470Rigby,

Duleep Singh's on and off association with the British government was probably more related to his affair with Queen Victoria than any political reason. The Sikh empire at Lahore was history after his father was assassinated by his stepmother.

I am not denying that Continental guns were sold in India - when even cheap American guns were, there was no doubt that Continental guns would have sold. But I have visited almost all the major palace armouries in Tamilnadu and Andhra as a good friend in Belgium wanted to buy some guns from India some years ago. While I did see many handguns made on the Continent and in the USA, I saw hardly any rifle or shotgun made anywhere other than in Britain except if it was retailed by a British company. There are big dealers like Rusi Jijina and DVS Rao who have some old Sauers and Simpsons but the percentage if taken in relation to their entire stock is considered it would probably be 1 to 2% and definitely not more than 5%.

BTW the Maharajas even started their own political party in the 1930s when it became evident that independence was only a question of time, the Mahajana Sabha, and their raison d'etre was to stay within the British empire as a dominion.

Anyway, this is too off topic on a thread about beautiful guns and let us stick to guns and not to Indian politics.

Best wishes,