Global IndianstoryMindy Kaling: The Indian American actor and producer who truly represents South Asians

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Mindy Kaling: The Indian American actor and producer who truly represents South Asians

Written by: Global Indian

(July 29, 9:10 am)

Being the first woman of color to break into an all-white men writers team at American sitcom The Office wasn’t an easy feat, but that’s Mindy Kaling for you – bold, fearless, and unabashed. For someone who began her journey at 24, the writer, producer, actor, and director has come a long way with immensely successful shows and films to her credit.

Thanks to Kaling, underrepresented minorities are finding a voice and visibility in US pop culture. So much so that the Indian American has become the poster girl for South Asian arts, culture, and even quirks, on every media platform available.

The 42-year-old’s inspirational journey hasn’t been an easy one.

An overlooked teenager finds solace in comedy

Born as Vera Mindy Chokalingam in Massachusetts to a Tamil architect father and a Bengali doctor mother, Kaling’s life in Buckingham Browne & Nichols School was quite a dampener because, in her words, she was an “average overlooked” student. With no “cool” friends to hang out with, she found solace in comedy shows on American TV. It was Comedy Central, Monty Python sketches, and Saturday Night Live reruns that piqued her interest in comedy.

I was all smiles because I got to go to school and be myself. #62MillionGirls don’t have that chance. Let’s end that. pic.twitter.com/GyVi7XPoWZ

— Mindy Kaling (@mindykaling) September 27, 2015

But this wallflower truly blossomed at Dartmouth College. From writing plays and acting in college dramas to singing, Mindy spread her wings as she graduated with a degree in playwriting.

At 19, she got a summer internship at Late Night With Conan O’Brien. She reckons herself as the worst intern that the show had ever seen. “I treated my internship as a free ticket to watch my hero perform live on stage every day, and not as a way to help the show run smoothly by doing errands,” she wrote in her memoir.

The play that got Kaling The Office

The internship might have been a facade but Kaling was sure comedy was her true calling. Soon she packed her bags and moved to Brooklyn. But it wasn’t until 2002 that things started to move for Kaling when her comedy play Matt and Ben debuted at the New York International Fringe Festival. Such was the popularity of the play that in no time it was transferred to Off-Broadway venue in East Village. It was here that American screenwriter and producer Greg Daniels saw Kaling perform and offered her a writing gig for the first season of The Office.

Damn this is a #TBT pic.twitter.com/3xk6UL5lbr

— Mindy Kaling (@mindykaling) September 8, 2016

Kaling was all of 24 when she became the only woman and the only person of color to join eight other writers on the show which was nominated for an Emmy. Along with her writing credits, Kaling made her TV debut as a super sassy and fearless Kelly Kapoor in the hit American sitcom. Kaling fully represented her Indianness with all its quirks on one of the most popular sitcoms of all time. With the progression of the show, Kaling also became an executive producer and director, besides 24 episodes to her credit as writer.

When sexism rocked her boat

Early on in this very show, Kaling faced sexism. Shortly after The Office was nominated for Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series, the Television Academy told Kaling that she wouldn’t be eligible for an Emmy like the rest of the staff because there were too many producers on the show.

In a conversation with Elle, she revealed,

“They made me, not any of the other producers, fill out a whole form and write an essay about all my contributions as a writer and a producer. I had to get letters from all the other male, white producers saying that I had contributed when my actual record stood for itself.”

Her name was included in the final list, however, the show did not win an Emmy.

After being part of The Office for eight seasons, Kaling bid goodbye to the show. It was around the same time that the 42-year-old released her first memoir Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? A hilarious account of her highs and lows in life, the book soon made it to the New York Times best-selling list.

The rise of a pop-culture icon

While The Office opened doors of opportunities for Kaling, it was The Mindy Project that got her bigger recognition and fame. The 2012 show that ran for six seasons made Kaling the first woman of color to have her own network show. In no time, she broke the barriers of race and became an international pop culture icon. Such was the popularity that when the show moved from Fox TV in 2016 to Hulu’s version, Kaling was pulling in an estimated $140,000 per episode. Moreover, she earned the third spot on the Forbes list of the highest-paid actresses on TV in 2017.

A popular name on television, Mindy also dipped her toes in Hollywood with films like A Wrinkle in Time, Ocean’s 8, and Late Night.

Mindy Kaling and Sandra Bullock in a still from Ocean’s 8

Despite being in the entertainment industry for decades, Kaling felt like an outsider because of the constant reminders that she is different.

“We talk about how representation matters in Hollywood, so much that it almost loses its meaning. But it’s actually real. Growing up, I realized that there was no one who looked like me on TV, so I often found myself drawing parallels to people who are like me on shows like the Cosby family or characters on white sitcoms. You cannot imagine how excited I was when Bend It Like Beckham came out. The idea that I could actually see people from my community onscreen blew my mind,” she told IANS.

