Maharani Jinda Kaur (Lady Jinda)

Maharani Jindan Kaur was the last queen of the Sikh Empire from 1843 until 1846. She was the youngest wife of the first Maharaja of the Sikh Empire, Ranjit Singh, and the mother of the last Maharaja, Duleep Singh. Self-sovereignty taught her and Sikhs two things alike - to rule or to rebel. Maharani Jind Kaur (1817-1863), popularly known as Rani Jindan, carved a name for herself in the annals of Sikh history, even though her primary identity was recognized as the wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the last Sikh sovereign’s mother.

Because of her stature and role, she got to be known as Rani Mai or Queen Mother by various European and native contemporary writers. But her fame was derived chiefly from the concern she engendered in the British. Her story is a story of a great woman, both tragic and inspirational in equal measures, who fought to keep alive the royal legacy of her late husband through the medium of her son Duleep Singh.

Maharani Jindan was renowned for her celestial beauty and quality of fearlessness and the British in India described her as "the Messalina of the Punjab". Though the Queen did not have much in common with the Empress of the Roman Empire, Queen Valeria Messalina, the British compared her so they could spoil her image and rule the land.

Maharani Jindan was voracious and took control of the government with the approval of the army and cast off her veil. She reconstituted the Supreme Council of the Khalsa and restored a balance between the army and the civil administration. She held the court, transacted state business in public, and reviewed and addressed the troops. All in all, Maharani Jindan Kaur put up a brave fight against the colonialists.