Anita Anand Reihenfolge der Bücher (Chronologisch)

A gripping story of a twenty-year quest for revenge after one of the most horrific Raj atrocities.

The first comprehensive and authoritative history of the Koh-i Noor, arguably the most celebrated and mythologised jewel in the world. On 29 March 1849, the ten-year-old Maharajah of the Punjab was ushered into the magnificent Mirrored Hall at the centre of the great Fort in Lahore. There, in a public ceremony, the frightened but dignified child handed over to the British East India Company in a formal Act of Submission to Queen Victoria not only swathes of the richest land in India, but also arguably the single most valuable object in the subcontinent- the celebrated Koh-i Noor diamond. The Mountain of Light. The history of the Koh-i-Noor that was then commissioned by the British may have been one woven together from gossip of Delhi Bazaars, but it was to be become the accepted version. Only now is it finally challenged, freeing the diamond from the fog of mythology which has clung to it for so long. The resulting history is one of greed, murder, torture, colonialism and appropriation through an impressive slice of south and central Asian history. It ends with the jewel in its current controversial setting- in the crown of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Masterly, powerful and erudite, this is history at its most compelling and invigorating.

In 1876 Sophia Duleep Singh was born into royalty. Her father, Maharajah Duleep Singh, was heir to the Kingdom of the Sikhs--a realm that stretched from the lush Kashmir Valley to the craggy foothills of the Khyber Pass, and included the mighty cities of Lahore and Peshawar. It was a territory irresistible to the British, who plundered it of everything, including the fabled Koh-I-Noor diamond. Exiled to England, the dispossessed Maharajah transformed his estate at Elveden in Suffolk into a Moghul palace, stocked with leopards, monkeys, and exotic birds. Sophia, goddaughter of Queen Victoria, was raised a genteel aristocratic Englishwoman: presented at court, afforded lodgings at Hampton Court Palace, and photographed wearing the latest fashions. But when, in secret defiance of the British government, she traveled to India, she returned a revolutionary. Sophia devoted herself to battling injustice and inequality: Her causes were the struggle for Indian independence, the fate of the Lascars, the welfare of Indian soldiers in WWI--and, above all, the fight for female suffrage. She was bold and fearless, attacking politicians and swapping her silks for a nurse's uniform to tend wounded soldiers. Meticulously researched and passionately written, this enthralling story of the rise of women and the fall of an empire introduces an extraordinary individual and her role in the defining moments of recent British and Indian history.