Above: John Login. Below: The child Maharaja.
History
Duleep Singh's Guardian Was As Greedy And Unscrupulous As The British Who Hired Him
by SHYAM BHATIA
The Scottish surgeon who was appointed as guardian to Maharaja Duleep Singh was not above trying to feather his own nest at the expense of the Sikhs.
Newly released documents show that Dr. John Login tried and failed to persuade the East India Company to give him a £1,000 annuity from the personal privy purse of the child Maharaja forced into exile.
In terms of present day values measured by average earnings, this amounted to more than £600,000 - or roughly $ 1.2 million - per annum.
Login was appointed as Duleep Singh’s guardian in 1849 shortly after the cooked-up and so-called Second Anglo-Sikh Wars. At the time, the young Maharaja and son of the legendary Maharaja Ranjit Singh was only 11-years old.
Login’s controversial duties at the time included taking charge of Duleep Singh’s impressive legacy, including land, palaces and, most importantly, the legendary Kohinoor diamond which was later given to Queen Victoria.
The 186 carat diamond worn by Ranjit and Singh - and later by the child Duleep Singh - was said to be the size of a large egg. Superstitious about a curse that the jewel was reputed to carry, the British sent it to diamond cutters in Amsterdam who re-shaped and reduced the gem to 108.9 carats before it was placed on the imperial crown.
Login was Duleep Singh’s guardian for nine key years, effectively his mother, father and guardian all rolled into one, on the sub-continent, as well as in the United Kingdom.
When Duleep Singh came to London in 1851, shortly after being coerced into converting to Christianity, it was Login and his wife who took care of him and introduced him to the British society.
One well documented anecdote has Duleep Singh being allowed to hold the Kohinoor for one last time - at the Buckingham Palace - before handing it back to Victoria.
Although Login retired from his job as guardian in 1858, after Duleep Singh came of age, he was awarded a generous annual pension of £300. Measured by the average earnings index, this would today amount to more than £180,000 - or $360,000.
Not content with the pension he had been awarded, Login wrote to the East India Company on March 1858: “Having been aware that it has not been in my power to save much from my allowances or make sufficient provision for my family during the nine years in which I acted as his guardian, he (Duleep Singh) has in a very generous and considerate manner spontaneously proposed to settle an annuity upon me during his life of £1,000.”
Earlier, in support of his application for the £1,000 from Dalip Singh’s privy purse, Login wrote in a letter: “It has been a source of much gratification and thankfulness to me that I have been able with God’s blessing to establish and confirm a feeling of goodwill, loyalty and respect towards the British government on the part of one from whom such sentiments could scarcely be expected.”
Notwithstanding all his efforts, Login was destined to be disappointed. East India Company Secretary Norman Melvill wrote back to him saying, “The receipt of any present or gratuity from a native of India, by any officer of the Company, is prohibited ... the arrangement cannot receive either the approval or the sanction of the Court of Directors.”
Login died in 1863 and Dalip Singh paid for the headstone above his grave.
[Courtesy: Tribune. Edited for sikhchic.com]
January 31, 2012
Conversation about this article
1: Jasvir kaur (California, U.S.A.), February 08, 2012, 2:17 AM.
Thank you for the article. I was fascinated to know what happened to Duleep Singh. I grew up in England but have never heard any history about him. I have been doing some more reading and research about his life. It was a great loss to our faith. Things may have turned out differently.