New Delhi, June 26 -- In 1913, puzzled London bystanders gathered to see a woman selling copies of The Suffragette outside the lavish Hampton Palace, once the home of Henry VIII. The woman was dressed in rich furs and a large hat, much like a British aristocrat, but she appeared to be an Indian. She was Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, the daughter of Duleep Singh, the last Sikh maharaja. She was raised as a British aristocrat but became a suffragette fighting for women to get the vote. There was outrage in royal and government circles. "Can we do anything to stop her?" said the baffled monarch, George V. As it turned out, they couldn't.

A new exhibition in London's Kensington Palace, The Last Princesses of Punjab: Sophia Duleep Singh and t...