0:00:05 > 0:00:06This month, Sikhs worldwide
0:00:06 > 0:00:10celebrate the Holy Festival of Vaisakhi.
0:00:12 > 0:00:18THEY CHANT
0:00:18 > 0:00:21Vaisakhi is the most important celebrated festival for the Sikhs.
0:00:22 > 0:00:27On Vaisakhi, we have a procession, Nagar Kirtan is what we call it.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31Vaisakhi is a time for Sikhs to celebrate the birth
0:00:31 > 0:00:34of the Sikh nation, and the establishment
0:00:34 > 0:00:36of the Sikh code of conduct the Khalsa
0:00:36 > 0:00:40by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699.
0:00:40 > 0:00:44There's usually a big hall with the Guru Granth in it
0:00:44 > 0:00:46and you can go and listen to Kirtan,
0:00:46 > 0:00:50which is prayers and Paath, which is prayers too.
0:00:50 > 0:00:52For Sikhs, Vaisakhi is a reminder of the importance
0:00:52 > 0:00:55of holding on to identity and heritage.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59And this is the little known story of a figure
0:00:59 > 0:01:03central to Sikh history - the last Maharajah of the Sikh nation -
0:01:03 > 0:01:08whose own faith and identity were tested to the limit.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12His name - Maharajah Duleep Singh.
0:01:12 > 0:01:17He symbolises the past but he also represents an iconic figure
0:01:17 > 0:01:20within the community's history today.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24Born a Royal Prince of the Punjab in the age of Queen Victoria
0:01:24 > 0:01:27he lost the Empire he was destined to inherit
0:01:27 > 0:01:31and was exiled to Britain as a teenager.
0:01:31 > 0:01:36Duleep Singh really trod the ground for us in many ways
0:01:36 > 0:01:41because he came here, he was very isolated, cut off from his family,
0:01:41 > 0:01:44cut off from his culture and cut off from his religion.
0:01:44 > 0:01:48Favoured by Queen Victoria, he converted to Christianity
0:01:48 > 0:01:50and lived the life of an English gentleman.
0:01:52 > 0:01:57He'd exchanged his turban now for a top hat and that, you know, that was his new life.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00But, gradually, he rediscovered his Sikh heritage
0:02:00 > 0:02:03and was baptised back into the Sikh faith.
0:02:05 > 0:02:08He is, for many British Sikhs, celebrating Vaisakhi,
0:02:08 > 0:02:12a key figure in Anglo-Sikh history and continues to hold
0:02:12 > 0:02:16a fascination for those who've delved into his story.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19Just the drama of the story really grabbed me
0:02:19 > 0:02:24and I couldn't believe that not much has been written about it.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27I spent a lot of time doing a lot of research,
0:02:27 > 0:02:31and working on a screenplay, you know, about his life.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34I began looking in old bookshops
0:02:34 > 0:02:39and old antique fairs to find a piece of history, anything belonging
0:02:39 > 0:02:42to the Duleep Singh family - something which I could keep myself.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45I was lucky enough as a journalist to find the story of a lifetime,
0:02:45 > 0:02:47which was his story.
0:02:55 > 0:02:59Dressed in his turban and jewels, this shadowy image
0:02:59 > 0:03:05is the young Maharajah Duleep Singh, the last ruler of the Sikh Empire.
0:03:05 > 0:03:09He's just ten years old, captured by an amateur photographer
0:03:09 > 0:03:12in Lahore in 1848.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31Now part of Pakistan, Lahore was then the royal seat of power
0:03:31 > 0:03:34in an independent Punjab.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37Duleep's father was the charismatic Ranjit Singh,
0:03:37 > 0:03:40known as the Lion of the Punjab.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44And his mother, Rani Jindan, the last of Ranjit's many wives,
0:03:44 > 0:03:48renowned for her ambition and beauty.
