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His Excellency
Raja Maharaj Singh
His Excellency Raja Maharaj Singh
राजा महाराज सिंह
	Singh at a baseball match in Bombay in 1949
Vice Chancellor of Lucknow University
	In office; 1941
Preceded by	Bahadur Sir Sri Muhammad Habibullah Sahib
Succeeded by	Lieutenant Colonel Raja Visheshwar Dayal Seth
Governor of Bombay
	In office; 6 January 1948 – 30 May 1952
Preceded by	Office Established
Succeeded by	Girija Shankar Bajpai
Personal details
Born	May 17, 1878
Died	June 6, 1959 (aged 81)
Nationality	British Indian
Parent	Raja Harnam Singh
Alma mater	Harrow School; Balliol College, Oxford; Middle Temple
Occupation	Administrator
Awards	CIE

Raja Sir Maharaj Singh CIE CStJ (17 May 1878, Kapurthala, Punjab – 6 June 1959, Lucknow) was the first Indian Governor of Bombay. He was also the Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir during Maharaja Hari Singh's rule and also the Dewan of Jodhpur for a short while. Raja Sir Maharaja Singh served as the president of the All India Conference of Indian Christians in the 1940s.^[1] He was awarded a number of knighthoods in various orders of chivalry.

Life

Maharaj Singh was the second son of Raja Harnam Singh of the Kapurthala royal family, a direct descendant of Jassa Singh Ahluwalia. His mother was Rani Priscilla Kaur Sahiba (née Priscilla Golaknath). Maharaj Singh's father, Harnam Singh, had converted to Christianity under the influence of his English tutor, Rev. Woodside, and with strong encouragement from the Bengali missionary Golaknath Chatterjee. After conversion, Harnam Singh had married Priscilla, daughter of Golaknath Chatterjee, who was of Bengali Brahmin heritage and a convert to Christianity. Due to his conversion, Harnam Singh was given many important government positions by the British Indian government. Maharaj Singh was one of the nine children - seven sons and two daughters - born to this couple. Among his siblings was Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, the prominent Congress politician who served as Minister of Health in the Nehru government after independence.

Maharaj Singh was educated at Harrow School and Balliol College, Oxford, where he completed his MA, and was called to Bar by the Middle Temple in 1902. Starting off as the Deputy Collector of United Provinces, he held several positions in the government of India, just like his father. He was elected as the Vice Chancellor of the esteemed University of Lucknow in 1941, where he contributed to the institution's legacy of academic excellence. Additionally, he served for a brief period as the Prime Minister of Kashmir, playing a significant role during a pivotal time in the region's history.

Raja Sir Maharaja Singh served as the president of the All India Conference of Indian Christians in the 1940s, which under his tenure championed a united India, advocated for swaraj, and demanded the release of Indian political prisoners by the British government.^[1] He was appointed the Governor of Bombay from 1948 to 1952. The Test cricketer Rusi Modi served as his ADC while he was the governor of Bombay. Maharaj Singh was appointed a CIE in 1915 and knighted in 1933.

Married to Gunwati Maya Das of Ferozepore, Maharaj Singh had two sons, Raja Ranbir Singh, a diplomat (died June 1995) and Kanwar Mahindar Singh, a tennis player and businessman based in Chandigarh (died August 2004), as well as one daughter, Prem Maharaj Seth (née Singh) (died September 2019).

At the age of 72, Maharaj Singh captained the Bombay Governor's XI against a touring Commonwealth XI in a cricket match starting on 25 November 1950.^[2] This makes him the oldest cricketer to make his first-class debut and the oldest player to play a first-class game.^[3] Coming in to bat at No. 9, he edged Jim Laker for 3 and one run later, was caught at first slip off the same bowler. Laker was 44 years younger than the man he dismissed. Maharaj Singh took no part in the game after the first day, and Yadavindra Singh of Patiala, another royal from Punjab, captained the side in his absence.

Titles

1878–1915: Kanwar Maharaj Singh
1915–1932: Kanwar Maharaj Singh, CIE
1932–1933: Raja Maharaj Singh, CIE
1933–1937: Raja Sir Maharaj Singh, CIE
1937–1959: Raja Sir Maharaj Singh, CIE, CStJ
1948–1952: His Excellency Sri Sir Maharaj Singh, CIE, CStJ, Governor of the State of Bombay

Honours

(ribbon bar, as it would look today)

Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE)-1915
Knight Bachelor-1933
King George V Silver Jubilee Medal-1935
Commander of the Order of St John (CStJ)-1937
King George VI Coronation Medal-1937
Indian Independence Medal-1948

References

^ ^a ^b Doss, M. Christhu (23 November 2022). India after the 1857 Revolt: Decolonizing the Mind. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-000-78511-1. Similarly, congratulating Gandhi on the successful termination of his fast in 1943, Raja Sir Maharaja Singh, the president of the New Delhi session of the Indian national Christian conference, appealed to the British that it should make every effort to release all the political prisoners immediately. Christians' opposition to the arrests of Congress leaders, dedication for swaraj, commitment for an indivisible and strong India, and their continued support for Gandhi, barring his noncooperation movement, attracted a great deal of attention and appreciation from Congress leaders like H.N. Kunzru. Addressing the 1943 session of the All-India Christian Conference in New Delhi, Kunzru applauded that: 'it was heartening to find that the Christians are struggling for unity, when threats of division are overwhelming.' Expressing his gratitude to the community for its anti-communal approach throughout the freedom struggle, Kunzru expressed that he was glad that Christians willingly took part in the national movement for securing a self-ruled and self-reliant India by placing the national interests above communal considerations. At the 1943 conference, Christians held a range of discussions on the political situation in the country and strongly opposed Muslim League's call for partition. It condemned communal violence in August 1942 in Bengal. The conference urged the British to publicly declare that India would be given full freedom (without partition) within two years. It also appealed to the principal political parties and communities to come to an agreement on the communal problem. Christian nationalists continued to demand that the constitution of independent India should have the provisions of right to profess, propagate and practise one's religion and that change of religion should not involve any civil or political disability. The political objectives of Christians in 1945 included immediate grant of swaraj, unconditional release of Congress leaders, opposition to partition and making of freedom.
^ Bandarupalli, Sampath (26 November 2017). "Raja Maharaj Singh – The man who made first-class debut at 72 years". CricTracker. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
^ "The death of Phillip Hughes". ESPNcricinfo. 27 November 2005. Retrieved 29 November 2017.