0:00:02 > 0:00:06London, November the 18th, 1910.
0:00:07 > 0:00:10In this building, a group of women were about to
0:00:10 > 0:00:14demand the vote in their most impassioned protest yet...
0:00:15 > 0:00:19..a protest so brutal, it would be remembered as Black Friday.
0:00:23 > 0:00:27This place was jam-packed with suffragettes festooned with
0:00:27 > 0:00:31enormous banners screaming slogans like Deeds Not Words,
0:00:31 > 0:00:33Arise! Go Forth & Conquer.
0:00:34 > 0:00:36And, though the women didn't know it at the time,
0:00:36 > 0:00:38they were about to make history.
0:00:39 > 0:00:42Led by the formidable Emmeline Pankhurst,
0:00:42 > 0:00:45they were preparing to march on Parliament...
0:00:46 > 0:00:48..to confront the Prime Minister.
0:00:50 > 0:00:53But behind Emmeline, one suffragette stood out,
0:00:53 > 0:00:56a brown face in a sea of white.
0:00:58 > 0:01:01Her name was Sophia Duleep Singh
0:01:01 > 0:01:05and, in 1910, she was as close to an international celebrity
0:01:05 > 0:01:08as it was possible to be,
0:01:08 > 0:01:13a princess of the Punjab, goddaughter of Queen Victoria
0:01:13 > 0:01:17and revolutionary fighter for equality and justice.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22As a political journalist, I thought I knew
0:01:22 > 0:01:25the story of the suffragettes,
0:01:25 > 0:01:27but I didn't know about a woman,
0:01:27 > 0:01:30a descendent of Indian royalty, who was pivotal
0:01:30 > 0:01:34in the struggle that helped shift the balance of power in Britain.
0:01:34 > 0:01:36Order, order!
0:01:38 > 0:01:42Sophia was an extraordinary woman who took on the giants
0:01:42 > 0:01:46of male Edwardian society with an unrelenting ferocity.
0:01:47 > 0:01:51Well, Winston Churchill, he doesn't take kindly to being written to
0:01:51 > 0:01:54by a suffragette with her rank and her background.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57He's humiliated, he's embarrassed, he's annoyed.
0:01:58 > 0:02:02I've spent the last five years uncovering Sophia's life
0:02:02 > 0:02:03and I've come to believe that
0:02:03 > 0:02:07she's one of the most inspirational figures in British politics.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11Life changed for us.
0:02:11 > 0:02:13And it changed because of people like Sophia.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18The granddaughter of the greatest Sikh Maharajah in history,
0:02:18 > 0:02:22she rebelled against her genteel upbringing to fight
0:02:22 > 0:02:24for the ideals of her Indian forefathers.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29Princess Sophia Duleep Singh carries that Sikh ideology
0:02:29 > 0:02:33of righteousness, helping the weak and the oppressed.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37In the week when Sikhs across the world are celebrating the birth
0:02:37 > 0:02:39of their founder, Guru Nanak,
0:02:39 > 0:02:43this is the story of their warrior princess.
0:02:53 > 0:02:56It was to the privileged world of the aristocracy that
0:02:56 > 0:03:00Princess Sophia Duleep Singh was born in the Summer of 1876.
0:03:03 > 0:03:07She spent her childhood in a Suffolk mansion known as Elveden.
0:03:08 > 0:03:13'The house now belongs to the 4th Earl of Iveagh, Edward Guinness.'
0:03:13 > 0:03:16Oh, look at this! What a beautiful room.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19This is the house that Duleep Singh built.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22This is what it would have looked like when Sophia lived here?
0:03:22 > 0:03:25That's absolutely right and the children would have lived
0:03:25 > 0:03:27on the top floor, I believe, with the governess.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33Sophia was one of seven children.
0:03:33 > 0:03:37Her mother, the Maharani Bamba, was unsophisticated and pious,
0:03:37 > 0:03:40but her father, the Maharajah Duleep Singh,
0:03:40 > 0:03:44was a master of making the world they grew up in magical.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49Let's talk about the gardens, cos we see the monkeys and
0:03:49 > 0:03:51I read about a leopard pen
0:03:51 > 0:03:54somewhere underneath where the children's quarters were.
0:03:54 > 0:03:58I mean, you know, we wake up, maybe, if we're lucky, to birdsong,
0:03:58 > 0:04:00but she would've woken up to growling?
