Bodyguard’s Anjli Mohindra Is Writing A Show About An Indian Princess-Turned-Suffragette

You’ll probably recognise Anjli Mohindra from her appearances in hit shows like Vigil and Bodyguard, but the actor is now turning her attention to the page. Working with Urban Myth Films, Mohindra is writing a television adaptation of journalist Anita Anand’s biography on Sophia Duleep Singh, the incredible activist and goddaughter to Queen Victoria.

Titled Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary, the book is a culmination of years of research on Sophia, who used her status within the monarchy to become a fearless revolutionary and suffragette after a visit to her ancestral country of India. Overlooked in favour of white suffragettes such as Emmeline Pankhurst, Sophia was all but forgotten until Anand set out to tell her story. In 2018, she was one of the eight suffragettes who were commemorated on Royal Mail stamps for their tireless campaign for women’s rights.

So here’s everything you need to know about Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary before it airs, and how the princess became one of the most influential women of the British Suffragette movement.

Who Was Sophia Duleep Singh?

Sophia was the daughter of Duleep Singh, the last Maharaja of the Sikh Empire. Singh was forced to abdicate to the British Crown at the age of 10 and sent from Lahore to Fatehgarh. He was taken away from his mother (who he wouldn’t see again for over a decade) and placed under the watch of Dr John Login, a British surgeon who would not allow him to meet with other Indians. After four years in Fatehgarh, Singh was sent to England in 1854, forcefully Anglicised, and unwillingly converted to Christianity.

After ten years of living in England, Singh married Bamba Müller, had eight children, and settled in Elveden Hall, a stately home in Suffolk. Despite being forced to abandon his faith and culture, Singh eventually converted Elveden Hall into a Moghul palace and reportedly populated the estate with leopards, monkeys, and exotic birds.

It is alleged that, during his time in England, Singh became close to Queen Victoria – so much so that the monarch became godmother to several of his children, including Sophia. Described as being “a treasured goddaughter to Queen Victoria,” Sophia was reported to be a socialite who enjoyed court life during her younger years. However, all this changed after a trip to India.

Why Did Sophia Become An Activist?

In later life, Sophia’s father began to resent his forced Anglicisation, including his conversion to Christianity, and wanted to return to Sikhism. In 1886, he attempted to return to India against the wishes of the British government, who intercepted and arrested him in what is now modern-day Yemen. He managed to experience a conversion ceremony to Sikhism shortly after his arrest, and died in Paris just seven years later. Fearing unrest and a potential uprising against the British Empire, the Crown ignored requests for his body to be repatriated to India and he was given a Christian burial in Elveden Church.

After the death of her father, Sophia was no longer observed so closely and, in 1903, she made her first trip to India. It was the first time she had witnessed the poverty and social injustices of her father’s homeland, and she became determined to use her status to campaign for social change.

What Did Sophia Do As A Suffragette?

Joining activists like Emmeline Pankhurst, Sophia became what Anita Anand described in The i as an “amazing, courageous, will risk it all and sacrifice everything suffragette.” She was regularly seen outside Hampton Court Palace, where an apartment had been given to her by Queen Victoria, selling The Suffragette newspaper. She was also a member of the Women’s Tax Reform League, refusing to pay taxes or take part in the census.

Sophia was one of the movement’s biggest advocates, fundraisers, and donors, but her philanthropy extended beyond women’s rights, as “she supported many groups, particularly Indians and Sikhs wherever she encountered them,” per Hampton Court Palace.

Sophia was one of the leaders of the famous Black Friday march, walking with Pankhurst in a crowd of 300 from Caxton Hall to Parliament Square. The protest was met with violence and assaults from the police. As Anand wrote in an article for the British Library, at one point Sophia fought with a police officer for assaulting another suffragette, and also launched herself at Prime Minister Asquith’s car to push a ‘Votes for Women’ pamphlet as close to the leader as possible.

What You Need To Know About Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary

There’s currently no air date or cast list for Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary, but Anjli Mohindra can’t wait to bring Sophia – and Anand’s perspective of the princess – to life. “I have an immense amount of respect for Anita and I couldn’t put her book down,” the actor and writer said in a press release sent to Bustle.

“Singh’s real-life story really packs a punch and now feels like the right time to bring such a bold and historically game-changing woman centre stage.”

While you wait to see Sophia’s story unfold in Mohindra’s adaptation, there are plenty of resources where you can learn about her extraordinary life before the show comes out. Anand’s book, also titled Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary, is available in all good bookshops. The BBC journalist also narrated a documentary, which you can watch via the Sikh Museum Initiative, and led a lecture for Women’s History Month 2017 about her research into Sophia, which you can see here.