0:03:48 > 0:03:53Ranjit Singh was one of the most glittering, exotic rulers
0:03:53 > 0:03:56the Indian subcontinent has ever seen.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59An extraordinary man, who proceeded to build, in the space of 20 years,
0:03:59 > 0:04:04a great empire, which stretched from the Indian Ocean to the Himalayas.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07Duleep Singh would have grown up in a very rich environment.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10He would have been told the story of Vaisakhi,
0:04:10 > 0:04:14of the creation of the brotherhood.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18He and his family and the court were the direct descendants
0:04:18 > 0:04:24to some extent of the proud tradition of the Sikh rule.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27But Duleep Singh never got the chance to make his own mark
0:04:27 > 0:04:29in history as a great Sikh ruler.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32With his mother holding the reins of power as Regent,
0:04:32 > 0:04:36after his father died, he stayed on the throne for just six years.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41By the time he was 11, his kingdom had been absorbed
0:04:41 > 0:04:45into British India. His future uncertain.
0:04:49 > 0:04:54What place is there for a little prince of the overthrown kingdom?
0:04:54 > 0:04:59He is a danger to the new rulers, as it were,
0:04:59 > 0:05:01and yet they are not going to behave like say Richard III
0:05:01 > 0:05:05and strangle him in the tower, they are going to do something subtle.
0:05:11 > 0:05:15The deposed boy prince was separated from his mother,
0:05:15 > 0:05:18and taken to Fatehgarh on the banks of the Ganges.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21It was 140 miles from Lahore
0:05:21 > 0:05:24and famous for its Christian missionary work.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27He's taken away to a very European establishment
0:05:27 > 0:05:31which was really made for the wives and children
0:05:31 > 0:05:33of the British officers serving in India.
0:05:33 > 0:05:35He's no countrymen around him -
0:05:35 > 0:05:37nothing to do with his Sikh religion.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40There's no Sikh priest, there's no Guru Granth with him.
0:05:43 > 0:05:48He was placed in the care of a British couple, Dr John Login,
0:05:48 > 0:05:52a surgeon in the Bengal Army, and his wife, Lady Lena Login.
0:05:55 > 0:06:00We would recognise them as the kind of Margo and Jerry of British India -
0:06:00 > 0:06:02suburban figures - who are kindly.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05And he loves them really and I think he...
0:06:05 > 0:06:10And they love him in return. But then they are political appointees.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14And every step that's made with this child becoming a man
0:06:14 > 0:06:19has to be referred to higher authority.
0:06:19 > 0:06:25He's a teenager, he's young and open to manipulation
0:06:25 > 0:06:29and influence and he's introduced to the Christian religion
0:06:29 > 0:06:32and taught the Bible.
0:06:36 > 0:06:38So, this is the original Bible,
0:06:38 > 0:06:42which was placed in the hands of the Maharajah in 1850
0:06:42 > 0:06:48at Fatehgarh Park, and what's lovely about this particular copy
0:06:48 > 0:06:50is it's highlighted and he's underlined
0:06:50 > 0:06:54particular prayers which interest him.
0:06:57 > 0:07:03On 8th March 1853, Duleep was baptised into the Christian faith,
0:07:03 > 0:07:06the first Indian Prince to convert.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11To emphasise his commitment,
0:07:11 > 0:07:14Duleep broke one of the sacred vows of Sikhism.
0:07:17 > 0:07:21His hair was cut and he presented it, braided,
0:07:21 > 0:07:23to his British guardians.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27In Sikh tradition, if you cut your hair you are seen more or less
0:07:27 > 0:07:31as an outcast, and it's a very emotional act.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36Uncut hair was one of the five articles of faith
0:07:36 > 0:07:38ordered by Guru Gobind Singh
0:07:38 > 0:07:42when he created the Sikh brotherhood of the Khalsa.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44For Sikhs, it's seen as a symbol of respect
0:07:44 > 0:07:47for the perfection of God's creation.
0:07:48 > 0:07:53I personally remember having my hair cut at the age of eight
0:07:53 > 0:07:56and, at the time, I didn't think too much of it
0:07:56 > 0:07:59because most migrant children were having their hair cut
0:07:59 > 0:08:02as they were going to enter school.
0:08:02 > 0:08:06But, later in life, you begin to think what happened to you.
0:08:06 > 0:08:10You know, if you had a choice - a real choice - to exercise free will
0:08:10 > 0:08:14and to be able to keep your hair, would you have done so?
0:08:14 > 0:08:17I think, in retrospect, I probably would have.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28Having moved away from his Sikh faith, Duleep, aged just 15,
0:08:28 > 0:08:32left his Sikh homeland as an exile.
0:08:32 > 0:08:35Just a few days after the celebration of Vaisakhi,
0:08:35 > 0:08:39on 19th April 1854, he boarded a ship for Britain
0:08:39 > 0:08:43and disembarked into an alien environment.
