In Search of Amrit Kaur

January 23, 2023
This probing English-language debut from journalist Sambuy details the author’s efforts to uncover the story of Indian princess Amrit Kaur. Sambuy recounts how, while in Mumbai for work, she happened upon a 1924 portrait of Kaur and became fascinated by the photograph’s label, which suggested that Kaur had died at the hands of Nazis after traveling to Europe and selling her jewelry to assist Jews escaping the Third Reich. The author’s search for information about Kaur takes her from Maryland to Paris; Pune, India; and beyond as she turns up fragmentary evidence from the princess’s past, discovering that Kaur passionately advocated for women’s rights, left behind her young children and husband after he married a second wife, and endured harsh conditions at a Besançon, France, concentration camp during WWII. Though definitive answers remain in short supply (Sambuy casts doubt on the claim that Kaur sold her jewelry to aid Jewish refugees), the eloquent and poetic prose (“The crowd was praying with such fervour that I could feel the air vibrating like the string of an enormous double bass”) enlivens the searching historiography. Original and difficult to classify, this is a pleasure to read. Photos.

February 1, 2023
Investigative journey to uncover the truth behind a Hindu princess's secret life in Paris during World War II. In this elucidating but meandering text, Italian writer Sambuy introduces readers to "a labyrinth...of unusual characters," spinning fanciful tales of collaboration, priceless jewels, and lost fortunes of the princes of the Raj. Weaving together biography and her personal narrative, the author recounts how viewing a striking 1924 photograph of the Rani of Mani, Amrit Kaur, in a Mumbai museum launched her yearslong quest to unearth the history behind it. The official story was that this highly educated only daughter of the maharajah of Kapurthala had sold her heirloom jewelry in Paris to raise money for the Jewish cause. She was caught by the Gestapo and imprisoned in a concentration camp; in ill health, she died not long after the end of the war. Sambuy chronicles her trip to Pune to meet Kaur's now-aged daughter "Bubbles," and other relatives, to learn about how Kaur left her two children in 1933 to tour the European continent, perhaps angry that her husband had taken another wife. Apparently, she did intend to return. However, Sambuy discovered--via an improbable lead: a San Diego burlesque dancer named Ginger who possessed Kaur's crocodile leather briefcase full of mementos--that the princess met the American heiress Louise Hermesch and her mother in London and took off to travel with them to America. Throughout the text, the author takes us away from this fascinating primary narrative for a few too many digressions--e.g., sections about the "unbridled extravagance" of the Raj princes and the priceless pearl necklace that Kaur apparently sold to prominent jewelers in Paris in 1940. Sambuy's intriguing history eventually leads back to her own mother-daughter trauma, revealed only in the final chapter. An engaging yet sometimes tedious book, with twists, turns, and detours galore.

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