Though Kaling was representing Asians with her stories, the actor and producer revealed that her shows weren’t ethnicity-driven.

Never Have I Ever

With her 2020 Netflix show Never Have I Ever, Kaling broke barriers for Indians on the global stage. The popular series is one-of-its-kind that brought representation and diversity to the forefront, something that has always been a filler in most American sitcoms. Kaling has somehow shattered the glass ceiling by bringing South Asians alive on the screen like never before. Giving them a three-dimensional character has got her a huge thumbs up from fans and critics alike.

While Kaling is basking in the success of Never Have I Ever, she is ready to give Velma Dinkley an Indian twist in HBO’s Scooby-Doo spin-off. But this has got Kaling backlash from some fans who took objection to an “Indian” playing the part.

Responding to the backlash, Kaling said at Late Night with Seth Meyers,

“She’s such a great character, she’s so smart. And I just couldn’t understand how people couldn’t imagine a really smart, nerdy girl with terrible eyesight and who loved to solve mysteries could not be Indian. Like, there are Indian nerds. It shouldn’t be a surprise to people.”

Kaling has been a popular figure on American TV for a long time, but despite her fame, it has been a mixed bag for her.

“It really doesn’t matter how much money I have. I’m treated badly with enough regularity that it keeps me humble,” she told Elle.

Editor’s Take

For the longest time, Hollywood and American shows saw South Asian characters as caricaturish. Their unidimensional roles could be cringy and stereotypical at times. But it was Mindy Kaling that changed the game when she took the reins of The Office in her hands many years ago. Ever since the producer, actor, writer, and director has been making every effort to truly represent South Asians at their authentic best. The fact that she feels like an outsider even after all these years shows how migrants have to always put in extra effort irrespective of their vocation or the degree of success they have achieved.

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Published on 29, Jul 2021

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How Parul Sharma became one of Sweden’s top human rights lawyers

(March 30, 2023) Parul Sharma is a familiar face in Sweden, where she is one of the country’s most influential lawyers and featured often in the media. A human rights lawyer with a focus on sustainability, Parul is the CEO at The Academy for Human Rights in Business and Chair, Amnesty International Sweden. Over the years, she has gained a reputation as one of Sweden’s most influential sustainability experts. Be it law or human rights, Parul has always had a human-centric approach – she studied law from Stockholm University and did her Master’s in London. In 2017, she was ranked the second most influential sustainability leader in Sweden, right after the Minister of Financial Markets and Consumer Affairs. Over the years, Parul has written extensively on the topics of CSR and human rights. In 2020-2022, she was ranked and awarded most influential in Sweden within areas of social change, development, and human rights. In 2022, she won the “MySpeaker of the Year” prize in the category of sustainability in Sweden. “Over the years I have been awarded with human rights awards such as the Solidarity Award granted by the Afrika groups (Afrikagrupperna) and the Tilka Manjhi Human Rights Award granted

Rights Award granted by the Ang Madad Foundation India in 2021,” Parul tells Global Indian.

Parul loves to create hope, she says it’s her aim to create hope for it can indeed be a trigger to action and reaction for development, and hope is extremely important to uphold human rights and democracy. “Each person is a powerhouse and can start a movement, small or big, for change and sustainable development. Hope can indeed illuminate these powerhouses.”

[caption id="attachment_36718" align="aligncenter" width="636"] Parul Sharma[/caption]

Entrepreneur, author and human rights defender

After gaining expertise and many years of experience working in sustainability, human rights and anti-corruption in high-risk markets, Parul floated her own Academy, ‘The Academy for Human Rights in Business’ for Human Rights, in Business in 2013. So far it has provided training and legal advice on sustainable development related issues to more than 550 companies – mainly multinational corporations around the world.

Parul also got a chance to chair the Swedish governmental Agenda 2030 Delegation between 2016 and January 2018 and also since 2020, has served as the Chair of Amnesty International Sweden. Apart from being a rights activist, she is also an established author; so far she has published seven. “My three most recent publications are on Agenda 2030," Parul says. "They are handbooks, aimed at making people act both as corporate representatives, citizens, parents, teachers, and consumers. I have all together published seven books on human rights and/or sustainable development,” Parul explains. The first four books are on the Right to Life and the rights of women and children.

Preserving culture

Parul was born to Indian parents in Stockholm, Sweden. Her mother, Anita Sharma and her father, Shashikant Sharma, moved from Jallandhar to the Swedish capital as a newly married couple in the 1970s. “Our languages are Punjabi and Hindi, and our culture has always been central to our upbringing. For that, I’m thankful to my mother.”

The early exposure to Indian culture and languages led to an interest in human rights and sustainable development issues in her ancestral homeland. She began to expand her focus to India and gradually, to Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Nepal, building up to outreach on a global scale during her 27-year career. These days, Parul works in seven African and four Latin-American countries.