0:08:43 > 0:08:48Duleep Singh really trod the ground for us in many ways
0:08:48 > 0:08:52because, you know, he came here, he was very isolated -
0:08:52 > 0:08:55cut off from his family - cut off from his culture -
0:08:55 > 0:08:57cut off from his religion.
0:08:57 > 0:09:00And so, to try and sort of work out who you are and what you are,
0:09:00 > 0:09:03what your role is in life, what your place is in life,
0:09:03 > 0:09:05when you're completely cut off like that,
0:09:05 > 0:09:08I think is a very hard thing to do.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12Probably, you know, the older generation
0:09:12 > 0:09:15would just identify with this sense of displacement.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18Everybody wasn't a Maharajah, obviously, nobody was.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21But you could have come from a farm in Punjab
0:09:21 > 0:09:23and then come here and worked in a factory
0:09:23 > 0:09:27and the displacement that causes - the identity problems.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32Today, Sikhs in Britain are established
0:09:32 > 0:09:36and Vaisakhi is an opportunity to reaffirm their identity.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39One of the reasons I like going to the Sikh temple
0:09:39 > 0:09:43is because I like being among people like myself.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46I like, culturally, what that does for me.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49I like the way it reinforces who we are to my children.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53Now if you were to say to me, I don't have any way
0:09:53 > 0:09:58of listening to my Punjabi music any more or, you know,
0:09:58 > 0:10:02watch Indian films or, you know, go to a Sikh temple.
0:10:02 > 0:10:04If I was not allowed to do any of those things, you know,
0:10:04 > 0:10:07I would begin to feel very, very isolated.
0:10:11 > 0:10:14Duleep was a very isolated young man
0:10:14 > 0:10:17trying to work out where he fitted in.
0:10:17 > 0:10:21Treated as an exotic outsider, his royal status opened the doors
0:10:21 > 0:10:23to high society.
0:10:23 > 0:10:27Within weeks of his arrival he was introduced to Queen Victoria.
0:10:27 > 0:10:29He really fits the bill.
0:10:29 > 0:10:33He is turned a Christian, he is gentle, he is polite,
0:10:33 > 0:10:37he is good looking and she takes to him immediately.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39He is holidaying in Osborne with the family,
0:10:39 > 0:10:44he is sitting next to Queen Victoria whenever there is a banquet.
0:10:44 > 0:10:45This is wonderful.
0:10:45 > 0:10:50Imagine the wealth and the excitement of being rich
0:10:50 > 0:10:52and leisured in Victorian England
0:10:52 > 0:10:56where at the very top is a class who just have fun.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03And fun is castles and hunting and shooting, and that's what he does.
0:11:05 > 0:11:09And such were the attractions of this opulent lifestyle that
0:11:09 > 0:11:12Duleep's memories of his Sikh upbringing faded.
0:11:15 > 0:11:18Over the next eight years he rented properties in Scotland,
0:11:18 > 0:11:21the Cotswolds and Whitby.
0:11:21 > 0:11:23Whilst living in Whitby,
0:11:23 > 0:11:26he left his mark on the local landscape.
0:11:28 > 0:11:32Priya Kal Atwal is a volunteer with the Anglo Sikh Heritage Trail,
0:11:32 > 0:11:36a charitable organisation which works to keep Duleep Singh's story alive
0:11:36 > 0:11:39in celebration of a shared Anglo-Sikh history.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43Right here is the road that Duleep Singh built to
0:11:43 > 0:11:45travel down from his castle, Mulgrave,
0:11:45 > 0:11:49the Mulgrave Estate, down to Whitby to make life easier for himself.
0:11:49 > 0:11:51There's a toll house - that's also a cool thing.
0:11:51 > 0:11:54Just that there's something left behind him, that was made by him,
0:11:54 > 0:11:56and it's still here today.
0:11:56 > 0:11:58There's a family living in there.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02So, guys, do you have any idea who this is?
0:12:02 > 0:12:04- No.- No.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07Do you have any idea who built your house?
0:12:07 > 0:12:08- No.- No.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12- It was him.- Oh, was it?- Yeah. He was an Indian prince.
