Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary

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We learned about the Suffrage movement at school, and also some of the prominent figures that spearheaded the movement and pushed for progress for the advancement of women and their rights, specifically the right to vote. Vivid and compelling ... Anand writes with the vigour and imaginative reach of a novelist. The many horrors of her enthralling narrative are lightened with judicious flashes of dry wit and a fine eye for detail ... A gripping, emotionally powerful story * New Statesman * She opened the 2014 Kolkata Book Fair and has also appeared at the Jaipur Literature Festival, most recently in January 2015.

Bio of Indian suffragette Princess Sophia Duleep Singh. This is an absolutely amazing story. Sophia was the daughter of Duleep Singh, the last maharaja of the Sikh empire who was forced to sign over his power to the British Raj as a boy. She was brought up in England, god-daughter of Queen, yet still treated like a second class citizen, and she found her purpose in fighting alongside the suffragettes. She tried her hardest to get arrested, used her power for publicity, and then when war broke out she made a spectacular contribution to funds for sepoys (Indian soldiers, grossly underequipped by the British) and worked as a nurse for Sikh soldiers. All this while suffering from lifelong and dreadful depression and a spectacularly terrible family life. In addition to Sophia's life story, author Anita Anand also discusses the connections between the campaigns for women's suffrage and Indian independence. Mahatma Gandhi admired the activism of British suffragettes and studied their tactics. Sophia's family also receives extensive attention as her parents and siblings also had interesting lives shaped by British rule over India. Sophia is the sort of remarkable, almost unbelievable untold true story that every writer dreams of chancing upon. A wonderful debut, written with real spirit and gusto. Anita Anand has produced a winner

Last year for the second MISS DARK'S APPARITIONS book I read two books on British relations with India, one dealing with the Koh-I-Noor diamond and the other with Indians in London. Both of them mentioned Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, daughter of the last maharajah of the Punjab who became a firebrand suffragette and supporter of Indian independence. So, I decided to catch her biography on audiobook. I'm glad I did, because it was often fascinating. British Indian author Anita Anand's Jallianwala Bagh story wins history prize". The Indian Express. 2 December 2020 . Retrieved 2 December 2020. It was an appropriate place to begin, because Anand, an experienced political journalist, knows the parliamentary scene well. There may also be a degree of identification between author and subject. Both were born in London but with family history from the same part of India; as Anand remarked in an online interview with Gargi Gupta, "she was Punjabi, as am I". She further explained that her own interest in Sophia originated in a 1913 photograph of her selling The Suffragette newspaper outside Hampton Court (where the princess lived in a royal grace-and-favour house, much to the chagrin of the authorities as her activism increased). In researching the book, Anand drew upon the papers of Sophia’s father, Maharajah Duleep Singh, as well as intelligence and police records detailing links with suffragettes and Indian nationalist leaders. By a nice irony, she pointed out, it was the very thoroughness of British bureaucracy that enabled Sophia’s story to be fully told for the first time (www.dnaindia.com 18 January 2015).

John Kampfner is author of The Rich, From Slaves to Super Yachts, a 2,000-Year History, published by Little Brown. I also enjoyed the structure of the biography, the narrative, almost novelistic structure to this book made it really interesting to read. The book also covers the topic of Indian Independence and other defining moments of history involving Britain and the Indian subcontinent, including some causes which Sophia herself worked towards supporting. We'd be walking, and she'd be telling me about the world and elections and how important they were. And then she would kneel down in front of me, looking me right in the eye and say 'I want a solemn promise from you' even though I don't think I knew what a solemn promise was at that stage. She would say 'You are never, ever not to vote. You must promise me. When you are allowed to vote you are never, ever to fail to do so. You don't realise how far we've come. Promise me.' For the next three years, Sophia made Drovna promise again and again." Sophia seems to have been a woman in search of a purpose in life. At one point she became a famous socialite and fashion icon; then a successful dog breeder and show competitor; and then abandoned it all to throw herself into the suffragette cause (she was never prosecuted for her militant activities because of her connection to her godmother Queen Victoria). Her life intersected with a whole cast of famous characters and some who should be more famous but aren't--like her, they were women and/or non-whites and their stories were systematically hidden from public view. Anita Anand ( / ˈ ɑː n ə n d/ AH-nand; [1] born 28 April 1972) is a British radio and television presenter, journalist, and author.The Kor-i-noor is the diamond in the center of the front cross on this crown. This is what reading nonfiction gets you. It gets you yelling at the news in an very angry, yet informed, way. History isn’t just about dates and events. It’s about human beings doing things to other human beings and I am completely compelled by this,” Anand says.

A fascinating biography of a historical figure who, along with her family, deserves to be better known. Sophia Duleep Singh was the daughter of the last Maharajah of the Sikh Empire and raised in Britain, with Queen Victoria as her godmother. Her father presented the Koh-I-Noor diamond to the Queen. Her first book, Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary, a biography of a campaigner for women’s suffrage and Indian independence, was published in 2015. The audiobook narration by Tania Rodrigues was superb. The accent was British, utterly delightful and easy to follow. I did have trouble with the Indian names, but this never became a problem. The written book and the narration both get five stars.Also also, did you know concentration camps were invented in South Africa by a British commander to use primarily against the Boers? And that Gandhi learned about hunger strikes from suffragettes in British prisons?

Basically, the entire book becomes a damning indictment of the British empire. The British took the Punjab and the Koh-I-Noor in an act of highway robbery, ruthlessly exploited the subcontinent for many decades, and massacred peaceful civilians when their grip began to slip. Although many Indians did seem to favour partition, the British policy of partition began as a calculated ploy to set their colonial subjects against each other, so that (like a certain empire still clinging to life today) they could claim that their regime was necessary to prevent internecine warfare. At home, they set on the suffragists with insane violence. En masse, the London police beat and sexually assaulted women in the streets; when the imprisoned women went on hunger strike, protesting that they ought to be categorised as political prisoners, prison wardens and doctors force-fed them, resulting in unimaginable physical and mental trauma. Although I'm discomfited by some of Pankhurst's tactics, I'd be looking for things to burn down too if one of my sisters was killed by police brutality. One might have understood their need for positive optics after refusing to return the north Indian kingdom to its Punjabi king. The East India Company had been circling Punjab for decades, and, on the death of Sophia’s grandfather, King Ranjit, it had seized its opportunity. It posed as a friend, offering to help protect the young King Duleep from external threats, and then forced him and his mother, the formidable Jindan Kaur, into exile in Britain, separating him from everything he knew. Real entertainment. Shannon has continued to build on this imagined world with intricacy, and Paige's voice comes through to deliver a suspenseful story * Washington Post * In July 2011 Anand left the Daily Politics to present a new show called Double Take on Radio 5 Live on Sunday mornings. [7] In June 2012, Anand took over from Jonathan Dimbleby as the presenter of Radio 4's Any Answers? Saturday current affairs phone-in programme between 2:00 and 2:45pm. [8]Joe says: If somebody said they had time to read one more book before they died, I'd say read this. It's incredibly entertaining. It's about murder, really. But it's about murder committed by a group of highly educated, brilliant young people.