GANGA RAM, DIWAN

GANGA RAM, DIWAN (1775-1826) was a Kashmiri Brahman whose father, Kishan Das, was a government employee. During the oppressive days of the governors of Kashmir, Kishan Das migrated to Delhi, and later settled in the village of Rampur, near Banaras, where Ganga Ram was born about the year 1775. Ganga Ram received a good education and, at the age of 20, entered the service of Maharaja Daulat Rao Scindia of Gwalior, serving under his French officers, Louis Bourquin and General Perron.

He was entrusted with duties in the political and military departments. When in September 1803, Lord Lake defeated Daulat Rao Scindia, Ganga Ram returned to Delhi where he lived from 180313. In 1809, he was employed by the East India Company to serve under Colonel David Ochterlony, then engaged in the settlement of British relations with the cis Sutlej states.

In 1813, Maharaja Ranjit Singh invited him to Lahore and gave him appointment as the head of military accounts and keeper of the privy seal. In 1821, Ganga Ram was given charge of the civil administration of Gujrat. Two years later he was recalled to Lahore to reorganize the department of a Bkari excise. Ganga Ram died at Lahore in 1826.

References :

1. Suri, Sohan Lal, `Umdat-ut-Twankh. Lahore, 1885-89
2. Griffin, Lepel, and C. F. Massy, Chiefs and Families of Note in the Punjab. Lahore, 1909
3. Kohli, Sita Ram, ed., Zafarnamah-i-Ranjit Singh. Lahore, 1928