0:04:00 > 0:04:03It would be quite a deterrent for bad behaviour, wouldn't it?
0:04:03 > 0:04:05That's true! That is true.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08It would have been a stunning place, wouldn't it?
0:04:08 > 0:04:11And I would've thought a really lovely place for a childhood.
0:04:12 > 0:04:16'And the menagerie of birds and animals outside the house
0:04:16 > 0:04:20'was nothing compared to what lay within.'
0:04:20 > 0:04:24So this is the staircase that the Maharajah built
0:04:24 > 0:04:26as the centrepiece of his hall.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32Duleep Singh transformed what was once a sober country mansion
0:04:32 > 0:04:35into nothing less than a Maharajah's palace.
0:04:39 > 0:04:43But the architectural splendour disguised a less salubrious story.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50Behind the magnificence was a tale of British imperialism
0:04:50 > 0:04:52and a mighty kingdom crushed.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59Duleep Singh's father, Ranjit Singh, had been one of the most
0:04:59 > 0:05:03charismatic and successful leaders in Sikh history.
0:05:05 > 0:05:09His kingdom in the Punjab was both peaceful and prosperous
0:05:09 > 0:05:12and his riches were the stuff of legend.
0:05:14 > 0:05:19But after his death, his land and wealth were seized by the British.
0:05:20 > 0:05:24His only remaining heir, Sophia's father, still only a boy,
0:05:24 > 0:05:27was forced to give up his kingdom
0:05:27 > 0:05:31and, in 1854, he was exiled to England.
0:05:34 > 0:05:37His charm and beauty made him a favourite of Queen Victoria
0:05:37 > 0:05:40and he was given an income by the Realm.
0:05:42 > 0:05:47But his elaborate styling of Elveden is a reminder that he never
0:05:47 > 0:05:50came to terms with the loss of his inheritance.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56It feels like India.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00This is the corner of the house that just screams of the Court of Lahore
0:06:00 > 0:06:03and would have, I guess, reminded him so much of his childhood
0:06:03 > 0:06:05and everything that he had left behind.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09Much of it is mirrored on the architecture of the Court of Lahore
0:06:09 > 0:06:14and he was, of course, really exiled, effectively,
0:06:14 > 0:06:18um, and brought here to spend his time
0:06:18 > 0:06:22and his family's time here, bearing no threat to the British Empire.
0:06:24 > 0:06:28'In fact, behind the magnificent facade,
0:06:28 > 0:06:32'Duleep Singh was mired in debt and deeply unhappy.'
0:06:33 > 0:06:36When Sophia was only 11 years old, her father, the Maharajah,
0:06:36 > 0:06:41made a doomed attempt to take back his kingdom, but when that failed,
0:06:41 > 0:06:44he jettisoned his wife, he jettisoned his children
0:06:44 > 0:06:48and he moved to Paris to make a new life with his new mistress.
0:06:50 > 0:06:54Bamba never recovered from her husband's desertion...
0:06:56 > 0:06:58..and her children watched, powerless,
0:06:58 > 0:07:00as she drank herself to oblivion.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04Within a year, she was dead
0:07:04 > 0:07:07and she was buried here, in the nearby churchyard.
0:07:10 > 0:07:11Six years later,
0:07:11 > 0:07:17in 1893, Duleep Singh died alone and destitute in France.
0:07:18 > 0:07:23Sophia had suffered so much loss in her young life and,
0:07:23 > 0:07:26without her father, there was absolutely no way the family were
0:07:26 > 0:07:28going to hold on to Elveden,
0:07:28 > 0:07:32the only home she'd ever known, a home that she had truly loved.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36She and her siblings were forced to let it go.
0:07:38 > 0:07:43Timid, awkward and devastated by the loss of her parents,
0:07:43 > 0:07:48Sophia was far from the political rebel she would eventually become.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52But in 1894, she moved to London, where she would be transformed
0:07:52 > 0:07:56from shy teenager to paparazzi princess.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04It was Sophia's godmother, Queen Victoria,
0:08:04 > 0:08:06who came to the family's rescue.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09On the edge of Hampton Court, she gave Sophia
0:08:09 > 0:08:12and her two sisters a grace and favour residence,
0:08:12 > 0:08:15which Sophia would call home for the rest of her life.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20And it was from here, on the 8th May, 1895,
0:08:20 > 0:08:24that, in a flurry of silks and pearls and ostrich feathers,
0:08:24 > 0:08:27the three prepared themselves for their debut,
0:08:27 > 0:08:31their entry into English high aristocratic society.
