Maharaja Ranjit Singh's statue to be installed in France

A statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh will be installed in France's Saint-Tropeztown on 17 September 2016. The town is the birth place of Maharaja’s Army General Jean-Francois Allard.
Henri Prevosat-Allard, Deputy Mayor and in-charge of tourism of Saint-Tropez on 6 April 2016 met Punjab Tourism Minister Sohan Singh Thandal and invited him to the installation ceremony of Singh’s statue in France.
Henri Prevosat-Allard is a descendant of General Jean-Francois Allard, who trained Maharaja Ranjit Singh's troops. Prevosat-Allard has announced the step as a mark of respect towards the 19th century king.
In September 2016, the Indian embassy in France will hold also an exhibition on the life of the king.
The Punjab Government will hand over the bust of Maharaja Ranjit Singh to the French envoy in India in June 2016.
• Maharaja Ranjit Singh was the founder of the Sikh Empire, which came to power in the Indian subcontinent in the early half of the 19th century.
• The empire, based in the Punjab region, existed from 1799 to 1849.
• It was forged, on the foundations of the Dal Khalsa, under the leadership of Ranjit Singh from a collection of autonomous Sikh Misls (sovereign states of the Sikh Confederacy).