Rebel Queen

by Michelle Moran

The term Hindu is also anachronistic, with the “ism” added by Westerners in the erroneous belief that Hinduism was a religion. It is more than a religion; it is a way of life.

After all, memoirs are not open doors into another person’s house. They are more like broken windows, with the owner trying to explain away all of the damage.

“Purdah is no one’s fault,” he traced swiftly. “It’s to keep women safe.” “From what?” “Men, who might otherwise harm them.”

It began in 1600, when English sailors first arrived in my country.

If you’ve ever heard the story of the camel’s nose and how, on a cold winter’s night, the camel begged its master to allow it to place its nose inside the master’s tent, then you will quickly understand the British East India Company.

They were exactly like the camel, who promised at first it would just be its nose, then its legs, then its back, until finally it was the camel living inside the tent while the master shivered in the cold outside.

Then, in 1824, a group of maharajas in northern India decided they’d had enough.

I’ve learned over the years that Catholics and Hindus have similar rituals: Catholics light a candle before statues of their saints and repeat a mantra they call Hail Mary; Hindus light a stick of incense and repeat mantras to the gods.

“Like bamboo. Bend but don’t break.”

“Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habit. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.”

dividing society into differing castes was the same as dividing a tree into different parts and pretending that the leaf is better than the trunk.

Where the world is full of a thousand colors for those who love books, I suspect it is simply black and gray to everyone else.

But if you are incapable of telling an enemy from a friend, then it’s best to be alone.”

“My people,” she began formally. “Main Jhansi nahin doongi!”

The British queen was more interested in India’s dogs than her people.

We simply never slaughter any animal that gives milk, and the cow is especially sacred to us since babies will drink their milk if their mothers no longer have any to give.

One second, one, is all that separates life from death.

we can help pave the roads of those around us, but we can’t choose their direction. Even trying is against the laws of samsara.

The goddess Durga is still here, whispering to her children, “I’ll only be happy when I am free.”

If anything, so many legends have sprung up around her that I needed to be careful to separate what was fact from fiction.

But her Durga Dal, her decision to practice with the Durgavasi (unprecedented for a Hindu queen), her presence in the Durbar Hall while her husband took to the stage, and her subsequent role in the rebellion, are all part of the historical record.

However, Kashi did escape with Anand, and eventually, the British granted the boy a small pension.

Shakespeare was extremely popular among Indians learning English. And the play, Śakuntalā, which once impressed the raja, eventually served as an inspiration for Goethe’s Faust.

The life of Rani Lakshmi was extraordinary in the truest sense of the word.

On August 15, 1947, eighty-nine years after Rani Lakshmi’s death, India achieved its independence.

Bhagavad Gita: the sixth book of the Mahabharata in which the god Krishna speaks to his disciple Arjuna. The principle ideas in the Bhagavad Gita are mishkama karma (working without seeking any reward) and bhakti (devotion to god)

Krishna: the eighth avatar of Vishnu

Shiva: the god who destroys so that progress may ensue

Vishnu: the preserver god whose ten avatars include both Rama and Krishna

Rebel Queen is as heartbreaking as it is exhilarating—a rare glimpse into the making of an empire, and an examination of power, privilege, and loss.

Janet Fitch, J. R. R. Tolkien, Douglas Preston, and Erik Larson.

Loss is definitely a major theme in the book—the experience of it, why it happens, and finally, coming to terms with it.

But I also think Rebel Queen is a story of hope. That even in the most trying times, people survive; love survives.

England didn’t actually take over India until after Rani Lakshmi’s death.