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**THE LION CUB IN CHAINS**
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*A grandmother's story, told by a boy who didn't know it was real.*
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In a quiet village hut, where the walls were made of mud and timber and the wind crept gently through the cracks, a five-year-old boy curled into the lap of his grandmother. The lantern flickered against her wrinkled face.
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"Grandma, tell me a story. One I haven’t heard before," Satyansh whispered.
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She smiled, brushing her fingers across his forehead. "Then I will tell you about a boy born to a lion but raised in a cage."
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**1838. Lahore.**
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I was only fourteen when I became a companion to Maharani Jindan Kaur. Fierce and brilliant, she was unlike any other royal woman. She spoke like a soldier, thought like a strategist, and lived like fire. I was just a servant girl named Bachanpreet from Punjab. But she kept me close.
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When her son was born, she named him **Duleep Singh**. He had his father's eyes — Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Lion of Punjab. Even as an infant, he looked as if he understood everything.
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I remember one day, he was maybe five or six. Sitting on her lap, he asked, "Ma, why am I in Baba's chair? Where is he?"
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She looked at him for a long time. Then whispered, "He lives in every breath you take. But this world will not let you breathe freely."
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---
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When the British came in 1849, they tore the kingdom apart. Duleep was just a boy. And still, they forced a crown onto his tiny head only to steal it later.
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They ripped him from his mother’s arms. The memory haunts me still. Jindan clawed at soldiers. Screamed his name. He screamed hers back, begging to stay.
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But they took him.
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They first brought him to **Fatehgarh**, then to **Landour**, claiming it was for his health. But they weren’t healing him. They were erasing him.
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There, a Scottish surgeon named **Dr. John Spencer Login** began raising him. At first, Duleep cried each night. He refused to eat. He would whisper his mother’s name in his sleep.
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But over time, Login began to break through.
He brought him books. Taught him games. Told him he was special. Wanted.
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Duleep began to smile again. He began to call Login *Chacha* — uncle. He believed he was loved.
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He thought he had found someone who understood him. But it was all an illusion. The love was a mask, meant to reshape him into something he wasn’t. Fooling a lonely child was easy. That’s why they targeted the young—older minds wouldn't have bent so easily.
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**Age 15.**
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They told him: Christianity was truth. His gods were false. His language outdated. His clothes savage.
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They baptized him.
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They gave him a new name. New clothes. New rules.
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And then they sent him to **England**, to live in luxury. A pet prince.
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Queen Victoria doted on him. She folded his handkerchiefs. Placed his silk turban at her feet. She would ask him about his turban with a soft chuckle, as if it were a costume.
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He began calling her **Grandmother**.
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He began forgetting.
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At banquets, they’d serve dishes he couldn’t pronounce, and smirk if he asked for *makki di roti* or *sarson da saag*. Once, when he ate with his hands, they exchanged glances, then gently reminded him, “Proper gentlemen use forks.”
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He smiled through it. But inside, something cracked.
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One night, years later, he overheard laughter behind a door—laughter about him. How he spoke, how he prayed, even how he slept. It wasn’t affection. It was performance. He was *exotic entertainment*. A trophy of conquest.
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And then he found the papers.
Detailed records—daily habits, meals, private conversations. Everything he did was written down, reported. He wasn’t family. He was a case study.
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He stared at the reports for hours.
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It was the final blow.
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---
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But his mother never forgot him.
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Every day, I saw her touch the cloth he once wore. She would mutter his name like a prayer.
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"Duleep, mera sher, mera puttar... where are you?"
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One night, she whispered to me, eyes lost: "They turned him into a gentleman. A Christian. A loyal servant to those who murdered his kin. And yet, they smile while folding his turban."
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**Twelve years later.**
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She found him.
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When Duleep saw her again, his hands trembled. He didn’t know what to say. Neither did she.
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He looked like a stranger. But in his eyes, her boy was still there.
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She took his face in her hands and whispered, "They changed your clothes, your gods, your name. But your blood is still mine."
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That meeting broke him open. Everything he had buried began to surface: the sounds of Fatehgarh, the smell of his mother's dupatta, the taste of food he hadn't had in years.
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He remembered the quiet mockery. The soft correction. The isolation. The betrayal.
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He was drowning in shame.
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---
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He tried to escape.
He reached out to the **Irish nationalists**, **the Russians**, anyone who would help him reclaim Punjab.
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He renounced Christianity. Tried to return to Sikhism. But the world turned away.
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No army came.
No nation stood beside him.
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For **seven years**, he fought. Alone.
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He died in a cheap apartment in **Paris**, broken, in debt, betrayed.
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His last wish? “Take my ashes to Punjab.”
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They refused.
They buried him in **England**, as a Christian.
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It wasn’t exile that destroyed him.
It was betrayal.
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---
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"And that, Satyansh," I said, looking into your eyes, "is what they did to a prince."
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You stared at me, puzzled. "It’s just a story, right?"
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I smiled. I said nothing.
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The next morning, you came across an old drawer.
Inside was a yellowed portrait.
A royal boy with lion eyes.
A woman beside him who looked just like your grandma.
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You turned it over.
It read:
**Prince Duleep Singh & Bachanpreet, 1854.**
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And then you knew.
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It wasn’t just a story.
It was our blood.
Our memory.
Our pain.
Author's note : Honestly it is based on the true history which happened but not for only one prince of princess . I was not able to add more things because of no gore content .
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