But it was with the Women’s Society for Social and Political Union, a suffragist group, that she became the fierce feminist she was. Upon her return she set up the Lascar’s Club where more than 5,000 lascars availed of the facilities.

The few years she spent as being extremely popular on the social circuit, ordering her dresses in the latest fashion from Paris and breeding dogs, especially Pomeranians in the grace and favour apartment Sophia had been given at Hampton Court by her godmother. Despite all this, Sophia was well provided for. Duleep Singh was frittered away their fortunes, their possessions were auctioned and he abandoned his family for his mistress and moved to Paris. Sophia Duleep Singh was born in 1876 to a family that was very well off, except their fortunes declined quite rapidly thereafter. For the rest of his life, except for a couple of visits to India, he remained abroad. His mother was appointed regent but by the time he was fourteen he had moved to the court of Queen Victoria in London. His son, Duleep Singh, was an infant when his father died. It was his empire that Queen Victoria wanted …and got, along with the Kohinoor diamond. He was the king who was crowned Maharajah or supreme king, of the new Sikh Empire. Sophia Duleep Singh was the granddaughter of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, SherePunjab, The Lion of the Punjab.

Under ‘interests’ she wrote just one line: ‘The Advancement of Women’. Before her death, when asked to contribute to her entry in Who’s Who, Sophia Duleep Singh’s was one of the briefest in the book. She never sought glory and disliked speaking in public. As far as her place in history is concerned, Sophia was perhaps her own worst enemy.

Sophia by anita anand