Life d’ Royale

On occasion of the 100th birth anniversary of Princess Niloufer, wife of the Nizam’s second son, Prince Moazzam Jah, a digital photo exhibition of her was launched on Monday. The exhibition will be open at Salar Jung Museum for a month starting January 9

Princess Niloufer has left an everlasting charm on the city and to commemorate her birth centenary an exhibition titled ‘Princess of 3 Cities’, gives a peek into her royal life.

Noted historian Arvind Acharya managed to get hold of content and documents related to the Princess from a 77-year-old Evelyn Pope (wife of the Niloufer’s second husband, Edward Pope) back in 2003 in New York City. The historian explained the story behind the entire exhibition. “In 1949, Princess Niloufer left Hyderabad never to return again. In 1963 she married Edward Pope. Later, in 1989 when Princess Niloufer passed away,

Edward Pope married Evelyn Pope. It was she who called me up one day when I was in Yale, asking if I’d be interested in seeing some papers lying around, regarding a woman from Hyderabad – since I was from city.”

Arvind Acharya explains that he found five suitcases in the cold basement, and that going through letters exchanged between Jawaharlal Nehru and the Princess, her British passport and other such documents made him to see the woman of substance and strength that she was. He said, “It’s been 13 years now and there are 35,000 slides and about 15,000 photographs. I went through only 15,000 of the documents because they were interesting – those from King of England, Nehru and such.

There’s still so much to go through and I’m sure with this exhibition now, there will be many others who will come forward with more documents and information related to her. Hopefully I can add to my collection and make something more out of it all.” He soon hopes to make a film on the famous personality, who has left a lasting impression on the city of Hyderabad, with the Niloufer Hospital which she established.

‘No More Rafaths Will Die’, a common statement attributed to the Princess was made after the passing away of her favourite maid, Rafathunnisa Begum, during childbirth. It is after this, that the Niloufer Hospital was built. Curator of the exhibition, Birad Rajaram Yajnik said, “When I saw the documents, I saw an intriguing tale – one that connects different parts of the society together. I would say Niloufer had the determination of Florence Nightingale, the beauty of Marilyn Monroe and the class of Princess Diana.”
The exhibition is titled ‘The Princess of 3 Cities’ because of her connection with the three cities – Istanbul, Hyderabad and Paris. The digital exhibition has photos of the Princess from her childhood, her report cards and papers from the school she studied in Nice,

France and others that contain nuggets of information. The exhibition was inaugurated at ITC Kakatiya by MP K Kavitha, who also agreed that the Hospital needs to be maintained to match the Princess’ name.