Aware of the disdain in which she was held by members of the ruling clan, Princess Aftab Jahan—the Junior Begum of Bhopal—moved to England in 1961, barely months after the death of her husband, Nawab Hamidullah Khan.

The Nawab had married Aftab Jahan, six years younger than his eldest daughter, Abida Sultan, despite opposition from his daughters and first wife, Begum Maimoona Sultan.

The elder Begum, a member of a noble clan from Peshawar, was estranged from the Nawab and had moved out of Ahmedabad Palace to live at an adjacent Kothi.

Princess Abida Sultan, the heir apparent and Commander-in-Chief of the state forces, was especially critical of the alliance. Sources close to the family say the Nawab's courtship and wedding were the prime reasons behind her estrangement from her father.

The family believed that the Nawab's actions were unbecoming of both his stature and age. Matters only worsened when the newlyweds adopted a young girl from a noble family.

The adopted child, named Farzana Begum, remained, perhaps, the one constant in Aftab's otherwise chequered life, which comprised of triumphs and tragedies in equal measure.

Born into a noble clan from Bhopal in the summer of 1919, Aftab Jahan was enrolled at Sikandaria Girls' School, where Princess Abida Sultan was several years her senior.

While most girls were married when they were still in their teens, the one thing that set Aftab Jahan apart from the women of her generation was that she had remained unmarried until a rather late age.

She was almost 28 at the time of her Nikah with Nawab Hamidullah Khan in January 1947, a turbulent time for the princely state.

The timing of the wedding was among the reasons that upset the Nawab's heirs, as they believed that His Highness should have been more focused on the fast-paced political changes that were taking place in the country.

Isolated in his own clan, Nawab Hamidullah Khan had weighed his options and diversified his risks in the years leading up to 1947 by making substantial investments in the United Kingdom.

Sources close to the family in England say that the Nawab had prepared for all eventualities by making arrangements for a comfortable retirement in London, investing in houses and a sizeable shareholding in the Rootes Group, a car manufacturer based in the West End of London. Aftab Jahan was privy to this information.

The family troubles came to a boil in 1950, prompting Princess Abida Sultan's migration to Pakistan, a few months after Nawab Hamidullah Khan ceded control of the state to the Dominion of India.

Old-timers say Abida Sultan's move to Pakistan came hours before she was scheduled to present a ceremonial salute to His Highness, who would be accompanied by his young wife. The princess, however, viewed the salute as an insult and preferred to leave the country and her domineering father's shadow.

With so much happening in quick succession after her wedding, the Nawab's family regarded Aftab Jahan as the bearer of unhappy tidings for the clan. They never pronounced her name and only referred to her as 'that woman.'

Following the death of Nawab Hamidullah Khan, Aftab Jahan chose to keep the former ruler's estate in the United Kingdom as her share of his properties. She, ostensibly, became a British subject in 1961.

Family sources in England, however, say that she spent most of her time in Pakistan, where she stayed with her adopted daughter Farzana Begum, who was married in that country.

While little is known of the Nawab's houses in England, the sources say the shareholding in the Rootes Group provided princely annual returns that Aftab Jahan spent on herself and those close to her, both in England and in Pakistan.

Family grapevine suggests that Aftab Jahan's visits to England grew infrequent after an insulting showdown with her nephew (sister's son), who had, purportedly, received a large sum when Aftab Jahan dissolved the holdings in the Rootes Group.

On subsequent visits to England, Her Highness, as she insisted on being addressed, was forced to put up with a distant relative from Bhopal, who was married into the Royal House of Tonk.

Having lived out a destiny that saw her rubbing shoulders with royalty across continents, Her Highness was laid to rest in a lonely grave in Karachi in 2002. Fewer than a dozen mourners were present.