Maharajah Ranjit Singh’s Sikh Empire stretched throughout north-western India into Afghanistan and Tibet. But how did one royal family come to achieve such pre-eminence over this entire region?

Historian Priya Atwal’s dazzling book ‘Royals and Rebels: The Rise and Fall of the Sikh Empire’ blasts through centuries of Orientalist and misogynist history to shed new light on the forgotten royals who aided the spectacular rise and eventual demise of this long-lost kingdom.

In this episode listen to Priya in conversation with historian, screenwriter and author Alex von Tunzelmann as they explore how this kingdom came into being, how it operated, but also how and why it fell after just fifty years of existence.

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