Laxshmi Bai as Queen

The position of widows in the Indian civilization has always been gloomy, and that reached its nadir in the 18th and 19th centuries. Moreover, she, as one belonging to a traditional Brahmin family was expected to fulfill the norms of a virtuous wife which included shaving her head, wearing white, and remaining in seclusion. But the emancipative spirit of the Rani refused to comply with mores, which essentially hindered her administrative prowess. She kept wearing her hair long, often wore jewelry, and put aside the custom of Purdah, which although originally unessential in India, had become the norm in Islamic India especially among high caste Hindu and Islamic women. Yet, in a shrewd move she maintained Purdah while communicating with British officers.
Getting rid of Purdah was also a vital means to establish a winning rapport with the public. A british writer, Meadows Taylor writes “she had no affections of personal concealment, and she sat daily on the throne of her deceased husband, hearing reports, giving directions, hearing petitions, and comforting herself as a brave minded woman had to do under the circumstances.”
Vishnu Godse’s eyewitness account says of her “she rose as early as three in the morning, and after ablutions, sat for religious meditation till eight. Then for three hours she supervised the work in the political and military offices; when it was finished she distributed alms to the needy and distressed. She took her meal at midday and appeared again at the court at 3. The afternoon was devoted to the administration of the various departments of justice, revenue and accounts which lasted till sunset. She read the scriptures in the evening, and after a simple dinner, retired for the night”
The Rani’s unostentatious lifestyle is in stark contrast, to the decadent lifestyle of contemporary kings. For instance, the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was so decadent that he had his slave girls perform his morning ablutions for him. Yet, for some inexplicable reason the historian William Dalrymple in his recent book “The last mughal”, finds a Sufi mystic enshrined in the same fellow!