Maharaja's Moran - Lost Queen of Lahore

A dancing girl rose from the margins to become a beloved queen of the 'Lion of Lahore'. Mapping a unique destiny in 19th-century Punjab's gilt-edged Durbar, Moran danced her way into history. By braving the stranglehold of social stigma to emerge as a consort and confidante of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. By earning the honorific of 'Sarkar'. By inspiring a commemorative coin. More than a bejewelled portrait of their love legend, this is a socio-cultural critique that lends a lens of respectability to an artiste of tehzeeb and taleem. Richly researched, it reclaims the voice of the people's Sarkar and philanthropist in the shadows, both revered and reviled. A beloved for whom the secularist 'Sher-e-Punjab' risked the Sikh clergy's wrath and built a monument, 'Pul Kanjri'. Memory is fickle. Will Moran Sarkar's saga step out of oblivion, luminous like her nautch and nazaakat?