It is the first of March 2022 and Ive just finished reading The Last Queen. Once in a while, there comes along an author, who, without being shrouded in the garb of intellectualism, gives you a nice admixture of history and fiction in her works. Chitra banerjee Divakaruni is one such author of recent times. She hones down on female characters (thus my special interest) from our history or mythical history (Sita, Draupadi). For more on the author visit her website HERE

The Last Queen,history aside, shines a spotlight on yet another female character – Rani Jindan of Punjab. I’m not very familiar with Maharaja Ranjit Singh, thanks to our Anglicized history textbooks which hardly give us a look into what actually went on in the different parts of our country while the British colonized and plundered us. But, the book is very entertaining without being boring while familiarizing us with the history of the time.

The book starts off as a romance novel (quite close to a Mills and Boon or even a Bollywood movie). A poor young girl, abused by her father falls in love with a king. She impresses the king in the most unlikeliest of ways – by befriending his beloved horse. The Maharaja falls in love with the young girl and sweeps her off her feet. Ofcourse, she cannot believe that he can ever love her (a poor lowly girl from the village) and he doesn’t want to express his love as he is so much older than her. The father tries to marry her off to a local merchant, who, incidentally is also far older than her (like the Maharaja). The brother helps her meet with the King one last time and she confesses her love for him and he promises to marry her when she comes of age. This is when the book takes a sharp turn away from the romance genre. She does marry the king but he isn’t present at his own marriage. She is married to his sword. (Married to the sword????? Really?????) Did all of this really happen in Ranjit Singh’s life? I am not qualified to judge the authenticity of events and quite frankly I haven’t taken the time to research any of it. But it does make for an interesting read.

Divakaruni makes the next part of the book even more interesting with the intrigues of the zenana taking forefront. Infighting amongst women can be nothing but interesting. Jindan has to deal with one enemy (Mai Naikkan) and in her fight is helped by a friend (Guddan) in the zenana. But this part of the book full of ostentations and riches, with banquets and wine flowing and dancing girls is quite whimsical and light. The machinations of the court don’t seem sinister and the reader somehow knows that Jindan will come out victorious. Again, did all of this actually happen? I don’t know.

The death of Ranjit Singh is where the book takes a turn towards the dark. The final chapter highlight the atrocities of the British and how India is lost to the colonizers because the Indian rulers could not put up a united front. Jindan’s years of isolation and her years in Nepal are a bit hurried. The author seems to be in a hurry to unite mother and son who have been unfairly separated by the British. And finally Jindan’s unwilling and sad stay in England and the unfair treatment meted out to her son as regards her cremation just highlights the discriminatory British policies.

I’d give this book 4.5 stars in Goodreads fashion 🙂 It is written in Divakaruni’s simple and ’easy to read’ style which I have come to love over the years. It does comprise of three distinct parts: the love story, the court intrigues and the loss of love and life in British occupied India. If your’e looking for something gripping yet light to read -pick up The Last Queen, you’ll not be disappointed.