In 1839, Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab died and his empire was plunged into
chaos. Less than a decade later, weakened by internecine rivalry, Punjab fell
into the hands of the British. The ruler who signed away the kingdom and its
treasures, including the famed Koh-i-noor diamond, was the eleven-year-old
Duleep Singh, the youngest of Ranjit Singh’s acknowledged sons.
In this nuanced and poignant novel, Navtej Sarna tells the unusual story of the
last Maharaja of Punjab. Soon after the British annexed his kingdom, Duleep was
separated from his mother and his people, taken under British guardianship and
converted to Christianity. At sixteen, he was transported to