God Save This Queen

There is very little that redeems Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s latest historical novel

- Kushalrani Gulab

Even the phrase ‘mixed feelings’ cannot describe your emotions when you read the last page of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Last Queen.

On the one hand, you’re grateful to have read a novel about Rani Jindan, the last wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab, queen regent of a state in turmoil after the maharaja’s death, and mother of Dalip Singh, who was deprived of his throne by the British and transplanted in England. While much is written about Ranjit and Dalip, few histories go into the story of Rani Jindan, a village girl far from royal stock whose intelligence, bravery and resilience made her a true queen.

On the other hand, when you finish the book, you’re seriously annoyed with the author. Because here is a story that could have been magnificent, and yet the author did little more than follow the skeleton of the Wikipedia entry on Jindan in terms of history, adding precious little insight into both the time period and Jindan’s psychology as she fleshed out her novel.