Creating socially-sound businesses

According to Parul, her work schedule is very hectic, with a lot of legal advisory and training towards the corporate world in the EU through her firm The Academy for Human Rights in Business. “I advise corporations on how to conduct socially and environmentally sound business in already weak and complex markets from a sustainable development point of view.”

In the last 20 years, she has been regularly conducting social audits on European supply chains in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Never forgetting the roots

Parul is a regular visitor to India and has worked almost everywhere in the country, she says. “On the sidelines, I am active in a number of pro bono engagements with NGOs working to combat Tobacco, sex-trade and human trafficking, refugee rights and support to refugees in Sweden, and many child rights related matters.”

For many years now, she spends at least one month as a humanitarian volunteer. “My last three volunteer programmes have been attached to a clinic connected to one of Europe’s largest refugee camps in Greece on the Ireland of Lesbos.”

Branching out

A few years ago, Parul began to feel that her legal profession is not enough to support and help in the humanitarian and refugee crisis. She chose an unconventional path at this point. Wanting to feel more involved in helping refugees rise above the trauma they carried, she took courses in massage therapy and breathing techniques. It allowed her provide a sort of instant relief, which she says has also benefitted her immensely. “I feel the difference instantly, I can see, feel and hear how massage is helping my fellow human beings who have struggled to move away from war zones, natural disasters, and other oppressive scenes.” Often, she says, people break down and cry on the massage table as they feel the release of tension. “The feeling of being safe and relaxed is uncommon for them,” she says.

Right now, she is working with the Swedish initiative ‘Stand with Syria’ to support the Turkish and Syrian hunger crisis due to the massive earthquake hitting these countries very recently.

An unflinching journey

“Child rights have always been the main energy in my work, and 25 years ago, together with an Indian NGO, PVCHR Asia, I started a scholarship programme for girls in Uttar Pradesh and it has been ongoing since.” Investing in education for the girl child has proven to be the single most impacting practice for social and environmental development, she says.

While calling this as the most powerful key to societal balance and change, till date several hundreds, at least 650 girls have benefitted from this programme.

“This programme is probably what I am most proud of, of all the work and effort I have put into rights based work. I visit PVCHR once a year and meet with the girls. Health camps and other awareness activities for women are conducted as well.”

Staunch supporter of human and worker rights

Today world’s supply chains are being severely affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic and fast moving markets. “Moreover, the threat to public health, the economic and social disruption threatens the long-term livelihoods of millions of workers. Mostly vulnerable to the worst impacts are the millions of workers lower down the supply chain, often women and the primary caregivers in their families and already marginalized communities.”

Calling workers as integral to the global economy, Parul believes a large part of the hidden workforce of global production already face poverty wages, dangerous and unsafe working conditions, and without social protections, mostly.

“Migrant workers in supply chains also face unique risks, as a result of inadequate and crowded living conditions, harsh containment measures, and discrimination. This includes workers in supply chains across sectors but has clearly been identified within electronics and IT. Such risks and impacts have been documented in the mining sector in Latin America as well as in electronics manufacturing in China (including the alert on the forced labor of the Uyghurs), Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Czech Republic, Italy, Brazil, and Mexico), according to and by numerous human rights watchdogs.”

In capacity of playing an advisory role, she prepares companies and governmental agencies, who procure products from high-risk markets, to build even stricter auditing models during and post-covid, especially within the following areas: compensation, collective bargaining agreements, and cancellations during the pandemic, for instance, cancellations of wage increase and severance payments, health and safety measures with a focus on lack of protective equipment, lack of social distancing measures.

Parul is a staunch supporter of spiritualism, she believes one needs calm, prayer, meditation and spiritualism every day.

Follow Parul Sharma on LinkedIn

Of ‘Paramount’ importance: Filmmaker Shriya Rana works with Hollywood’s big names

(May 23, 2022) Sometimes, the smallest decisions can change the course of life forever. That holds true for filmmaker Shriya Rana. In her second year MBA, while others were bracing themselves for campus placements, Shriya was itching to do something creative. All that it took to realise her goal in life and pursue it wholeheartedly was her decision to do a brief internship with a local filmmaker in her home state of Himachal Pradesh. A few days into her internship, filmmaking captured her imagination and she wanted to be part of the whole thing, from conception to completion. With no contacts in the film world, she quickly reached out to former students of the New York Film Academy, asked them many questions and got an understanding of how things worked in Hollywood. Come 2017, she moved to the US to study filmmaking. [caption id="attachment_24770" align="aligncenter" width="544"] Shriya Rana[/caption] Five years of struggle and challenges later, Shriya made her mark in Hollywood, by writing and directing eight short films and producing 10 more -- all in different genres, most of which have been screened in over 30 film festivals across the globe. "That (internship) changed my life. The experience taught me

ng eight short films and producing 10 more -- all in different genres, most of which have been screened in over 30 film festivals across the globe. "That (internship) changed my life. The experience taught me two major things - first, how to market and sell yourself as well as your property and second, that a movie is made thrice, first when it’s written, second when it’s made, and third, during the post-production time," smiles Shriya, in an exclusive chat with Global Indian.

