Lascars, Maharajah Duleep Singh and Maharani Sophia

[dallysingh101]

Been reading Anita Anand's book on Sophia, who was Maharajah Ranjit Singh's granddaughter. Here's an interesting excerpt regarding the treatment of lascars, who were essentially hired sailors, many of whom came from Panjab. It's interesting to note how M. Duleep Singh, who is commonly characterised as some hedonistic fool in white literature, tried to help these very ill-treated people (before the anglo establishment attacked him), and how his daughter subsequently did so much for these people too:

[dallysingh101]

Bump - worth reading folks. 

[dallysingh101]

Forum members make me laugh. You'll waffle on about any crap but come some hitherto unknown, important historical information - you've got nothing to say........

[puzzled]

iv got this book at home but havent read the whole thing. iv read up to to the part where she goes punjab and then comes back. her father so far in the book is a rubbish father. completely neglected her and her siblings and his wife. his wife died lonely, abandoned and an alcoholic, and he spent his all his money on gambling and whores  and its got nothing to do with victoria,   he chose to neglect his family and spend money at brothels.     from what i remember reading he hardly spent any time with his kids and sent them a letter once or twice a year.

i have read the lascars part or the whole suffragette part.    

 

[dallysingh101]

The only difference from what I read above, in comparison to slave ships from Africa, is that the goray didn't have women to rape on the ships. 

[Not2Cool2Argue]

From the snaps you posted, Anita seems like a good author. That was smart to talk about the lascar plight and history before bringing in Sophia's efforts. 

British and American people seem to have treated everyone badly from the indentured Irish, african slaves, to asian immigrants. 

While I think it may have had to do with race. I think it also has to do with the times. The british also treated their sailors pretty badly what with impressment and beatings, not to mention the lower classes in the factories and workhouses. 

I think it was due to greed (everyone was trying to become rich through exploitation  so having a conscious could be costly), tough times (famines and overcrowding) and also a sense of superiority (upper class hatred middle class for being too mercenery, The middle class hated the low class for being too loose with morals (thievery, single moms)

I am glad that Sophia helped her country folk regardless of religion and caste and status. (Although despite what you say about duleep singh, he did seem to forget about the lascars) But I wonder if we Sikhs wouldnt have been just as bad as the british if we had an empire that lasted. I mean so far in panjab, we have failed to improve the infrastructure, sanitation, and equality due to greed, exploitation, and superiority due to caste and 'morals'

[puzzled]

13 hours ago, Not2Cool2Argue said:

But I wonder if we Sikhs wouldnt have been just as bad as the british if we had an empire that lasted.

Would of been corrupt like any other of the royals today.  Plus it probably would of been kept in the family  so descendants of maharaja ranjit singh would of been maharaja  and hogged most of pubjabs wealth for themselves.  

I think if a sikh empire were to come back then rather than a maharaja  maybe 5 pyare could be the heads 

[GurjantGnostic]

On 1/24/2020 at 3:13 AM, puzzled said:

Would of been corrupt like any other of the royals today.  Plus it probably would of been kept in the family  so descendants of maharaja ranjit singh would of been maharaja  and hogged most of pubjabs wealth for themselves.  

I think if a sikh empire were to come back then rather than a maharaja  maybe 5 pyare could be the heads 

Localized Anarcho-self-determined Jathabandi elected representatives collaborating globally. 

[dallysingh101]

[dallysingh101]

bump