0:08:40 > 0:08:43As they made their way across London, the girls were so nervous,
0:08:43 > 0:08:45and why? Well, because they were heading
0:08:45 > 0:08:48to Buckingham Palace, alongside 150
0:08:48 > 0:08:52of the most well-connected aristocratic ladies of Britain.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56They were to be presented before the Queen,
0:08:56 > 0:08:58an opportunity that was a golden ticket
0:08:58 > 0:09:01to the most fashionable parties in the land.
0:09:01 > 0:09:05And I'm going to meet a man who has a unique reminder of that day,
0:09:05 > 0:09:08which gives us a glimpse into the new London life
0:09:08 > 0:09:11Sophia had begun to lead.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14So what I have here is the actual gloves
0:09:14 > 0:09:18which Sophia wore when she was a debutante...
0:09:18 > 0:09:20- No, way!- ..to Queen Victoria.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25Hang on, we're talking about the gloves in this picture?
0:09:25 > 0:09:26These are the actual gloves
0:09:26 > 0:09:29you can see Sophia wearing on the right-hand side.
0:09:29 > 0:09:31- That's very exciting! Can I take them out?- Sure.
0:09:33 > 0:09:36- Oh, Peter, they fit perfectly! - Slightly longer...- No, no, no!
0:09:36 > 0:09:38We can deal with that. That's fine.
0:09:38 > 0:09:40But they are the height of elegance.
0:09:40 > 0:09:44I mean, everything about her in this part of her life was elegant.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46Oh, she was a fashionable lady of her time.
0:09:46 > 0:09:49She was featured in all the high-society magazines
0:09:49 > 0:09:50and glam mags of the day.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53And she's featured in even the Ladies Kennel Journals,
0:09:53 > 0:09:56which had a fabulous write-up about the princess.
0:09:56 > 0:09:57Because her dogs won competitions?
0:09:57 > 0:10:00Oh, award-winning. Her dogs even went to Crufts.
0:10:00 > 0:10:04What I also love is that her sisters just teased her mercilessly
0:10:04 > 0:10:07about this and poked fun of her latest photo spread
0:10:07 > 0:10:10whereas the whole of London would be gripped by what is
0:10:10 > 0:10:12she going to do next and what's she going to be wearing?
0:10:12 > 0:10:15She was young, she was of royal lineage,
0:10:15 > 0:10:16she was an international celebrity.
0:10:16 > 0:10:20People loved reading about her in the media, in the papers.
0:10:20 > 0:10:22She had the whole world at her feet.
0:10:23 > 0:10:24Frivolous and unassuming,
0:10:24 > 0:10:29Sophia's life had become a whirlwind of parties and photo shoots.
0:10:36 > 0:10:38But she was about to travel to India
0:10:38 > 0:10:41and, for the first time, be confronted
0:10:41 > 0:10:43by all her family had lost.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49She would leave London a high-society darling
0:10:49 > 0:10:51and return a revolutionary.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59Here, in the British Library, there is a forgotten treasure
0:10:59 > 0:11:04which gives us a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a princess
0:11:04 > 0:11:07and the reasons behind Sophia's transformation
0:11:07 > 0:11:11from darling of the aristocracy to pioneering rebel.
0:11:11 > 0:11:15These documents are absolutely riveting, because they give you
0:11:15 > 0:11:19a real insight into the impact that India had on Sophia.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21I'm looking at a diary that she kept
0:11:21 > 0:11:24on her second visit to the country in 1906
0:11:24 > 0:11:28and, in it, she catalogues some of the experiences that made her
0:11:28 > 0:11:31change the entire direction of her life.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40Sophia and her sister, Bamba, travelled across the Punjab
0:11:40 > 0:11:42and she was brought face-to-face with the people
0:11:42 > 0:11:45and the land that were once her family's.
0:11:47 > 0:11:50The reaction she received from the poor in particular
0:11:50 > 0:11:53made her realise just what an extraordinary leader
0:11:53 > 0:11:56her grandfather, Ranjit Singh, must have been.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02In this entry from Monday, January the 14th,
0:12:02 > 0:12:04she writes about an experience that she and Bamba had when they
0:12:04 > 0:12:09travelled to a river near Lahore to see a total eclipse of the sun.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14And she talks about being surrounded by thousands of people who
0:12:14 > 0:12:16made their way to the river to bathe.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22"As we stopped to watch the people,
0:12:22 > 0:12:25"a crowd began to collect around us as we walked
0:12:25 > 0:12:27"and I heard lots of people saying who we were."