Her recent release Ayesha turned out to be her most successful film, for which she bagged five Best Director awards and secured over 20 official selections. Not only did she receive the Audience Choice Award at the prestigious UCLAxFilmFest 2021 for the film, which is about a young woman who struggles to lead a normal life in a homophobic society, it was also showcased at Marina Del Rey Film Festival and Capri Hollywood Film Festival.

From Himachal Pradesh to Los Angeles

Born in Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, Shriya's father Dr Raj Kumar is an economics professor and mother Saroja Rana, a school principal. Her younger brother is an officer with the Indian Air Force. "Since I don't come from a film background, I did not have anyone to look up to. Even though I was curious about the filmmaking process, I never thought about the filmmakers," she says.

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A post shared by Shriya Rana (@shriyarana)

In school, while her peers were more focussed on academics, Shriya was doing things she loved -- painting, dancing and singing. "I was doing well in academics, and could never think of a career as an artist. Now when I look back, it’s strange that art was what I loved," says Shriya, who studied at Lords Convent School and later went to the Himachal Pradesh University Summer Hill, Shimla.

The internship helped her find her inner calling, and without further ado, she moved to LA in 2017 after doing some research on the best filmmaking schools. Initially, she took up a brief course at New York Film Academy (NYFA) which enabled her to understand that direction was her true calling. Subsequently, she enrolled at the University of California, LA for a course in same. During those days, she started working as a Gallery Ambassador at UCLA’s Hammer Museum in the mornings, and attending school in the evenings, which not only helped her monetarily but taught her customer service, discipline and duty.

Spreading her wings

"Once I landed in LA, there was a clear cultural clash. It was a different lifestyle, something I wasn’t accustomed to at first. It took me a while but I prepped myself and brushed up my cursory knowledge to face this new world," smiles Shriya, who landed her first job at the CBS Post and later interned at Brett- Morgan’s Public Road Productions. "I socialised, explored, networked, met more people and finally made movies with them," informs the filmmaker, whose parents supported her throughout.

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A post shared by Shriya Rana (@shriyarana)

Shriya, who has made films like Drifting Darkly (2018), Waiting (2018), Serena Calling (2019), False Notion (2019), Ayesha (2021), says, "Making simple stories impactful is the hardest thing to do." Currently working as the production coordinator with Paramount in LA, she distributes their shows and movies to their partners (Apple, Amazon, Hulu, Fandango, Comcst, Vudu and many more) and formats and publishes their content on Paramount Plus website.

Having worked on primetime and late-night shows like The Good Wife, Equalizer, The Amazing Race, Twin Peaks, NCIS, Young Sheldon, she has a great body of work to her credit. "I had the opportunity to work with the best team and contribute to the launch of Paramount Plus and Grammy’s 2021. Working on the launch of Paramount Plus will always be the highlight of this job," smiles the filmmaker, who is a big fan of horror movies but loves a good story irrespective of the genre.

"I like stories that resonate with people. Regardless of the genre, I like stories that make you think, real stories about real people. I received a great response for Ayesha and I have been working on developing it into a feature," she informs.

So what’s next in store? "I’m working with a credible crew of filmmakers on various projects, both in film and TV. Most of my projects are in development and I hope to see my projects in production by the end of the year," reveals the filmmaker, who is also skilled in script coverage, screenwriting and video editing.

Filmmaker | Shriya Rana

Bollywood vs Hollywood

When it comes to Hollywood and Bollywood movies, Shriya feels both industries are very different. "In LA, people talk about the filmmakers, cast and studios. But in India, it's more about the actors and directors. Filmmakers in India don’t get enough credit," she feels. Although films like Andhadhun have set a trend for unique plots and concepts with commercial success at the box office, films like Tumbbad, Bhavesh Joshi, Panga, Pataakha, Soni still haven’t been recognised, she believes.

"We still don’t talk about directors like Ashwini Iyer, Anand Gandhi, Ivan Ayr. Also, the content here is very original. We have so many talented filmmakers in India but sadly their work doesn’t reach the masses as they don’t get enough theaters. I hope to see things getting better for people behind the camera in India," says Shriya, who admires Basu Chatterjee and Shekhar Kapur in the Indian film industry. Her current favourites are Mike Flanagan, Quentin Tarantino, Emerald Fennell and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. When not busy with filmmaking, Shriya loves to dance, watch films and visit art galleries.