0:12:12 > 0:12:14A Maharajah, and he lived in Mulgrave Castle
0:12:14 > 0:12:16not far from here, for four years,
0:12:16 > 0:12:21and he built this road to make it easier for him to get into Whitby.
0:12:21 > 0:12:26And your house, he made, so that mostly people going along that road
0:12:26 > 0:12:28would pay a little fine
0:12:28 > 0:12:30that would be used to maintain the road
0:12:30 > 0:12:34and keep it all in nice order. So that was why he made this house.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37- Oh, cool. - Not bad, eh?- Yeah!
0:12:40 > 0:12:44In private, Duleep had taken to his aristocratic lifestyle.
0:12:47 > 0:12:52But in public, he was expected to present himself as an Indian prince.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55The Maharajah becomes the ideal party accessory.
0:12:55 > 0:13:01He is the exotic figure to lighten up every high society Victorian party.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06Even guests and hosts go out of their way to make a curry
0:13:06 > 0:13:07for the Maharajah to please him.
0:13:07 > 0:13:12And he is seen as head of the Indian princes of India.
0:13:12 > 0:13:13Caught between two identities -
0:13:13 > 0:13:17gentleman-about-town and deposed Sikh Maharajah -
0:13:17 > 0:13:20Duleep was happy to accept his lot.
0:13:20 > 0:13:22And that might have been the end of the story
0:13:22 > 0:13:25but for a meeting in 1861.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31By the age of 22,
0:13:31 > 0:13:34Duleep had been separated from his mother for 13 years.
0:13:35 > 0:13:40During that time, Rani Jindan had been imprisoned by the British but
0:13:40 > 0:13:44escaped and continued to plot for the return of her son's birthright.
0:13:46 > 0:13:48Duleep now asked if he could meet her.
0:13:48 > 0:13:53The British no longer considered the frail and nearly blind Jindan a threat.
0:13:53 > 0:13:59And so, Duleep set sail for a reunion in a Calcutta hotel.
0:13:59 > 0:14:03The story goes that when she touched his head, to give him blessings,
0:14:03 > 0:14:09she felt his shorn hair and cried, that he had given up his identity.
0:14:09 > 0:14:13She wanted him to get back to his Sikh faith and his Sikh roots.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16Mother and son moved into Mulgrave Castle in Whitby
0:14:16 > 0:14:22and Jindan began to open Duleep's mind to his heritage and to Sikh values.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28She reminded him of his past, and his former identity,
0:14:28 > 0:14:33not only the riches that he once had as the ruler of the Punjab,
0:14:33 > 0:14:38but also his Sikh identity and spirit that went with it.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41And Sikhs have this concept that is important to us,
0:14:41 > 0:14:43it's the idea of Chardi Kala
0:14:43 > 0:14:45that is like always having positive spirits,
0:14:45 > 0:14:49always thinking the best that will happen, and never giving up.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52And she kept that tenacity and spirit with her.
0:14:52 > 0:14:57It was obvious that she deeply believed in that religious aspect of her life
0:14:57 > 0:15:00and that for Vaisakhi is an important part
0:15:00 > 0:15:02of what Sikhs have to remember.
0:15:05 > 0:15:07Vaisakhi is about upholding of the Sikh identity.
0:15:07 > 0:15:09That was the legacy that his mother gave back to him,
0:15:09 > 0:15:12to restore him back to that faith,
0:15:12 > 0:15:16and ignite that fire under him to get back what he had lost.
0:15:19 > 0:15:23But in 1863, tragedy struck.
0:15:23 > 0:15:27Just two years after their emotional reunion, Rani Jindan died.
0:15:29 > 0:15:30Duleep was 24 years old.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39Duleep continued his British lifestyle.
0:15:39 > 0:15:41He also married Bamba Muller,
0:15:41 > 0:15:44a Christian he had met in Cairo on his travels
0:15:44 > 0:15:48and she joined him in his newly purchased sprawling estate
0:15:48 > 0:15:51in Elveden, Suffolk.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54Here, the seeds that his mother had sown began to show,
0:15:54 > 0:15:58a reconnection with his long-neglected Sikh roots.
0:16:00 > 0:16:04On the outside it looks like an English stately home,
0:16:04 > 0:16:10but on the inside he had the whole thing made as an Indian,
0:16:10 > 0:16:13princely, you know, palace,
0:16:13 > 0:16:19and so there are the most gorgeous marble carvings and floors and walls and archways.
