The Black Prince

I only just found out that Netflix has that international biopic The Black Prince, about the Duleep Singh, the last maharaja of Punjab. All the dialogue is dubbed in Hindi, but the subtitles are in English, making it a bilingual film. You can sometimes tell when a character speaks English names and phrases, though. It's written and directed by an Indian filmaker, so it looks at the British Raj with a more critical, less nostalgic viewpoint than the rose-colored glasses of movies like Victoria and Abdul.

I found the movie fascinating, though a little hard to follow at points, because I didn't know Indian history that well, and I didn't know terms like Khalsa, which apparently means the whole community of Sikh believers--like saying "all of Christendom" for Christianity. Duleep was crowned Maharajah when he was 5, with his mother as regent, after years of succession struggles among his father's heirs. The British East India Company took advantage of the power vacuum by arresting Duleep's mother and annexing Punjab after a couple of Anglo-Sikh wars. Young Duleep was apparently made to sign the peace treaty of Lahore and "gift" the Koh-i-Noor diamond to Queen Victoria. After he was deposed at 10, Duleep was sent to live with an army surgeon Dr. John Login and his wife. The Logins encouraged Duleep to convert to Christianity, and ultimately took him to England to live far away from any connection to his home country. Queen Victoria met him and developed a friendship with him, giving him a pension to live on. Strange how Queen Victoria had so many Indian favorites in her life, yet she never gave back that diamond, given how dubious it was to force the boy to sign any treaty or gift any of his family's wealth away.


Anyway, the movie really gets going when an adult Duleep asks to see his Indian mother at last. The British no longer consider her a threat, but are careful to forbid Duleep or his mother to ever go to Punjab. Duleep is allowed to take his mother to England to live with him, and she complains about how much his English upbringing has changed him from the boy he was. She (and some British colonel who's still loyal to the dead Maharaja) give Duleep his father's sword and encourage him to retake the throne in Punjab. He's conflicted and struggling with the two halves of his identity. Duleep's struggles to reclaim his Indian heritage and his Sikh faith reminded me a little bit of Saroo in Lion, trying to seek his Indian family but still be grateful to his Australian parents. At least Saroo only got lost by accident, not kidnapped by British authorities deliberately stealing a kingdom.

Back to The Black Prince, who struggles to live in two worlds. Then Duleep's mother dies and so does Login, his adoptive father. Duleep attempts to fulfill his mother's dying wish to be cremated in India according to Sikh rites, but again the British will not let him return to his home of Punjab. He has to cremate her and scatter her ashes in Bombay. On his way back to England, he stops in Cairo and falls in love with a mixed-race woman named Bamba Müller (though I think it's unclear in the film that she's a missionary instructor). They get married a few months later and have a family in England, seemingly happy, but Duleep is drawn back into his Sikh faith and speaks to allies who again encourage him to reclaim his throne; they speak of a prophecy, that he shall lead his people to overthrow the British. Bamba becomes distressed by these developments and tries to talk Duleep out of pursuing his lost kingdom; she considers it foolhardy madness that will put their position in Britain in jeopardy.

He insists on making claims and asking for justice from the British, but he is dismissed as a crank; some official even tries to bribe him with a more generous pension if he'll stop making trouble. Duleep refuses and tries to travel in India, to convert back to Sikhism and see the Punjab people who kept clamoring to see him the last time he visited India. British authorities, however, arrest him and pull him off the ship; they won't allow him to even enter India this time, because they don't want the symbolism of his homecoming, or an uprising to be inspired. Duleep is reluctantly forced to abandon his plan and go to Paris instead. (The movie is a little bit muddled about when Bamba died and when Duleep meets up with a new woman; his second wife Ada is apparently more supportive of his ambitions to reclaim his throne.) Duleep meets with Sikh allies as well as other anti-British factions like the Irish and Russians who concoct a conspiracy for him to get Tsar Alexander to give him a Russian army to invade India to overthrow the British. The conspirators are spied on and apparently assassinated or imprisoned until Duleep has no one left. He returns to Paris, where he becomes ill. His son Victor visits him, begging Duleep to make up with Queen Victoria so the family can be restored in status and wealth. Duleep looks back on his life with regret about what he was unable to accomplish, promises he could not keep to his mother, etc.

It's a tragic tale, showing how lonely and homesick one can be for one's heritage. This is why old racist policies about Anglicising or Americanizing minorities into acting white were so harmful; it leads to lost cultural identity and destroys one's sense of self.