I read 95% of this book and stopped because the character seemed primarily driven by the plot rather than internal desires. ( )

When this book was doing rounds on the gram, one look at the cover made me want to push everything aside and read it.

I’m so glad I did!

The last queen is a historical/biographical fiction detailing the life of Rani Jindan Kaur of Punjab. When I say detail, I mean DETAIL! The book tells us everything starting from childhood up until the last day that the queen lived.

We hear so much about the male rulers we’ve had. When it comes to female rulers, we can pretty much count the stories on our fingers.

In lieu of complete transparency, I have never heard of Rani Jindan and if one of the goals the author had by writing the story was to get more people to know the Queen, she has won.

The story is divided into four parts - Girl, Bride, Queen, and Rebel.

I expected a triumphant woman who defied the prejudices of the society, fighting wars and ruling kingdoms. While she was everything that I mentioned above, she was also a woman that went from rags to riches becoming the youngest queen of Maharaja Ranjit Singh aka Sarkar, the Regent Queen when her son is set to rule at the tender age of five and back to rags, denied her pension once the British government takes over.

So, while it was all-powerful and joyous, it was also sad and depressing. What spoke to me most is how real the story was. No time was wasted in trying to glorify her life.

We learn about the rise and fall of the Empire, Raji Jindan’s relationships with her parents, her brother Jawahar, Guddan - a wife of Sarkars’ that she befriends, Mangla - her maid and ultimately her son - Dalip. We get a view of internal politics and how they make and break kingdoms.

The part I enjoyed the most was the one that takes place in Britain where her zeal and fire never die down in spite of the circumstances. She holds her ground and never gives up.

So while the story per se is not of someone winning and conquering, it is about someone who will inspire you to be yourself and never let anyone or anything bring you down!

Rating - 4/5 
 ( )

{stand alone; fiction, historical fiction, fictionalised history, Indian history} (2021)

This is the fictionalised story, told in the present tense and the first person by maharani Jindan Kaur, of the last queen of the Sikh empire from 1843 - 1846 beginning when she was 26 years old. She was the youngest wife of Ranjit Singh, the first maharajah, and the daughter of his kennel master. Reportedly stunningly beautiful, she married him at the age of eighteen. They had one son who was not expected to inherit the throne but, due in large part to fighting between different factions, he became the last maharajah of the Sikh empire at the age of five with Jindan as his regent. He was deposed at the age of ten and then exiled to Britain without his mother at the age of fifteen although they were reunited in the last few years of her life.

I read this for my real life bookclub. This falls somewhere between historical novel/ romance/ political commentary but, at just over three hundred pages in the e-book that I read, I didn't feel that it has the heft to do any one of the genres proper justice. It has the bones of a decent book but I found it rather light on details and explanations, or maybe I was just not pulled in to the story by the writing. For instance, it was only when the maharaja died - about halfway through the book - that the significance of the religions of his different wives was emphasised; I felt that, if it was significant, it should have been brought up earlier. I also felt that characters were introduced and disposed of as though we had met them before and should know who they are. And a lot of Indian words were used throughout the book without any explanation, as though we should know the meanings of them, which I found confusing and a bit alienating.

Jindan, as a character, is very bitter about the British and Divakaruni's writing reflects this bias. Given the subject matter, since the Sikh empire was consequently absorbed into the British empire, it is understandable but it does not make for a balanced accounting. Plus, although it was often pointed out that Jindan is remarkably intelligent and understood Ranjit Singh's strategies, which pleasantly surprised him, her actions - especially as queen regent - don't bear that out; they often seem badly thought out or vengeful. Although the story was hung on a historical framework I didn't feel that the parts that were (obviously) fictionalised (the descriptions of the protagonist falling in love with a man her father's age, for instance) fitted the facts very well or were given enough substance to make them believable.

I admit that I read this, in a bit of a rush, for our bookclub meeting over a month ago and I am writing this review from the notes I made then. It is not, therefore, a very cohesive review - but that can also be said about the book. It is a shame; the subject was interesting and it could have been a very good book with more background details, so the reader could understand more of the culture and the times, and if Jindan had been given more consistent treatment. I feel that Divakaruni tried to make the book mean too many things to too many audiences and, as a result, satisfies none of them. Possibly worth reading to pick out the facts - though you could get as much information from the internet.

October 2022
3 stars ( )

An interesting, historically fictionalized look at the life of the last Queen of the Sikh Empire, Jindan Singh (Jind Kaur). She rose to prominence from the lowly station of the daughter of the great Ranjit Singh's dog keeper. Catching the eye of the Maharaja, she becomes his last and most favorite wife. They have one son. After the death of her husband, and the mysterious and unexplained deaths of many of those in the line of succession, Jindan becomes the Regent for her son. The British occupation puts an end to her reign and forces her into exile.

While the book is very well written and captures the imagination, I think the author was a little enamored of her subject. It seems that Jindan could do no wrong. Granted, I'm not an expert by any means about Maharani Jindan, but everyone has faults. It seemed like the character in this book had none. It would have gone a long way towards making her even more human had we been treated to a fuller picture of the life of the last queen. ( )