Modern India

Twenty-first ruler of Bikaner (r. 1888–1943); moderniser of the desert kingdom, sole Indian signatory of the Treaty of Versailles, and architect of the Gang Canal.

13 October 1880 – 2 February 1943

Last Maharaja of Bikaner (until 1971 constitutional abolition); Member of Parliament (1952–1977) and five-time Olympic shooter for India.

21 April 1924 – 6 September 1988

Last reigning Maharaja of Bikaner (r. 1943–1949); first Indian prince to sign the Instrument of Accession to India on 7 August 1947.

7 September 1902 – 25 September 1950

Maharaja Ganga Singh leads the Bikaner Camel Corps (Ganga Risala) during the Boxer Rebellion in China (1900), gaining his first international military recognition.

June 1900 – 1901

Maharaja Ganga Singh commands the Bikaner Camel Corps in France and Flanders (1914–1915); serves on the Imperial War Cabinet; sole Indian signatory of the Treaty of Versailles (1919).

August 1914 – 11 November 1918

On 30 March 1949, Bikaner State is formally merged into the United State of Greater Rajasthan, ending 461 years of Rathore rule in the Thar Desert.

30 March 1949

Maharaja Ganga Singh of Bikaner signs the Treaty of Versailles at the Palace of Versailles on 28 June 1919 — the sole Indian signatory to the treaty that ended World War I.

28 June 1919

The catastrophic famine of 1899–1900 devastated Bikaner State; Maharaja Ganga Singh's relief operations became a model for princely state humanitarian response.

1899 – 1900

Maharaja Ganga Singh inaugurates the Gang Canal in 1927 — drawing water from the Sutlej river to irrigate 800,000 acres of Thar Desert and creating Sri Ganganagar.

1927

Maharaja Sadul Singh signs the Instrument of Accession to the Dominion of India on 7 August 1947 — the first Indian prince to formally accede to independent India.

7 August 1947