Royals and Rebels The Rise and Fall of the Sikh Empire

Royals and Rebels is a fascinating, fresh look into the world of this long-lost kingdom. Priya Atwal looks beyond the dynasty's founding father and, for the first time, restores the perspectives and contributions of the dynasty's women and children to the history of this empire's spectacular rise and fall. She brings to life a self-made royal family seeking to secure and legitimise their new power, inventively fusing Sikh, Mughal and European ideas, and reveals an entirely new story about the gendered family politics that led to their eventual decline, with the Punjab controversially annexed by that other great emerging player in India: the British East India Company.

This is a highly original tale of family, royalty and the fluidity of power, set in a dramatic global era when new stars rose and upstart empires clashed.

Priya Atwal is a teaching fellow in Modern South Asian History at King's College London, holding a doctorate from the University of Oxford. Her research has been featured in collaborative projects with Historic Royal Palaces, among others; and on BBC radio and television programmes, including BBC4's The Stolen Maharajah.