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Baron Charles Hugel on Maharaja and his kingdom


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Baron Charles Hugel, narrates the 
celebration of holi at Lahore in March, 1836, as follows: 
“A quantity of singhara meal dyed yellow, green, red and blue mixed 
up with little pieces of gold and silver tinsel, a number of large pots of 
water dyed with the same colours and little water-engines being set near. Everyone appears in white garments, and the festival commences 
by the dancing girls sitting down, and breaking forth into a song in 
honour of the feast. The baskets of coloured meal are then introduced 
and thin glass balls full of singhara powder, are distributed to the 
assembly which they throw on each other and being broken with the 
slightest force discharge their contents on the white dresses, and stain 
them. Like all games of this description, these being gently, but soon 
assume a rougher aspect, each player seizing as many balls as he can, and flinging them at one another, when the glass balls are exhausted, they take the coloured meal, first, as much as the fingers can hold then by handfuls, and at last they empty the baskets over each other’s heads, covering the whole person. The dirtiest part of the entertainment consists in the sprinkling with coloured waters.

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18 hours ago, shastarSingh said:

Baron Charles Hugel, narrates the 
celebration of holi at Lahore in March, 1836, as follows: 
“A quantity of singhara meal dyed yellow, green, red and blue mixed 
up with little pieces of gold and silver tinsel, a number of large pots of 
water dyed with the same colours and little water-engines being set near. Everyone appears in white garments, and the festival commences 
by the dancing girls sitting down, and breaking forth into a song in 
honour of the feast. The baskets of coloured meal are then introduced 
and thin glass balls full of singhara powder, are distributed to the 
assembly which they throw on each other and being broken with the 
slightest force discharge their contents on the white dresses, and stain 
them. Like all games of this description, these being gently, but soon 
assume a rougher aspect, each player seizing as many balls as he can, and flinging them at one another, when the glass balls are exhausted, they take the coloured meal, first, as much as the fingers can hold then by handfuls, and at last they empty the baskets over each other’s heads, covering the whole person. The dirtiest part of the entertainment consists in the sprinkling with coloured waters.

It's possible this 'baron' embellshed some of the accounts to make it look like he was having a 'better time' than he really was

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I think behind a lot of the disparaging comments on M. Ranjit Singh by european observers (and a lot of this exists!), was plain old fashion jealousy and resentment that this tiny, one eyed bloke managed to tame a wild region, form a massive modern army, subdue and organise an ill-disciplined group of people, modernise a war ravaged region and acquire wealth beyond their wildest imaginations and become richer than even the richest person in their homeland within a few decades.  A true self-made man despite all his flaws. These types think that such achievements are beyond the abilities of 'lesser' orientals - so his existence alone pi55ed all over their supremacist preconceptions. 

That explains a lot of the snide comments by these insecure, two-faced w~~kers. Deep inside they knew they were dealing with someone out of their league. 

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On 6/5/2021 at 10:16 PM, shastarSingh said:

2. His(Maharaja Ranjit Singh) costume always contributes to increase his ugliness, being in winter the colour of gamboge, from the Pagri (the turban or Sikh cloth, on his head,) down to his very socks and slippers. The Sikh pagri consists of a long narrow piece of linen, in which the hair is wrapped up ; and it is so fastened either in the front or a
little on one side, that one cannot see either end or knot. It lies down
smooth on the head, one end hanging half way down the back. Ranjit Singh hides this end under his upper garment. The Angraka (coat) is tied over the chest, and reaches to the knee, and the trousers fall in many folds down to the ancle. Over the whole is worn a mantle lined with skins. The entire costume is, as I have said, of yellow Pashmina,
green being worn sometimes by him, but not commonly. In summer
he wears white muslin.

At the festival of the Basant, he was particu-larly disfigured by the straw-coloured dress he wore with a slight intermixture of green in it. 

Just see how the fuddu goraa calls Maharaja ugly...

Maharaja had his flaws but he was a very special soul.

These goraas were jealous..

 

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35 minutes ago, shastarSingh said:

Just see how the fuddu goraa calls Maharaja ugly...

Maharaja had his flaws but he was a very special soul.

These goraas were jealous..

 

Like I said, there are loads of snide comments on M. Ranjit Singh by european people (who even according to their own accounts) were full on kissing his ar5e when they were actually face to face with him.  Shows you what kinds of people we were dealing with. 

Also, this goes back to what I've been talking about on a few posts lately, regarding the subtle, embedded supremacist notions in european narratives. By referring to Ranjit Singh in a derogatory, belittling fashion, they were already implicitly insulting his achievements and mentally preparing themselves to steal all the wealth their covetous eyes had seen. To show you how low-life these people were, remember that Ranjit Singh would have given them expensive gifts too, when they visited the court (though I don't know if the EIC allowed the recipients to keep them?)    

Our people need to pick up on these things when they read these narratives. 

 

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30 minutes ago, dallysingh101 said:

Like I said, there are loads of snide comments on M. Ranjit Singh by european people (who even according to their own accounts) were full on kissing his ar5e when they were actually face to face with him.  Shows you what kinds of people we were dealing with. 

Also, this goes back to what I've been talking about on a few posts lately, regarding the subtle, embedded supremacist notions in european narratives. By referring to Ranjit Singh in a derogatory, belittling fashion, they were already implicitly insulting his achievements and mentally preparing themselves to steal all the wealth their covetous eyes had seen. To show you how low-life these people were, remember that Ranjit Singh would have given them expensive gifts too, when they visited the court (though I don't know if the EIC allowed the recipients to keep them?)    

Our people need to pick up on these things when they read these narratives. 

 

And remember. The imperials we live with may seem nice...they always did...

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