GURBACHAN SINGH SANDHANVAUA

GURBACHAN SINGH SANDHANVAUA (b. 1855), the eldest of the four sons of Thakur Singh Sandharivalia, the prime minister of the emigre government of Maharaja Duleep Singh at Pondicherry, was born in 1855 and was adopted by his uncle Partap Singh Sandharivalia. Gurbachan Singh was nominated to the Statutory Civil Service and was in 1886 working as an assistant commissioner in the Punjab. In October of that year, he accompanied his father, Thakur Singh, with a small retinue of servants on a pilgrimage to Nanded, sacred to Guru Gobind Singh. From there the party proceeded to Pondicherry, a French possession near Madras, where Thakur Singh started a campaign for the restoration of Maharaja Duleep Singh to the throne of the Punjab. Gurbachan Singh, who had taken one month`s leave extraordinary, did not report back for duty in the Punjab and was dismissed from service. In Pondicherry, lie took charge of the correspondence, mainly in English, with Duleep Singh and his supporters in different parts. He also established contact with the French authorities in Pondicherry and his letters to the Maharaja were carried in the French diplomatic bag. After Thakur Singh`s death in August 1887, Gurbachan Singh`s^o^m were confiscated by the British and he was allowed to come to India only in October 1890. In 1899 he entered the service of Raja of Nahan, becoming a district judge in 1911. He died there issueless.

References :

1. Jagjit Singh, Singh Sabha Lahir. Lndhiana, 1974
2. Ganda Singh, ed.. History of the freedom Movement, in the Panjab (Maharaja Duleep Singh Correspondence). Patiala, 1972