doab, a British ter­ri­tory and aroused the peo­ple against the British. He con­tacted De­wan Mool Raj, the Nazim of Mul­tan to raise a ban­ner of re­volt against the British ad­min­is­tra­tion of La­hore King­dom. He went to Haz­ara where Sar­dar Chat­tar Singh At­tari­wala was prepar­ing to rebel. Ma­haraj Singh’s pres­ence there gave a boost to the cause of re­bel­lion.

Ma­haraj Singh led the anti-British cam­paign as a mat­ter of re­li­gious duty to­wards his peo­ple.

The Bhai ig­nited a year-long re­volt. He sought to ex­tend it all over north­ern In­dia by in­volv­ing in it the Ma­haraja of Bikaner. Dost Mo­ham­mad, the Amir of Afghanistan and Ma­haraja Gu­lab Singh of Jammu and Kash­mir but could not achieve de­sired suc­cess. 

Then came the Sec­ond An­glo-Sikh War which re­sulted in the an­nex­a­tion of Pun­jab by the British on March 29, 1849.

The an­nex­a­tion of Pun­jab by the British slack­ened the ac­tiv­i­ties of the free­dom fight­ers in the province for a num­ber of rea­sons. The British Gov­ern­ment re­moved Ma­haraja Dalip Singh out­side Pun­jab to Mis­souri in whose name the free­dom fight­ers had fought be­tween 1846-49. Sec­ondly, Rani Jin­dan es­caped to Nepal and could not ef­fec­tively guide the move­ment. Lastly, the chiefs of the Pun­jab who had fought the British in the Sec­ond An­glo-Sikh War were ex­iled or were put in pris­ons of the United Provinces. 

Ma­haraj Singh, how­ever, did not al­low the free­dom move­ment to die out. He chalked out a fresh plan to con­tinue the strug­gle. He es­caped from Rawalpindi to Jammu and from his hide­out sent se­cret emis­saries to con­tact, in par­tic­u­lar, the dis­charged sol­diers of the Khalsa Army, the Ja­gir­dars and chiefs who had been dis­pos­sessed of their es­tates of pen­sion by the British au­thor­i­ties and also the hold­ers of re­li­gious es­tates, par­tic­u­larly the Go­sains in the Kan­gra hills, who could help him fi­nance the free­dom strug­gle. 

Ma­haraj Singh sought help from Dost Mo­ham­mad, the Amir of Kabul, in Pun­jab’s strug­gle for free­dom from for­eign rule. He wrote to the Amir and his brother Sul­tan Muham­mad Khan for sup­port, but they re­fused to ren­der him any help. Bhai Ma­haraj Singh planned to make guer­rilla at­tacks on se­lected British can­ton­ments of Hoshiarpur, Ha­jipur and pos­si­bly Ja­land­har. His men looted the gov­ern­ment trea­sury at Ba­jwara.

Ma­haraj Singh’s ex­am­ple aroused oth­ers. The At­tari­wala chiefs, De­wan  Hakim Rai and the Ma­jithia Sar­dars were stirred to ac­tion, though their move­ments were re­stricted to their vil­lages by the or­ders of the British au­thor­i­ties. Faquirs and Brah­mans who had helped in car­ry­ing the mes­sage of Rani Jin­dan and other chiefs dur­ing the pre-an­nex­a­tion pe­riod started vis­it­ing places of ex-rebels, chiefs on one pre­text to the other. The British in­tel­li­gence re­ported that these peo­ple were pro­vid­ing links be­tween Bhai Ma­haraj Singh and the chiefs who were pre­pared to rebel against the British in con­cert with Bhai Sahib.

Bhai Sahib ob­tained sub­stan­tial help from a large num­ber of in­flu­en­tial peo­ple in the Hoshiarpur dis­trict. In No­vem­ber 1849, he com­pleted all arrange­ments for at­tack­ing can­ton­ments in the Ja­land­har Doab. In an open con­gre­ga­tion at Sham Chaurasi, a vil­lage in the Hoshiarpur dis­trict he de­clared the 20th Poh -3rd Jan­u­ary 1850 next as the aus­pi­cious date for the gen­eral ris­ing. 

The Bhai was mak­ing him­self too con­spic­u­ous and had to pay the price for it. On De­cem­ber 29, 1849, Vin­sit­tat, the Deputy Com­mis­sioner of Ja­land­har ar­rested him along with his 21 un­armed fol­low­ers near Adampur.  Henry Van­sit­tart, the Deputy Com­mis­sioner of Ja­land­har who ar­rested him, wrote. “The Guru (read Bhai Ma­haraj Singh) is no or­di­nary man. He is to the na­tives what Je­sus was to the most zeal­ous of Chris­tians. His mir­a­cles were seen by tens of thou­sands, and are more im­plic­itly be­lieved than those worked by the an­cient prophets.”