Follow Shriya Rana on Instagram and LinkedIn

Reading Time: 6 min

Mississippi Masala to The Green Knight: How Sarita Choudhury wowed the West

(September 18, 2021) Mira Nair launched a new girl, one who worked with the great Italian director Federico Fellini, opposite Denzel Washington in the 1991 romantic drama Mississippi Masala. But little did this girl know that she would soon be going to wow the entertainment industry with her sheer talent. When Sarita Choudhury erupted on the big screen with her debut film, critics across the globe couldn't stop raving about this new talent. And now three decades later, the 55-year-old is still making the right noise with her choice of work. It was in college that Choudhury fell in love with acting, and knew that this was the course to be followed. While the journey wasn't all sunshine and rainbow for her, she kept delivering her best. Here's the story of this Global Indian who wowed the West with her stunning performances. College resurrected the dream of acting Born in London to an Indian father and an English mother, Choudhury was raised in Jamaica, Mexico and Italy as her dad was a scientist and had a moving job. Living her initial life literally out of the suitcase, Choudhary made a stop over in Canada for a while to complete her

ry was raised in Jamaica, Mexico and Italy as her dad was a scientist and had a moving job. Living her initial life literally out of the suitcase, Choudhary made a stop over in Canada for a while to complete her graduation in economics from Queen's University in Ontario. When Choudhury arrived on the campus in the fall of 1986, she had plans of becoming an economist. But Queen's helped her live her childhood dream of being an actress. It was here that she became interested in film studies and began experimenting with acting by making appearances in the films made her by her classmates. This exposure was enough for Choudhury to feverishly pursue a career in acting, and it was one of her professors at Queen's who played the perfect catalyst in bringing her closer to her dream.

"Prof. Frank Burke from Film Studies had written a book about Federico Fellini, the great Italian film director, and he gave me a letter of introduction. When I told my mother this, she said, 'Well, let’s get in the car and go see him.’ I thought she was crazy, but away we went. The address Frank Burke had given me was at Cinecittà Studios, in Rome. When I knocked on Fellini’s door, not only did he see me, he gave me a job translating scripts," she told Queen's Alumni Review.

The big break with Mira Nair

This opened up a sea of opportunities for a young Choudhury who made connections in the industry that led her to auditioning for film roles. One such audition helped her land her first big role in Mira Nair's Mississippi Masala alongside Denzel Washington. The film on interracial romance between a South African American man and an Indian woman became an art house hit and got Choudhury some rave reviews for her performance. Despite a grand start, Choudhury didn't find the landing she was looking for in Hollywood. So the 55-year-old focused on finding diversity through her work across theatre, television and films.

[caption id="attachment_10660" align="aligncenter" width="495"] Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury in a still from Mississippi Masala.[/caption]

If she played a Pakistani singer in Wild West (1992), she essayed the role of a Chilean maid in Bille August's adaptation of The House of the Spirits. After five years, Nair once again collaborated with Choudhury for Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love. The film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Golden Seashell award at the 1996 San Sebastián International Film Festival. It was by the late 90s that Choudhury added a touch of Hollywood to her repertoire with films like A Perfect Murder (1998) and Gloria (1999). Simultaneously, Choudhury found interesting scripts on the small screen. Be it NBC drama Kings or Homicide: Life on the Street, the actress pulled off each character with elan.

Diversity in Hollywood

Choudhury kept going strong at a time when diversity was something that Hollywood completely ignored. It was her faith in herself and her hard work that worked in her stride. "How the business perceives us is something I’ve never concerned myself with. I just try to beat the odds of rejection by preparing a lot for auditions, and hopefully changing someone's mind. Minds and the gate keepers have to change. It's an exciting time, it’s still slow, but we're all part of this change," she told Hindustan Times in an interview.

[caption id="attachment_10662" align="aligncenter" width="502"] Sarita Choudhury as Mira and Mandy Patinkin as Saul Berenson in Homeland.[/caption]

This same grit got her roles in films like Lady in the Water, Midnight's Children, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay and The Last Photograph. But it's her film A Hologram for the King with Tom Hanks that she is most proud of. "It took me to another level," she told Mint Lounge.

Choudhury, who paved the way for many South Asians in Hollywood, is truly a global icon. She has worked with the best talent in the industry and has some very powerful roles to her credit. But for her, being a global actor has never been her intention. In an interview with WION, she said, "As actors we don’t really have any intent to be perceived globally in a certain way. But if that is the result of following your dream no matter what the obstacles that is amazing. My dad had seen Satyajit Ray’s films in India when he was young, my mum had seen the same films in England, I saw them in Canada when I was at university. That's global! And (that) makes me proud."

