Princess’ diary : The Tribune India

Join Whatsapp Channel

Princess’ diary

It could well be one of her well-presented BBC shows. As Anita Anand a political journalist, TV presenter and author, delivers a talk on her first book Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary, she doesn’t falter for a minute.

Princess’ diary


Nonika Singh

It could well be one of her well-presented BBC shows. As Anita Anand a political journalist, TV presenter and author, delivers a talk on her first book Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary, she doesn’t falter for a minute. Not a word is out of place, not a single reference redundant. Like a seasoned raconteur she holds her listeners at the British Council, Chandigarh, in a vice-like grip. She may claim she is a journalist first and not a historian, but she seems to know this chapter of Sikh history like the back of her hand. Facts, nay stories, unfurl one after another.

She takes the select audience into the days of Maharaja Duleep Singh, heir to the kingdom of the Sikhs, one of the greatest empires of the Indian subcontinent. She talks of his conversion; his relationship with Queen Victoria, which she unlike others feels was marked by a great degree of affection. His philandering ways and finally his tragic end too are referred to.

And his mother Rani Zinda is spoken about with great degree of passion. In short, she builds the perfect background before she introduces her main protagonist, Sophia. Youngest daughter of Maharaja Duleep Singh, god-daughter of Queen Victoria, here was a pretty silly princess who transformed into a fighter. Anita can go on and on about Sophia’s conflicted personality, her growing up years in England, her ascent as a fashion icon, her Indianness that she wore almost like a fancy dress and finally the dramatic influence of Lala Lajpat Rai, and India, on her. Anita peppers up her fight in the Suffragette movement (of British women) with more than one interesting incident. She offers a snapshot and ends up almost completing the picture. The book, contains far more.

Come to think of it, till Anita stumbled upon Sophia’s photograph per chance she herself had no idea who she was. The obvious dichotomy “a brown woman in Victorian clothes” hit her. She laughs, “We Punjabis can discover a Punjabi wherever they might be.” Her quest ended up in a five year obsession, which involved painstaking research and took her from well-stocked libraries to personal archives and of course to secrets department of British. “British might be sneaky, but they also meticulously keep records.”

However, facts are only details. She says, “A person comes alive only when you learn how they lived, what they ate. You start with bones, get some flesh and if you are lucky, there is some blood too.”

Luckily for her, she was able to pump in blood and make this extraordinary princess come alive for she managed to find real beings who had known the princess. As to why the current generation should know her, what is the relevance in today’s time? She quips, “Whenever I am in India, I see the divide between haves and have not’s. It is very rare that someone from a privileged background decides to take up cudgels on behalf of others.”

To voice the concerns of the weak, she feels, is the message not only of her book but also of Sikhism, a faith into which she has married.

Hindu Sikh who lives in London, Sophia resonates in her background too. Yes, like Sophia, Anita could well be too English to be Indian and vice-versa. But comfortable in her skin, she identifies herself as a British-Asian belonging to both. But to whom does the magnificent Kohinoor “diamond dripped in blood” and the subject of her second book, belong, she would not commit. “Owing to its complex history, there are many claimants to it.” But one thing she wants to put on record was that this was never ever given as a gift to the British.

A stickler for truth, she abhors those who try to bury it. These very principles she applies to journalism. Noncommittal of the noise that is made on Indian television in the name of news, her golden rule is simple — uncover and abide by the truth.


Honest to the core

So thorough had been Anita Anand’s research for Sophia that perhaps another book was a foregone conclusion. But why co-author it?  Kohinoor, which she has written along with noted author and historian William Dalrymple, she states, “grew organically.”  She recalls how she met Navtej Sarna and William Dalrymple at a function. They exchanged notes and also discovered how the other knew better and more. A book was proposed.  Sarna became an ambassador, and Dalrymple and she went ahead. As the book is being hailed among other things for similarity in narrative styles, she takes it as a huge compliment for, “I think William is a great writer.” And she an equally adept story-teller.  

Top News

Chief Judicial Magistrate's court in UP's Banda orders judicial inquiry into death of gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari

UP court orders judicial probe into gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari’s death, seeks report in a month

Ghazipur MP Afzal Ansari on Tuesday alleged that his brother...

‘Heart attack or poisoning’: The life and times of Mukhtar Ansari—crime and politics

‘Heart attack or poisoning’: The life and times of Mukhtar Ansari—crime and politics

Eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh are among the poorest regions...

CBI files chargesheet against 20 institutes, 105 individuals in Himachal Pradesh multi-crore scholarship scam

CBI files chargesheet against 20 institutes, 105 individuals in Himachal Pradesh multi-crore scholarship scam

22 educational institutions were on CBI radar in the scholar...

Mahagathbandhan announces LS seat-sharing for Bihar; RJD to contest 26, Congress 9

Mahagathbandhan announces Lok Sabha seat-sharing for Bihar; RJD to contest 26, Congress 9

High-decibel contest seems on the cards in Hajipur, where RJ...


Cities

View All