Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary

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Broadcaster, journalist and biographer Anita Anand was born in 1972 and educated at King’s College, London.

British Indian author Anita Anand's Jallianwala Bagh story wins history prize". The Indian Express. 2 December 2020 . Retrieved 2 December 2020. 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' William Dalrymple Anand vividly paints the picture of a society girl turned revolutionary ... With deftness and sensibility, Anand tells of the extraordinary contradictions at the heart of the relationship between the Queen and this family ... Anand's skill is to bring to life a character whose name does not figure in the annals of the suffragette movement * Observer * Jonathan Dimbleby hands Any Answers? baton to Anita Anand on Radio 4". BBC Media Centre. 23 May 2012 . Retrieved 11 August 2012.Biography of Sophia Duleep Singh, granddaughter of Ranjit Singh the legendary Maharajah of the Sikh Empire, her father Duleep (Ranjit’s youngest son and the last Maharajah) was effectively the puppet ruler of the Kingdom under British governance before being deposed (having signed over the Empire and the Koh-i-Noor diamond to Queen Victoria), Anglicised and then exiled to England where he became a favourite of Queen Victoria and where Sophia was born (with Victoria as her godmother). She later became a prominent and controversial (given her links to the Royal Family and the sensitivity of the British Rule in the Raj) campaigner both for Indian rights in England (campaigning both for Lascars and later for injured WWI Sepoys) and for woman’s rights (becoming an increasingly prominent and militant Suffragette, particularly in the Women’s Tax Resistance League). Anand in her latest book uncovers not just an intriguing female life, but also an important perspective on British-Indian colonial history ... Fresh and well written ... What a story, and what a successful telling of it * The Times *

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." The older Sophia becomes a political radical, joining forces with the suffragettes. Here the book eschews the exoticism and becomes a more standard depiction of the movement. The author describes the violence meted out by the police, and the lengths to which the state sought to exonerate the police. In a telling passage, Anand shows how the young home secretary, a certain Winston Churchill, dismissed all attempts to investigate after two women died of their injuries. Within the women’s movement, argument raged about direct action, particularly as war with Germany neared.This is an exceptional book highlighting parts of British social, political and economic history through the life of Sophia Duleep Singh. Sophia was especially awesome. I like that she got involved in activism in her 30's. I like how she used her class privilege/ princess status to get more attention for women's rights. Manages to relate the complicated, fascinating and historically significant story of this woman’s life whilst being as easy to read as any novel. Well done!

Anita Anand leaves BBC2's Daily Politics for 5 Live role". BBC News. 12 July 2011 . Retrieved 6 November 2016.

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Sometimes you hear biographers complain that all the great figures have gone ... In this book, her confident and compelling debut, the BBC journalist and presenter Anita Anand leaves that argument in shreds ... Anand has triumphantly rescued Sophia from the pampered oblivion in which a fearful Raj sought to bury her. In doing so, she traces the excruciating double binds, emotional as much as political, that tied imperial Britain to the jewel in its crown * Boyd Tonkin, Independent Book of the Week * Sophia was an important woman suffragette, a lover of dogs, a caring woman. Her oldest sister Bamba consistently bristled with antagonism. Catherine, the next oldest, settled herself with a female lover in Germany and never saw eye-to-eye over Sophia’s menagerie of dogs. Even if all three sisters and the brothers, Victor and Freddie and Eddie, were as different as siblings can be, they loved each other. You felt this. You see them spar against each other, grumble and joke. They are family, with all that implies. There are half-sisters too! You follow this entire family. 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.