The Sikh Royal Family | Peter Bance

In this episiode I get to talk to Bhupinder Singh Bance, also known as  Peter Bance is a sikh historian, author, art collector and Maharaja  Duleep Singh archivist.   In fact, His collection has been exhibited worldwide including at the  Victoria & Albert Museum, The British Museum, and the Bard Graduate  Centre in New York.He has written for the Times and The Oxford National Biography & is the author of four books - The Duleep Singhs: Photograph Album of Queen Victoria's Maharajah (2004)  Sikhs in Britain: 150 Years of Photography (2007) Khalsa Jatha British Isles Centenary 1908-2008 (2008) Sovereign, Squire and Rebel: Maharajah Duleep Singh & the Heirs of a  Lost Kingdom (2009) Sikhs in Britain: 150 Years of Photography (2012),He has also appeared in many BBC programmes such as The Story Of The  Turban (2012), Inside Out (2004), Desi DNA (2005), Britain's Maharajah  (2013), Sophia: Suffragette Princess (2015) and The Stolen Maharajah:  Britain's Indian Royal (2018)★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★ ★ Buy this podcast a coffee ★As always here is a breakdown of the conversation:00:00 - Introduction03:25 - A doctor in India but a door-to-door seller in England04:23 - Why was peddling the go to occupation for early Sikh settlers in England?05:09 - Why did your family come to the UK?06:38 - Ancestry - Shaheedi Misl and Baba Deep Singh Ji08:13 - How did you go from a marketing degree to being a historian of Sikh history?14:21 - What type of items did you come across in your initial research?14:35 - What was it about the Maharaja that attracted you so much?16:38 - Anecdote of Prince Frederick Duleep Singh17:37 - The view of the Sikh Royal Family in East Anglia  19:36 - Princess Catherine Hilda Duleep Singh - The Punjabi Schindler20:59 - How was Catherine practically able to do this and also evade being caught?25:43 - Sister Suffragettes28:04 - Anita Anand and the suffragette story28:19 - How did the descendants of M. Ranjit Singh identify and view themselves?33:00 - The Pension that was never paid34:00 - A Russian Promise - 20k soldiers to march into Punjab via Afghanistan37:11 - The personal notebook of Maharaja Duleep Singh38:17 - The daughters of M. Duleep Singh39:30 - Guns of M. Duleep Singh - The Rolls Royce of Guns42:16 - How many wives and children did M. Duleep Singh have?44:14 - Museums and Repatriation48:21- A painting of a Prince52:48 - The Ramgharia Bakery55:25 - Monte Carlo01:01:32 - Rani Jinda Gravestone & Catacombs01:06:57 - Princess Pauline01:15:13 - Are you aware of the Sikh Royal Family visitng their items in a museum?  01:16:42 - £1.7million Statue01:25:32 - Illegitimate heirs to the throne01:28:48 - How many illegitimate heirs?01:30:18 - Sid Hammond01:31:53 - End of the legitimate heirs of M. Ranjit Singh01:34:32 - Interesting finds & advice in entering the field of Sikh history