BUR SINGH

BUR SINGH (d. 1892). son of Ruldu Ram, appointed to do menial jobs first as an attendant in the household of Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s wife, Rani Mahtab Kaur, and then as a water carrier in Kanvar Sher Singh`s, carried out some of the confidential errands he was assigned to with such great skill that he not only rose in rank but also hadjagirs in Mukerian, and houses at Batala and Lahore bestowed on him. For his assistance to the British on the occasion of General Pollock`s advance on Kabul, he received ajagir near Peshawar. His enemies took advantage of the murder in September 1843 of his master, Maharaja Sher Singh, to harm him.

Prime Minister Hira Singh, whom Bur Singh had once abused in public, levied on him a fine of Rs 81,000equal to the amount alleged to have been misappropriated by him. He resumed his jagirs, too, but his downfall was short lived. On Hira Singh`s death in 1844, the power passed to Jawahar Singh and Raja Lal Singh who speedily reinstated Bur Singh and appointed him governor of Amritsar. Bur Singh proved to be an able administrator.

He was put in charge of MaharaniJind Kaur by Henry Lawrence, the Resident of Lahore, during her detention in the Fort of Sheikhupura while his brother, Suddh Singh, was in attendance on Maharaja Duleep Singh at Lahore. After the annexation of the Punjab, Bur Singh was made a subregistrar for the cluster of villages around Mukerian where he resided. He was president of the Municipal Committee of Mukerian and for some time acted as an honorary magistrate. The Government of India conferred upon him the title of Sardar Bahadiir in 1888. Bur Singh died at Mukerian in 1892.

References :

1. Griffin, Lepel, and C.F. Massy, Chiefs and Families of Note in Punjab. Lahore, 1909