Despite two decades of good work to her credit, Choudhury is unstoppable in her 50s. After making heads turn with her performance in fantasy film The Green Knight, the actress has now grabbed a plum role in Sex and the City reboot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcOHajVcl44

Indian at heart

Choudhury is a popular actress in the West but her heart is still in India. " I feel like if I don’t go to India once a year, I lose my sense of roots. I have an Indian father, and when you grow up in a house with an Indian father, culturally that’s what becomes dominant in the house. So that’s the tradition we grew up with. And it’s not a coincidence that my dad retired and moved back home to Calcutta. So, no matter which country my brother and I grew up in, we would come home to my father. And that stayed with me, that’s my heart," she told Times of India.

Choudhury is one of those rare South Asian actresses who made a mark in the West at a time when diversity wasn't the focus point of Hollywood. However, with her determination and grit, she kept breaking the stereotypes and wowing the global audience with her stellar performances.

Reading Time: 6 min

Sophia Duleep Singh: The Indian-origin princess who fought for women’s rights in the UK

(July 27, 2021; 6.30 pm) Did you know that less than 3% of all public statues in the UK are of non-royal women? Ethnic minorities representation is even more sparse. Which is why lawyer Zehra Zaidi of We Too Built Britain launched the Hidden Heroes campaign. The campaign calls on British MPs to nominate people who deserve to be remembered with a statue. And one name that's come to the fore is Princess Sophia Duleep Singh (1876-1948) - daughter of the last king of Punjab, Queen Victoria’s goddaughter, and a prominent suffragette in 20th century UK. Britain’s first Sikh woman parliamentarian Preet Kaur Gill nominated the late princess for a new memorial to represent the diversity of the UK. “I am backing the Hidden Heroes campaign because we have so many of our achievements to celebrate and the stories of more under-represented groups can help build pride and a shared narrative of what Britain is today,” said Gill in a statement. [embed]http://twitter.com/SinghLions/status/873008620761264128?s=20[/embed] Princess Sophia was among the leading suffragettes who campaigned for women’s rights and most famously fought for women’s right to vote in Britain in the early 1900s. Daughter of deposed Maharaja Duleep Singh, she used her fame,

a statement.

[embed]http://twitter.com/SinghLions/status/873008620761264128?s=20[/embed]

Princess Sophia was among the leading suffragettes who campaigned for women’s rights and most famously fought for women’s right to vote in Britain in the early 1900s. Daughter of deposed Maharaja Duleep Singh, she used her fame, position and tenacity to fight for gender equality in the early 20th Century. Her campaigns attracted the attention of the British government and press as she organized activities that ranged from selling The Suffragette newspaper outside Hampton Court Palace and participating in the landmark Black Friday. She is best remembered for her leading role in the Women’s Tax Resistance League, though she participated in other women’s suffrage groups such as the Women’s Social and Political Union too.

Complicated heritage

Born in 1876 at Belgravia to Maharaja Duleep Singh and his first wife Bamba Müller (of German and Abyssinian heritage). Her father Duleep Singh had been chosen to rule Punjab at the age of 5 after the death of his father Ranjit Singh, while his mother Jindan Kaur acted as Regent. However, during the Second Anglo-Sikh War of 1849 the kingdom of Punjab suffered a crushing defeat and the 11-year-old king was forced to abdicate. He had to hand over his kingdom and the famed Kohinoor diamond to the British and was sent to England where he was placed under the care of Dr John Login. His mother, Jindan, was exiled. During his years in England, Duleep Singh converted to Christianity and was befriended by Queen Victoria, who was very fond of the “Black Prince of Perthshire”.

[caption id="attachment_6130" align="aligncenter" width="584"] One name that's come to the fore for the Hidden Heroes project is Princess Sophia Duleep Singh - daughter of the last king of Punjab. Maharaja Duleep Singh[/caption]

Thirteen years passed before the Crown permitted him to reunite with his mother, whom he took back to England with him. As Jindan struggled to adjust to her new life in an alien country amongst people she deeply distrusted, Duleep reconnected with his roots and reconverted to Sikhism. He learnt just how much he had lost by abdicating all those years ago. It would be years before his children learnt the same.

According to Historic Royal Palaces, Princess Sophia's name (Sophia Jindan Alexandrovna Duleep Singh) shows a truly international and remarkable family history: Sophia after her enslaved Ethiopian maternal grandmother, Jindan after her paternal grandmother Maharani Jindan Kaur, and Alexandrovna after her godmother Queen Victoria.

She was part of a large family and had five siblings and two half siblings. When she was 10, her father attempted to return with the family to India. However, they were met with arrest warrants in Aden (Yemen) and were forced to return. In 1887, when Sophia became ill with Typhoid, Queen Victoria sent her own physician to care for her goddaughter. Sophia’s mother who had been caring for her fell ill instead and succumbed. Sophia survived.

