Bhai Maharaj Singh (disputed – 5 July 1856) was a prominent Sikh saint-soldier (sant-sipahi) turned revolutionary anti-colonial resistance fighter of the early British colonial establishment in Punjab. He is also remembered as the first Sikh in Singapore on record, having been exiled there as punishment in the latter part of his life. Bhai Maharaj Singh succeeded Baba Bir Singh (Naurangabad) of Bhai Daya Singh Samparda. He was part of the bhai tradition of Sikhism. At his height, he had tens of thousands of followers and was a charismatic leader who was seen in a prophetic manner, being viewed as a figure to the Sikhs akin to Jesus Christ to the Christians. He was influential in Majha, Doaba, and Malwa. He is connected to the Hoti Mardan Vali Sant Khalsa Sampardai, established by Bhai Daya Singh.
Names His birth name was Nihal Singh. His Khalsa name after undergoing the Amrit Sanchar ceremony was Bhagvan Singh. His sobriquet was Maharaj Singh. He was also known as the "Karniwala" (miracle worker or possessor of supernatural powers) or "Guru" (spiritual leader; often spelt as Gooroo archaically). Posthumously, he became known as Karam Singh amongst the local Singaporeans, theorized to derive from the Karniwala appellation as a diminutive form.
Early life He was born as Nihal Singh in Rabbon Uchi village (Raboo, Nagar Maloud; located in present-day Ludhiana district) in the latter half of the 18th century. His exact date of birth has been claimed to be 3 January 1770 or 13 January 1780 according to different sources. His father's name has been identified as either being Kesar Singh or Gurmukh Singh. Maharaj Singh had two brothers, named Gurdial Singh and Gurbakhash Singh, respectively.
He was a religiously inclined individual with a patient demeanor. His father would send him to a Sikh seminary so that he would be instructed on Gurbani and Gurmukhi. However, the teacher at the seminary saw promise in the young Maharaj Singh so he was advised to be sent to the Dera of Bhai Tota Singh Thikriwala. Tota Singh was a Nirmala ascetic.
He was educated in the dera (sanctuary) of Bhai Tota Singh in Thikriwala during his formative years. At that dera, he learnt about Sikh history, scripture, and philosophy (including traditional Sikh political philosophies). Through this education he obtained a firm grasp of the Guru Granth Sahib (gurbani) learnt the Gurmukhi script. The deras of his era would produce Sikh saint-warriors through their educational methodologies. According to some sources, he may have taken Amrit during his time at Bhai Tota Singh Thikriwala's dera. He would immerse himself in Naam Simran meditation as a daily routine. He studied the Vedas and the Sikh primary canon, the Guru Granth Sahib.
Whilst he was a student at the dera of Bhai Tota Singh, a Sikh saint known as Baba Bir Singh of Naurangabad would hold a katha (discourse) session in the village Maharaj Singh was living in at the time. Maharaj Singh was present at this discourse given by Bir Singh. After the meeting with Bir Singh, he became impressed by the religious leader's doctrines. He eventually came to know about Bir Singh of Naurangabad's dera and set-off to join it. His interest in Bir Singh's dera was elicited due to discovering how concepts of Sikh statecraft, Sikh vows, and seva, were heavily mentored there.
Religious career
He eventually became associated with the dera set-up by Baba Bir Singh, located in Naurangabad (located in present-day Tarn Taran district), after being impressed by Bir Singh. Many miracles are associated with his stay at Bir Singh's dera. His time at the dera was occupied by seva and serving in the langar (communal kitchen). Thousands of devotees would visit the dera and Maharaj Singh was responsible for cooking food to provide the langar meals for all of these people, a responsibility he undertook as the head chef. Local resident, Gurpratap Singh, claim he served as a volunteer in the langar kitchen full of pyaar. After undergoing the Pahul ceremony, he was rechristened with the Khalsa name of Bhagvan Singh. He rose-up to eventually becoming one of the most entrusted disciples of Bir Singh.
His master, Bir Singh, gave him the following words of advice during his Amrit Sanchar ceremony:
He started to become known as "Maharaj Singh" because he had a habit of referring to everyone, no matter who they wore and their status, as maharaj, in-order to humble himself, which ironically earned the appellation for himself in the mouths of others. Eventually his prior names of Nihal and Bhagvan were forgotten and people just referred to him as Maharaj. Every time he would give food to a pilgrim, he would say "take maharaj".
He learnt about the Sikh concepts of miri-piri during his time at the Naurangabad Dera. He was personally mentored by Bir Singh. Harjinder Singh describes the Naurangabad Dera as a "seminary-like space" and as a "theo-political training center where the culture of Nam prevailed".
Maharaj Singh would bring Bir Singh water during the hours of amrit vela at 3:00 a.m. for Ishnan (holy bath) every day. He also volunteered his labour preparing and cooking meals for the langar of the Dera, which would feel thousands of visitors daily.
