3 episodes
Jungle Prince The New York Times
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- Society & Culture
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4.6 • 2.2K Ratings
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For 40 years, journalists chronicled the eccentric royal family of Oudh, deposed aristocrats who lived in a ruined palace in the Indian capital. It was a tragic, astonishing story. But was it true?
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Chapter 3: A House in Yorkshire
In a ruined palace in the woods, rummaging through discarded papers, our reporter finds a clue.
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Chapter 2: The Hunting Lodge
“Ellen, have you been trying to get in touch with the royal family of Oudh?” Our reporter receives an invitation to the forest.
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Chapter 1: The Railway Station
The story passed for years from tea sellers to rickshaw drivers to shopkeepers in Old Delhi. In a forest, they said, in a palace cut off from the city, lived a prince, a princess and a queen, said to be the last of a Shiite Muslim royal line. Some said the family had been there since the British had annexed their kingdom. Others said they were supernatural beings.
It was a stunning and tragic story. But was it real? On a spring afternoon, while on assignment in India, Ellen Barry got a phone call that sent her looking for the truth.
In Chapter 1, we hear of a woman who appeared on the platform of the New Delhi railway station with her two adult children, declaring they were the descendants of the royal family of Oudh. She said they would not leave until what was theirs had been restored. So they settled in and waited — for nearly a decade.
Customer Reviews
So Beautiful
I loved this story
Brilliant and movingly told human story
We all cope as best be can.
An intriguing story, a rate view of partition
An intriguing story which makes us ponder how and where myth, reality and fact intersect, blend and overlap. Most admirable journalism.
I do wish the NYTs would leave off with the artificiality of the big music on their podcasts. It seems as if they don’t believe the story worthy enough to hold the attention of the listening audience. The music on several of their podcasts is so big as to be an annoying interruption to the journalism and the story. They put this inappropriate music in as reins on a horse to guide the listener down a very directed path, telling us where to place our reactions. Very cheesy and suggests an air of insincerity.
This fine podcast sheds a view of partition that is often covered over or even hidden.