0:16:21 > 0:16:24In these sumptuous new surroundings, reminiscent of his childhood,
0:16:24 > 0:16:27he had time to reflect on his mother's version
0:16:27 > 0:16:29of how he lost his Empire.
0:16:34 > 0:16:36He spent hours in the British Library
0:16:36 > 0:16:40poring over accounts of events he was too young to remember.
0:16:40 > 0:16:42I had an interesting experience.
0:16:42 > 0:16:44I got the book out of the British library -
0:16:44 > 0:16:46History of the Punjab.
0:16:46 > 0:16:50And there it was, published in 1846.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54And it was full of marks in green ink.
0:16:54 > 0:16:56Exclamation marks, and splutterings,
0:16:56 > 0:16:57and, my goodness me.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00So I gave it back to the librarian and said, "I didn't write this,"
0:17:00 > 0:17:01you know, "I didn't put this ink in.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04"It must have been the previous borrower."
0:17:04 > 0:17:05And it was his. It was him.
0:17:05 > 0:17:06He had been writing in it.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12Duleep meticulously collated his findings into bound volumes,
0:17:12 > 0:17:16which he sent with personal notes to members of the government.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19This particular copy
0:17:19 > 0:17:21is actually the proof copy
0:17:21 > 0:17:24which he's asking Lord Walsingham to look at,
0:17:24 > 0:17:26and also to check for any mistakes,
0:17:26 > 0:17:29and he says that, "I'm going to place this book before the Queen."
0:17:29 > 0:17:31And it's signed, Duleep Singh.
0:17:33 > 0:17:35Inspired by his mother,
0:17:35 > 0:17:38the methods Duleep used in pursuit of justice
0:17:38 > 0:17:41echoed the teaching of the 10th Guru, Gobind Singh,
0:17:41 > 0:17:45who had taught the importance of an exhaustive approach of appeal.
0:17:50 > 0:17:56If we look at the experience of the Sikh community in Britain since 1945
0:17:56 > 0:18:00it's very instructive.
0:18:00 > 0:18:05The campaigns, for example, over the right to wear the turban,
0:18:05 > 0:18:09to wear daggers, and to be represented -
0:18:09 > 0:18:15they are all very systematic, methodical, persistent.
0:18:17 > 0:18:21They represent the Sikh way of campaigning.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25Duleep Singh was a very sophisticated campaigner.
0:18:25 > 0:18:30He systematically approached media outlets, political representatives,
0:18:30 > 0:18:32to advance his case.
0:18:32 > 0:18:37And by modern standards he was very much into political campaigning
0:18:37 > 0:18:38and knew which levers to pull.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43Up to this point, Duleep had campaigned alone
0:18:43 > 0:18:48but now he enlisted the help of his Sikh family and supporters in India.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51It set alarm bells ringing in government circles.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55The idea of them travelling by train from Liverpool Street station
0:18:55 > 0:18:58followed by Metropolitan Police Special Branch
0:18:58 > 0:19:00who are noting down their movements -
0:19:00 > 0:19:02"Sinister men in turbans seen at Thetford station" -
0:19:02 > 0:19:07and all this information is flowing, as the Maharajah, if you like,
0:19:07 > 0:19:10is shaking the bars of his gilded cage,
0:19:10 > 0:19:12the idea of being locked up in Elveden.
0:19:12 > 0:19:14It's a parody of what he once had, you know.
0:19:14 > 0:19:17"It's a parody, I want my kingdom, I don't want this."
0:19:22 > 0:19:26Alongside his political campaigning, Duleep showed a growing interest
0:19:26 > 0:19:29in being reinitiated into the Sikh faith.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36The Maharajah is visited by his cousin Thakur Singh Sandhandwalia.
0:19:38 > 0:19:44With him comes Pratap Singh, a high priest of the golden temple
0:19:44 > 0:19:48of Amritsar, who had written one of the copies of the Guru Granth Sahib
0:19:48 > 0:19:50at the Golden Temple
0:19:50 > 0:19:56and every day Pratap begins to read the Guru Granth Sahib to the Maharajah.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59He beings to teach him Punjabi
0:19:59 > 0:20:05and starts showing him the way to pray, according to the Sikh religion.