Even more gen­er­ous was Mcleod, Com­mis­sioner of the Doab, who wrote: “.. had he re­mained at large, but a lit­tle longer … more out­rages of an alarm­ing char­ac­ter would have been at­tempted … the re­sult of which,.. would per­haps be im­pos­si­ble to fore­tell.”

“.. had he re­mained at large, but a lit­tle longer … more out­rages of an alarm­ing char­ac­ter would have been at­tempted … the re­sult of which,.. would per­haps be im­pos­si­ble to fore­tell.”

Mcleod, Com­mis­sioner of the Doab, af­ter ar­rest­ing Bhai Ma­haraj Singh

The news of Ma­haraj Singh’s ar­rest and his de­ten­tion in the Ja­land­har Civil Jail spread like a wild­fire. A large num­ber of Hin­dus, Mus­lims and Sikhs of the town gath­ered out­side the jail mak­ing the au­thor­i­ties ap­pre­hen­sive lest the peo­ple might at­tempt to get Bhai Sahib re­leased. The Dis­trict Mag­is­trate im­me­di­ately got Ma­haraj Singh and his clos­est dis­ci­ple Kharak Singh alias Khu­ruck Singh, trans­ferred to the cus­tody of the mil­i­tary au­thor­i­ties.

It was found too risky to put Bhai Ma­haraj Singh on trial in In­dia and he was de­ported to Sin­ga­pore. He ar­rived on the “Muhmed Shah” ship, on 9th July 1850, to­gether with a dis­ci­ple, Kharak Singh, and was moved to Out­ram Jail. He was kept in soli­tary con­fine­ment in a cell 14 by 15 feet, which, be­cause of the walling up of the win­dows, had been “fur­ther ren­dered dark, dinghy and ab­solutely un­healthy” (Se­cret Con­sul­ta­tion Pa­pers, 28th Feb 1851, #52-57). 

The Civil Sur­geon, Sin­ga­pore, rec­om­mended that Bhai Ma­haraj Singh be al­lowed an oc­ca­sional walk in the open, but this was turned down by the Gov­ern­ment of In­dia.

He was prac­ti­cally blind within three years, de­vel­oped can­cer on his tongue, and had rheumatic swellings and pains in his feet and an­kles. The Civil Sur­geon, Sin­ga­pore, rec­om­mended that Bhai Ma­haraj Singh be al­lowed an oc­ca­sional walk in the open, but this was turned down by the Gov­ern­ment of In­dia. The re­sult was that his health con­tin­ued to de­te­ri­o­rate, and about two months be­fore his death, his neck and tongue be­came so swollen that it be­came very dif­fi­cult for him to swal­low food.

Bhai Ma­haraj Singh died on 5th July 1856. He was cre­mated on a plot of land out­side the prison, pre­sum­ably by Khur­ruck Singh, who also later died in prison. 

Lo­cals, mainly Tamils, be­gan to re­vere the spot, mark­ing it with stones. Of­fer­ings of flow­ers found their way there, Sikhs and Mus­lims joined in. The Sikhs placed a struc­ture on this spot, turn­ing it into a small Gur­d­wara -Sikh tem­ple as it is called there. In 1966, the Sri Guru Granth Sahib was moved to the Silat Road Tem­ple. Only the stones were re-erected out­side the tem­ple. 

A large num­ber of Sikhs and non-Sikhs come to the samadhi to wor­ship, with of­fer­ings of valu­ables, a prac­tice not in con­so­nance with Sikh tenets.

Bhai Ma­haraj Singh was the head of the Or­der now known as the Hoti Mar­dan Valli Sant Khalsa Sam­par­dai, of whom the re­cent il­lus­tri­ous heads were Sant At­tar Singh and Sant Isher Singh. He was thus not only a rev­o­lu­tion­ary fighter but also a rec­og­nized re­li­gious per­son­age of very high stand­ing. He was in­deed a “Karni­wala” -some­one who is be­lieved to ac­com­plish any­thing.” 

 Ref­er­ences

1. Bhar­gava, Moti Lal, Ar­chi­tects of In­dian Free­dom Strug­gle. New Delhi, 1981
2. Na­har Singh, (ed), Doc­u­ments Re­lat­ing to Bhai Ma­haraj Singh. Lud­hi­ana, 1968.
3. Ahluwalia, M.L. Bhai Ma­haraj Singh. Pa­tiala, 1972
4. Khush­want Singh, A His­tory of the Sikhs, vol. II. Prince­ton, 1966
5. ‘Bhai Ma­haraj Singh Saint-Sol­dier’ by Choor Singh, Sin­ga­pore.
6. Re­trieved from “http://​www.sikhi­wiki.org/​in­dex.php/​Bhai_Ma­hara­j_S­ingh”