How the book on Ranjit’s granddaughter saw light of day
LAHORE: Anita Anand, author of Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary, and a broadcast journalist, says because of the research for the book, Lahore’s whole map is crystal clear to her and locations of places, including Jail Road and The Mall.
Ms Anand has been a radio and TV journalist for the last 20 years. Her book is on Sophia Duleep Singh, granddaughter of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, and she was in Lahore to attend the LLF.
Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary is Ms Anand’s first book and it was published last year. Mentioning the research work she did to write the book on an important personality like Sophia, she said it took her four years to complete the book.
“Though Britain tried its best to delete Sophia from its history; however, being a journalist I left no stone unturned to bring out the real personality and character of Sophia.”
During her research on the princess, she went through archives in the UK and India.
“I got two views by going through all my research material, one says that Sophia was good and elegant and the other takes her as a traitor,” Ms Anand revealed, adding that she also found papers on Sophia in the British Library and she had laid hands on British political and secret intelligence departments where she found all the spy and surveillance reports on the princess. She also met Drovnar, the daughter of housekeeper of Sophia, who she found after hectic efforts of two years.
Talking about the Rajput princess, Anita Anand says: “Sophia was born in 1876. Her father, Maharaja Duleep Singh, was heir to the Sikh kingdom that stretched from Kashmir to the craggy foothills of the Khyber Pass and included the mighty cities of Lahore and Peshawar. It was a territory irresistible to the British who plundered everything, including the fabled Koh-i-Noor diamond.”
Exiled to England, the dispossessed Maharaja transformed his estate at Elveden in Suffolk into a Moghul palace with its lawns stocked with leopards, monkeys and exotic birds, she said, adding that Sophia, god-daughter of Queen Victoria, was raised a genteel aristocratic Englishwoman: presented at court, afforded grace-and-favour lodgings at Hampton Court Palace and photographed wearing the latest fashion for the society pages.
“But when, in secret defiance of the British government, she travelled to India, she returned as a revolutionary. Sophia transcended her heritage to devote herself to battling injustice and inequality, a far cry from the life to which she was born. Her causes were the struggle for Indian independence, the welfare of Indian soldiers in the World War I and, above all, the fight for female suffrage.”
Anita Anand termed Sophia bold and fearless who attacked the politicians, putting herself in the front line and swapping her silks for a nurse’s uniform to tend wounded soldiers evacuated from the battlefields.
Anita Anand claims to have got a very good response to her book. The topic of her next book is the world famous Koh-i-Noor diamond. She is writing this book in collaboration with William Dalrymple. The book will complete later this year.
Ms Anand is the presenter of Any Answers on BBC Radio 4. During her career, she has also presented Drive, Double Take and the Anita Anand Show on Radio 5 Live, and Saturday Live, The Westminster Hour, Beyond Westminster, Midweek and Woman’s Hour on Radio 4. On BBC television, she has presented The Daily Politics, The Sunday Politics and Newsnight. She lives in London.
Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2016