Memoirs of a Rebel Princess

Princess Abida Sultaan was the only heir to a major Indian princely state to migrate to Pakistan. Her autobiography spans the glittering era of the princely states, the end of the British Raj, and the emergence of Pakistan. The book begins with her childhood in Bhopal where her grandmother, the fourth female ruler of Bhopal, instilled in Abida the values of Islam and of spotless integrity, and also encouraged her to be independent and to excel over her male cousins and acquaintances in the tradition of Bhopal’s Begums. As heir apparent, Princess Abida helped her father administer the state. The centre-piece of the book is her agonising decision to sacrifice her roots and heritage to migrate to Pakistan with her only son, Shaharyar Mohammed Khan. In Pakistan, she became Ambassador to Brazil. She entered the political arena by supporting Miss Fatima Jinnah’s presidential campaign. Throughout her life, she remained a committed democrat and humanist, and continued her crusades against bigotry, and the violation of human and democratic rights.