0:20:05 > 0:20:08So this is the Punjabi learning manual designed by
0:20:08 > 0:20:12and handwritten by Sirdar Gani Pratap Singh.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16As we can see it shows you the different sounds of each letter
0:20:16 > 0:20:19and over here we see a Sikh prayer,
0:20:19 > 0:20:21which is written by Gani Pratap Singh
0:20:21 > 0:20:25and he's translated it in English for Maharajah Duleep Singh.
0:20:29 > 0:20:30RECITES PUNJABI
0:20:35 > 0:20:38Duleep was beginning to mould his Sikh identity.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43But he also had an eye on the future, on the next generation.
0:20:44 > 0:20:49The 1881 census lists Duleep's growing family -
0:20:49 > 0:20:51three daughters and three sons.
0:20:53 > 0:20:57When you look at the photographs of his children,
0:20:57 > 0:21:00when they are young they have unshorn hair,
0:21:00 > 0:21:07which is often braided, so in that sense one sees that there is a desire
0:21:07 > 0:21:11to maintain some element of the heritage.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15I think that is a very important marker of identity,
0:21:15 > 0:21:18of the need to continue with the tradition.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21Duleep's growing religious and political convictions
0:21:21 > 0:21:25had begun with the powerful voice of his mother 20 years before.
0:21:26 > 0:21:30Everything since then had been about getting to this pivotal
0:21:30 > 0:21:31moment in his life.
0:21:32 > 0:21:36He is middle-aged, mid-life. He decides to go to India.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39He will go to India. He will go back to the Punjab.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43Duleep wrote to Queen Victoria.
0:21:43 > 0:21:45"I did not wish that you, My Sovereign,
0:21:45 > 0:21:49"should hear from any other source but myself of the possibility
0:21:49 > 0:21:52"of my re-embracing the faith of my ancestors."
0:21:52 > 0:21:56Duleep abandoned Elveden Hall, sold its contents,
0:21:56 > 0:22:00and at the end of March 1886 set sail for India
0:22:00 > 0:22:05to reclaim his sovereignty and to be baptised back into the Sikh faith.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15Duleep Singh's journey had two goals. One political and one personal.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19Politically, he had turned his back on Britain
0:22:19 > 0:22:22in search of support for his claim on the Punjab.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25Whilst personally, he planned on arrival in India
0:22:25 > 0:22:29to be baptised back into the Sikh religion of his birth.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34The British government did not want him to get to India, at all.
0:22:34 > 0:22:37And when the ship docked at Aden, which was the halfway point,
0:22:37 > 0:22:41the Maharajah was arrested by the British Resident at Aden
0:22:41 > 0:22:43and told he could not proceed to India
0:22:43 > 0:22:47and if he did very harsh steps would be taken against him.
0:22:47 > 0:22:49And he is put under house arrest.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52He's not told it's house arrest, but he's not allowed to go out.
0:22:52 > 0:22:54He's put in this villa in Aden.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57And it's...boiling hot,
0:22:57 > 0:23:02and nothing is happening and this is like...cruel and unusual punishment.
0:23:02 > 0:23:06And he paces up and down, like a bird in a cage.
0:23:07 > 0:23:11It was while under house arrest that Duleep became a Sikh,
0:23:11 > 0:23:17in a baptism ceremony performed on the morning of 25th May, 1886.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31Many Sikhs choose to take Amrit during the Vaisakhi Festival
0:23:31 > 0:23:33as a commitment to worship one God,
0:23:33 > 0:23:35to read the Guru Granth Sahib
0:23:35 > 0:23:36and to serve others.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42Duleep Singh's reconversion to Sikhism in Aden
0:23:42 > 0:23:45is not just simply a strategic act,
0:23:45 > 0:23:49it is signifying that I have come back into the fold
0:23:49 > 0:23:53and this is my tradition and this is where I belong.
0:23:53 > 0:23:58And that would have represented a very emotional and poignant moment for him.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03It was very easy to place the Bible in a young child's hand
0:24:03 > 0:24:06and get him to adopt a foreign religion.
0:24:06 > 0:24:09And the fact he did a full circle and came back to Sikhism -
0:24:09 > 0:24:11especially in his circumstances,
0:24:11 > 0:24:14living in a foreign land - it needs praise.
0:24:14 > 0:24:19Because he did re-adopt the Sikh religion.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22Whilst his personal journey of rediscovery had been fulfilled,
0:24:22 > 0:24:25Duleep's political ambitions remained elusive.
