h daughter-in-law, with whom she
very close, “persuaded her and
took her to England”.
Rani Kaniz Abid’s daughter-in-
law Vijaya Khan, the present Rani of
Mahmudabad, hails from a renowned
family of Udaipur—the daughter of
former foreign secretary Jagat Singh
Mehta. Interestingly, in spite of the
difference in religion, the cultural
context of both places was surprisingly
similar. Rama Mehta, the present
Rani’s mother, in her book Inside
The Haveli, has described vividly
the separate zenana and mardana
sections, and the various regulations
within her marital home in Udaipur.
Although the book is a fictionalized
account based on her own life, it
depicts real places and the real culture
of the times.
Restrictions upon women existed
uniformly across religions and
geographies. And it was considered a
way of ‘honouring’ the women of the
nobility, by not letting a commoner
have the privilege of setting eyes upon
them. In practice, however, it became
oppressive. But Rani Kaniz Abid, the
queen who couldn’t stand cages, subtly
and gently unlocked the gates of thewas the heir-apparent, passed away
at a very young age, and her father,
heartbroken and overcome by grief,
followed just three months later. Eight
months on, her mother too passed
on, leaving her and her three sisters
orphaned. As the eldest, Kaniz
Abid was to become the t
Rani according to the
rules of primogeniture,
but she was still a Rani-
in-waiting until she came of ge.
During this time she and her sisters
were confined to a house where a
British collector supervised every
aspect of their lives. For her, that was
the beginning of life in the usaara. A
life of virtual imprisonment. That was
also the beginning of her realization
of what it meant to long for freedom,
which she never lost even as the
Rani of Bilehra.R
eminiscing, the Raja speaks
of his mother’s deep religious
convictions. But her spirituality
was not in conflict with her
championing of freedom. As a Rani
who commanded power and respect,
her life, she felt, remained cloistered
in the usaara by patriarchy. And yet,
she voluntarily chose never to reveal
her face in public. The Raja recalls
that for most of her life, his mother
would insist on remaining purdah
nashin*. In fact, her first passport had
no photograph for identification, only
a note saying purdah nashin! It was
only much later that she agreed, whenMemory RoomReadeRsdigest.co.in 93EVEN AS A RANI, WITH
POWER AND RESPECT,
SHE WAS CLOISTERED
BY PATRIARCHY.*A woman who remains veiled in public in accordance
with the practice of purdahonly much later that she agreed, whenher daughter-in-law, with whom she
was very close, “persuaded her and
took her to England”.orphaned. As the eldest, Kaniz
Abid was to become the nextin-waiting until she came of age.Memory RoomEVEN AS A RANI, WITH