Sunity Devi CIE (30 September 1864 – 10 November 1932) was the Maharani of the

princely state A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Raj, British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, ...

Cooch Behar Cooch Behar (), or Koch Bihar, is a city and a municipality in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Cooch Behar district. It is in the foothills of the Eastern Himalayas at . Cooch Behar is the only planned city in the ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

Early life

She was a daughter of the renowned

Brahmo Samaj Brahmo Samaj ( bn, ব্রহ্ম সমাজ, Brahmô Sômaj, ) is the societal component of Brahmoism, which began as a monotheistic reformist movement of the Hindu religion that appeared during the Bengal Renaissance. It was one of th ...

reformist,

Keshub Chandra Sen Keshub Chandra Sen ( bn, কেশবচন্দ্র সেন; also spelled Keshab Chunder Sen; 19 November 1838 – 8 January 1884) was a Hindu philosopher and social reformer who attempted to incorporate Christian theology within ...

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

. She was married to

Nripendra Narayan Maharaja Nripendra Narayan (4 October 1862 – 18 September 1911) was the Maharaja of the princely state of Cooch Bihar, India, from 1863 to 1911. Early life Nripendra Narayan was only ten months old when his father, Narendra Narayan, died in ...

(1863-1911), the Maharaja of Cooch Behar in 1878, when she was only fourteen years of age. She stayed at her father's place for two years after marriage, as Narayan left for London for higher studies immediately after their marriage. She was the mother of four sons and three daughters: sons Rajendra Narayan, Jitendra Narayan, Victor Nityendra Narayan, and Hitendra Narayan, and daughters Pratibha Devi, Sudhira Devi, and Sukriti Devi. Royal History: Book of Facts and Events
Ch. 5. Her daughters Sudhira and Pratibha married two brothers, Alan and

Miles Mander Miles Mander (born Lionel Henry Mander; 14 May 1888 – 8 February 1946), was an English character actor of the early Hollywood cinema, also a film director and producer, and a playwright and novelist. He was sometimes credited as Luther Mile ...

, of

Wightwick Manor The legacy of a family's passion for Victorian art and design, Wightwick Manor (pronounced "Wittick") is a Victorian manor house located on Wightwick Bank, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. Owned by the National Trust since 1937, the Manor ...

in England. The Manor is part of the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

and open to visit. Of her sons,

Rajendra Narayan Raj Rajendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur (1882–1913), eldest son of Nripendra Narayan, was Maharaja of Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India. Education Raj Rajendra Narayan was born in a Kulin Kayastha Family at Woodsland Palace of Calcutta on 11 April 1882. ...

and

Jitendra Narayan Maharaja Shri Sir Jitendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur (20 December 1886 – 20 December 1922) was the Maharaja of Cooch Behar State, Cooch-Behar, India, from September 1913 until his death in December 1922. Early life Jitendra Narayan was the sec ...

later became Maharajas of Cooch Behar.

Gayatri Devi Gayatri Devi (born as Princess Gayatri Devi of Cooch Behar; 23 May 1919 − 29 July 2009) was the third Maharani consort of Jaipur from 1940 to 1949 through her marriage to Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II. Following her husband's signature for th ...

and Ila Devi were daughters of her son Jitendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur.

Work

In 1887, her husband, Nipendra Narayan was awarded

GCIE The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria on 1 January 1878. The Order includes members of three classes: #Knight Grand Commander (GCIE) #Knight Commander ( KCIE) #Companion ( CIE) No appoi ...

and she was awarded CIE. Suniti Devi became the first Indian women to be awarded CIE. She attended the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Queen Victoria in 1898 and

Delhi Durbar The Delhi Durbar ( lit. "Court of Delhi") was an Indian imperial-style mass assembly organized by the British at Coronation Park, Delhi, India, to mark the succession of an Emperor or Empress of India. Also known as the Imperial Durbar, it was ...

of 1911 with her husband, the Maharaja of Cooch Behar. She along with her sister, the

Sucharu Devi Her Highness Maharani Sucharu Devi (or Suchara Devi) (9 October 1874 – 14 December 1959) was the Maharani of Mayurbhanj State, India. Early life She was born in a Bengali Hindu family. She was daughter of the Brahmo Samaj Brahmo Samaj ...