0:12:29 > 0:12:33The murmur of "Ranjit Singh! Ranjit Singh!" echoed around them.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38Everywhere she went, Sophia was recognised as the descendent
0:12:38 > 0:12:41of the great Maharajah
0:12:41 > 0:12:45and regaled with stories of her grandfather's passion for justice
0:12:45 > 0:12:47and championing of religious unity.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53Time and again, she was struck by just how much her grandfather
0:12:53 > 0:12:56and his Sikh empire meant to the people of Punjab.
0:12:59 > 0:13:02But she was also struck by the poverty
0:13:02 > 0:13:07and unhappiness of the people under British rule. Her trip
0:13:07 > 0:13:11coincided with a growing political movement for Indian independence
0:13:11 > 0:13:14and Sophia began to spend time with its leaders.
0:13:15 > 0:13:19She talks about meeting |Gokhale and Lajpat Rai - two of the most
0:13:19 > 0:13:24notorious nationalists who were utterly feared by the British.
0:13:24 > 0:13:26And she talks about hearing them speak.
0:13:26 > 0:13:28Lajpat Rai in particular, she says,
0:13:28 > 0:13:33"His speech was beautiful, forcible, sensible.
0:13:33 > 0:13:37"He talked about how little land was being cultivated
0:13:37 > 0:13:42"now as compared to what was in older times," and, by older times, he meant
0:13:42 > 0:13:46the times of the Sikh Kingdom, when everybody had enough to eat.
0:13:46 > 0:13:51But it was what Rai said to the sisters that touched Sophia most.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55Lajpat Rai paused for a moment and he made everybody listen.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58And he said, "Turn around and look at these two,"
0:13:58 > 0:14:03and he gestured to Sophia and Bamba. He introduced them as,
0:14:03 > 0:14:06"the granddaughters of the Lion of Punjab."
0:14:06 > 0:14:08"And I turned crimson," she writes.
0:14:08 > 0:14:10"I didn't know what to do."
0:14:10 > 0:14:14Such attention mortified her, but it also deeply touched her,
0:14:14 > 0:14:20because it told her just how important her family was, not just
0:14:20 > 0:14:24in Punjab because they were royalty, but as a symbol of resistance.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29The meeting ended fraught with tension.
0:14:29 > 0:14:33The ruling British were terrified of a potential rebellion
0:14:33 > 0:14:35that might be triggered by the presence
0:14:35 > 0:14:38of the descendants of the Maharajah they had deposed.
0:14:40 > 0:14:42And it was a defining moment for Sophia.
0:14:44 > 0:14:48Facing the stark reality of the injustices inflicted on the people
0:14:48 > 0:14:52her family had once ruled, she was filled with a revolutionary fervour.
0:14:54 > 0:14:56This Punjabi princess had discovered
0:14:56 > 0:14:59her grandfather's Sikh warrior spirit...
0:15:01 > 0:15:03..a spirit that was about to find a cause
0:15:03 > 0:15:06she would spend the rest of her life fighting for.
0:15:11 > 0:15:14As Sophia returned to London, she was determined to move
0:15:14 > 0:15:19beyond her frivolous past and seek a purpose worthy of her ancestry.
0:15:21 > 0:15:25And it was prejudice faced by her own family that provided her
0:15:25 > 0:15:27with a focus for her passions.
0:15:28 > 0:15:33In 1900, Sophia's sister, Bamba, went to Chicago to train as a doctor...
0:15:35 > 0:15:39..but halfway through her studies, the university declared women were
0:15:39 > 0:15:41incapable of the intricacies of surgery
0:15:41 > 0:15:45and the course was cancelled, crushing Bamba's ambitions.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51Meanwhile, her sister, Catherine, had fallen in love with a woman
0:15:51 > 0:15:55and was living an unconventional life in Germany.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58As Sophia started to notice her own sisters
0:15:58 > 0:16:02struggling for acceptance, it began to really matter to her
0:16:02 > 0:16:06just how little control women had of their own destinies.
0:16:09 > 0:16:14She'd found her purpose - the fight for equality.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17And it was to Emmeline Pankhurst's
0:16:17 > 0:16:21Women's Society for Social and Political Union, the WSPU,
0:16:21 > 0:16:23that Sophia was drawn.
