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Podcast: News and Views
Episode: Malcha Mahal: A Royal Mess of Myths and Lies
Description: Delhi of the early seventies. A woman appears, almost out of nowhere, and declares herself to be a queen – Begum of Awadh to be more specific.
She comes with an entourage of servants, around 15 hounds and her two children - Princess Sakina and Prince Cyrus. What she is looking for is a palace befitting of a royal family.
It takes her around eight years to get the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, to accept her claim. That she had been wronged. That she deserved the dignity of a royal.
And a palace she is...