A high-society darling - the story of Sikh Warrior Princess-Sophia Duleep Singh.

Sophia Duleep Singh was born on 8 August 1876, at Belgravia and lived in Suffolk. She was the third daughter of Maharaja Duleep Singh (the last Maharaja of the Sikh Empire) the granddaughter of the warrior-king Ranjit Singh. (The Sikh Empire)

Princess Sophia was almost an international star . An exotic Indian princess, Queen Victoria's goddaughter, a high-society darling...each of her moves followed closely by the world media.

Headstrong: the trouble-making diva Princess Sophia Robert Kybird

Just one prohibited trip to India was to change it all — .Sophia travelled to India in secret as a young woman and this experience changed her. She returned to England as a radical, beginning a life-long battle to bring about social justice and equality in her country. Sophia not only became involved in battles for women's rights, but also fought tirelessly for Indian independence,

Princess Sophia, was a member of the Women’s Social and Political Union. She campaigned for votes for women nationally as well as locally in Richmond and Kingston-upon-Thames. She was often seen selling the newspaper The Suffragette outside Hampton Court Palace where she lived - her father had been close to Queen Victoria, and the family were given the use of the Palace’s apartment rooms.On 18 November 1910, known as ‘Black Friday’, she led a 400-strong demonstration to parliament together with Mrs Pankhurst. As clashes broke out between the police and protestors, over 150 women were physically assaulted.

Sophia was not the only Indian suffragette. An Indian women’s group took part in the 1911 coronation procession of 60,000 suffragettes.

Sophia is shown selling The Suffragette outside her lodgings at Hampton Court Palace.

Sophia also belonged to the Women’s Tax Resistance League, whose slogan was ‘No Vote, No Tax’. Her refusal to pay tax led to her prosecution several times and some of her valuable possessions were impounded. A committed campaigner for women’s rights and an active fundraiser, she was often seen selling the newspaper The Suffragette outside Hampton Court Palace.

On 14 June 1928 Singh became president of the Committee of the Suffragette Fellowship after the death of founder Emmeline Pankhurst. During her term, royal consent was given to the Equal Franchise Act enabling women over age 21 to vote on a par with men. In the 1934 edition of Who's Who, Sophia described her life's purpose as "the advancement of women". She espoused causes of equality and justice far removed from her royal background, and played a significant role at a crucial point in the history of England and India.

Her biographer Anita Anand feels that is where sadness lay. "She was a maternal creature with no children of her own. She never had a family of her own, choosing the suffragettes above all else. For her impertinence, the British squeezed her income and more sinisterly set about erasing her from history. I would say that is suffering enough. But I think she would have looked back on her battle scars with pride. Were it not for her and women like her, the world would have been more different, much uglier," she sums.

Source - The Internet.