Bir Singh would later send Maharaj Singh to Amritsar, where he make a base of operations at Samdu Ka Talab. There he would be joined by Ram Singh (later Guru of the Namdhari sect), another aspiring disciple of Bir Singh. Both of them would travel around Punjab and raise awareness about the plight of Sikh sovereignty and the danger of losing it. They wanted to protect the future of the Sikh Empire, which had been embroiled in a precarious state. Maharaj Singh would train his disciples by enacting artificial warfare and field training exercises, similar to what occurs at the Hola Mohalla festivals of the present-day.
When Bir Singh died on 7 May 1844, after being killed in an attack on his dera led by the Dogra faction of the Lahore Durbar, Maharaj Singh became the next mahant (leader) of the group due to his high-repute among members of the dera. Maharaj Singh had been present when his master was killed in the attack on the dera. Amardeep Madra argues that the death of his master in this attack may have influenced Maharaj Singh's direction in life towards revolution and confrontation of those he perceived as enemies of the survival of the Sikh state. At-first the council of the dera had decided to pass on the mantle of leadership to another member named Khuda Singh, but Khuda was full of humility and was humble and therefore suggested that the next leader should be Maharaj Singh. Many Sikh chiefs and courtly officials, including of the Lahore Durbar, held him in high-regard as well. Maharaj Singh was also given the responsibility of not only the Samparda, but also the duty of initiating the Sikh Soldiers into the Khalsa through Amrit Sanskar ceremony (which was previously held by Baba Bir Singh, the Rajguru of the Sikh empire).
Bhai Maharaj Singh was succeeded by Baba Ram Singh 'Virakt', who was Maharaj Singh's one of the closest and most trusted followers. Ram Singh (not to be confused with Baba Ram Singh of Namdhari sect) was regarded as a fugitive by the British, and used to travel village to village, spreading the teachings of the Sikh Gurus and initiating many into Khalsa. Among his followers included Rani Jindan and prominent sardars of the Lahore court. Ram Singh 'Virakt' was succeeded by the famous Brahmgiani saint, Sant Karam Singh of Hoti Mardan. Bhai Maharaj is therefore regarded as the founder of this Hoti Mardan Valli Sant Khalsa Sampardai order.
Revolutionary activities By the 1840s, the Sikh Empire remained the last truly independent state of India, the rest having been colonized by European powers. Maharaj Singh is claimed to be the earliest noteworthy Indian who put up a resistance to the colonial British establishment. Amandeep Madra believes that in the early 1840s, he was one of the few, if any, Sikhs who understood the danger the British posed to the Sikh state and the risk of colonization. His insurrectionary activities began in the aftermath of the First Anglo-Sikh War in 1846, just prior to the complete annexation of the Sikh Empire by the British East India Company. After a year of the resident's rule in Punjab following the war, the Punjabis feared that the British would fully annex the region after consolidation.
By the early 1840s, Maharaj Singh's followers numbered in the tens of thousands and his influence was present from Rawalpindi to Amritsar. Bhai Maharaj Singh started addressing crowds of peasants in Central Punjab, with the British fearing his propaganda would challenge their hold over the region and therefore seek his arrest. He had kept in contact with Maharani Jind Kaur, widow of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, assisting her when the need arose. Rani Jindan's image had been tarnished by bazaar gossip, with Maharaj Singh rehabiliating her status in the eyes of the public by equating her as the mother of the Khalsa. In 1847, the British decided to deport Jind Kaur out of the Punjab and attempted to stifle her influence. Maharaj Singh would later be involved in the Prema plot as a result of this news.
Sikhs would welcome the taking up of arms against the British with the words "Ah Wo Maharaj".
Prema plot The first action he took is an attempted assassination of Henry Lawrence and additional pro-British members of the Lahore durbar (court) of the Sikh Empire. This is known as the 'Prema conspiracy case' or 'Prema plot' and it occurred in 1847.
After word of mouth about Maharaj Singh's role in the conspiracy, he started to earn mass-appeal amongst the people of Punjab. Sher Singh Attariwala and other Sikh figures would invoke the name of Maharaj Singh when they made efforts to enlist Sikhs for their insurrectionist cause:
British attempts at curtailing The British tried to restrict his movement to Naurangabad, thus he started working in secret with around 600 of his acolytes. His properties in Amritsar were seized and a recompense was declared for his arrest. At one point, the British tried to promote a rumour that had sprung-up Maharaj Singh had drowned after falling off of his famed black horse whilst crossing the Jhelum River, seemingly in-order to demoralize the Sikh masses who looked up him and saw him as their leader. However, after three days the averment came out to be untrue and Maharaj Singh was alive and well. He had built a vast web of interconnections between various sections of Punjabi and Sikh society at the time, which he worked hard to maintain by traveling a lot to visit people.
Escalation of activities