I know I’m late and it took me ages to read due to my teaching degree but I have finally read @priyaatwal ‘s Royals and Rebels: The Rise and Fall of the Sikh Empire. A book I was eagerly awaiting for and had high hopes for. Priya did not only succeed but she nailed it and more!

I’m not going to talk all about the book because I don’t want to spoil it for others but the best things about the book is the new discourse and historiography that she is helping to create on the fall of the Sikh Empire - something I had never ever considered..

Is the patriarchy and sexism that had been growing from Ranjits time to his death a reason as to why the empire fell? This was such a surprise to me! On top of this I myself thought all his successors were pathetic it’s only now I have realised I am wrong.

In her book Priya has taught me how even I myself a Sikh, Punjabi, Indian have an oriental view on this thanks to British propaganda. Thanks to her extensive analysis she has demonstrated this isn’t the case and also my own self colonial mindset on my own history!

Lastly, my favourite thing of the book and it’s highlight for me is when Priya talks about Jindan Kaur. Someone who I deeply regret being critical about all the time. Jindan wasn’t some stupid traitor of a women who couldn’t get a job done instead her life is much more complex

In fact it’s deeply tragic and has made me go from not being able to stand her (thought she was a idiotic traitor) to indeed idolising her as a hero (although complex indeed) of my people. Not for her moral values necessarily but her ferocity and refusal to submit to Punjabi+

British patriarchy and men who formed a impossible tsunami against this sole women in her attempt to keep the heart of the Sikh Empire beating. Through the new sources analysed Jindan also appears much more complex and real than the mere 2d analysis people often give her.

Now I only have one thing left to say- clearly @priyaatwal has a deep understanding of Jindan and she writes about her with such empathy it makes the reader in awe of the Queen of the Sikhs. Can her next book please be a biography if the sources prove rich enough to make one?