[caption id="attachment_6132" align="aligncenter" width="392"] One name that's come to the fore for the Hidden Heroes project is Princess Sophia Duleep Singh - daughter of the last king of Punjab. Princess Sophia Duleep Singh (right) with her sisters Catherine (middle), and Bamba (left)[/caption]

By the time her father died in 1893, Princess Sophia had grown into a young woman fully immersed into studies and proud of her musical abilities. After her education, Sophia and her sisters traveled to Europe, which left her with an appetite for more adventures. When she returned to England, she was given a residence at Faraday House in Hampton Court. However, during her official debut into society, Sophia was disappointed that she and her sisters (despite being born princesses) were relegated to entering behind Duchesses.

Tryst with British activism and Indian nationalism

[caption id="attachment_6117" align="aligncenter" width="453"] Princess Sophia Duleep Singh the Suffragette Princess Sophia Duleep Singh selling The Suffragette Newspaper[/caption]

In 1895, she bought herself a bicycle, which became a symbol for the emancipation of women. She soon became the poster girl for the bicycle movement. Sophia traveled to India in 1903 where she stayed for nine months. The visit exposed her to the extreme poverty in the country and she returned to England as a more thoughtful person; she felt a profound need to be useful. When she returned to Indian once again in 1906, the country was in political turmoil and the Princess was caught up by Indian nationalism much to the chagrin of the Crown. During a 1907 trip to India, she visited Amritsar and Lahore; it was then she realized just how much her family had lost by choosing to surrender to the British. She hosted a “purdah party” at Shalimar Bagh in Lahore (shadowed by British agents). Here she encountered Indian freedom fighters such as Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Lala Lajpat Rai and sympathized with their cause. She slowly began turning against the Raj.

Back in the UK, in 1908 she met marriage reformer Una Dugdale, a member of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) and the princess pledged her commitment to women’s rights. By 1909, she was involved in the women’s movement and signed up as a tax resister.

Transformation into a suffragette

Soon Princess Sophia joined other suffragettes as they descended upon the House of Commons hoping to meet the Prime Minister. However, they were thwarted by brute police force of such nature that even Winston Churchill (who was no admirer of suffragettes) was taken aback. During her years as a suffragette, Princess Sophia was arrested as well. One such incident occurred in 1911 when she hurled herself at the Prime Minister’s car with a banner that read “Give women the vote!” In the meanwhile, the suffragettes began to realize that the Princess could help their cause and requested her to take on a more high-profile role; Sophia preferred to stay low key. She began selling The Suffragette Newspaper outside Hampton Court Palace and by 1914 was donating 10% of her annual income to the cause.

[caption id="attachment_6136" align="aligncenter" width="407"] Princess Sophia Duleep Singh (right) with her sisters Catherine (middle), and Bamba (left) Princess Sophia Duleep Singh registered as a Red Cross nurse during World War I[/caption]

When World War I broke out, she signed up as a Red Cross nurse and tended to wounded soldiers; many of them Indians. In 1928 The Representation of the People Bill was passed in parliament; it enabled women over the age of 21 to vote on par with men. The following years Sophia spent a relatively quiet life at Hampton Court Palace. After the Second World War, it was discovered that Sophia had a tumor in her eye that needed surgery. She refused the treatment and passed away in her sleep in 1948 at the age of 71. Though raised a Christian, she requested that her body be cremated in keeping in line with her Sikh heritage and her ashes be scattered in India.

Editor’s Take

Princess Sophia Duleep Singh may have been born and brought up in a country other than her own. But she adopted it to the best of her ability and fought to make women’s lives better at a time when it was unheard of. As she grew older, she discovered her love for her Indian and Sikh heritage and embraced them wholeheartedly. When she discovered just how much her family had lost to the Crown and how her country was suffering, a history-defining journey of self-transformation began. She then dedicated her life to the cause of women’s rights and saw several changes made in her lifetime. Let’s commend Preet Kaur Gill for taking the initiative of bringing Sophia’s contributions to the fore by nominating her for the Hidden Heroes campaign.

Reading Time: 10 mins

Sanjena Sathian: The Indian-American novelist redefining identity through her work

(October 8, 2021) What it means to be both Indian and American? An unnerving question that has kept a generation of Indian-American kids grappling with a feeling of otherness in a country they find at times hard to call home. Being divided between the expectation of their immigrant parents and their own free will, it's the crossroads they often find themselves at. And novelist Sanjena Sathian explores this very notion in her debut book Gold Diggers. A melting point of ambition, American dream and alchemy, the book redefines identity. The 29-year-old, born to immigrant parents who moved to the US with an American dream, had to unlearn a lot to find herself and her identity in the chaos. This in turn led to the emergence of his first book that had put her into the longlist for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize. Not just this, Mindy Kaling is ready to put this piece of work on the small tube with the screen adaptation of Gold Diggers. Sathian's entry into the world of writers has been with a bang but she had to do a lot of soul searching to reach here. Pressure to overachieve Born and raised in

had to do a lot of soul searching to reach here.