0:16:25 > 0:16:29They believed the only way women would gain control of their lives
0:16:29 > 0:16:32was by having a voice in politics.
0:16:32 > 0:16:34Sophia was gripped...
0:16:35 > 0:16:40..and it wasn't long before she got a chance to show her public support.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47Parliament Square - home of British democracy.
0:16:49 > 0:16:53Yet on the 18th November, 1910, the setting for one of the most
0:16:53 > 0:16:57shocking scenes of brutality against the suffragettes.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05For Sophia, the day began half a mile away at Caxton Hall.
0:17:05 > 0:17:07On Friday, November the 18th, the WSPU
0:17:07 > 0:17:10were waiting to hear what the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith,
0:17:10 > 0:17:13was going to do about the Conciliation Bill which,
0:17:13 > 0:17:16if successful, would have given some women the vote.
0:17:16 > 0:17:20'Di Atkinson is a historian of the women's suffrage movement.'
0:17:20 > 0:17:23It would've been the first step in a series of steps, they hoped, which
0:17:23 > 0:17:27would enfranchise the entire female population over the age of 21.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33But the Prime Minister was a firm opponent of votes for women
0:17:33 > 0:17:35and refused even to discuss the bill.
0:17:38 > 0:17:42As news of his decision reached the suffragettes, emotions ran high.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48Mrs Pankhurst and a deputation of a dozen of the most celebrated
0:17:48 > 0:17:51suffragettes began to march on Parliament.
0:17:53 > 0:17:55It was the rock star contingent, wasn't it?
0:17:55 > 0:17:58The most famous suffragettes of the day.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01They were 12 of the most famous women of their day
0:18:01 > 0:18:04and, of course, she took Princess Sophia Duleep Singh.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09This, surely, must have been a propaganda coup, to have
0:18:09 > 0:18:13somebody like Sophia leading a march like this?
0:18:13 > 0:18:15I mean, for a woman of her standing, her rank, her background,
0:18:15 > 0:18:19her connections, to be marching ahead of everybody else,
0:18:19 > 0:18:23this would have been seen to be treacherous behaviour.
0:18:23 > 0:18:27Hundreds of suffragettes converged on Parliament Square,
0:18:27 > 0:18:30but they were met by a wall of 1,000 policemen.
0:18:35 > 0:18:37Emmeline's deputation was surrounded
0:18:37 > 0:18:42and what ensued was unlike anything Sophia had ever seen before.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48They were being constantly thrown back,
0:18:48 > 0:18:54kicked and punched, thrown to the ground, crushed by police horses
0:18:54 > 0:18:57and, in at least 30 different cases, sexually assaulted.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06The brutal scenes unfolding before her had a profound effect on Sophia.
0:19:07 > 0:19:10And when she saw a policeman repeatedly smashing
0:19:10 > 0:19:15a woman against the pavement, she could no longer contain her anger.
0:19:15 > 0:19:17She put herself physically between the policeman
0:19:17 > 0:19:19and the suffragette to make him stop.
0:19:20 > 0:19:22And that was very brave indeed,
0:19:22 > 0:19:25because she didn't know what this man was going to do.
0:19:25 > 0:19:30The policeman recognised Sophia and fled...
0:19:32 > 0:19:35..but not before she'd recorded his badge number,
0:19:35 > 0:19:41V700, and she wasn't about to let such behaviour go unchallenged.
0:19:42 > 0:19:44So look, Di, this is a copy of the letter of complaint
0:19:44 > 0:19:47that Sophia writes after Black Friday.
0:19:47 > 0:19:50And look, here is Constable V700.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53"He pushed a poor exhausted lady, so she fell on her hands and knees."
0:19:53 > 0:19:56And it goes through so many important hands -
0:19:56 > 0:19:58the Commissioner of Police,
0:19:58 > 0:20:02goes through another senior police officer's hand and then...
0:20:02 > 0:20:06Winston Spencer-Churchill, WSC. Why was he getting involved?
0:20:06 > 0:20:08Why was he so angry about this?
0:20:08 > 0:20:12Well, Winston Churchill's the Home Secretary, and there are
0:20:12 > 0:20:15so many complaints and so much stuff in the press about Churchill
0:20:15 > 0:20:19and his handling of this situation that he doesn't take kindly
0:20:19 > 0:20:21to being written to by a suffragette -
0:20:21 > 0:20:24certainly, somebody with her rank and her background.
