French Sikhs wel­come the re­lease of The Black Prince and are de­ter­mined to travel across Eu­rope to view the movie. The movie has rekin­dled in­ter­est in cities which Ma­haraja Duleep Singh vis­ited dur­ing his tu­mul­tuous life -Paris to Lon­don to Moscow, from Nashik in Ma­ha­rash­tra to erst­while French colony Pondicherry

The Black Prince has gen­er­ated keen in­ter­est in cities and towns that Ma­haraja Duleep Singh vis­ited dur­ing his life­time, as de­picted in the movie. Ma­haraja Duleep Singh, like his il­lus­tri­ous fa­ther, who had a French gen­eral to train the Fauj-e-Khas -the spe­cial army of the Khalsa, be­friended the French so over­whelm­ingly that they ex­pressed will­ing­ness to join him in his fight to rebel and over­throw the British em­pire.

Though The Black Prince has not been not screened in any of the French cities, a band of com­mit­ted Sikhs in Paris have joined the cho­rus to pop­u­larise the movie and are de­ter­mined to travel to the UK to see the movie. So­cial ac­tivist Kul­winder Singh France, es­tab­lished busi­ness per­son Gur­dial Singh and Pun­jabi singer Bittu Banger with their team re­cently stood out­side the only Gur­d­wara in Paris and ex­pressed their joy at learn­ing the French con­nec­tion of Ma­haraja Duleep Singh.

  ““I will try to lo­cate the ho­tel where Ma­haraja Duleep Singh died. I will get some schol­ars to do more re­search on his days in Paris.”Kul­winder Singh France“. ”

The Am­rit Par­char cer­e­mony ex­clu­sively for Ma­haraja Duleep Singh is a sight which many would love and as it would give them an op­por­tu­nity to re­think their re­turn back to the won­der­ful fold of Guru Nanak’s Sikhi.

They ac­knowl­edged the con­tri­bu­tion of WSN as­so­ci­ate and so­cial ac­tivist Har­jin­der Singh Kukreja who en­rolled them into The Black Prince. In re­cent times, they have learnt about the French-Sikh con­nec­tion when the bust of Ma­haraja Ran­jit Singh was of­fi­cially in­stalled by the French gov­ern­ment in St. Lopez which was at­tended by a cross sec­tion of the al­ter­na­tive lead­er­ship of the Sikhs and Pun­jab as the po­lit­i­cal lead­er­ship could not find time to as­so­ci­ate with the past. They cer­e­mony held there was at­tended by Col. H. S. At­tari -a de­scen­dant of Sikh gen­eral Sham Singh At­tari­wala, so­cial ac­tivist and en­tre­pre­neur Har­jin­der Singh Kukreja, Coun­cil­lor from Nor­mandy, France -Vivek Pal Singh and Gen­eral J. J. Singh -for­mer Chief of In­dian Army Staff.

“This lit­tle knowl­edge that the last Ma­haraja of the Sikh king­dom spent his time in Paris has boosted the morale of Sikhs liv­ing in Paris and given their lives in Paris a new mean­ing, a new twist, a new sense of be­long­ing.” Gur­dial Singh 

Speak­ing to WSN, Kul­winder Singh said, “I will try to lo­cate the ho­tel where Ma­haraja Duleep Singh died. I will get some schol­ars to do more re­search on his days in Paris.” Gur­dial Singh said, “This lit­tle knowl­edge that the last Ma­haraja of the Sikh king­dom spent his time in Paris has boosted the morale of Sikhs liv­ing in Paris and given their lives in Paris a new mean­ing, a new twist, a new sense of be­long­ing. The singer Bittu Banger said that he would try to find out where in South­ern France he met his mother Ma­ha­rani Jin­dan.

As you can see in the video, brav­ing in­clement weather, with kids in tow, this small gath­er­ing ex­tolled the qual­i­ties of the Sarkar-e-Khalsa king­dom of Ma­haraja Ran­jit Singh which made them proud. “Any­thing that re­minds me of this golden pe­riod of Sikh his­tory is close to my heart, said Gur­dial Singh.

In the last three decades, there has been an in­flux of Pun­jabi and Sikh im­mi­grants to France, par­tic­u­larly Paris. The Black Prince seems to have sa­ti­ated the yearn­ing of love and be­long­ing that they have left be­hind in the Pun­jab.