In January 2015 her new book ‘Sophia – Princess, Suffragette Revolutionary’ was published in the UK, US and India and she is currently on a hectic national and international book promotion tour. Leading Lights caught up with her during a brief respite in London.
The book description reads;
“In 1876 Sophia Duleep Singh was born into royalty. Her father, Maharajah Duleep Singh, was heir to the Kingdom of the Sikhs, a realm that stretched from the lush Kashmir Valley to the craggy foothills of the Khyber Pass and included the mighty cities of Lahore and Peshawar. It was a territory irresistible to the British, who plundered everything, including the fabled Koh-I-Noor diamond. Exiled to England, the dispossessed Maharajah transformed his estate at Elveden in Suffolk into a Moghul palace, its grounds stocked with leopards, monkeys and exotic birds. Sophia, god-daughter of Queen Victoria, was raised a genteel aristocratic Englishwoman: presented at court, afforded grace-and-favour lodgings at Hampton Court Palace and photographed wearing the latest fashions for the society pages. But when, in secret defiance of the British government, she travelled to India, she returned a revolutionary.
Sophia transcended her heritage to devote herself to battling injustice and inequality, a far cry from the life to which she was born. Her causes were the struggle for Indian independence, the fate of the Lascars, the welfare of Indian soldiers in the First World War – and, above all, the fight for female suffrage. She was bold and fearless, attacking politicians, putting herself in the front line and swapping her silks for a nurse’s uniform to tend wounded soldiers evacuated from the battlefields. This story of the rise of women and the fall of empire introduces an extraordinary individual and her part in the defining moments of recent British and Indian history.”
Anita told one publication how she discovered the story of Sophia Duleep Singh.
“‘In 2010, I was on maternity leave from the BBC. Because my son had just been born, I missed covering the general election so I was fidgety, really fidgety. Life had taken on a different pace, because previously I had been presenting two live shows a day: TV in the morning, radio in the afternoon. So I was reading everything I could lay my hands on, cereal packets, everything.”
Flicking through a local paper destined for the recycling, Anand saw an article about a suffragette exhibition at Richmond Museum. “The picture—of a suffragette dressed in Edwardian clothes—just leapt out at me because it looked completely wrong! I could see the woman was Indian. In fact, she looked like an auntie of mine. The article gave her name, Sophia Duleep Singh, so I started picking at the thread of her story, and with every tug, an avalanche of stuff came down”.
Anand is quick to point out that she is not a historian. “But I have a hack’s brain. As a journalist, when you come to something you don’t understand, you ask why.” She scaled her presenting duties down to the weekly Radio 4 show “Any Answers?” to have more time for research—which was just as well, given the scope of the story she was unearthing.’”
Anita told us that her husband, mathematician- author Simon Singh (a former Leading Light), is her best friend and closest adviser. He was responsible for getting her to start her manuscript.
“When I discovered the story and started researching it, I would come home every day and tell him a bit more about what I had discovered. I would say ‘And did you know about this? And the next day, I would say, ‘Did you hear about this?’ He told me it should be written down and go into a book. He’s got a good eye for a story and was very supportive. I got him to read the first three chapters and give me feedback, just as I did with my other close friends. He was great. And very constructive. But after that, I made him wait for the rest of the book, just like the others.”
With a husband, a young child, and regular radio broadcasting to do, how did Anita manage her time?
“To write a book and do all that I do means juggling. It’s a question of creating time. There was a period when I was researching and writing and it was really hectic. I was sleeping on average four to five hours a night.”
It paid off, for the book has been well received and we look forward to seeing her next one.
