Memoirs of unusual princess Abida attract huge interest

At major bookstalls across the city, sales of the recently launched Memoirs of a Rebel Princess by Abida Sultaan, the female ruler and heir to the Indian principality of Bhopal, one of the largest of the princely states, who migrated to Pakistan during Partition giving up a vast inheritance and power, are stated to be high.

The book by the princess, who lived a largely low key life in the country over the last decade, until her death two years ago, has attracted huge interest, particularly among women fascinated by a life involving bareback horse riding, shooting and other skills not normally associated with princesses.

Abida Sultaan's son, former ambassador and foreign secretary Shahryar Mohammed Khan, one of the country's most senior diplomats who has recently been appointed to head the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has played a key part in the compilation of the book.

Shahrayar Khan has described his mother as an extraordinary woman, and explained that while she was brought up to expect power and privilege, she was never deterred from doing what she wanted to do.

After migrating to Pakistan, Sultaan mixed with the elite, but her heart was open to the poor of Malir in Karachi, where she lived.

Memoirs of a Rebel Princess was written with the help of a daily diary that the princess kept for 70 years.

Bhopal, as large as Salvador, was at one time the second most important Muslim state in India. It is also unusual in the sense that its history is dominated by powerful women, a fact discussed by Shahrayar Khan in an earlier book he wrote on the Begums of Bhopal.

The early part of Memoirs... describes Sultaan's childhood in Bhopal where her disciplinarian grandmother, Sultan Jahan Begum, gave her a thorough grounding in religion and traditional culture in addition to Western education, and encouraged her to be independent and to excel in skills considered to be the forte of men, including sword-fighting and archery.

Against a backdrop of the glittering era of the princely states, the book spans the internal political events of Bhopal and builds an eyewitness account of the collapse of princely India and the events surrounding Partition.

The book's centrepiece is Sultaan's decision to sacrifice her roots and heritage to migrate to Pakistan with her only son, Shaharyar Khan, in pursuit of Jinnah's ideal.

The second half of the memoirs charts her life in Pakistan, including time as ambassador to Brazil and her engagement in the fledgling nation's politics when she supported Fatima Jinnah's campaign against a military dictator.

Born in Bhopal in 1913, Princess Abida Sultaan was the eldest of three daughters born to Nawab Hamidullah Khan, the ruler of Bhopal.

Sultaan became heir apparent aged 15 and became the ruler of Bhopal in 1926. Expected to follow in the footsteps of the four famous Begums of Bhopal, who had so successfully ruled Bhopal for over a century, she received thorough training in administration, public dealing and statecraft. She was appointed chief secretary to the Nawab in 1930, and subsequently president of the cabinet.

Sultaan was an outstanding sportsperson. An all-India women's squash champion and an expert hockey, cricket and polo player, she invariably matched her skills against men.

She was a regular writer in the Pakistan press, defending democracy and carrying on her crusade against bigotry and the violation of human rights. She died in 2002 after a protracted illness.