My beta is a good blend of east and west

Wealthy Sikhs will attempt to purchase a marble bust of Duleep Singh when it goes on auction next month:

Fashioned by renowned British sculptor John Gibson almost 150 years ago, the marble sculpture of Duleep Singh — the dashing son of the legendary Ranjit Singh — is expected to sell for anything between £25,000 and £35,000… The marble representation shows the bearded Maharaja wearing a pearl necklace and embroidered kaftan . His uncut hair is wound in a turban. [Link]

The tragic Duleep Singh was the son of the Lion of Punjab. An inconvenient scion of deposed royals, he was raised a Christian and exiled to Inglaand:

Duleep Singh… was the last Maharaja during the Sikh Raj of Punjab. He was the youngest son of the legendary Lion of the Punjab (Maharaja Ranjit Singh) and… Maharani Jind Kaur… After the close of the Second Anglo-Sikh War and the subsequent annexation of the Punjab in 1849, he was deposed at the age of eleven by the East India Company and separated from his mother. He was put into the care of Dr John Login… [Link]

Born into fabulous wealth, kidnapped as a boy by British imperialists 150 years ago, forcibly converted to Christianity and brought to England, he was stripped of his empire, adopted as an exotic talisman by Queen Victoria, was disgraced and disowned and eventually died, a pauper, in ignominious exile. Three overgrown graves in a Suffolk churchyard are all that remain of one of the proudest dynasties to rule India… He took mistresses, fathered illegitimate children, ran through his allowance and begged for more… All that remains of his wealth is the Koh-i-noor, the fabulous diamond that he once placed in Victoria’s hand and which now adorns the late Queen Mother’s state crown. [Link]

He handed over, in controversial circumstances, the Koh-i-Noor diamond to Queen Victoria as part of the terms of the conclusion of the war… As a matter of British policy, he was to be Anglicized in every possible respect… [Link]

Singh lived a wastrel life for many years:

He was… the first Indian prince to visit Scotland, and soon earned the nickname the “Black Prince of Perthshire”. He was known for a lavish lifestyle, shooting parties, and a love of dressing in highland costume… [Link]

Dr. William D. Forbes, a retired Scottish surgeon, who migrated to Canada 40 years ago, claims he is the great-grand son of Maharaja Duleep Singh. According to information, extensive research had led Dr. Forbes to conclude that his grandfather was a product of a secret, extramarital liaison between the Maharaja and his great-grandmother Jane, a blacksmith’s daughter. Dr. Forbes claims that both his grandfather and father were very “Indian looking…” [Link]

He eventually reconverted to Sikhism and made a poorly-planned attempt to overthrow the British in Punjab:

Mother and son met in Calcutta on 16 January 1861 after thirteen and half years. She was shocked to discover Duleep as a clean-shaven young man and told him bluntly that she did not repent the loss of Sikh Kingdom so much as the loss of his Sikh faith… Maharajah Duleep Singh was administered Khande Di Pahul on 25 May 1886 at Aden but not allowed to visit India. Heart-broken and frustrated, he returned to Paris in July 1886. In Paris, he set up his headquarters to start revolutionary activities against the British Empire…

The British had penetrated the Maharaja’s conspiracy… Maharajah Duleep Singh returned to Paris and married Ada Douglas Wetherill, who also acted as a British spy during his sojourn in Russia. The network of British spies was so perfect that all his movements were reported to London and Shimla simultaneously.

The family line died out with his children:

Duleep Singh married twice, once to Bamba Muller and another to a French princess, Ada Douglas Wetherill. [Link]

He had eight children, six from his first wife and two girls from the second. All of them died issueless… [Link]

His children forged indifferent careers. The Eton-educated Victor gambled away his money, his sober second son Frederick became a Suffolk squire and one daughter, Princess Sophie, became a suffragette. The eldest daughter, Princess Bamba, died, a recluse, only in 1957. [Link]

The bust of Duleep Singh is just one of many Sikh artifacts stripped by the British:

… a Ludhiana-based lawyer… has been trying for years to get back the kalgi (plume) of Guru Gobind Singh. The kalgi, sacred to Sikhs, was taken away by Lord Dalhousie and after a brief exhibition in the Victoria and Albert museum of London, it remains untraceable. [Link]

Singh is sometimes called the first Sikh settler of Britain, a once-virgin territory now settled by rudeboys from Hounslow and Southall