{"id":1511,"date":"2025-11-10T14:35:26","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T13:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/womenandthecourt\/?page_id=1511"},"modified":"2025-11-16T21:07:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T20:07:24","slug":"ghar-ki-malika","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/womenandthecourt\/ghar-ki-malika\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghar ki Malika"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-large-font-size\"><strong>The Enchanted Life and Quiet Rule of Begum Sarbuland Jang, 1876-1957<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/danie\u00e9\">Prof. Daniel Majchrowicz<\/a><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/womenandthecourt\/daniel-majchrowicz\/\" data-type=\"page\" data-id=\"1521\"><strong> (Northwestern University)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tues, November 18, 2025 | 4:15 (CET) | University of Lausanne | Anthropole 4088<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Among her family, Begum Sarbuland Jang (1876\u20131957) was renowned as the&nbsp;ghar&nbsp;ki&nbsp;malika, a woman who\u2019s word was law. Outside the home, this veiled woman\u2019s presence and shadowy influence straddled a dizzying array of courts in late colonial India. She was a direct descendent the Mughal line and immediately related by blood to two princely states. Her father, husbands, and brothers practically ran Hyderabad state for a period of fifty years. Begum Sarbuland herself was on friendly personal terms with the nizam, the&nbsp;king and queen of England, the sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and string of viceroys. Though her gender and lack of formal status means that Begum Sarbuland is all but unknown today, she exerted quiet influence in the world of princely India. In this paper, I read across and against various archival sources to exhume the story of a powerful but ephemeral figure and to consider how women like Begum Sarbuland could influence and shape decision-making in late colonial India.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"761\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/womenandthecourt\/files\/2025\/11\/plate-21-1-761x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Begum Sarbuland\" class=\"wp-image-1516\" style=\"object-fit:cover;width:180px;height:250px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/womenandthecourt\/files\/2025\/11\/plate-21-1-761x1024.jpg 761w, https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/womenandthecourt\/files\/2025\/11\/plate-21-1-223x300.jpg 223w, https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/womenandthecourt\/files\/2025\/11\/plate-21-1-768x1033.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/womenandthecourt\/files\/2025\/11\/plate-21-1.jpg 892w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 761px) 100vw, 761px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Enchanted Life and Quiet Rule of Begum Sarbuland Jang, 1876-1957 Prof. Daniel Majchrowicz (Northwestern University) Tues, November 18, 2025 | 4:15 (CET) | University of Lausanne | Anthropole 4088 &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1002712,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1511","page","type-page","status-publish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/womenandthecourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/womenandthecourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/womenandthecourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/womenandthecourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1002712"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/womenandthecourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1511"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/womenandthecourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1531,"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/womenandthecourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1511\/revisions\/1531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.unil.ch\/womenandthecourt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}