Raja Bhup Singh Of Roper

Raja Bhup Singh Of Roper, also known as Sardar Bhup Singh in local lore, was the chief of the Virk Jat principality of Roper/Ruper, during the earlier half of the nineteenth century. Little is known about his life except that in 180809 he, along with Deva Singh, was in possession of Ropar and its adjacent districts including Khizrabad and Miaripur, a tract covering 115 villages with an estimated annual revenue of Rs 53,000. He was probably a grandson of Sardar Han Singh of Dallewalia misl, who, according to Lepel. H. Griffin, The Rajas of the Punjab, had taken possession, around 1763, of a large territory including Ropar, Sialba, Khizrabad and Kurali. In 1792, one year before he died, Hari Singh divided his possessions between his two surviving sons, Charhat Singh and Deva Singh, the former getting Ropar and the latter Sialba. Bhup Singh was the son and successor of Charhat Singh, who might have died during the former’s minority. This explains the reference to Deva Singh being the coruler at Ropar in lists prepared in 1809 by Lieut-Colonel D. Ochterlony and Lieutenant F.S. White of the East India Company.

According to these lists, Ropar was under Maharaja Ranjit Singh Of Lahore. It came under British protection as a result of the treaty of Amritsar (25 April 1809), which limited Ranjit Singh’s authority mainly to territories north of the River Sutlej. The chief of Ropar, Bhup Singh, was removed as prisoner and his whole estate was confiscated in 1846 in consequence of his opposing the British during the first Anglo-Sikh war. Raja Bhup Singh is remembered as a just ruler and as a pious Sikh who constructed Gurdwara Dehra Baba Gurdittaji at Kiratpur and Gurdwara Gurugarh Sahib at Ropar. At the latter Gurdwara he had started a langar, or free kitchen, which remained open round the clock, for which reason, the shrine is still known as Gurdwara SadaVarat (where langar is open all the time to serve food to whoever comes).