0:24:26 > 0:24:30Prevented from travelling to the Punjab by the British authorities,
0:24:30 > 0:24:33he travelled instead to Europe to plan his future.
0:24:35 > 0:24:38Two months after his Amrit ceremony,
0:24:38 > 0:24:40he wrote a letter to a boyhood friend -
0:24:40 > 0:24:43its light-hearted tone at odds with its darker message.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49"I style myself Lawful Monarch of the Sikh Nation.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52"Doesn't that sound grand, my boy?
0:24:52 > 0:24:56"The only thing I have settled on doing, as I am a Sikh now,
0:24:56 > 0:24:59"is to fight the administration of India to the last
0:24:59 > 0:25:02"and create all the mischief I can in India.
0:25:02 > 0:25:04"Fancy our meeting on the battlefield!
0:25:04 > 0:25:08"But I promise you, should it ever come to pass, the first shot..."
0:25:08 > 0:25:11But the first shot was never fired.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14And Duleep's life was coming to a close.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26He spent the final seven years of his life talking with dissident,
0:25:26 > 0:25:29anti-British groups from Russia and Ireland.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34But his involvement in complex intrigues and plots
0:25:34 > 0:25:36ultimately came to nothing.
0:25:40 > 0:25:44At 52, his obsessive quest had cost him his marriage and his health.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50He was such a broken man. A lonely figure.
0:25:50 > 0:25:54A man who was born to rule the Punjab, the Maharajah of the Punjab,
0:25:54 > 0:25:57and here he is, a destitute figure.
0:26:00 > 0:26:05He died in a Paris hotel room of a stroke with a childhood toy -
0:26:05 > 0:26:11a hawk's bell which he had round the neck of one of his birds of prey as a child,
0:26:11 > 0:26:14he used to have it on his wrist as a kind of memento of what had gone -
0:26:14 > 0:26:15in his hand.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18He is playing with it, and that's the end of it.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25He is now a Sikh and, by his religious rights,
0:26:25 > 0:26:27he must be burned.
0:26:27 > 0:26:28Cremated.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34But the British ambassador in Paris smuggles his body out of the city,
0:26:34 > 0:26:38and he's buried as a Christian in Elveden Church.
0:26:38 > 0:26:42He could not even in death be allowed to be a Sikh.
0:26:56 > 0:27:02In 1999, the Prince of Wales unveiled a bronze statue of the Maharajah
0:27:02 > 0:27:05close to Elveden Hall, Duleep's old home.
0:27:05 > 0:27:09It's a mark of his importance in Anglo-Sikh history
0:27:09 > 0:27:11as the Punjab's last Maharajah,
0:27:11 > 0:27:14and Britain's first Sikh settler.
0:27:15 > 0:27:17And for young Sikhs, celebrating Vaisakhi,
0:27:17 > 0:27:20who may never have been to the Punjab,
0:27:20 > 0:27:24his story is a way of understanding and celebrating their Sikh heritage.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29It would be quite strange, because I'm 11 years old
0:27:29 > 0:27:31and he was only one year older than me,
0:27:31 > 0:27:35and that would be quite terrifying being deported from your home country.
0:27:37 > 0:27:38He might have felt out of place,
0:27:38 > 0:27:44because he was with lots of other people but none were like him.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49One of the victories, shall we say,
0:27:49 > 0:27:52of the otherwise tragic life of Maharajah Duleep Singh
0:27:52 > 0:27:55is the fact that we are sitting here talking about him now,
0:27:55 > 0:27:58the fact that he means something to us.
0:27:58 > 0:28:03The fact that we are not forgetting him, forgetting his struggles.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07And the fact that we acknowledge what he did,
0:28:07 > 0:28:12in terms of laying a kind of foundation for us as British Asians.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15But at the same time, I think it's a good warning
0:28:15 > 0:28:18of what can happen if you deny who you are
0:28:18 > 0:28:23or if you are not able to enjoy those different sides of yourselves.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26So the fact that Duleep Singh is revered today
0:28:26 > 0:28:31and remembered by people all over the world but particularly in Britain,
0:28:31 > 0:28:34at this time of Vaisakhi, I think that's something worth celebrating.
0:28:49 > 0:28:51Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd