![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() 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). 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". There may also be a degree of identification between author and subject. It was an appropriate place to begin, because Anand, an experienced political journalist, knows the parliamentary scene well. The opening scene, for instance, imagines Sophia drumming out the beat to suffragette songs with emerald rings on manicured fingers, and ends with a cliffhanger as she "was about to pitch herself into a violent street brawl which would leave many – including herself – bruised and bleeding in the shadow of the mother of all parliaments". Anand does this not only with detailed archival research but also with descriptive flourishes and some of the techniques of fiction. Anand brings her out from the back of the stage, as it were, to reveal Sophia’s involvements in two key historical movements: women’s rights and Indian independence. Self-effacing and yet "an international celebrity", this daughter of a flamboyant spendthrift Maharajah and a favourite goddaughter of Queen Victoria is brought back to life over the course of the book, in all her fascinating contradictions. Behind her were 38 prominent supporters, including "a quiet, bird-like woman seated right at the back of the stage", dressed in Parisian couture, the Princess Sophia Duleep Singh. Hundreds of women had assembled to hear Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the campaign for votes for women, speak before their protest march to Parliament. Anita Anand’s much-praised biography Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary (2015) opens by re-creating the scene at Caxton Hall, Westminster, on 18 November 1910. ![]()
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