I can’t remember where I heard of this book because I had it (and quite a few others) on hold at the library until one day, the library miraculously got one new copy of the ebook! In Search of Amrit Kaur is the story of a journey to find out more about someone whom we should know more of, but somehow information is lacking.
If you search for “Amrit Kaur” on Google, you’ll find references to a Canadian actress and her cousin, also named Amrit Kaur who was the first Indian woman minister in central ministry. What you won’t find is information about the Princess Amrit Kaur of Mandi, the daughter of Jagatjit Singh, unless you know her full name (i.e. add in “Of Mandi” at the back). So perhaps that’s why the author, Livia Manera Sambuy, was so intrigued by her. When she first learnt about Amrit Kaur, it was from a photo that talked about her as a woman who sold her jewels in Occupied Paris to save Jewish lives, was captured, and died in a concentration camp.
The truth, as we find out, is much more complicated and hard to find. Driven by the request from Amrit Kaur’s daughter, Bubbles, to visit her, Livia takes us along her search for more information on this elusive princess. As the title indicates, this book is about the search – while we do find out more about Amrit Kaur of Mandi, we never do get enough to cover a whole book about it. So the book weaves the information about Amrit with the ups and downs of finding that information, as well as background knowledge about society about that time. What I found interesting was that although the author is a central figure as the searcher in the story, she doesn’t feel very central; her personal struggles come in at the start and end, but the rest of the book is firmly on the search and background information. It feels like a change from books where the author’s personal growth is the main story (not to say there isn’t, the last chapter is definitely about her and her past, but it’s not what drives the whole narrative forward).
As someone who didn’t know anything about pre-WWII Indian society, it was fascinating to read about the last days of the rajas and ranis. For instance, Amrit Kaur’s father, Jagatjit Singh, was the Maharaja of of Kapurthala and was also a world-traveller and francophile who was very well-connected to Western society as well. I was reminded of people like Der Ling (who parlayed a stint as Cixi’s lady-in-waiting into a princess title and wrote many books, Oei Hui Lan (the first Chinese woman to fly a plane and the wife of Wellington Koo), and the others on my Crazy Rich Asians post. I always have this idea that our current level of globalisation is a very new phenomenon, but the lives of Amrit and her family remind me that the highest levels of society have mixed for much longer than I expected!
Overall, this was a fascinating book that gave me a different look into the last days of colonial India, before its independence. And more importantly, it introduced me to Amrit Kaur, a fascinating figure who straddled both Indian and Western society, and whose true feelings we will never know, although we might be able to guess at some of it.
Read This With
- As Equals: The Oei Women of Java by Daryl Yeap: Written by one of Tiong Ham’s descendants, As Equals is a great look into the life of Oei Hui Lan and her family and how she shifted between Western and Eastern society.
- Imperial Masquerade by Grant Hayter Menzies: For the extremely fun information about Der Ling’s growing up years, which made me realise just how cosmopolitan a childhood she had – It reminded me of Amrit’s childhood!
- City of Jinns by William Dalrymple: I’m afraid I don’t know very much about Indian history, but I enjoyed Darymple’s history of Delhi and it also covers subjects talked about in this book, most memorably, the Partition and the Anglo-Indians (my full review here).
Featured Image: Photo from Canva