1 00:00:00,450 --> 00:00:05,990 Hi, I'm Dr. Prieur Atwell and I'm a historian. I was born and brought up in nearby Buckinghamshire. 2 00:00:05,990 --> 00:00:12,300 But I studied for my undergraduate and master's degrees in history at Oriel College from 2008 to 2011. 3 00:00:12,300 --> 00:00:17,310 And then again from my doctorate. A Lady Margaret Hall from 2012 to 2017. 4 00:00:17,310 --> 00:00:25,050 But I'm not actually going to talk about those colleges. I'm standing in the lodge or entrance to Summerville College on Woodstock Road. 5 00:00:25,050 --> 00:00:27,180 Somerville was built from 1879, 6 00:00:27,180 --> 00:00:33,870 so has more of a redbrick feel than many of occupant's other colleges is slightly away from the hustle and bustle of the High Street. 7 00:00:33,870 --> 00:00:39,480 But there's still plenty of buses and bikes going up and down the road connecting North Oxford with the city. 8 00:00:39,480 --> 00:00:45,420 Like Lady Margaret Hall, Somerville was set up to be the first of Oxford's colleges to admit women as students. 9 00:00:45,420 --> 00:00:48,050 However, because some Somervell was nondenominational, 10 00:00:48,050 --> 00:00:54,990 it allowed for women of diverse religious but also ethnic and cultural backgrounds to join from quite early on in its history. 11 00:00:54,990 --> 00:01:02,640 What fascinates me most about the college is how it was home to the first Indian female students from the late eighteen eighties onwards. 12 00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:08,580 This included no less than two princesses Bumba and Catherine Deepsea, both sisters. 13 00:01:08,580 --> 00:01:13,710 The father of these two princesses was Maharajah Deep, the last ruler of the Sikh empire. 14 00:01:13,710 --> 00:01:19,560 Now I'm British, Asian and Sikh myself, but I only learnt about the existence of this empire from a talk that I attended 15 00:01:19,560 --> 00:01:24,000 at Oxford Student Sikh Society when I was in my first year at university. 16 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:30,660 This kingdom once was spread across the Punjab in the 19th century, but is today divided between India and Pakistan. 17 00:01:30,660 --> 00:01:37,860 I was shocked to learn as an undergraduate that it was taken over by the East India Company in 1849 when the LEAP thing was just 10 years old. 18 00:01:37,860 --> 00:01:44,360 After two wars between the British and the Sikhs, the man who was responsible for taking it over was also an Oxford graduate. 19 00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:49,860 Dalhousie, who studied at Christchurch as an exiled Maharajah Duleep Singh, 20 00:01:49,860 --> 00:01:55,230 went on to make life for himself in Britain and was one of the first Indian settlers in the UK. 21 00:01:55,230 --> 00:01:59,940 He had six children with his first wife, of whom Bumba and Catherine were the two eldest daughters. 22 00:01:59,940 --> 00:02:05,850 Born in 1869. In 1871, by the time the princesses became teenagers, however, 23 00:02:05,850 --> 00:02:11,220 their father was deeply in debt and increasingly embittered against the British imperial government. 24 00:02:11,220 --> 00:02:18,480 In 1886, he embarked upon a desperate, dramatic rebellion against the government to fight for the restoration of his kingdom. 25 00:02:18,480 --> 00:02:23,370 Duleep Singh attempted to take his family with him to India, but was blocked from doing so. 26 00:02:23,370 --> 00:02:26,640 So Bumba and Catherine ended up returning to England. 27 00:02:26,640 --> 00:02:32,190 Tragically, though, their mother died within a year of that happening, and so they were left in the care of their guardians. 28 00:02:32,190 --> 00:02:40,200 Author Oliphant and his wife. The princesses spent an unhappy three years at Folkston, where they were home schooled by Mrs Oliphant. 29 00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:45,150 It was clear that their education had dramatically suffered as a result of the turmoil in their family. 30 00:02:45,150 --> 00:02:49,680 But it was in the spring of 1890 that they were involved to study at some of your home. 31 00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:55,500 As the college was then known, Bamba was about 21 and Katherine was 19. 32 00:02:55,500 --> 00:03:00,420 Really, the girls were nowhere near ready enough to study an institution like Oxford. 33 00:03:00,420 --> 00:03:05,040 But my research in the Somervell College Archives and at the Royal Archives in Windsor 34 00:03:05,040 --> 00:03:09,840 Castle show that really they were sent to university for predominately political reasons. 