After luncheon we received the young Maharajah Duleep Singh…. He was baptised last year so he is a Christian. He is extremely handsome and speaks English perfectly and has a pretty, graceful and dignified manner….This young prince….deposed when a little boy of ten, he is as innocent as any individual of the misdeeds which compelled us to take possession of his territories. I always feel sorry for these poor deposed Indian princes.'

Journal of Queen Victoria (1st July 1854) describing the fifteen-year-old Duleep Singh.

Critically acclaimed theatre company Mehtab presents The Maharajah’s Daughters, a deeply compelling story of two Punjabi princesses—the daughters of the last ruler of the Punjab—reconciling the death of their father and their search for identity, against the rich and extraordinary backdrop of colonial Britain and the Jewel in the Crown.

Beginning in 1893 and drawing to an end in 1948, this stunning historical piece charts the real life tale of the sparky, fraught relationship of two sisters who are brought up as 'society' ladies and Indian princesses as they struggle to define their place and identity during the decline of colonial traditions and the rise of Indian nationalism.

Yet, even though he is absent, at the heart of the play is the story of the girls’ dead father, Duleep Singh, the last Sikh Maharajah of the Punjab, and how his daughters set out to break the traditions he set upon them. Sophia is an active suffragette who nevertheless disapproves of Catherine's lesbian relationship with her German governess but her own relationship with a British Colonial officer becomes increasingly strained as the First World War looms.

Duleep Singh’s powerful story represents the India of their past. After the state was torn apart with the fight for succession, Duleep ruled briefly before the English took full control. He was deposed to Britain where he was christianised and the Establishment financially compensated for the loss of his kingdom, enabling him to live well as a country gentlemen with his five children and Indian wife.

But after battling with the foreign office over his interest in London life – namely his gambling and the Alhambra Theatre, the Moulin Rouge of Leicester Square - he re-adopted the Sikh religion, unsuccessfully returned to his homeland before leaving his wife and children to return to England while he went to Paris. On the continent, he made floundering attempts to regain his position in the Punjab but to no avail. From the time of his death, the Establishment began to keep a watchful eye on both Sophie and Katherine, in case they should follow in their father’s troublesome political footsteps…

Top