‘Hidden from History’, with Priya Atwal, Shalina Patel & Janina Ramirez

Indian Suffragette Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, British WW2 spy and resistance fighter Noor Inayat Khan and the Viking Birka Warrior Women are just some of the hidden lives the historians will discuss with History Extra’s Content Director David Musgrove.

Join Janina Ramirez, author of Femina, Shalina Patel, Radio 2 broadcaster, teacher, creator of The History Lessons and Instagram sensation The History Corridor and Oxford historian Priya Atwal, author of Royals and Rebels, as they tell the stories of fascinating figures hidden from history.

About the book

In late-eighteenth-century India, the glory of the Mughal emperors was fading, and ambitious newcomers seized power, changing the political map forever. Enter the legendary Maharajah Ranjit Singh, whose Sikh Empire stretched throughout northwestern India into Afghanistan and Tibet.

Priya Atwal shines fresh light on this long-lost kingdom, looking beyond its founding father to restore the queens and princes to the story of this empire’s spectacular rise and fall. She brings to life a self-made ruling family, inventively fusing Sikh, Mughal and European ideas of power, but eventually succumbing to gendered family politics, as the Sikh Empire fell to its great rival in the new India: the British.

Royals and Rebels is a fascinating tale of family, royalty and the fluidity of power, set in a dramatic global era when new stars rose and upstart empires clashed.

About the author

Priya Atwal is the Community History Fellow at the University of Oxford, where she earlier obtained her doctorate. Her research on monarchy and empire has been featured in collaborative projects with Historic Royal Palaces, among others; and on BBC radio and television programmes, including BBC4’s The Stolen Maharajah.