Pressure to overachieve

Born and raised in Georgia by South Indian immigrant parents, Sathian grew up in metro Atlanta and attended the The Westminster School. Being the grand daughter and great granddaughter of respected Malayalee translators, a young Sathian always dreamt of becoming a writer. She would spend hours scribbling stories in her diary. When she wasn't writing, she would be competing as a policy debater in high school, eventually winning the national championship as a senior.

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"Once I started winning, I couldn't get enough of it. I became addicted to the hope of winning, and then actually winning — like my existence was confirmed if I won a debate. I sort of became a flat creature if I lost because I didn’t know what to do with that loss," she told Lareviewofbooks in an interview.

Like every second-generation American, Sathian, too, had her eyes on the Ivy League, courtesy the expectation of her parents who wanted her to make it to one of the elite colleges in the US. But internally she often struggled as she felt she was failing to meet the heavy expectations of her family and teachers. And this would put Sathian under immense pressure to overachieve. "It’s comical that I wore this talismanic Harvard sweatshirt and it’s comical how obsessed I was with winning debates. But it’s also tragic that I robbed myself of an inner life and made it really painful for myself to underachieve," she told the New York Times.

Questioning her choices

She didn't land up in Harvard but at Yale University where she earned a BA in English and studied literary journalism and fiction. It was here that she received multiple grants to report from three continents and was awarded the English Department’s highest honors for each of her two senior thesis: one on the novels of Zadie Smith, the other a series of linked short stories.

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Despite her good grades and a great portfolio, Sathian struggled to find a job as a journalist. New York Times revealed that she once called her dad to discuss the possibility of switching to a career "where it's possible to be mediocre." She eventually became an Indian correspondent, based in Mumbai, for a California-based digital publication Ozy. After staying in the role for two years, the 29-year-old felt that writing was her true calling so she returned to the US and dove straight into the two-year Iowa Writers' Workshop residency in 2017.

The book that changed it all

The seed of her debut novel Gold Diggers germinated during one of the workshops at Iowa. What began as a failed short story became an obsession for Sathian, who was keen to explore the characters and the concept of conceit. Soon a handful of pages turned into a full-fledged novel, and Sathian's first book was born.

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Sathian's debut book, which was longlisted for the Centre for Fiction's First Novel Prize, tells the story of a teenager who struggles with balancing his own ambitions and those of his parents, and finding his own way to be brown in America. Being herself the daughter of immigrant parents, Sathian beautifully depicts the crossroads at which often most second generation Americans find themselves.

American dream

"I grew up being told that there were 'real Indians' like my parents, and then ABCDs (American Born Confused Desis) like me. I think that's just a ridiculous way to teach someone to think about their identity — as though the fact that I'm born in America inherently makes me confused. What it does is give me a multiplicitous identity, which is something that writers like Smith and Rushdie have engaged with much more richly. So the book is concerned with identity, but in ways that are less basic than 'Am I Indian or am I American or both?', she told the Hindustan Times.

Being raised in the US in a family that was fixated with the American dream, this Global Indian realized that the concept was ingrained deeply in the minds of the people who left their homelands to find a better life in the US. But the writer calls American dream a dangerous idea that is playing with the ideals and aspirations of the immigrants and their families.

"The American dream is a fiction that we Americans feed ourselves to believe that there is such thing as hmeritocracy in this country. This is an appealing idea because, as in books like The Great Gatsby, Americans are taught to believe that it’s possible to remake ourselves entirely, to come up from nothing and wind up rich or famous or wildly successful. Of course, that’s a compelling idea -- so many of us want more for ourselves and our families. And that idea is what brought many Indians of my parents’ generation to the US, especially those who left in the 1960s-80s when the Indian economy was closed. But the American dream is also a deeply dangerous idea because it presupposes that those who aren’t wealthy somehow just aren’t striving enough," she added.

Gold Diggers: From book to TV

It's this very notion of identity that has made Sathian's novel a hit with booklovers. Such has been the success of Gold Diggers that even Mindy Kaling's production couldn't turn a blind eye to this bestseller. Kaling, who is championing diversity with her shows like Never Have I Ever, is keen to adapt Gold Diggers for television. And it is this very feat that has put the Indian-American novelist on the list of new talent to look out for.

Passing the knowledge

Sathian, who has tasted success with Gold Diggers, is imparting her knowledge in the field of writing with the Bombay Writers' Workshop that she started in 2020. "My hope is to bring the kind of creative writing education and community I got at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop to artists of all ages and skill levels writing literary prose in Mumbai. The bulk of writing is a solitary act, and you can’t really teach someone how to do that. But I can help writers who want to better their sentences or learn more about story structure or just read others’ work. Last year, the online course was pretty incredible — a talented bunch of people in both India and the diaspora. I always hope to pay it forward by passing on to other writers whatever small knowledge I’ve gotten from my teachers and friends."

Reading Time: 7 min