0:20:24 > 0:20:28He's humiliated, he's embarrassed, he's annoyed.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31And it takes him a month but finally, he just says, right, that's it.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34"Send no further reply to her."
0:20:34 > 0:20:36He just has had enough
0:20:36 > 0:20:37and he draws a line under it
0:20:37 > 0:20:40and hopes that's going to be the end of the matter.
0:20:40 > 0:20:44But Churchill had underestimated Sophia's determination.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48The granddaughter of the greatest Sikh Maharajah in history
0:20:48 > 0:20:50wasn't prepared to be ignored.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54And her next target wasn't just the Home Secretary,
0:20:54 > 0:20:57but the Prime Minister himself.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04On the 6th of February, 1911, the streets of London were packed with
0:21:04 > 0:21:08people straining to see the carriage of King George V
0:21:08 > 0:21:12as it headed towards Westminster for the State Opening of Parliament.
0:21:14 > 0:21:17At Number 10, the suffragettes' enemy number one,
0:21:17 > 0:21:19Herbert Asquith,
0:21:19 > 0:21:22was preparing to make his way to the House of Commons.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29Outside Downing street, the police certainly saw Sophia...
0:21:31 > 0:21:35..but they didn't register any threat and, really, why would they?
0:21:35 > 0:21:38Finely-dressed lady, wide-brim hat tipped over her face,
0:21:38 > 0:21:40she just seemed like any of the number of people
0:21:40 > 0:21:43who'd gathered here to wave the Prime Minister on his way.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48But as Asquith got into his chauffeur-driven car,
0:21:48 > 0:21:51the princess sprang into action.
0:21:51 > 0:21:53Sophia broke away from the group of bystanders
0:21:53 > 0:21:56and pulled out a poster from the expensive fur muff
0:21:56 > 0:22:00that she was wearing and dashed headlong at Asquith's car,
0:22:00 > 0:22:03slamming her body and her bit of paper against the window
0:22:03 > 0:22:05where he couldn't avoid but see it.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09The police came, they lifted her up,
0:22:09 > 0:22:13they carried her off as she screamed suffragette slogans at him.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15The bit of paper had one simple message.
0:22:15 > 0:22:21It said Votes For Women. He sat there, fuming.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26It had all the makings of a royal scandal -
0:22:26 > 0:22:28Queen Victoria's goddaughter arrested
0:22:28 > 0:22:31on the very day of her grandson's speech in Parliament.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36Sophia had put the authorities in an impossible position.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38What are they supposed to do?
0:22:38 > 0:22:41Are they meant to arrest her and cause a scandal by doing so
0:22:41 > 0:22:44or do they just pretend the whole thing had never happened?
0:22:46 > 0:22:50In the end, Sophia was released without charge...
0:22:53 > 0:22:54..but she wasn't about to back down...
0:22:56 > 0:23:00..this time even putting her freedom on the line for her beliefs.
0:23:04 > 0:23:07On the 30th of December, 1913,
0:23:07 > 0:23:09Princess Sophia was summoned here
0:23:09 > 0:23:11to face prosecution.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14She'd refused to pay her taxes.
0:23:14 > 0:23:18She had two dogs, a groom, a carriage - all of which required
0:23:18 > 0:23:22licences and none of which she had any intention of paying.
0:23:23 > 0:23:27Sophia had become a supporter of the Tax Resistance League,
0:23:27 > 0:23:30suffragettes who refused to contribute financially
0:23:30 > 0:23:33to a state which wouldn't give them the vote.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37If she failed to pay, she risked prison.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43Up until now, Sophia had felt far too shy to speak at suffragette events.
0:23:43 > 0:23:45But this was different.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48After the Inland Revenue presented its case,
0:23:48 > 0:23:51she rose and she addressed the court.
0:23:53 > 0:23:55"I am unable conscientiously to
0:23:55 > 0:23:59"pay money to the state, as I am not allowed to exercise any control
0:23:59 > 0:24:01"over its expenditure.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04"Neither am I allowed any voice in the choosing of
0:24:04 > 0:24:08"Members of Parliament, whose salaries I have helped to pay.
0:24:09 > 0:24:11"This is very unjustified.