, were noted for their elegant style dressing. Her husband had set up in her name a girls school named ''Suniti Academy'' in 1881 which was later named ''

Suniti Academy , motto_translation = From darkness to light , location = , streetaddress = Victor Prince Nripendra Narayan Road, , city = Kochbihar , district = Kochbihar , state = West Bengal ...

''. Suniti Devi was the brain behind the establishment of the school.Suniti Academy
/ref> She was an educationalist and a women's rights activist at heart, gave annual grants for the institution, exempted the girl students from paying tuition fees and also rewarded the successful students. She had arranged for palace cars to ferry the girl students from home to school and back. In a further effort to avoid any controversy she ordered that the windows of the cars carrying the girls to school to be covered by curtains. She along with her sister Sucharu Devi (Maharani of Mayurbhanj) also financed the foundation of Maharani Girls' High School at

Darjeeling Darjeeling (, , ) is a town and municipality in the northernmost region of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it has an average elevation of . To the west of Darjeeling lies the easternmost province of Nepal, ...

in 1908. She was the President of State Council and also the first President of

All Bengal Women's Union The All Bengal Women's Union was started in the 1932, when a group of women in West Bengal formed a cadre of like-minded women to help their helpless, exploited and victimized fellow women. The genesis of the group lay in the fact that trafficki ...

in 1932 and worked along with other women's right activist from Bengal like

Charulata Mukherjee Charulata Mukherjee was a noted women's rights activist and social worker from Calcutta, who was associated with Brahmo Samaj and All India Women's Conference. She was noted for her social and women rights activism. She was an active member of AI ...

Saroj Nalini Dutt Saroj Nalini Dutt (''née'' De) MBE (9 October 1887 – 19 January 1925) was an Indian feminist and social reformer. Background She was born in her father, Brajendranath De’s, country house in Bandel, near Hooghly, in Bengal Province. Sh ...

, T. R Nelly and her sister

, the Maharani of Mayurbhanj.Hidden behind a modest restaurant, decades of worth
, indiatogether.com 31 August 2010 She authored a book "The Beautiful Mogul Princesses", which was published in 1918 by W. Thacker & Co. 2, Creed Lane, Ludgate Hill, London. This book contains the intimate life stories of the Mogul Princesses Mumtaza Mahal, Reba, Zebunnissa and Nurjahan. She also authored a book "Bengal Dacoits and Tigers" published in 1916 by Thacker, Spink and Company, Calcutta. She died suddenly in the year 1932 at

Ranchi Ranchi (, ) is the capital of the Indian state of Jharkhand. Ranchi was the centre of the Jharkhand movement, which called for a separate state for the tribal regions of South Bihar, northern Odisha, western West Bengal and the eastern area ...

Titles

1887 -

Companion of the Order of the Crown of India The Imperial Order of the Crown of India is an order in the British honours system. The Order was established by Queen Victoria when she became Empress of India in 1878. The Order was open only to women, and no appointments have been made since t ...

on the occasion of her attending with her husband Nripendra Narayan, the Golden jubilee celebration of Queen Victoria.

Legacy

A road in her home town,

is named ''Sunity Road'' after her.

References

External links

* *Sunity Devee (1921),
The Autobiography of an Indian Princess
', London: J. Murray, on the Internet Archive {{DEFAULTSORT:Devi, Suniti 1932 deaths 1864 births Indian female royalty Queen mothers Companions of the Order of the Crown of India People buried at Brahmo Cemetery, Nabodebalaya People from Kolkata Indian women's rights activists Indian women educational theorists Founders of Indian schools and colleges Indian women philanthropists Indian philanthropists Bengali scientists Bengali Hindus 19th-century women educators 20th-century women educators Indian queen consorts Educationists from India 20th-century Indian educators 19th-century Indian educators Indian educators Indian women educators Indian educational theorists 20th-century Indian educational theorists 19th-century Indian educational theorists Indian reformers Indian social reformers Indian social workers Social workers from West Bengal Activists from West Bengal Indian activists Indian women activists Indian feminists Indian feminist writers Indian non-fiction writers