History of Bikaner - Dungar Singh

Dungar Singh

Sardar Singh had no son, and, upon his death in 1872, his widow and the state's principal ministers selected Dungar Singh, (adopted by Sardar Singh), with the approval of the British government as his successor. The principal political event of his reign was the rebellion of the Thakurs in 1883, owing to an attempt to increase the dues payable in lieu of military service; this led to the permanent location at Bikaner of a British political agent. Dungar Singh's reign was notable for the establishment of a modern administrative system, a police force, the state's first hospital, and Bikaner's becoming (in 1886) the first Indian Princely State to introduce electricity.

Dungar Singh died in 1887 without a son; but he had adopted his brother, Ganga Singh (born 1880), who, with the approval of the British government, succeeded him as the 21st ruler of Bikaner.