Princess Abida Sultaan was a unique and extraordinary personality. Unique because she remains the only ruler or heir of a major Indian princely state to have migrated from India to Pakistan–sacrificing a life of comfort and security in pursuit of her ideals. Extraordinary because she was a woman of remarkable qualities and paradoxes. Her autobiography spans the glittering era of the princely states, in which Bhopal was second only to Hyderabad in importance among Muslim states, the end of the British Raj, and the emergence of Pakistan as a sovereign state. The center-piece of the book is her decision to sacrifice her roots and heritage to migrate to Pakistan where she lived in frugal and straitened circumstances in pursuit of Jinnah’s ideals. The book begins with her austere childhood in Bhopal where her illustrious grandmother, Sultan Jahan Begum, the fourth consecutive female ruler of Bhopal, instilled in her the values of Islam and of spotless integrity. Silently, the conservative Begum also encouraged Abida to be independent and to excel over her male cousins and acquaintances in the tradition of Bhopal’s famous Begums. As heir apparent, she helped her father in administering the state and also witnessed, first hand, the gradual demise of the princely states as the British Raj ended. Princess Abida also records her agonizing decision to leave her family and roots that stretched back fourteen generations to migrate to Pakistan with her only son, Shaharyar Mohammed Khan. Life in Pakistan forms the second half of the memoirs. She became Pakistan’s Ambassador to Brazil, and entered the political arena by supporting Miss Fatima Jinnah’s campaign against a military dictatorship. Throughout her life she remained a committed democrat and humanist, and continued her crusade against bigotry and the violation of human and democratic rights. This autobiography challenges the portrayal of Muslim women as silent, secluded, and oppressed. Princess Abida Sultaan’s memoirs will help in removing widespread misconceptions concerning the status of women in Islam.
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