Maharani Jind Kaur
Youngest wife of Ranjit Singh and regent for her son Duleep Singh. The British saw her as the most dangerous person in Punjab, imprisoned her and exiled her; she escaped to Nepal.
Jind Kaur was born in 1817 in Gujranwala, the daughter of the royal kennel-keeper Manna Singh Aulakh. She married Ranjit Singh around 1835, the youngest of his wives, and in 1838 gave birth to his last son, Duleep Singh.
In 1843, after the murders of Kharak Singh, Nau Nihal Singh and Sher Singh, her five-year-old son was made Maharaja and she became regent. She was intelligent, fearless and determined to hold the kingdom for her son, and she addressed the army councils herself. The British called her the Messalina of the Punjab and the only man in the Lahore court.
After the British victory in 1846 they removed her from power, imprisoned her at Sheikhupura and then at Chunar, separating her from her son. She escaped from Chunar fort in 1849 disguised as a servant and reached Nepal. She was reunited with Duleep Singh only in 1861, in Calcutta, and went with him to England, where she brought him back to the memory of his inheritance. She died in London in 1863.
Connected
Sher-e-Punjab, the Lion of Punjab. United the misls into the Sikh Empire, ruled from Lahore for forty years and covered the Harmandir Sahib in gold.
Last Maharaja of the Sikh Empire. Deposed at ten in 1849, separated from his mother, converted to Christianity and taken to England. The Koh-i-Noor passed to Queen Victoria.
Chief minister and army commander in the First Anglo-Sikh War, widely accused of betraying the Khalsa army to the British.
Maharani Jind Kaur (Maharani Jindan)National Army Museum, London · photo Wikimedia Commons (Wikimedia Commons) ↗