Letter from Exile

The full story

Jind Kaur’s exile was also a story of forced separation from her son. Removed from Lahore in 1847, she was held at different locations before escaping from Chunar in 1849 and reaching Nepal. She and Duleep Singh were finally reunited in Calcutta in January 1861, after more than thirteen years apart.

This imagined letter gives that distance a tangible form. Folded pages, a seal, a small portrait and a candle suggest words carried between people who cannot meet. Rather than inventing a message in the Maharani’s voice, the card leaves space for a question: what can a letter preserve when home, family and political power have been torn apart?

The page is not a facsimile of an archival letter, and its decorative writing is not quoted as Jind Kaur’s own words. The surrounding objects are also imagined. The historical source supplies the biographical setting; the artwork offers a reflection on separation, endurance and remembrance.

Place it in the wider story.

The Anglo-Sikh Wars and the loss of sovereignty ↗

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