Bhai Maharaj Singh
Saint-soldier who led resistance after the annexation of 1849. Arrested, he was exiled to Singapore and died in prison there in 1856.
Bhai Maharaj Singh was born Nihal Singh around 1780 at Rabbon near Ludhiana and became a disciple of Bhai Bir Singh of Naurangabad, a saint revered by the Sikh nobility and army. He succeeded him as head of the dera.
After the First Anglo-Sikh War he joined the resistance, supported Mulraj at Multan and fought in the Second Anglo-Sikh War. After the annexation in 1849 he refused to surrender, moved through the Punjab and Jammu, and planned an uprising, with a price on his head.
He was captured in December 1849 near Jalandhar. Fearing the effect of a trial in the Punjab, the British deported him to Singapore, where he was kept in solitary confinement, went blind, and died in 1856. A memorial stands at the Singapore General Hospital, and he is honoured as the first Sikh freedom fighter against the British.