0:24:13 > 0:24:15"When the women of England are enfranchised
0:24:15 > 0:24:18"and the state acknowledges me as a citizen,
0:24:18 > 0:24:23"I shall, of course, pay my share willingly towards its upkeep.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27"If I am not a fit person for the purpose of representation,
0:24:27 > 0:24:31"why am I a fit person for taxation?"
0:24:32 > 0:24:35It was an act of immense personal bravery.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41The judge ruled that she shouldn't be imprisoned, but he did impose a fine.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44And a week later, bailiffs charged into her house
0:24:44 > 0:24:48and confiscated some of her most precious jewellery. Diamonds, pearls.
0:24:48 > 0:24:51Sophia faced them unflinchingly.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00Even though she knew she might lose her possessions, her home,
0:25:00 > 0:25:03even her freedom, Sophia never gave up
0:25:03 > 0:25:06her fight for the cause she so passionately believed in.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16It took three decades of intense campaigning for the dream Sophia
0:25:16 > 0:25:21had spent her adult life championing to at last become a reality.
0:25:24 > 0:25:29In 1928, for the first time, all women over 21 were given the vote.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36Across Britain, the power to make political change
0:25:36 > 0:25:39was finally in their hands.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52Sophia was, quite rightly, very proud of all of her achievements.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55But they came at immense personal cost.
0:25:56 > 0:25:57She never married.
0:25:57 > 0:26:01She was too brown for a white man, too white for a brown man,
0:26:01 > 0:26:04and, frankly, far too much trouble for either.
0:26:04 > 0:26:06Despite strong maternal longings,
0:26:06 > 0:26:10she never had her own children to tell her stories to.
0:26:12 > 0:26:17But then, in 1939, Sophia's housekeeper had a child named Drovna
0:26:17 > 0:26:20and Sophia was made Godmother.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23So what are we looking at here? What's this picture?
0:26:23 > 0:26:24This is my Christening.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27- And that's you? That's Little Drov? - And that's me.
0:26:27 > 0:26:29And she's looking adoringly at you.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34And in Drovna's memories, Sophia's passion lives on.
0:26:35 > 0:26:39I remember going into Hampton Court Gardens,
0:26:39 > 0:26:42and she'd tell me that they had, um, been suffragettes
0:26:42 > 0:26:45and "You do realise that there weren't always votes for women?"
0:26:45 > 0:26:48And she swung round, and she said, "On your knees,
0:26:48 > 0:26:50"and you've got to promise me.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54"In fact, you make a solemn vow that you will always vote.
0:26:54 > 0:26:56"Always, always vote."
0:26:56 > 0:27:00And so I promised her I'd always vote, and I always have.
0:27:05 > 0:27:10Today, nearly 200 female MPs sit in the House of Commons.
0:27:11 > 0:27:15It's a vision of equality that Sophia might never have envisaged.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21And, as I near the end of my journey, I'm struck by just how much
0:27:21 > 0:27:24her courage helped shift the balance of power.
0:27:28 > 0:27:31Baroness Flather was the first Asian woman to be made
0:27:31 > 0:27:33a peer in the House of Lords,
0:27:33 > 0:27:36and she believes Sophia's legacy is one
0:27:36 > 0:27:38that should never be taken for granted.
0:27:40 > 0:27:45I think most of us have really forgotten what it was like,
0:27:45 > 0:27:49in the old days, when women didn't have a vote,
0:27:49 > 0:27:53because we have so many women now in important positions.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57And I think we should always remind ourselves what
0:27:57 > 0:28:01people like Sophia achieved for us.
0:28:05 > 0:28:13On the 22nd of August 1948, aged 71, Sophia Duleep Singh died.
0:28:17 > 0:28:22It was her final wish to be cremated like a Sikh,
0:28:22 > 0:28:26and have her ashes scattered in her grandfather's former Kingdom.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30The India that became Sophia's final resting place was one
0:28:30 > 0:28:34that was torn apart by religious violence.
0:28:34 > 0:28:39But in death, just as in life, Sophia strove to overcome prejudice.
0:28:39 > 0:28:43She left money in her will to three schools. Three girls' schools.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47One was Hindu, one was Muslim and one was Sikh.
0:28:49 > 0:28:53Her life's experiences had taken her back to her grandfather.
0:28:55 > 0:29:00Just as Ranjit Singh had battled for justice and freedom,
0:29:00 > 0:29:04of all his descendents, Sophia was the true inheritor
0:29:04 > 0:29:08of the spirit of his once majestic Sikh Kingdom.