King Kishan Singh I | |
Maharaja of Bharatpur | |
Succession: | King of Bharatpur |
Reign: | 27 August 1900 – 27 March 1929 |
Predecessor: | King Ram Singh I |
Successor: | King Brijendra Singh I |
Regent: | Queen Giriraj Kaur (1900 - 1918) |
Reg-Type: | Regent |
Spouse: | Princess Rajendra Kaur of Faridokt |
Issue: | Brijendra Singh I of Bharatpur Raja Bachchu Singh (Girrajsaran Singh) |
Royal House: | Sinsiniwar Jat Dynasty |
Father: | Ram Singh I of Bharatpur |
Mother: | Giriraj Kaur |
Birth Date: | 4 October 1899 |
Birth Place: | Moti Mahal |
Death Date: | 27 March 1929 (aged 29) |
Death Place: | Agra |
Maharaja Sir Kishan Singh, KCSI (1899–1929) was the ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Bharatpur (1918–1929) and successor of Maharani Girraj Kaur. During the Partition, the princely states of Alwar and Bharatpur were the sites of a pogrom directed against the Muslim Meo community.
Both Jai Singh of Alwar and Kishan Singh of Bharatpur provided official patronage to the Arya Samaj and its Shuddhi movement of conversion to Hinduism. The Hindu Mahasabha and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) grew in importance with the patronage of their durbars. The Mahasabha's V. D. Savarkar set in motion a policy of courting Hindu princes. He officially changed the official script from Nastaliq to Nagari, and banned the teaching of Urdu and Persian in state schools. The Shahi Jama Masjid in Alwar was one of several important buildings converted by order of the government. Discriminatory taxation led to a tax revolt by the Muslim Meo population, in the course of which the state army opened fire on a crowd with machine guns at Govindgarh on January 7–8, 1933, and killed more than 30 people. Nevertheless, Ian Copland, examining census records, shows how the Muslim population which had been 26.2% in Alwar in 1941 and 19.2% in Bharatpur, dropped after the pogroms, conversions and flight, to 6% in both states. About two-thirds of their land was taken away.
Maharaja Kishan Singh was born at Moti Mahal, Bharatpur on 4 October 1899 in a Jat family. He was eldest son of Maharaja Ram Singh by his second wife, Maharani Girraj Kaur. He was educated at Mayo College, Ajmer and Wellington.[1]
His father was deposed in 1900, and his mother served as regent for her son until he assumed full powers in November 1918.
He was taken along by his mother to attend the Delhi Durbars of 1903 and 1911.