KARACHI, Jan 7: It was a pleasure to hear Shaharyar M. Khan while displaying his family album, page-by-page, before a rapt audience, at the launching of Abida Sultan's book - Memoirs of a Rebel Princess - on Tuesday.

Bhopal, the second largest princely estate in British India after Hyderabad (Daccan), was ruled by one family in the course of 13 generations during which four Begums adorned the gaddi and proved no less than their male counterparts.

At the large assembly of writers and intellectuals, the Princess was introduced first by Dr. Hamida Khuhro as a "woman of indomitable spirit, extremely honest and uncompromising, "the last great ruler of Bhopal." She broke all the barriers of social taboos traditionally treating women as secluded and a silent sufferer and was thus a great social reformer," Dr. Khuhro said. The year 1947 was a period of intense political and also emotional crisis for the ruler of Bhopal, but the Princess opted for Pakistan, defying all compulsions, the speakers said.

Breaking a new path, 80 years back, she led a life of her own choice "for rich and too varied." A rebel, stubborn, unflinching and in her well thought-out decision, she always stood firm, and proved herself better than most male members of the family.

Sultan M. Khan spoke on a personal note, recalling the close links between the estates of Javera and Bhopal, also his school-days, so happily spent over there.

Princess Abida Sultan was perfect in different athletic games, including polo, and was a good motor driver, a licentiate pilot of aeroplanes. Apart from it, she was quite at ease with musical instruments and had a fine taste for literature, Shaharyar M. Khan disclosed, and said that his mother, the Princess, had a fine memory till she breathed her last at the age of 89. She started writing her diary since 1932, and never missed a day in 70 years without it.

Princess Abida's love and sympathy for the common people and the poor was a matter of faith for her. Earlier, Ms Ameena Saiyed of OUP emphasised on importance of autobiographies and family papers as the main sources of history.-HA