Answer» Correct Answer - Option 2 : 1849
The correct answer is 1849. - In the year 1849, the last king of Punjab Maharaja Duleep Singh ascends the throne of Punjab at 10 years of age.
- After the close of the Second Anglo-Sikh War and the subsequent annexation of Punjab on 29 March 1849, he was deposed at the age of ten and was put into the care of Dr. John Login and sent from Lahore to Fatehgarh on 21 December 1849, with tight restrictions on who he was allowed to meet.
- The eighth son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, and that too from a minor wife, Duleep Singh became Maharaja of Punjab when he was just five years old.
- But within six years, his kingdom, the sole independent power in mid-19th century north India, was defeated twice in battle by the British and annexed, he had to hand over the world's most famous diamond and spent the rest of his life in overseas exile.
- Duleep Singh never abandoned hope of regaining his kingdom - though his efforts were subverted by the British, managed to hit back at them - especially over the Kohinoor - and his memory endures in both India and Britain in some curious ways, says British historian Peter Bance, author of half a dozen books on Sikh history in Britain.
- These include "The Duleep Singh's: The Photograph Album of Queen Victoria's Maharajah", and "Sovereign, Squire & Rebel: Maharajah Duleep Singh and the heirs of a Lost Kingdom".
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