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A review by ayatichoudhary
Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary by Anita Anand
5.0
After finishing The Last Queen by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, I wanted to know more about how the future would be for Duleep Singh and if he'll have any children. I found my answers in this book. Sophia is about the life of Sophia Duleep Singh, one of the five daughters of Duleep Singh and the goddaughter of Queen Victoria. After the death of Rani Jindan Kaur, Sophia and her family were barred from visiting India because the British feared another mutiny if they did so. During the initial years of her life, Sophia loved socialising with the elites of London and spent money lavishly on dog shows and designer boutique clothes. But during the Delhi Durbar of 1911, she and her sister Bamba visited India, much against the wishes of the British government. And after that, everything changed. Sophia was awe-inspired by Lala Lajpat Rai, she threw herself into the suffragette movement and remained in it till the end, she volunteered as a nurse during World War 1 and treated the wounded Indian soldiers, she brought back Rani Jindan Kaur's ashes from Nasik and placed them beside Maharaja Ranjit Singh's ashes; Sophia's life was filled with many such revolutionary acts!
As the blurb says, this book is meticulously researched and passionately written. Sophia lived through some of the most important moments of the recent British and Indian history, and they have all been written really well in this book. Sophia was a suffragette and hence the suffragette movement in Britain has been detailed really well in the book. Sophia lived through a hard life, seeing the deaths of her family members but inspite of all this, she was a remarkable woman. The language of the book is slightly like that of a history textbook, but it's the history textbook that we all need. It is a chunky book and there are a lot of photographs included in the book too. Overall, it is a detailed account of the history of the Duleep Singh family.
If you're interested in history, then this is a must-read for you and I highly recommend it!
As the blurb says, this book is meticulously researched and passionately written. Sophia lived through some of the most important moments of the recent British and Indian history, and they have all been written really well in this book. Sophia was a suffragette and hence the suffragette movement in Britain has been detailed really well in the book. Sophia lived through a hard life, seeing the deaths of her family members but inspite of all this, she was a remarkable woman. The language of the book is slightly like that of a history textbook, but it's the history textbook that we all need. It is a chunky book and there are a lot of photographs included in the book too. Overall, it is a detailed account of the history of the Duleep Singh family.
If you're interested in history, then this is a must-read for you and I highly recommend it!