Dr. Deepika Singh Ahlawat is an art consultant, novelist, and museum curator specialising in early-modern Indian history, focusing on princely states, royal women, and the material culture of Indian palaces. Formerly a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, she curated several international exhibitions on India’s rich material culture. She has authored several books and articles on the subject of princely states, with a particular focus on the histories of women. Her latest work on the subject, Timeless Treasures: The Material Culture of Regal Indian Weddings, focused on the political and material economy of royal weddings.
She holds a PhD in History from the University of London, an MA in History of Design from the Royal College of Art and the V&A Museum, London, and a BA in Fashion Design from NIFT, Delhi. Dr. Ahlawat, with her robust academic background, is the Director of Agarttha, an independent art consultancy, and has also served as a curatorial consultant and advisor to various prestigious palace and museum trusts in India and abroad, including the Maharana Mewar Charitable Foundation (Udaipur), the Mehrangarh Museum Trust (Jodhpur), and the Shri Jam Dharmada Sanstha (Jamnagar). Her work focuses on creating decentralised local historical narratives and promoting cultural decolonization for existing and emerging museums. Her unique access to historical archives and sites positions her as an authority in her field.
While studying India Office documents, I came across some interesting files (IOR/L/PS/13/1259-1273, IOR/R/2/Kashmir 5, IOR/L/I/1/178) about Jammu and Kashmir during the fevered days of 1947, when the British were planning to leave India, and the princely states had been given the choice to remain independent or join India or Pakistan. This series of secret political correspondence refers specifically to the Gilgit Wazarat and the surrounding areas, which are now part
On a cool November evening in Delhi in 1947, the grounds of the US Embassy in newly independent India were buzzing with the sounds of a cocktail party thrown by the US Ambassador and Mrs. Grady. Lord Mountbatten, still India’s Governor-General despite overseeing a thoroughly botched job of the British withdrawal from India, was in attendance, as was the cream of Delhi’s political class. Also present was the British High
