posted on 26 Jul 2021

The Royal Rebel by Bali Rai

The popular story of the Suffragettes and their contribution to the fight for women’s equality often focuses on the role of activists like the Pankhursts, Emily Davison and Ethel Smyth but the stories of so many others whose names have been less well known are only slowly being uncovered and made available to the wider public.

It may surprise you to discover that one of those hidden heroes is Princess Sophia Duleep Singh who was daughter of the last Sikh ruler of the Punjab and goddaughter of Queen Victoria. The story Bali Rai tells in The Royal Rebel,  his most recent offering for young readers from Barrington Stoke, isn’t just a story of an unlikely Suffragette but an exploration of the life of a young women caught between two cultures as a consequence of Britain’s colonial appropriation of India.

Told through Princess Sophia’s first person narrative we see how the Princess spends her childhood years in Britain, at Elvenden Hall in Suffolk, and through the eyes of the child we start to understand that she is part of a family who were rulers and heroes in their native Punjab but now found themselves in exile. Sophia tells us:

“…our grandfather, Maharajah Ranjit Singh. He had been ruler of the Sikh empire and was a hero to Indians. He had fought the British and won when they tried to invade, and he built a kingdom in India that no one could challenge.”

But with the passing of Maharajah Ranjit Singh, his son, Sophia’s father, succumbs to British rule is sent to exile and is gradually making the family bankrupt. Sophia and her siblings are left to come to terms with living in England but with a history and heritage that they can’t access or come to terms with.

As she grows older Sophia and her sisters finally get to travel to their homeland and it’s a revelation to all of them. Her sisters opt to stay but Sophia doesn’t feel she belongs there any more than she does in England – she continues to think Elvenden is her ‘real’ home – and so she returns, despite never being able to feel she really belongs anywhere.

But Sophia isn’t the type to ignore her heritage and she begins her fight for social justice by supporting a cause close to her Indian roots:

“Eventually, I decided to help the lascars. They were Indian sailors who’d been stranded in London and left to rot.”

Her fundraising activities for the lascars bring her into contact with Una Dugdale:

“Una was dark haired, with a determined face. When she spoke, the room fell silent. I know of the Suffragette movement, of course, and their fight to win women the right to vote. But Una’s words filled me with a new passion.”

And that was the start of Princess Sophia’s journey to becoming one of the prominent figures in the struggle for the right for women to vote and how she ended up earning the title of ‘Royal Rebel’.

Bali Rai is a tremendously talented writer for young adults and this contribution to Barrington Stoke’s output for reluctant readers takes a complex story and distils it down to the essentials while keeping the narrative clear, accessible and engaging at all times. I can see this being a tremendous hit with teachers looking for resources to use in the classroom that raise a wide range of pressing social issues because it tells its story provocatively but without being tediously didactic.

Highly recommended.

 

Terry Potter

July 2021