Customer Reviews

Duleep Singhs

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I have read many books on kingdom of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh and collapse of his empire after his death but hardly any author went to the troubles of writing about his family after 1849. In this book author has written about Maharaja Daleep Singh and his family. He has provided significant amount of pictures and paper is of high quality. It certainly added more to my knowledge about the last descendents of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh. However, this book did not meet my expectations because the information provided (though new) is not enough and only 1-2 pages cover each individual and next 5-6 pages are full of pictures which do not tell a whole lot about the lifestyle they lived or hardships they faced. Not much details about how the family lived, their customs, beliefs, attitude towards the British and how the British consistently spied on them. I always wondered why children of Daleep Singh didn't marry or if married what happened to their children and this book did not answer that question. The author has also relied too much on English sources and considered them authentic whereas the facts is that English sources were written with the intentions of justifying British occupation on Punjab and maligning the ruling family's reputation. The author mentions Rani Jind Kaur (Jindan) having an affair which is a baseless assertion and has been refuted by many historians of that period. He is also wrong on some other important facts. Nonetheless, this book offers new information (though not enough) and is unique. I would suggest "Dukhiye Maa Putt" by Sohan Singh Seetal which is lot more detailed about the life of Maharaja Daleep Singh and exposes true British policies against the Sikh empire.

This vendor never delivered the book or ever contacted me after 3 e mails. I would never buy anything from them at lest they could have responded to enquiry.