35 00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:13,260 Bamber, in particular, was considered to be a troubled soul. 36 00:03:13,260 --> 00:03:19,500 She felt that her family had suffered a great injustice and was inwardly supporting her father's rebellion. 37 00:03:19,500 --> 00:03:21,900 Catherine was a calmer sort of person, 38 00:03:21,900 --> 00:03:27,090 but Arthur Oliphant was worried that the two sisters together might have a bad influence on their younger siblings. 39 00:03:27,090 --> 00:03:31,050 And so was keen to send the girls away for the rest of their education. 40 00:03:31,050 --> 00:03:36,090 There was also considerable pressure on all of the children to become accomplished young adults, 41 00:03:36,090 --> 00:03:41,760 since their prominent aristocratic status meant that one day they would have to be presented at the court of Queen Victoria. 42 00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:46,740 And no one really wanted them to turn out like their father in British high society. 43 00:03:46,740 --> 00:03:52,500 And so the two princesses were packed off to Oxford to increase their stock of learning, as Oliphant put it. 44 00:03:52,500 --> 00:03:55,860 Now, I was 18 when I got my offer to study Oxford. 45 00:03:55,860 --> 00:04:02,130 I remember being a bit worried at the time that as an Asian girl, I'd be a minority Oxford and I wouldn't really fit in. 46 00:04:02,130 --> 00:04:06,180 Luckily, the C Society was a home away from home for me and my first year or so. 47 00:04:06,180 --> 00:04:11,580 But I can't imagine what it must have been like for Bumba and Katherine when they first arrived at Somerville. 48 00:04:11,580 --> 00:04:15,370 Then there was just one other Indian female student at their college, 49 00:04:15,370 --> 00:04:20,400 Cornelia Surabi, who was actually the first ever Indian woman to ever study Oxford. 50 00:04:20,400 --> 00:04:25,940 Cornelia helpfully left behind a letter in which she wrote about their anticipated arrival. 51 00:04:25,940 --> 00:04:31,560 It gives a fascinating insight into the rather awkward welcome that Bumba and Katherine received. 52 00:04:31,560 --> 00:04:35,070 She notes the special treatment that was to be given to the sisters. 53 00:04:35,070 --> 00:04:40,680 Most unusually, they were to be accompanied by their governess, who was going to stay with them throughout the duration of their studies. 54 00:04:40,680 --> 00:04:45,180 I reckon this is probably because their education wasn't quite up to par when they got to Oxford. 55 00:04:45,180 --> 00:04:48,690 But what most annoyed the Somerville girls was the other important thing 56 00:04:48,690 --> 00:04:53,730 mentioned by Cornelia that everyone was expected to refer to them as princesses. 57 00:04:53,730 --> 00:04:59,310 Unfortunately, we don't know much about what Bumba and Katherine themselves made of their time at Oxford. 58 00:04:59,310 --> 00:05:04,940 They didn't. All that well in their studies. And only Katherine achieved a third in modern languages. 59 00:05:04,940 --> 00:05:10,400 However, they do seem to have joined in with college life more than perhaps even Kornelia expected. 60 00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:14,330 There were photos in the Somerville College archives that tell us that they played 61 00:05:14,330 --> 00:05:18,620 in the college hockey team and also that they became friends with Kornelia. 62 00:05:18,620 --> 00:05:25,430 They're sitting next to her in over college pictures and her later letters tell us that they continue to meet up for lunch much later in life. 63 00:05:25,430 --> 00:05:29,690 These two princesses would go on to have quite difficult lives as adults. 64 00:05:29,690 --> 00:05:35,900 Princess Bumba would eventually marry and settle in Lahore, which was the former capital of her family kingdom. 65 00:05:35,900 --> 00:05:46,550 And Catherine would actually a former relationship with her governess and lived together as a lesbian couple in Germany during World War Two. 66 00:05:46,550 --> 00:05:53,450 Their story is admittedly one of privilege, but also of imperial politics and tragic cultural displacement. 67 00:05:53,450 --> 00:06:00,770 It was so inspiring as an undergraduate student to learn and stumble upon really the story of these two women of colour 68 00:06:00,770 --> 00:06:07,934 who had managed against all odds and in great difficulty to make a place for themselves at Oxford and to make friends.